Page 65 of Nave
When they’d realized I had such an aversion to lemon, the bottles that ended up at my door were all lavender. I’d never felt so seen as I had since I came to Navesink Bank.
“What’s your scent?”
“I don’t have my own yet. The clubhouse gets this amber-scented one? I dunno. Smells kinda like cologne but in a subtle way.”
“That fits,” I said as I spread my arms and floated onto my back, closing my eyes, enjoying the sun on my face and the coolness all around me.
If I’d been chasing freedom when I left the glass house, I’d fully found it now.
For just a few, precious moments, the rest of the world disappeared. And all there was for me was calm, pleasure, peace.
A hand closed around my ankle, gently pulling me, making my eyes fly open. I lifted my head so my ears were out of the water in time to hear Nave say, “You were about to hit the wall.”
“Oh, oops. I was having a moment,” I admitted.
“You looked at peace,” Nave said as, safely back in the shallow end, I flipped back upright. Only I misjudged just how close I would be to Nave when I did so. With the wall at my back, there was nowhere to go. Not that any part of me was screaming to retreat.
“I was,” I admitted, painfully aware that if I took a deep breath, our chests would brush. I almost wanted to try it out to see.
“That’s nice to see,” he said, his hand lifted. Water dripped from his fingertips for a second before he reached to brush my wet bangs to the side.
“It’s nice to feel.”
So what if I took that deep breath?
His fingertips had moved down my temple to tuck my hair behind my ear, dammit.
I watched as Nave’s eyes flickered before igniting.
His hand flattened on my neck.
That hunger looking back at me chased away any of my innate sense of self-preservation.
“I don’t regret it,” I said, watching as he processed the words. “Just so you know.”
It seemed to be what he was waiting to hear.
Suddenly, both his hands were at my hips, grabbing, lifting.
Water cascaded down my body as I found myself sitting on the edge of the pool.
Nave’s body pressed against my knees, and my legs parted effortlessly for him, welcoming him closer.
His hands slid up my sides, igniting little sparks that quickly became a wildfire that tore through me.
He pressed closer.
My heartbeat fluttered. My legs closed around him.
Then his hands were framing my face, and his lips were on mine.
There was nothing tentative this time, no soft explorations, no uncertainty.
Our lips collided, full of heat and need and the ache of denial.
My fingers danced up his arms to slip around his neck, pulling him flush against me, and his lips muffled my moan as the press of his desire met my core.
Nave’s head slanted, his lips sucking my lower one before they were over mine again. Harder, hungrier. Teeth grazed. Tongues teased.
