Page 80 of Valentine Nook
Pants and tee follow my boots until I’m standing in front of Lando wearing nothing but my bra and panties. Throwing him a wink, I march to the edge and plunge.
I was expecting the water to be freezing, but it’s almost warm.
Warm and clear like bathwater.
I swim down to the bottom, to the pink rock I spotted theday I came with Clemmie, which turns out to be more quartz than stone.
When I come back to the surface, Lando’s watching me from the rock under the waterfall, wearing nothing but black briefs. The water hits his shoulders, runs down his chest, and disappears into the dark curls.
It’s six weeks, give or take, since I walked through the bramble path and discovered him here, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it every day since.
He crooks a finger at me. “Come here.”
I swim over to the rungs worn into the rock and step up slowly.
Taking my hand, Lando pulls me into him, using his massive body to protect me from the water cascading down on us and the jagged wall behind me.
Both hands sweep through my hair, slicking it back. The movement forces me to look up, and when I do, a pair of bright blue eyes peer down at me.
“You are so beautiful.”
I’ve heard those words a thousand times and read them in a million press cuttings. But they’ve never been more than page fillers, lip service to a celebrity they want to flatter.
Until now, I haven’t ever reallyheardthem, felt the weight of them. Or truly believed them.
But Lando’s gaze is so earnest as it holds mine, it has every inch of me glowing.
I run my fingers through the silky black curls covering his chest. “So are you.”
The corner of his lip quivers with the beginnings of a smile and breaks the seriousness threatening the moment. Pressed against him, I feel the thickness of him swell against my pelvis, then his mouth falls on mine.
It’s not like last night’s kiss or the kiss in the kitchen. This kiss has the power to disintegrate me.
He kisses me on and on.
And on.
Without breaking contact, Lando hauls me up in one swift movement, sets me on the ledge, and spreads my thighs. His gaze narrows until all I see is the onyx moon of his pupils.
“I’ve been wondering what you would look like spread out like this for my eyes only, Hollywood.”
I squirm under the intensity of his stare, the stillness of him—save for the rise and fall of his chest—and a shiver whispers down my spine. I’m so exposed. With my underwear on, it feels indecent almost, yet the goose bumps wracking my body aren’t because I’m cold.
“And?” It comes out more croak than word.
“Fucking fantastic,” he hisses.
The calluses on his palms are rough against my skin when he slides them up my thighs, and it’s a reminder that Lando is no Hollywood pretty boy. He doesn’t spend his days reciting a bunch of lines. Heworksfor a living. There’s power in his hands, and right now, they’re on me, spreading me wider.
“You’ve been so desperate for this all morning, haven’t you?” Lando’s voice is steady and deep. “For me to touch you. Your pussy is aching for it.”
My nipples are so hard they poke through the lace of my bra. When his palm ghosts up my stomach, and he grazes the pad of his thumb over one, my head falls back with a groan that echoes off the rock.
“God,yes. Lando.”
Another groan from me is followed by a deep chuckle from him.
Bunching my panties, he rubs the thin cotton between my slit until the friction is almost too much to bear.
