Cover Me - By Catherine Mann Page 0,86
to the moment, she waited a little longer to be sure he slept deeply. Because she had one last loose end to tie up before she committed to him fully. She needed to send Brett an email to tell him she was sorry, but she had made a mistake. She couldn’t meet him and she didn’t love him.
Her heart still belonged fully and irrevocably to Flynn Everett.
Chapter 16
Hot springs bubbling around her, Sunny straddled Wade’s lap as he sat on a submerged rock step. Only their shoulders and faces peeked above the lapping water. The springs refilled from the geyser in the middle, heated naturally from the mountain’s volcanic core.
The ultimate place to make love.
Aftershocks from her release pulsed through her, steam wafting upward with a slight tinge of healing sulfur. She let the essence of it sink into her pores as she gave over control to pure, undiluted sensation. Sulfur was necessary for all living cells and she could swear she felt those revitalizing qualities now.
Her limbs went boneless and she almost melted against Wade, but remembered his injured shoulder at the last second. She flung her head back and let the tide tug her. She floated toward the geyser in the pool’s center, her body barely submerged. Warm bubbles caressed her back while cool air sketched across her front. The swirling water played peekaboo, revealing patches of her skin.
Above her, northern lights painted the sky with green streaks and bursts of red. God, she never got tired of watching the aurora borealis, named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind. This place was the closest thing to paradise that she could imagine.
The fact that she had a business here that also kept her fed was just an added bonus. She eyed the outdoor haven with pride, the planked fence her brother had helped her build, the small dressing corner stocked with dry, warm towels and robes.
She chased thoughts of her brother from her mind. Not ready to go there yet in any way.
Being with Wade offered a temporary escape from the fast-encroaching reality. Here in her fenced Alaskan oasis, she had a stolen pocket of time before her town self-destructed when everyone woke up and news of the murders spread.
The water swirled faster around her, giving her a second’s warning that Wade approached.
“This is not what I expected.” He stopped beside her.
Underwater, his fingers stroked her spine, caressing with the bubbles until she almost couldn’t separate his touch from the rippling rush. He moved down her back, over her bottom, and along the outsides of her legs.
She sighed with pleasure. “This is probably my favorite place in the whole world. Now I have all the more reason to love it.”
A whisper of worry trickled through her brain like melting water down an icicle. What would happen to her little business, to her haven, to her way of life? It wasn’t as if she could just put a survival school based in a log cabin on the market and folks would come streaming in with big-money offers.
Her feet started to sink and his hands closed around her toes, his thumbs massaging the arches. His artful touch chased away concerns and her eyes slid closed. The feel of his hands on her flesh sent a rush of aurora borealis behind her lids.
“Keep talking,” he said, moving up her body again, between her legs.
Her throat closed up and she worked to push words past. “When I was a teenager, I dreamed of building a place around this spring.”
“Why is that?” He massaged her thighs, higher inch by inch.
“I, uh, missed our gym back in Iowa, and it seemed like having at least a small workout space here would be the perfect way to stay in shape and burn off energy during those dark winter months.” Right now, she was burning off more than energy. Her whole body was on fire from the subtle pleasure of his caress up her thighs.
“Talk,” he commanded, “or I stop.”
She flicked water on him, while clamping her legs around his waist. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Laughter rumbling, he moved closer, his thumbs at the juncture of her thighs, then…
He pressed against the oversensitive bundle of nerves that already ached for him all over again.
“Wade?”
“Let go, just float. I have you.”
And he did. Her arms splayed out and she felt the waters tug her hair out into a fan around her. Her breasts peeked from the water, her