The Cursed(18)

You don't have to wait nine months and then six weeks more .. like a year before you

touch me again."

He turned slightly in the spray to half-face her without straining his neck. "Really?" Heather covered her mouth with two fingers, the laughter brimming and ready to pop out at any second. He was so dear and so charming that she wanted to run her hands through his thicket of blond hair as she stared into his crystal blue eyes. Panic was etched across his handsome face, but after the stories of heroism she'd heard and knowing that she could have easily been sobbing her eyes out as a brand-new widow versus a honeymooning bride, he had no idea how much she wanted him right now.

"Really."

They both stared at each other.

Had he any idea how long she'd waited for a man of his caliber to come into her life? A decent, honest, honorable soul who had befriended her and caressed her spirit long before he'd ever touched her... and when he did touch her... gracious. Heather briefly closed her eyes as a quiver overtook her belly. The fact that Dan was trying to hide an erection from her because he thought she'd be offended, simply because she might be pregnant, drew her to him despite all his fears. Didn't he know that his tactical blue-arc gave him away? His body was practically glowing from the waist down.

"Daniel," she whispered, backing him up against the tiles and taking his mouth. "Let me wash your back, love."

* * *

the agreement was implicit as they both stripped by the door. Jose glanced up at Juanita, their eyes met at the same time, and they both shook their heads.

"Uh-uh, that's how we met."

She nodded. "In the shower. Too hot."

"You know me, 'Nita," Jose said with his hands held up in front of his chest. "When it comes to you, baby, I ain't got that kinda willpower."

"Me, either," she said quietly, her gaze raking down his body. The man was built like a brick house, and she had to wrestle her line of vision away from his dark caramel skin that was stretched tight over hard-packed muscle. But his in tense gaze caught her breath in her throat. Jose's deep brown eyes and thicket of unruly black hair made her take a step closer to him.

"Don't start," he warned, the tone much gentler than the strong one he'd had in his mind.

"I never stopped," she murmured.

He tilted his head, inhaled deeply, and allowed his eyes to briefly slide shut. She'd gotten wet for him and the sensory awareness contracted every muscle in his groin. Just looking at her in the buff was making the muscle in his jaw work. Big brown eyes in a beautiful face, mouth that would make a man stupid, dark brown hair that felt like silk flowing through his fingers ... milk-in-tea-hued skin so soft he was almost afraid to bruise it. His gaze slid down her body and stopped at her na**d br**sts. When she lazily trailed her fingers over her pebbled cinnamon ni**les, he let out his breath in a hot rush like he'd been punched.

"You wanna get in the shower first so you can start your bath first?" She shook her head slowly, and then turned to saunter over to the tub, glancing at him over her shoulder. "Uh-uh," she said quietly. "You go first so you can watch."

* * *

the moment the last article of clothing hit the bag and the offending garments were sealed away, he got body slammed. It was so fantastically unexpected that his arms and legs functioned on mental remote. With Krissy's mouth on his, her long flaxen hair spilling over his shoulders as he heaved her up to his waist and her creamy thighs gripped him, he almost forgot to head for the shower.

The way her body moved against him as he held her made him stagger. Mentally reprimanding himself as being a senior Guardian, he tried to remember what Marlene had said. In order to do that, he had to at least stop kissing Krissy as he made his way across the suite. A jarring tactile differ ence in textures underfoot from rug to hard surface gave him a little perspective. He was finally able to tear his mouth away from Krissy's eager kiss as he crossed the threshold to cool bathroom tiles.

"We've gotta - "

A hungry kiss cut off his argument, just as her feral tongue dredged a moan up from his chest.

"You almost died, ohmigod, J.L.," she panted, raining kisses onto his forehead, lashes, and nose.

"Kris, I'm all dirty and - "

"Put it in, I don't care," she gasped, capturing his mouth again. The request and her kiss imploded in his groin, but as turned on as he was, he knew better than that.

"We can't," he said, breathing like something was chas ing him.

"You said they never even touched you," she moaned, dropping her head back. "You were too fast for them ... oh, J.L., I can see it in my mind!" The pitch of her voice connected with his spinal column, just like the request had zapped on his blue-white charge. He stumbled across the room blind with her in his arms, feeling for the shower controls in a series of frantic slaps against the tiles until he found them. Logic was edging away in nanosec onds, competing with Krissy's wet seal against his belly. Her slick need tortured his stomach, slowly seeping down it to pool at his base while her firm round br**sts bounced as she moved against him, coaxing his entry.

"We can't," he finally said on a thick gasp, pulling one of her tight, pink ni**les between his lips. "Just lemme get the crud off, then you won't be able to get me off you." She felt like a crazy woman as she quickly grabbed the soap and lathered his hair, running her fingers through his jet-black silk. His almond-hued skin against hers made her feel dangerous as her druid gift of kinetic expression absorbed all the erotic impulses he'd had and shot them back at him. Her kisses forced him into the spray, water blinding them, soap rushing away, breathing in bursts of passion before mouths locked again. She loved him so much, this kind, gentle war rior with intensely private eyes and a razor-sharp mind, who'd chosen her... and he'd married her. Body friction more than soap had cleaned him off. But the moment her kinetic energy entwined with his tactical sensory capacity, he lost it.

"Kris, baby, right now - I gotta be in you." He backed her into the wall, a deep moan reverberating off the tiles.

She couldn't catch her breath, but seeing him come unglued sent a sliver of logic into her brain at the last sec ond. "You sure, 'cause you said - "