"Were you?" Decker asked. He'd been waiting for her for two hundred and fifty-nine years. His hands moved to her arms and smoothed down over the soft skin to her elbows, his fingers brushing the inside crook of her arms in a feathery touch that made her shiver against him.
"Yes," she breathed, wiggling against him. "I was hoping you'd wash my back."
Decker smiled faintly as he grabbed for the bar of soap. He slid it briefly under the water, and then began to rub it between his hands to make lather. He urged her to sit up and began to run his hands over her back, running them in circles until every inch of skin there was covered in the soapy lather. He then reached for the soap again and worked it for another minute before returning to the chore, his circles becoming wider and wider until they included her sides.
"Oh." Dani sighed as Decker let his fingers roam to where they wanted. His hands closed warm and soapy over her br**sts, squeezing and kneading under the pretense of cleaning. When she leaned back against him, her foam-covered back sliding across his clean chest, Decker peered down her body, watching his hands cup and knead and then catch her ni**les between thumb and finger and pinch lightly.
The action drew a long moan from Dani and had her tilting her head back and twisting toward him in silent invitation. Decker lowered his head at once, his lips covering hers and his tongue sliding eagerly out to fill her mouth. She tasted as sweet as he remembered, and his fingers tightened on her br**sts briefly, then he let one drift away to find the washcloth, and dunk it in the water. He used it to rinse away the soap so that he could caress her without the slippery lather. The moment the last bit of soap was gone, Decker dropped the cloth and covered her br**sts again, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as he tweaked her ni**les lightly.
"Oh!" It was a half gasp, half groan as she covered his hands with hers, urging him on. When he then slipped one hand out from under hers, she moaned her disappointment. But that was followed by a startled hiss of sound when his hand dropped down over her stomach to slip between her thighs.
Dani stiffened against him briefly in surprise, and then spread her legs as wide as she could inside his to try to accommodate him. She then groaned into his mouth as he caressed her, her own tongue wrestling with his as she arched and twisted in his hands. Dani reached up and back then to slide the fingers of one hand into his hair and clutch his head to urge him on, but then slid the other behind her back between their bodies and into the water to find his erection once more. Decker froze, his hands stilling as he groaned into her mouth and bucked into the caress.
With the second stroke, he recalled himself and resumed kissing and caressing her. His kiss was more demanding now, though, and their caresses more urgent. When they were both panting and breathless with need, Decker broke their kiss and withdrew his hands again, this time to lift and turn her. The moment he had her settled sideways in his lap, he began to trail his mouth down her cheek and then along her neck and lower to find and clasp one damp nipple.
Dani breathed his name, a sound of need and pleading as her hand found him again under the water's surface and closed. It was no gentle caress, but one determined to bring him to the brink. Afraid he would explode there in the water, Decker reached down and forced her hand away. Dani allowed it, but also rose up in the water to shift until she knelt with knees on either side of him. She then reached for him again as she settled herself on his lap, using that hold to direct him into her.
Decker's breath left him on a hiss as her warm, moist heat closed over him and he had to bite his tongue hard to keep from exploding right then. Dani appeared to know this and smiled wickedly as she released him to grab the sides of the tub and slowly eased herself down and then just as slowly raised herself back up. Decker ground his teeth helplessly for a minute, and then reached between them to find the nub between her legs. He caressed her, running his finger around and over it until the smile left her face to be replaced by an almost pained look as Dani began to move more swiftly into the stroke. Decker began to raise his hips, thrusting into her almost violently as she lowered herself, and she shifted one hand to his shoulder to steady herself as he drove them both over the edge.
The sound of sloshing water, joined with violent coughing, was enough to wake Decker from the slumber he'd dropped into. Leaping off the bed, he rushed to the bathroom door and nearly thrust it open before he caught himself and knocked instead.
"Dani? Are you all right?" he called loudly, frowning at the deep violence of her cough. "Dani?"
"I'm fine," she got out between hacks. "Just swallowed some water. Go away."
Decker hesitated, but while she was still coughing, it didn't sound as violent as it had, and after a moment, he turned and walked back to the bed, wondering how she'd managed to swallow water.
He was about to lie back down on the bed, but paused as he became aware of a quickly cooling damp spot on the front of his jeans. He stared at the dark patch, grimacing as he recalled the dream he'd had. It had started out just plain imagination, but he must have drifted off to sleep because it had quickly felt, smelled, and seemed real. If he hadn't awoken on the bed, startled from sleep by Dani's coughing, he could almost believe it had been real. That he'd actually walked in that bathroom and-
Decker paused and stood a little straighter, his head slowly turning toward the bathroom door as he recalled another symptom of finding a life mate-shared dreams. In his case, wet dreams.
Dani gave one last cough and then sagged in the tub. Despite having slept nine hours, she'd somehow managed to fall asleep in the tub and nearly drowned herself. She couldn't believe she'd done that. More than that, she couldn't believe the dream she'd had when she'd fallen asleep. It had featured her and Decker-Maybe-Argeneau-Maybe-Pimms indulging in some pretty hot sex.
Good Lord, Dani thought with disgust, she was having erotic dreams about a man whose last name she didn't even know. She then recalled that she'd nearly had real sex with the man whose last name she didn't even know in the SUV the night before. She covered her face with the damp washcloth, wondering what was the matter with her.
Obviously she was losing it. Dani was no prude, but... Gad! She'd never been promiscuous either. She'd been too busy studying and trying to keep her grades up to bother much with dating at university and medical school. Then she'd had her internship, which had been years of hell where sleeping alone didn't happen much, let alone sleeping with someone else.
Not that she was a virgin. She'd had boyfriends and dates and such, but she'd certainly never before indulged in a hot humping session in the back of an SUV speeding up the highway.
What was the matter with her? This just so wasn't like her at all. She didn't lust after men she'd just met. So to lust after this one, who happened to be a vampire...
Dani closed her eyes as that word ran through her brain. Vampire. Life mate. Rogue. She was gaining a whole new vocabulary and wasn't at all sure it was one she wanted. Although she wouldn't mind a few more explanations. Especially about the life mate business. Lucian had said she was Decker's, and Decker had told her that a life mate was that rare person whom a vampire could relax with. Just how rare? And was she Decker's life mate? If so, what exactly did that mean?
Did she even have the right to wonder about this stuff when Stephanie was kidnapped and in peril? Dani didn't feel like she did and felt selfish and uncaring for doing so.
Sighing, she pushed the button to allow the tub to start to drain and stood up to reach for a towel, making a silent vow as she did. From now on, she would concentrate on the most important matter at hand. Finding Stephanie.
Chapter Nine
Decker paced to the windows, peered out over the fields behind the house, and then paced back to the bed, only to repeat the circuit. He'd made a quick run to his room to change into clean jeans and arrived back in the room to hear splashing from the bathroom. It hadn't been the violent sounds that had accompanied her coughing earlier, however, so he'd begun to pace as he waited for her to finish.
The sound of the bathroom door opening brought Decker's pacing, and thoughts, to an abrupt halt. He turned as Dani stepped into the room. She was rosy-cheeked, her damp hair brushed back and flat to her head. The sight was endearing, he decided, and then noted that she had been forced to redon the clothes she'd worn earlier. They would have to look into getting her some more clothes.
"You look adorable." The words tumbled from his mouth unbidden. They brought a suspicious glint to Dani's face, as if she thought he was being sarcastic.
"Thank you," she muttered finally and added, "You look like hell."
It surprised a laugh from Decker, and he smiled wryly and said, "Thank you."