“Wet. And cold.” She shoved back her dripping hair as the excited dog swam around them. What did it say about her, she wondered, that his impulsive, silly act had wiped away her earlier annoyance and nerves? “Moron.”
“Mermaid.” He pulled her against him again. “That’s what you look like, just as I thought.”
“This mermaid has legs, currently freezing. And sand in very uncomfortable places.”
“It sounds like a long, hot shower’s on tap.” Gripping her hand, he pulled her to shore. “I’ll help you out with that sand.” He laughed again when the wind struck. “Christ! It’s freezing. Come on, Barbie.”
Caught up, that’s what it said about her, she thought. She was just caught up. She managed to snag her shoes as they ran across the beach.
Twenty-four
THE INSTANT SHE DASHED INSIDE THE MUDROOM, ABRA peeled off her dripping hoodie, toed off her soggy shoes.
“Cold, cold, cold,” she chanted, teeth chattering as she dragged off her wet top, wiggled out of her clinging pants.
The distraction of wet, naked, shivering Abra slowed Eli’s progress. He was still struggling with his sodden jeans when she streaked away.
“Hold on a minute!” He fought off the jeans, his boxers, left the whole mess in a pile and a spreading pool of seawater and wet clumps of sand to race after her.
He heard her chanting still.
“Cold, cold, cold!”
He caught up just after the shower spray exploded along with her garbled cry of relief.
“Warm, warm, warm.”
She let out a little shriek when he grabbed her from behind.
“No! You’re still cold.”
“Not for long.”
He spun her around, plastering her against him, and grabbed a hank of her hair. And, covering her mouth with his, felt the heat rise.
He wanted to touch, everywhere, all that wet skin, those long lines, those subtle curves. He wanted to hear her throaty laugh, the catch of her sigh. When she shivered now, it was from arousal, anticipation, while the flood of hot water rained over them both.
Her hands glided over him, a light scrape of nails, an erotic dig of fingers. She turned with him under the spray, around and around through the pulsing waterfall, with her mouth a wet, hot demand against his.
He wanted her happy, wanted to erase the trouble he’d seen in her eyes on the beach. He wanted to shield her from the trouble to come, as it surely would.
Trouble, he thought, that seemed to cling to him like skin.
At least here, here and now, there was only heat and pleasure and need. Here and now, he could give her all he had.
She held on to him, even when he turned her around to slide his hands over her, she hooked an arm back, around his neck to keep him close. And lifting her face as she might to the rain, opened.
Her body yearned toward more. Touch here, taste there—and patient, relentless, he stoked the yearning to a deep, glorious ache.
When she turned, mouth to mouth again, he braced her against the wet tiles, and filled her.
Slow now, slow, rising like the steam, falling like the water, floating on thick, wet clouds of pleasure. She looked through the mists, into his eyes. There were the answers, she thought. She had only to accept what she already knew, only to hold what her heart already wanted.
You, she thought, as she let herself go. I’ve been waiting for you.
When she pressed her face to his shoulder, shuddering with him on that final fall, she carried love.
Lost in her, he held her another moment, just held. Then he tipped her face back, touched his lips to hers. “About that sand.”
Her laugh made the moment perfect.
In the kitchen, warm and dry, she plotted out dinner while he poured wine.
“We can just throw a sandwich together,” he began.
“I don’t think so.”
“Are you trying to guilt me again, because I missed lunch?”
“No, I think I notched that belt.” She set garlic, some plum tomatoes, a chunk of Parmesan on the counter. “I’m hungry, and you should be. Thanks.” She took the wine, tapped her glass to his. “But since you brought it up, you should tell me what you were so caught up in.”
“I met with the investigator today.”
“You said she was coming.” Intrigued, Abra turned from her hunt in the refrigerator. “You said before she had something new.”
“You could say that.” When a thought struck, he held up a finger. “Wait. I want to try something. It’ll just take a couple minutes.”