Words of Love - By Hazel Hunter Page 0,23

flared even wider. He turned in the water and Jesse realized how every bit of his six-pack stood out from the rest. At his sides, corded muscles flanked him and framed his narrow hips. Even from the side, he was triangular–the bulging expanse of his chest tapered to an incredibly lean waist. Then the triangle inverted as his hips widened to tight buttocks and then his bulky thighs. Water coursed down the deep channel in the center of his chest, flowed over his navel, and then into his groin. He turned again, giving a sensuous twist to his torso as the muscles of his wide shoulders bunched.

As Jesse gaped at the utterly masculine display, she found her eyes centered on the flat, taut triangle above his groin. She imagined the sinewy flesh between his hips suddenly tightening as it would when he thrust into her and an ache of desire pulsed between her legs. She watched the water shimmer and cascade over his powerful contours as the words of Chilam Balam came to her mind: “Joy is the law of the entire world. It is a rich year and the year is good. The rains are good.”

She might have watched him forever but she realized he had turned to her. Now he held out his hand.

“There’s room for two,” he said.

• • • • •

Brett watched as Jesse almost stepped in with her clothes. At first he thought she’d meant to but when she suddenly realized, she backed up. He knew very well the effect he had on women but the effect he’d had on Jesse just now had been an accident. She was flustered and, though he hadn’t intended her to be, he found he was a little glad.

Each time they’d made love, he had been the one to initiate it. After making it through the storm and then after she’d read the love poem in the Caracol, it had been him who had needed her. Though her response said she needed him as well, he wanted more than just a response.

He watched as she took off the filthy clothes. The dirt had managed to get inside them but, as she removed her bra and panties, the contrast between her pale skin and the dark soil couldn’t have been greater. Her hourglass shape stood out as though it’d been highlighted. Despite himself, he realized warmth had already begun to spread in his groin.

She moved her clothes aside and, as she turned to him, he extended his hand again.

“The water is fine,” he said.

But she seemed to have lost her voice. Then, as she took his hand, she blushed. For some reason he couldn’t fathom, he found that adorable. Slowly, she slid into the sheet of water with him. As though she were passing through a curtain, the dirt immediately ran down her and disappeared. She tilted her face up to the water as she closed her eyes and smoothed her hair back. Brett let her hand go and picked up the bar of soap he’d left on the floor.

As she tilted her head back, water poured down the milky white skin at the front of her throat and over her breasts, where it dripped in small cascades from the rose-tipped nipples.

“The water is so soft,” she said quietly.

What would be soft was cupping her breasts, feeling the lush fullness of them in his palms, but instead he rubbed the oval bar of soap loudly between his hands.

“Let me get your back,” he said, letting the soap slip to the floor.

She stepped forward, out of the water, and he stood to her side and slightly behind. His eyes immediately fell on the light pink burn area. It wasn’t peeling, which was a relief.

He started there, gently massaging the white lather in small circles. She rocked forward a little and he laid his other hand on her flat stomach to keep her steady. Slowly his fingers worked around her shoulder blades, across her shoulders, and then down. The soap made her already satiny skin slick and he used his entire hand to rub down one side of her back and then up the other. His fingers moved along the dip of her spine, down and then up, while his other hand slid across her supple abdomen. He could feel her muscles relaxing and he let the hand on her back rub down over her plump buttock. He gently massaged her, front and back, as she swayed with his movements. Though he’d