Return to Me (The Aphrodite Chronicles Book 1)

by LM Spangler

  Naida’s arms wound around his neck. She pulled him to her, against her. His erection pressed into her stomach. “I want you, Coop. By the gods, I want you.”

  His hand tangled in the silk of her golden hair, tugging her head to the side. His lips plundered the soft flesh of her neck, moving from her chin to where shoulder and neck met then back to her jaw. He feasted, tasting her honeyed skin, getting lost in the sensation and flavor.

  Naida unwound her arms and allowed her hands to caress him from his chest to his waist. She lifted the hem of his shirt and skimmed her fingertips over his abs. There was no hesitation, no tentativeness. Blunt, shortly trimmed fingernails scraped over his quivering flesh.

  Coop untangled his hand from her hair. White-hot pleasure lanced his system, causing him to buck his hips when she traced his erection through the front of his pants.

  His hands snaked under her sweater and caressed the soft bounty of silken skin that lay there. Naida’s soft murmur of approval spurred him upward to her plump breasts. He encountered the cotton of her bra. She’d always favored the soft, utilitarian fabric. He’d been in plenty of situations before where he’d grabbed a handful of her glorious breasts.

  But not this exact situation. Coop had never gotten his groove on in an elevator. During a power outage.

  Fate, for whatever reason, had decided to bring them together again, in the same building where his life had started to fall apart three years ago.

  Coop’s thumbs brushed over her turgid nipples, already pebbled from his touch. She increased the pressure of the hand stroking his erection. Pleasure sizzled through him, making his pulse hammer. He leaned in and captured her mouth. His tongue teased the seam then forced the issue, demanding a taste. Naida moaned and allowed him entry. Their tongues clashed, danced.

  Coop captured her hands and held them over her head with one of his hand and slid his fingers of the other over her stomach and undid the button and zipper of her pants. He groaned when he felt the softness of her cotton panties under his inquisitive digits. So plain, so normal … yet, his libido sped into overdrive. Nothing mattered but driving deep inside her, burying himself until he didn’t know where he stopped and she started.

  He slipped a finger under the band of her underwear and stroked it back and forth over her trembling tummy. It brushed lower and lower, circled and swirled.

  Naida nipped his lip. “Coop. Coop, please.”

  “Please, what? Tell me what you want.” His mouth feasted on the bounty of flesh on her throat. His teeth nibbled and sampled. She was the drug, and he was quickly becoming addicted.

  “Touch me. Please, by the gods, touch me.”

  “Yes,” he mumbled against her neck. His finger slid over the thatch of pubic hair that led to his final destination. Then, he found wet heat. “Oh, God. You’re so hot.”

  “Stop. Teasing,” she demanded.

  Who was he to ever deny a lady?

  Coop circled her entrance before he delved inside. The tight, heated channel gripped his finger as he thrust it in and out.

  His thumb found her clit and began circling the hardened bud. Her hips bucked wildly as he increased the pace. Coop couldn’t stop. He wanted her to come. Needed her to.

  Naida’s breaths came in pants, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her free hand gripped the back of his shirt. “Oh, gods. Coop, I’m going to come. Oh. Oh…”

  “Yes. Yes,” he chanted. Coop withdrew his finger then inserted two inside her rippling sheath. “Come for me, baby. Come for me.” His thumb found her clit again, and she exploded. Her scream echoed around the confines of the elevator.

  Sensations crashed over him, both mental and physical. The physical was obvious. Mentally, he felt like he had connected with Naida again, that they could get a relationship to work. They had the passion part down to a science.

  “Damn,” Naida muttered under her breath. She snatched her hand away like she’d been burned.

  Coop’s head tilted to the side as he removed his hand from her panties. His eyes narrowed. “You already regret that, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you?” she asked.

  “No. No, I don’t regret it. Look at me.”

  Her gaze remained trained on the floor.

  “I said look at me!”

  Naida slowly raised her head until their eyes met. Panic reflected in the depth of the liquid chocolate pools of brown. “Don’t do this,” she warned.

  “Do what? Want you? Need you?” He paused for a moment. “Love you?”

  She gasped. Her eyes widened. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No. No. No!”

  His hands rose and fell in the air. “Why not, Naida? Why the hell not?”

  “You wouldn’t understand if I told you. I couldn’t tell you before, and I can’t tell you now.”

  “What has you so afraid?” he asked, softly.

  “Me, Coop. I’m afraid of me.”

  His eyes widened. Definitely not the answer he had anticipated. “Huh?”

  Naida opened her mouth with what would have likely been a retort, but the elevator lurched, and then the mechanical hum of a pulley system filled the space as the car finally descended to lobby level.

  Coop grabbed her hand before the door opened. “Tell me why you’re scared.”

  “I’m … I’m a…”

  Bing.

  Naida snatched up her briefcase and coat, darting out of the elevator. She only nodded when Smythe asked about her well-being.

  Coop stared at her retreating back.

  She’d walked out of his life once.

  I’ll be damned if she does it again.

  Chapter Four

  Humidity hung in the air, giving weight to it.

  Naida preferred her basement water world to reflect summertime conditions, which in Pennsylvania meant hot and humid.

  Perspiration dampened her forehead and gave her skin a glowing sheen from the light cast by dozens of white, pillar candles. Reflections off the water danced on the ceiling, changing and shifting shape.

  The pool wasn’t overly large, but she could get her heart pumping by swimming laps. The glass-smooth surface barely wavered, despite the four ceiling fans currently pushing the warm air around the room.

  Her bare feet padded silently across the roughened concrete floor toward her seating area. A large, chaise lounge sofa covered in white, water-repellent fabric sat center stage among four wicker chairs with striped-blue fabric.

  Naida glanced back at the serene water that beckoned her. Unable to resist the pull, she undid the tie of her terrycloth robe, allowing the soft, fluffy garment to slide from her body and pool on the floor at her feet.

  Naida stood naked. She was alone and had no need for a swimsuit. With a shrug, she strode to the edge and dove high into the air. She entered the water with nary a splash and swam under the surface to the opposite end.

  Once there, Naida pushed off the side and began a forward crawl that took her from one end to the other. Again and again, she traversed the length of the pool, feeling free, alive.

  She had also felt alive earlier in the day when she had been trapped with Coop. Hell, I felt a hell of a lot—the passion and desire the water nymph side of her craved. He had also brought her a sense of belonging. Something she hadn’t experienced in three years.

  And what had she done? She had run. Run like a frightened child. Anger rose from inside her soul, demanding dominance, taking over her being.

  Naida dove under the surface again, this time kicking her legs until she reached the bottom. She screamed. Bubble jetted from her mouth, fluttering through the water.

  Damn my father for mating with a nymph. Damn them for bringing a sex-freak like me into the world.

  That was why Naida had run. Should she and Coop resume their relationship, it would become highly physical. Not overnight, but it would happen. She’d need a lot of sex. It would become essential to her, like the air she breathed when in her human form.

  Coop didn’t deserve tha
t. Naida could kill him with the sheer volume of it.

  That was the reason she had divorced him. She had been foolish to believe she could be married. Her urges had become too strong. She hadn’t even been able to look at him without wet heat flooding her core, without blood thrumming through her system, without craving his cock to be buried deep inside her.

  Naida swam to the steps that led out of the pool. Water sloshed off her as she ascended them.

  She paused as she reached the top.

  A shiver raced over her wet skin, and her core suddenly clenched.

  Only one person could make her hot and shivery at the same time.

  Coop.

  Naida stood with her back to him, completely exposed. She closed her eyes, willing him to leave.

  And wanting him to stay.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came so we could finish what we started,” he said, from the opposite end of the pool.

  No. This can’t be happening. She clenched her fists, and her breath quickened. Anger was preferable to want. How she wanted to be with him, to be one with him, to spend her life with him. So much she wanted.

  So much she couldn’t have.

  “Today was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened.”

  Heavy footfalls echoed, announcing his approach. “I don’t believe that. I don’t think you believe that.”

  Water droplets fell from her dampened skin when she shook her head. “What is, is, Coop. Doesn’t much matter what I think.”

  “Yes, it does. Look at me, please.”

  I can’t look at you. I’ll fall apart if I do. “You need to leave.”

  He walked around her to the seating area. “Can’t do that. I don’t mean to state the obvious, but you’re naked. And I’m about to be.”

  Naida pinched the bridge of her nose between her index finger and thumb. She turned to face him, oblivious to the fact that the candlelight danced over her naked body. “Coop,” she began, and then stopped. Air backed up in her lungs.

  Light from the pillar candles nearest him cast his face in shadow then light. His eyes … his eyes were liquid silver. He rolled his shoulders, and his leather jacket slid down his arms, falling to the floor. The fingers that hours earlier had brought her to orgasm worked the buttons of the white dress shirt he still wore. Inch by glorious inch, his sculpted chest came into view, and then his solid abs. Her gaze followed the dusting of black hair running from his pectorals and disappearing into the waistband of his jeans.

  “Stop!” Oh, gods. Keep going. Her core protested her spoken decree and pulsed, flooding her with liquid heat.

  Coop’s fingers rested on the button of his denims. “Do you really want me to?”

  Her eyes met his. The question had been spoken honestly. Didn’t he deserve the same? Didn’t he deserve to know the truth about her? “I do want you. I do. But…” What in the hell do I say next? “I’m a sex-crazed water nymph who could physically kill you with pleasure?” She gave a mental snort.

  Coop shook his head and—damn him to hell and back—undid the button, lowering the zipper.

  Commando. Just like earlier today.

  The head of his shaft was nestled in black curls. Another rush of liquid heat flooded her. It had been three years since she’d felt his, or any other man’s, hard length inside of her.

  Three years too long.

  Did she dare give in? Did she dare make love to Coop again?

  Love being the operative word. She had never stopped loving him. He had made her forget the credo she had lived by since she had reached the age of maturity. The age that she’d had the potential to become a nympho.

  Naida had never wanted to love, to need, someone. To rely on them not just for the physical, but for the mental aspect of the relationship, as well.

  Her gaze lifted from his crotch back to his face. Lights and shadows still danced over his features, accentuating his sharp cheekbones, his lips. Lips that she remembered had been soft and pliant under hers.

  She wanted to feel them on her own, on her breasts, her core.

  A moment of indecision filled her. She had to tell him the truth. She had to show him.

  Here goes nothing. And everything.

  Naida shut her eyes. She focused her abilities on the water.

  Using her mind’s eye, she pictured the liquid rising, becoming cyclonic, spinning to a height of about six-foot. She lifted her hands. The gurgling sound of rushing water flitted to her ears. Rotating three-hundred-sixty degrees, she opened her eyes again. The spout had encircled her, surrounded her, and continued to twist.

  Naida held the cyclone in place for a few moments and then stepped through it. Water rained down on the concrete floor.

  Her gaze met Coop’s. She expected condemnation, scorn, anguish.

  Naida’s heartbeat thudded in her chest.

  She found … admiration? Understanding?

  Confusion swept through her. Her brows knitted together. “You don’t appear to be surprised.”

  Coop laughed. “I was waiting for you to tell me.”

  Huh? What? “You knew?” She elongated the pronunciation of the last word, not bothering to smother her astonishment. “But how?”

  Coop kneeled down on one knee and began to undo the laces of his boots. “That you were a water nymph?” He finished untying the first and removed it and his sock. “I saw you at the lake the night you told me we were getting divorced. You stepped out of the lake as you … re-materialized, I’d guess you’d say.” The opposite boot and sock followed suit, and then he rose to his full height.

  Her mouth dropped open, but she shut it again so hard her teeth clicked together, taking a moment, before asking, “You saw me?” She rubbed her suddenly throbbing temples with the pads of her index and middle fingers. “You’re making my head hurt.”

  He was before her suddenly, having moved silently on his bare feet. Her heart tumbled in her chest when he brushed his lips over one temple then the other. The wall she had spent many years building around her crumbled and became rubble. Hope, even though a tiny speck, blossomed.

  Naida smiled softly. “You should be running,” she pointed out.

  “Nah. Remember me telling you that I was part Native American?”

  She nodded.

  “I didn’t tell you that my great-grandfather was a sagamore, a main chief, and a shaman.”

  Her grin broadened. His great-grandfather would have passed down stories of skinwalkers, the Native American version of lycanthropes, and other animal shifters. Coop would have grown up believing that paranormal species roamed the earth. As such, her being a nymph would barely faze him.

  “You know I could kill you, right?” she advised.

  A black brow rose. “Umm … really?”

  “Yeah. Nymph. Nympho.” She waited for him to catch her drift.

  “Oh… Oh! Nymphomaniac.” He shrugged. “Well, I’d die with a smile and a woody.” He ran his hand over his partially jean-covered erection.

  Her sex rippled and clenched, sending yet another wave of heat through her. There was no reason now that she couldn’t be with Coop, spend her life with him. She hooked her thumbs into the waistband of his pants and slid them over his narrow hips, exposing his powerful legs and his rock-hard cock.

  She snickered. “You appear to have a woody right now. Be a shame to waste it.” Her fingers danced over his manhood, touching and teasing. His appreciative groan fueled her desire, turning a slow burn into a raging wildfire.

  Coop moaned, and his head fell back. She released his erection and was about to ask if he liked it. A yelp escaped instead, as he tangled both hands into her hair, pulling her head toward his.

  His lips captured hers in a kiss that claimed her, branded her.

  Yes. I’m yours. I’m finally yours. Her tongue mated with his and sampled his flavor.

  Those clever lips of his burned a path down her breast. She arched into his mouth, which closed over her nipple and suckled. Each tweak trigg
ered a rush of heat between her legs.

  Her fingers delved into the silk of his hair while he lavished her other breast. Sensations crashed over her. It was too much. It wasn’t enough.

  Naida needed that clever tongue, those nipping teeth, and those nimble lips on her core. She applied pressure to the top of his head and nudged him downward.

  Coop didn’t disappoint. He licked a path down her toned stomach, stopping to nip each hipbone, before he reached her golden curls.

  Her legs widened of their own volition.

  His thumbs spread her folds open a moment before his tongue caressed her, from her throbbing nub to the entrance of her channel. Again and again.

  “Coop, please. Please,” she begged. Her body raced toward release. It wouldn’t take long for her to reach orgasm, and she didn’t care. She wanted it. Needed it. Needed him.

  He found her clit with his lips, nibbled and tugged.

  “Yes. By the gods, yes!”

  The tip of his tongue swirled over her bud, applying pressure, bringing her closer and closer to release. The heat built low in her belly and began a steady burn. Then, one nip of his teeth sent her over the glorious edge.

  The fire flared, and she exploded into his mouth. He didn’t relent until her core no longer throbbed. Her weakened legs threatened to buckle beneath her. As Coop rose, he lifted her into his arms and walked to the chaise.

  He lowered her onto the plush cushion, all the while keeping eye contact with her. “Naida,” he murmured over and over. He chanted her name like a mantra.

  Her heart somersaulted. “Forgive me?” she whispered as her eyes searched his.

  He blanketed her body with his, using his knee to nudge her legs apart. “Forgive you for what?”

  She reached upward and cupped his stubble-covered cheek. “For leaving you. For thinking you wouldn’t understand. For thinking you’d hate me.”

  Coop shook his head. “Sweet Naida. Do you love me?” He settled between her thighs. The head of his cock teased her entrance. “Do you love me?” he repeated.

  “Yes!”

  He entered her with one powerful thrust and set a rhythmic pace, battering her system with pleasure. She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Close to her heart, to her soul.