by Cat Schield
Tonight, she wore a utilitarian black one-piece that did nothing to enhance her slender curves. Even so, Linc found himself mesmerized by the flash of her slender arms and legs as she negotiated a flip turn and resumed her smooth rhythm. She was swimming for pleasure rather than fitness, but there was no missing the precision in her strokes. She moved like a trained swimmer and this showcased yet another example of how little he knew about her.
When she drew close to the end nearest him, Linc stepped out of the shadows and approached the turquoise water. “It’s a little chilly for a night swim, isn’t it?” He figured the air temperature was around sixty.
“You keep the pool at a comfortable eighty-two degrees, so it doesn’t bother me until I get out.” She frog kicked to the edge and looped her arms over the concrete.
The dark smudge of mascara beneath her eyes gave her an edgy look he appreciated. He imagined licking the water from her throat as her legs wrapped around his waist in the weightless environment.
“How long have you been out here?” he asked.
“Fifteen minutes or so.”
“Were you waiting for me to come home?”
The corners of her mouth turned up in an enigmatic smile. “How come you’re home so early? Did all your friends get lucky and ditch you?”
For once, he wasn’t in the mood to flirt. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he said in all seriousness.
She hummed as if considering how to take this. Linc found himself taking off his jacket and reaching for his shirt buttons before he realized his intent.
“What are you doing?” she demanded as he stripped off his shirt, stepped out of his shoes and got to work on his pants.
“Joining you.”
Her eyes widened as his pants fell to his ankles and he kicked out of them.
“Don’t you need a suit?”
In answer, he executed a shallow dive and surfaced ten feet beyond her. The shock of the cool water on his overheated skin diminished none of the desire pulsing through his veins. Three powerful strokes brought him within arm’s reach of her and he wasted no time snagging her around the waist and dragging her flush against his body.
“Linc—” Her protest was cut off as he claimed her mouth in a hard kiss that let her know just how much he needed her.
She tasted like salt from the pool water and fresh peach pie with ice cream. He fed on her deliciousness with a ravenous appetite as she draped her thigh over his hip and gathered his wet hair between her fingers. She rocked her pelvis into him and moaned. Peeling one strap of her bathing suit off her shoulder, he coasted his lips over her silky skin, enjoying the way she trembled.
“We shouldn’t be doing this out here,” she warned, her voice a husky rasp. She pushed weakly against his chest. “What if we’re seen?”
“Stop worrying about that.” He skimmed her bathing suit lower, baring one small breast. “I don’t care if the whole world knows.”
“You should,” she gasped unsteadily.
Dipping his head, he pulled her tight nipple into his mouth and smiled as she shivered. For a long, heady moment, she was all pliant eagerness and he took complete advantage. But then she began shaking her head.
“Damn it, Linc.” Her voice was a breathless moan as he nipped at her neck. “I’m trying to be sensible.”
“There’s no need.”
“There’s every need.”
Hearing the solid conviction in her tone, he released a heartfelt sigh before peeling her hand off his bicep and kissing her palm. “Fine. But you need to know that I’m not a huge fan of sensible when it comes to you.”
“I don’t believe that’s true. You are the most prudent and mindful man I’ve ever met.”
Linc winced at her description of him, even though he knew it was true. His father had demonstrated what happens to a man who acts unwisely without considering the consequences to those around him. Linc would never do anything that would hurt his family or friends. He’d never expose Claire to what would surely be a scandal if they were caught.
“What if we skip all this sneaking around and just date? In public. Dinner. Dancing.”
“Did you forget that I recently spent the day cooking so your mother could decide what to serve at the party she’s throwing to introduce you to Charleston’s most eligible females?”
“Fine,” Linc grumbled. “I’ll go to her party, and when I don’t find anyone who suits me, will you be my date to the polo event next weekend?”
A breeze moved across the surface of the pool, agitating the illuminated water, casting shimmers of reflected light over Claire’s damp skin. Shadows moved through her eyes as her hand came up and cupped his cheek.
“Take me upstairs and make love to me,” she murmured, the words barely reaching his ears. “More than anything else, that’s what I want.”
Sensing it would do no good to push her further on the subject, Linc took her hand and drew her toward the stairs. She was giving him what she thought he needed. Physical companionship that made no demands on him. Well, that wasn’t good enough, and it was about time he started convincing her that she deserved more and so did he.
* * *
Claire buried her face in a sweetly scented pillow and clung to a delicious dream. Linc’s lips were moving along her neck while his fingers traced along her thigh toward her hip. This fantasy was familiar and reoccurred more frequently since he’d returned to Charleston after the baseball season. The more time she spent with Linc, the more treacherous her subconscious became. In the early morning hours before she slipped from her bed, he did incredible things to her body. She’d lost track of just how many times a climax had visited her with the dawn.
She moaned a little, trembling on the edge of wakefulness. Resisting the return to reality, she clung to the delicious sensations ranging across her sleep-warmed flesh. The contrast of his silky warm lips exploring her shoulder and the roughness of his beard aroused her, the light scrape of stubble against her skin awakening goose bumps all over her body.
For so long she’d immersed herself in scented lotions, sweet baby smells and gourmet meals for one. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge how much she’d missed the strength of a man’s hands on her body, his wicked words whispered in her ears, telling her all the naughty things he wanted to do to her, the power of an orgasm she couldn’t control.
“Now, this is a wonderful way to wake up,” Linc murmured, his fingers lazily drifting over her abdomen before sliding lower.
Claire’s eyes flashed opened. This wasn’t a dream. She glanced around the dim room and spied the clock on the nightstand. It was shortly before six. Honey would still be sleeping. She could linger in this delicious fantasy a little while longer.
And yet it wasn’t a dream. This was happening. The hand sliding between her legs to cup her belonged to a very real, very turned-on Linc. She clamped her eyes shut as a groan ripped from her throat. Panic smacked her hard in the chest, but that didn’t stop her thighs from parting.
Her pulse began to race. All traces of sleepiness vanished beneath a rush of lust as his fingers traveled along her inner thigh, not quite making it to where she wanted him most.
“What are you doing to me?” She shifted her hips, rubbing against his morning erection, and was rewarded by his swift intake of breath followed by the bite of his fingers on her thigh, far from where she ached but near enough to cause her to groan.
“Yeah, that’s the stuff.” He kissed her ear, before taking the lobe between his teeth. The tiny flare of pain sent a rush of pleasure through her body.
“Linc.” His name came out in a whimper, a plea for him to stop teasing her.
“What do you want?”
“Touch me.”
“I am.”
Her head thrashed on the pillow, hips gyrating as frustration built to a crescendo. “Not where I want you.�
��
“And where is that?”
“Between my legs. I want to feel you inside me.” She’d stopped feeling embarrassed about telling him what she needed. “Every part of me aches for you.”
“That’s my girl.”
At last, his fingers glided into her core and she stopped breathing. She felt the lazy drift of his tongue against her neck as he circled her clit with an expert touch. The pressure was perfect and she surrendered to the building pleasure.
“You’re so wet,” he murmured, his low voice rumbling through her.
“You wake up hard,” she teased breathlessly. “I wake up wet.”
He paused. “All the time?”
From his tone, he was surprised. That made her smile. She reached back and hooked her arm around his neck, arching her body, offering him every part of her.
“When I’m dreaming about you.” After last night, it made no sense to be cagey. She’d already revealed too much about how she felt.
“Does that happen often?” His hands stroked her with possessive expertise, claiming and demanding her surrender.
“Almost every night.”
“Moan for me like you did last night,” he whispered against her skin while pushing a finger inside her.
A kiss landed in the sensitive spot where her shoulder and neck came together. Claire’s lips parted and she moaned as his finger started to move in and out of her.
“You are so soft. So perfect,” he growled as she rocked her hips. “Yes, that’s it. Show me how much you love this.”
“Linc,” she moaned again, but this time in protest. The building pressure warned her she was close. She grabbed his hand and sank her fingernails into his skin to let him know she meant business. “Not like this. I need you inside me.”
He cursed softly and rolled away from her. Claire shifted onto her back and watched him find one of the foil packets. She briefly remembered how they hadn’t used a condom last night before her mind snapped back to the present moment. To her delight, his hands shook a little as he tore it open and rolled the condom onto his erection.
And then he was sliding between her thighs and into her open arms, driving into her body with a groan that made her heart sing.
Claire clenched her eyes shut as Linc moved inside her, the better to savor the fullness of his possession. She’d never been particularly vocal during sex, but last night and now this morning, the urge to chant encouragement couldn’t be denied.
“Yes, yes, yes. Please.” She had no idea what she was asking for, but the pleas rolled off her tongue. “More. That feels amazing.”
Her declaration ended on a gasp as he shifted the angle of his hips and changed his thrusts, going deeper, taking her pleasure higher.
“That’s it,” he coaxed, his voice raspy and gruff. “Show me what you like.”
Had she ever felt like this before? Was it merely the years she’d gone without or did Linc have some sort of magic that made her wild?
“Oh, Linc.”
They were moving together in a frenzy of hands and hips. Her body tightened with ever-increasing need until Claire wondered if she might explode. His name poured from her lips again and again, and she heard him murmuring encouragement as he thrust into her smoothly but with surging power.
And then she was coming, her orgasm catching up with her so fast she wasn’t ready for the blinding pleasure that blew her apart.
“You are perfect,” he whispered. “I’ve never felt like this before.”
With a final thrust, he let go and Claire watched his expression transform into something that both thrilled and terrified her. His lips claimed hers in a searing kiss that left her reeling. She clutched his hair and met the thrust of his tongue with desperation-fueled passion, recognizing that they couldn’t keep doing this, yet she didn’t want to stop. Being with Linc like this made her happier than she’d been in a long time. Maybe ever.
So what if it couldn’t last. Nothing so perfect was meant to. She would simply have to take this time with him and appreciate every second. Being together, loving like this, wasn’t hurting anyone. To hell with what the gossips said about them. Eventually their passion would run its course and Linc would find the woman he was meant to spend the rest of his life with.
As for what would happen to Claire...
She would just have to trust that he would treat her and Honey fairly.
“What are you thinking about?” Linc asked, his face buried in her neck.
“How nice it is to wake up with you.”
He hummed. “I could get used to this.”
She agreed. It would be so easy to lose herself in him. In this secret connection they shared. “You shouldn’t.”
His lips moved over her skin, and her breath quickened as dozens of nerve endings came to life.
How could she already want him again? Her body hadn’t calmed from the last orgasm he’d given her and she craved more of his touch. An ache bloomed between her thighs and she resisted the urge to rub herself against him.
“You’re not the boss of me,” he teased, his lips coasting along the curve of her breast, tongue flicking over her nipple, making her suck in a sharp breath.
“Of course not.” She arched her back, offering herself to him. “That’s your mother’s job.”
He lifted his head and snagged her gaze. The blue of his eyes seemed to intensify. “I’m my own man. I make my own decisions.”
“Of course you do.”
Her teasing was distracting him from the romantic mood he’d been in a moment earlier. She breathed a little sigh of relief. Passionate Linc she could handle. Sex was a physical act. She might crave it, hunger for his lips on her and the heat of their lovemaking, but when things ended, her heart would still be intact. Affectionate Linc was trouble. She could come to depend on his smiles and ache for his company.
“You’re patronizing me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She tunneled her fingers in his soft golden hair, enjoying its silky feel. “It’s just that you don’t really belong only to yourself. You’re a star. A hero.”
He shook his head. “I’m no one’s hero.”
Why didn’t he see himself as everyone else did? Didn’t he realize the impact he had on his friends and family?
“The decisions you make affect the people around you,” she told him.
“What happens between us doesn’t affect anyone outside this bed.”
“Have you forgotten your mother?”
He blinked at her. “Please tell me you didn’t just bring her into this.”
“She wants you involved with the sort of quality woman you can eventually marry. Don’t you want to make her happy?”
Linc flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “This is without a doubt the strangest post-sex conversation I’ve ever had with a woman.”
“I’m just looking out for you.”
He shifted his gaze back to her. “Maybe you should stop worrying about me and consider what makes you happy.”
Claire opened her mouth to say that she was doing just that but shook her head instead. Since finding out she was pregnant with Honey, she’d put her daughter first. Honey’s security and happiness was all that mattered. This interlude with Linc had been selfish and reckless. Claire’s throat closed as panic enveloped her.
“I shouldn’t be here,” she whispered, sitting up and looking around for her clothes. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?” Linc made a grab for her arm, but she’d already slipped out of the bed. “Claire, don’t go.”
“It’s late. Honey will be getting up soon and I have to start your breakfast.” She knew she was babbling, but she had to remind herself what was important. “You’re supposed to be at the gym for your workout.”
“I already had my morning workout.”
“That was cardio,” she retorted, tearing her eyes from him. “You need to balance it with lifting and...”
The rest was lost as he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against him. He set his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her head to the perfect angle. She melted against his solid form as his lips claimed hers in a possessive kiss. Her tongue darted forward to tangle with his and she moaned as he palmed her butt cheek and lifted her against his growing erection. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and hung on as he feasted on her mouth. The rest of the world fell away, leaving her trapped in a whirlpool where only his hard muscles, strong hands and passionate mouth kept her grounded.
By the time he broke the kiss and gazed down at her dazed expression, she was weak with desire. Whatever he wanted to do to her, she would’ve gladly said yes. He surveyed her bruised lips and brushed his knuckles lightly against her tight nipples, satisfaction plain in his half smile.
“I’m going to take you and Honey out for breakfast,” he announced. “You have half an hour to get ready.”
Before she could protest that she wasn’t recovered enough from their morning activity to be seen in public with him, he turned her toward the door and gave her a friendly pat on her rear end. She was in the hallway before her brain could form a coherent thought and by then he’d disappeared into his master bathroom.
After checking on Honey and finding her still sleeping, Claire decided she would take a cold shower and restore her equilibrium. If this was to work with Linc, she had to figure out how to give him everything in the bedroom while giving nothing away outside of it. It was a tricky path to walk, but if she wanted this time with him, she would just have to make it work.