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“Life isn’t fair that way,” Laura reminded him, playfully.
“But races are supposed to be.”
“In that case”—her horse danced sideways as she scanned the shadowed edges of the tree line—“we’ll have another one.”
“Where is the starting point?”
“Up there.” Energized by the run, her horse bounded into a canter the instant Laura signaled him forward. Sebastian quickly urged his horse alongside her. Together they loped parallel to the river until Laura pointed to a break in the trees growing along the banks.
“That is my own private swimming hole, wonderfully secluded,” she told him, a naughty look shining in her dark eyes. “The perfect spot for skinny-dipping. Are you game? Be warned, though, the water is only chest-deep.”
In response, Sebastian kneed his horse into a gallop and tugged his shirttail loose from the waistband of his jeans. Reaching up, he undid the top two buttons, conscious of hooves pounding the ground directly behind him. By the time his horse plowed to a stop near the open section of riverbank, he had pulled the shirt over his head and unfastened his jeans.
Wasting no time, he peeled out of the saddle and dropped the shirt on the ground along with the reins. He had already tugged off one boot when Laura swung off her horse. The second boot followed the first. Then it was an easy strip of his jeans, shorts, and socks.
He threw one look at Laura, catching a glimpse of her as she shrugged out of her bra, and he ran for the water. His second step into the river, he planted his foot and pushed off, making a shallow dive into the center.
When he surfaced, Laura was there, stretched out in an effortless sidestroke, the moonlight silvering the paleness of her skin. “Cheater, you had fewer clothes.”
Letting one foot touch the bottom, Sebastian wiped the water from his face. “This time the advantage was mine; last time it was yours. That’s only fair, don’t you agree?”
She slapped the surface with her hand, sending a spray of water at his face, and the water fight was on. It ended the only way it could, with Sebastian pulling her under the water.
They pushed to the top in unison, emerging only inches apart. Laura swiped a hand across her face and gave a brief toss of her head to shake off the excess water, then fastened her gaze on Sebastian, a darkening in her eyes that was full of invitation.
“I’m cold.” She crossed her arms behind his neck and dipped her head toward his mouth. “Warm me up.”
“That was my plan all along,” Sebastian murmured and met her halfway, his mouth moving onto her lips, parting them to deepen the kiss.
The buoyancy of the water made her weightless in his arms, leaving his hands free to explore every tantalizing dip and curve of her body. But he kept coming back to her breasts and the nipples that the chilly water had turned pebble-hard.
With a faint groan of need, he lifted her partway out of the water, but the slickness of her wet skin made it difficult for him to keep his grip. She would have slipped if she hadn’t wrapped her legs around his middle, solving the problem for him. Her fingers dug into his hair as he rubbed his mouth over a gleaming white breast, briefly teething its hard point before sucking it into his mouth.
Need grew, stimulated by everything from the rounded cheeks of her buttocks and the hard peaks of her breasts to the writhing push of her body against him and the little animal sounds she made in her throat.
Adjusting his stance to gain a better footing on the muddy river bottom, Sebastian pried a leg from around his middle, lowering her. In the next second her hand was there, guiding him inside her.
Only briefly was he conscious of the water lapping against them as he drove into her again and again. Then he was lost to everything except the hot race of his blood and the screaming ache for release. It came with an explosive, shuddering rush that had both of them straining to hold on to the intense pleasure of it.
His foot slipped, and they both went under, the suddenness of it separating them. Sebastian broke the surface an instant before Laura came up sputtering and coughing. But her sputtering quickly dissolved into laughter.
“I’ve never made love in the water before. Next time I’ll remember to hold my breath,” she declared, then shivered. “Brrr. Now it really is cold. This time I think we need to get dressed. Come on.” She caught hold of his hand and led him toward the shore. Glancing back, she noticed his enigmatic smile. “What are you looking so pleased about?”
“To be frank, it had crossed my mind that this might be another one of your good-bye scenes. Obviously it isn’t, since you don’t seem averse to talking.”
“But you will be leaving sometime,” Laura said lightly, releasing his hand and crossing to her pile of clothes.
“Why? Because of that ring on your finger?” Sebastian mocked. “Rutledge isn’t going to make you happy.”
“You’re wrong,” she replied easily and stepped into her jeans, tugging them up her wet legs.
“Am I?” He aimed a taunting smile her way as
he scooped his jeans off the ground. “You’re obviously not in love with the man, or you wouldn’t be cheating on him already.”
For a stunned instant, Laura simply stared at him, then slipped on her bra and worked to fasten it. “I’m not really cheating on him.”
“Then what am I?” Sebastian challenged lightly. “A last fling before you walk down the aisle?”
