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“Breathe,” Reyes murmured next to her ear.
She sucked in a gasping breath and realized her whole body was shaking.
Against him.
When had he moved that close? When had he put his arm around her? And damn it, she was crying.
“Now let it back out.”
He meant the breath, not her tears. She did as instructed while his hand rubbed up and down the arm not pressed against his chest.
“Take another.”
The soothing tone of his voice calmed her enough to think past the panic. Except when her words replayed in her head, a sob escaped her tight lungs. “Oh my God—it was my fault.”
“It’s no one’s fault.”
“It was mine,” she insisted with a shake of her head. “I messed up. Fire could’ve broken a leg—or both. I could’ve killed him.”
“Is that why you’re afraid of the jump?”
Raine gave a jerky nod without even thinking. “He trusted me. I forced him to jump, and he trusted me, and I could’ve killed him.”
“He still trusts you.”
“He shouldn’t.”
When Reyes pulled her closer, she didn’t resist. Not only did she not resist, she turned to wrap both arms around his neck and held on for dear life while he held them afloat with a one-handed grip on the edge. The pool was heated, but it was the warmth from his body that battled the chill of her memories as his lips brushed against her temple.
“He trusts you because you’re his partner,” he murmured. “You have to learn to trust yourself again. And to trust him, too.”
That lump materialized in her throat once more. “I-I don’t know if I can.”
“That’s why you’re here,” he said. “We’re gonna figure this out, Raine. I promise.”
She wished his words offered comfort, but she worried what they were going to figure out was equally as frightening as the jump. It brought the question he’d asked earlier back to the forefront. Did she want to compete anymore? Was she willing to risk so much for her dream of Olympic gold?
Was it her dream?
That question jolted hard, but just then, another press of Reyes’ lips suddenly shifted her awareness.
Or maybe she was desperate for a diversion, mentally running from the uncertainty of her future.
Whatever the reason, she became conscious of every inch where their bodies touched. He held onto the side of the pool with one hand, his arm wrapped around her waist and hers around his neck. There wasn’t an inch to separate them, from their hips, to where her breasts pressed against his bare chest.
She stilled, a hairsbreadth away from burying her face in the crook of his neck to drown herself in his arousing scent. When her brain registered his growing erection against her stomach, her pulse went all haywire. Molten heat flooded her veins before pooling into a yearning throb deep inside. Her nipples tightened, and her legs grew heavy from the wave of desire.
His breathing had become as shallow as hers. “Raine.”
There was the tiniest note of regret in his voice. Or maybe a warning?
She ignored both. With her heart thumping like mad, she loosened her hold around his neck and flattened one palm against the side of his head to turn his face to hers. He didn’t resist, but when her mouth found his, he tensed for a heart-stopping second.
With the proof of his desire against her belly, she licked at the seam of his lips, demanding his participation. From one breath to the next, his arm tightened around her ribs, and he slanted his mouth over hers to take control of the kiss with a toe-curling growl. His tongue dueled with hers, each stroke making the pulse deep in her core throb harder.
God, how many times had she thought of a moment like this over the past ten months—and even a few times before that? Reality was so much better than her imagination.
Swept up in a swirl of sensation and desire, she raised one leg to hook over his hip and ground herself against his hardness. Reyes sucked in a breath and muttered something against her lips, but dove right back in when she lifted her other leg and wrapped them both around his waist. How easy it would be to slip off her one-piece and his briefs and forget everything for a while.
