AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His deep, sexy voice carried across the water, made all the more electrifying by the look he cast her.
Lauren chewed on her lip.
A swim with the sovereign ruler of Jukrat. Something to tell her grandchildren decades from now when she reprised the twenty-four-hour game she’d engaged in with Tahir.
For the sake of her brother.
Guilt rippled through her chest. She hadn’t given Matt a thought in the last hour. Watching Tahir’s lazy, powerful strokes as he swam back to her, she knew she wouldn’t be thinking about her brother for the duration of the time in the hourglass.
‘I don’t have a swimsuit,’ she said, clinging to the feeble excuse.
He resurfaced a few feet from her, throwing his head back to dislodge the wet strands from his eyes. The move threw his face and throat into sun-worshipping relief, and it was so sexy, Lauren couldn’t help but stare in awe. Even when his gaze settled on her, when he drifted closer, his eyes darkening with the desire he seemed to be giving free rein to, she couldn’t avert her gaze.
‘Are you going to let that stop you?’
She grimaced at the thought of swimming in her underwear. But the superseding thought was that she would be minus the cover of her clothes, in the presence of the most dynamic, physically arresting man she’d ever encountered.
And why that only sent spirals of fevered anticipation through her veins.
She’d covered her head and shoulders with the wrap before they’d left the camp and now the sun had risen higher, it was a relief to discard it. Especially when Tahir’s gaze heated up as it raked the skin she bared.
Breath hitching, she dropped her gaze from his, striving not to be overwhelmed as she eased down the zip beneath one arm and drew the top over her head. Rising to her feet, she pulled off the skirt and tossed it away.
Tahir’s gaze was still locked on her when she sent a furtive glance his way, and she couldn’t stop the flow of heat to her face at the stamp of arousal etched into his.
With a smooth dive, she plunged into the water, with hope she suspected was futile that it would dissipate the reciprocal sensations moving through her.
For a few moments, she was overcome with a different sensation.
Her bath last night had been heavenly, but this was pure bliss. Copying Tahir, she swam underwater until her lungs demanded oxygen.
When she surfaced, he was resting against the rock she’d just dived off, his elbows propped behind him as he watched her.
She told herself the distance was wise. And yet, a few minutes later, she found herself drifting towards him, her gaze locked on him.
‘Enjoying yourself?’ he drawled, a glint in his eyes.
She was, and again that dart of guilt assailed her.
The glint disappeared, his eyes turning brooding again. ‘This is my time, and I will not permit self-flagellation. Especially when the cause is your brother,’ he growled.
‘You mean to command my emotions now?’ It slipped out before she could stop herself, that thrilling urge to challenge him a lure she couldn’t resist.
‘You think I cannot?’ he returned. Before she could respond, ‘Come here, Lauren,’ he growled, eyes fixed on her with rabid intensity.
She shook her head but even that action was too feeble for her liking.
He didn’t address her refusal, merely continued to stare at her with heavy, imperious expectation.
Wondrously compelled, she complied, her actions almost independent of her stunned thoughts. She reached him, and witnessed the infuriating satisfaction etched in his face.
Spinning her around with speed that snatched her breath away, he lifted her from the water, settled her on the flat rock and dropped his forearms on both sides of her hips.
Lauren fought the urge to fidget, fought the urge to demand he put those hands on her. Because in that moment, nothing else mattered but satisfying the clarion call of her body, the demand to lick off those droplets of water saucily clinging to his lips.
She must have made a sound or licked her own lips; Lauren couldn’t summon the cognition to verify. His eyes dropped to her mouth, his jaw clenching tight as he exhaled harshly.
Gripping the backs of her thighs, he parted her legs and situated himself between them. The hard, packed torso brushed her inner thighs as he moved closer. Heated eyes scoured her body once. Twice. Then a low growl rumbled from him. ‘I have to taste you again.’
