My head was gloriously stupefied in a sensual daze. Blistering heat stormed through my body and my heartbeat, her heartbeat, was much like the swell of waves pummeling a shore at night, a rhythmic thunder. The pungent scent of Nelle's arousal sweetly sharpened every aching and tormented sensation thrumming through my being.

Nelle brazenly stood before me in just her underthings, deathly still.

The both of us were. I almost dared not breathe while we waited for the other to make a move.

She suddenly tapped her toes on the stone floor and my tortured cock bobbed in reply.

Fuck.

My teeth gritted together as my eyelashes fluttered shut. The purposeful crack of my neck, and its twinge, was just enough to take the edge off. My entire body was coiled as tight as a spring and Nelle was the only one who could unwind me. I thought the barest touch from her, a featherlight brush of fingertips over a patch of innocent skin, and I'd explode in a sticky splatter.

When I pried my eyes open I met a ghost of a wicked smirk gleaming in her gaze and I knew she'd done it on purpose.

Beneath all that innocence was a razor-sharp hunter.

Nelle shifted her stance on the wet floor, and her bare feet swept across stone marked with shallow grooves and splashes of water as she took tiny footsteps, half circling me. Tension and lust crackled within the moist air of the bathroom and skated over my skin like a lingering caress, ricocheting my heart faster. The blood drumming in my ears was a seductive and hedonistic beat, pulling me under her bewitchment.

She swiveled gracefully to face me once more. Her slender fingers were splayed across her hips and her forefingers were arrowed right there. Right where I wanted to kiss her most. I couldn't look anywhere else.

"You want to get me off?" she asked, her voice gone low and sultry.

My gaze snapped back up to hers.

More than anything.

I wanted to hear those delightful hitched gasps as she fell apart to my fingers and teeth and tongue. Her hands clenching my hair so tight it would hurt. Hips moving in undulating waves as she pulled away, pushed forward, chasing the exquisite pleasure ...too intense, not enough, more, more, more... craving it desperately, if only I would give it to her.

"Yeah," I said, my voice cracking, and inside I winced at how pathetic I sounded.

Amusement lightened the gray of her eyes. Then challenge darkened them. They hadn't turned black and gold when I'd kissed her, but right now the pupils were slowly dilating back and forth as she drew her gaze languidly over my body. Every single inch of skin smoldered as her gaze slid over it, and gasoline flowed through my veins awaiting a struck match.

She lifted her gaze to blink back at me wide-eyed. Moisture coated her honeyed skin like glistening dew and a sheen of cloudy light brightened the scattering of freckles across her flushed cheeks. Shifting her weight to one leg, she tilted her head, and spirals of loose tendrils bounced around her face. "Would you kneel before me?" she asked softly.

Without hesitation.

I dropped my gaze to the tips of those diminutive toes, running leisurely up toned legs to the scalloped trim of her panties that banded her hips and dipped between her thighs. White and plain and innocent. My favorite kind.

My mouth watered at the thought of kneeling between her legs once more. I could practically taste the golden beads of sunshine I was going to lap up, a knee hitched over my shoulder so I could plunge my tongue deeper and relish in her unique flavor. Savor her. Drink her down.

I was starved. I hadn't touched her in this way since the cottage.

My gaze glided over that flat stomach, with a light coating of sweat and steam, to the curves of those sweet breasts hidden behind a simple and practical bra, lingering within the shadow of cleavage I wanted to dip my tongue into and lick up the moist droplets clinging to salt-slick skin. Gradually, and so slowly, I followed the graceful line of her throat to meet thick eyelashes fanned around sharp gray eyes and a cocky grin.

I worked my throat hard to swallow. Right now, I didn't know which one of us was the hunter and which of us was the prey.

My kiss-swollen lips still tingled and stung with the memory of her mouth on mine, delicious sunshine melting across my tongue like candy.

That kiss.

That godsdamned mind-obliterating kiss.

She'd branded me with her kiss.

Written poetry across my skin.

Bitten it into my flesh and scratched it in red sweeping lines.

Made me bleed and hurt and want and crave.

Fuck I wanted her.

Her lush lips had imprinted themselves on mine with kisses that were savage then soft. Brutal bites then soothing nips. The tip of her tongue had flicked the roof of my mouth, swept across my teeth to caress my tongue in sweeping strokes in time with my pulsing cock, a slow sensual rhythm like she was fucking me already.

My scalp throbbed where her hand had fisted too hard, tugged too fiercely on my hair when she'd taken control and her kisses had grown fierce and wild. Fingernails scratching at my skin. She'd angled me wherever she wanted and I'd gone wherever she willed. I'd molded myself to her, just as she'd done to me. The base of my iron-hard shaft had pressed against the slit of her pussy. The heat seeping through the fabric of her arousal-damp panties haunted me. As she'd kissed me, she'd rocked into me, teased, and taunted me. She'd wanted me to fall apart under my hungry desire to claim her fully.

Above it all, my hands roaming and clasping every inch of her body, I couldn't get enough of her sunshine kisses. But there'd been something lingering beneath those golden rays as if a cloud had passed overhead and cast the spot on which I stood in cold shadow.

The raw edge of guilt sliced through my heart.

The last time when I'd kissed her, was the morning of my betrayal, on the rickety porch of the white-washed cottage, sitting on a swing chair with her lying down, resting her head on my lap as the sun rose higher. In the background, insects had buzzed, a gentle rustle of rushes and flapping wings, distant bird calls, while water gently lapped the rocky shore of the lake. I'd stroked my fingers gently through her tangled hair as she'd fallen into a waking dream and whispered what was in my heart, and kissed her with the bleak sting of despair on my lips.

Movement brought me back to the present, snapping me out of melancholy. A hazy shadow shifted over water pooled between pebbles as Nelle moved her weight to one hip, casually bending one knee, the tips of her toes resting on stone.

She slowly hooked her thumbs into the panties waistband at her hips.

Get. Them. Off!

She stretched the fabric taut and away from her curves, taunting me with a wiggle. "How much do you want me? Want this?"

Pretty fucking badly.

But for some stupid reason, I couldn't voice it.

Nelle slyly grinned back at me as if she had read the desperation in my mind.

She let the panties go with a snap.

The sound cracked through the room when fabric harshly slapped her hip.

My entire body jolted in response and my godsdamned balls almost unleashed.

Holy hellsgate...

My fist wrapped around my cock's angry length and pumped a slow stroke, one more, to stop myself from coming.

I blew out a long unsteady breath.

So fucking close.

My eyes squeezed shut on their own accord as I tried to regain control, but my head was drunkenly spinning under the intoxicating spell she'd woven.

I was supposed to be in control of this situation.

Me, fuck it.

When I opened my eyes I discovered Nelle had pushed into motion, so I did too.

We prowled around one another, circling like restless wolves, and it was an effort not to pounce. Nelle wandered past the vanity, tip-toeing between fallen bottles of facial products. I tried really hard to ignore them scattered haphazardly on the floor. Really fucking hard.

Nelle lazily drifted a hand over the vanity's surface, a finger smearing condensation. Her hand wrapped around the towel I'd used to dry myself, and she gripped each end, spinning around to face me with it held across her middle, hiding her panties behind the fluffy material. "Maybe we shouldn't," she teased, shimmying the towel back and forth.

My nostrils flared. "Maybe we should," I shot back.

She laughed, light and carefree. "So desperate."

Fucking desperate.

She angled her head, eyes sliding sideways. "See that showerhead over there."

Yeah, I did. There was an elaborate and luxurious rainfall shower set into the ceiling but an additional system was set up on the wall with the usual paraphernalia. Excitement barreled through me because shower sex was fun sex. Water raining down, our bodies lathered up with fragrant froth, sliding her lithe body up and down soapy walls as I bounced her on my cock.

"It's detachable," she carried on saying.

Fuck, yes it was.

"I can change the flow of water," she said, ending on a thoughtful hum as she twisted the towel in her hands. Her voice became husky and low, the words were carefully spoken, and I leaned in closer, entirely on edge and vibrating with anticipation, wondering what she was going to say. "I can make the flow of water sharp and hard, soft and gentle. Pulse it. Let it vibrate faster and faster."

Holy fuck, yes.

I was hanging on every word, seeing it in my mind, how the cascade of water would pour over her naked figure. How I could use the spray to heighten the pleasure.

Nelle took a step closer. "I'm going to take that showerhead and detach it from the wall. I'll turn it on and spray silky water right up between my legs... And get myself off."

Wait...what?

I blinked rapidly, throwing up a hand. No, that's what I was going to do. Getting her off was my job. Mine!

All of a sudden her pretty lips pinched tight and her sensual gaze became vicious and cruel as she jabbed a hand wrapped around the towel toward me, stabbing a finger at my face. "Because you sure as hells haven't earned the right to kneel between my legs!"

What the actual fuck?!

She hooked her thumb toward the detachable showerhead. "It's reliable. Dependable. And better yet—it doesn't do lame-ass pillow talk, Crowther!"

Lame-ass pillow talk?

Nelle lunged sideways, fast.

Before I registered what was happening, the tip of the towel whirled outward like a whip and it snapped my ass. Pain cracked outward and spiderwebbed across my flesh.

Fuuuck!

Holy shit!

I hadn't been paying any fucking attention to what she was doing with her hands. Because. I. Was. A. Dumbass.

While she'd been teasing me with the showerhead, she'd been twisting the towel into a tight rope like my brothers and I had done as kids with tea towels. Flicking them and fighting one another while doing the dishes—a vicious snap of the tip against skin that hurt like fuck.

Nelle darted back and forth. Whirling and whipping the tail end of the towel, she kept up her onslaught. "Get the hells out of here!" she roared.

Snap—

Crack—

Snap—

I dodged. Springing back and sideways, evading her wild strikes, and before I knew it I was driven outside the bathroom.

The door slammed in my face with a thunderous boom.

FUCK!

"Oh, and your kiss, Crowther," she yelled with a parting shot, "was godsdamned awful!"

Hurt and fury erupted and I slammed my fist onto the wall beside the door. Pain jarred through my fingers and twinged my wrist. What the fuck was this? My kiss was awful?

Taunting me with the promise of sinking into one another, putting up with my godsdamned awful kisses, so she could teach me a lesson like a naughty schoolboy by denying me? Putting me in my place?

The bathroom door had bounced back from the door jam. There was a gap and a sliver of light and steam filtering through to where I stood on the other side. Darkness from my quarters folded around me and the change to cooler temperature goose pricked my flesh.

Is she seriously going to get off using the showerhead?

I couldn't hear the rainfall of water. The showerhead hadn't been turned on.

Uncertainty and wretchedness tightened my chest.

Was she in there laughing at my desperation and stupidity for falling for her tricks?

My wet feet dampened the carpet as I paced in front of the door like a caged lion.

I rubbed the dull ache from my throbbing ass and rotated a stinging shoulder where she'd cracked it with her towel while I debated what to do.

Dress and leave?

Roar back at her?

Slam my fist against the wall some more?

The soap.

The soap had fallen from my grip when I'd discovered she was in the bathroom watching me while I jerked off. And she'd swept all her girly products from the vanity.

They were lying on the floor on their sides. I was pretty sure one of the caps had come off and white goopy shit was starting to leak from it.

What if she slips on the soap or facial gunk and smacks her head on the stone floor?

This was a health and safety issue for fucking sure.

Even I knew it was just an excuse to barge back in. I should have left it alone, but it would seem I was a masochist for her personal brand of pain and humiliation.

I internally braced myself for Nelle's mocking laugh and indifferent attitude. No doubt chuckling to herself at how so easily I'd fallen for her ruse. She'd probably gone straight for the mouthwash and was sterilizing my terrible kiss away.

The door swung silently open. I took one step inside the room, swirling with steam and dripping with condensation, and froze mid-step.

My jaw slackened and the words that were about to spill from my mouth evaporated.

Wonderment filled my chest. Warmth lit my skin much like sitting in front of a crackling fire in winter.

Everything she'd just said and done was utterly nullified.

Every cruel word she'd spat at me.

Every wicked move to get me back and put me in my place. To remind me that she was in charge and certainly didn't care for me or my kiss was voided by what I witnessed.

I thought for sure Nelle would be laughing, her pretty features lined with cruelty. Shaking her head at my stupidity by being taken in by her.

But she was slumped against the stone wall inside the shower area and her expression was unguarded. Open and vulnerable. Her fingertips brushed back and forth along her lips as if she still felt the echo of my mouth on hers. As if, like mine, they still zinged with desire and heat. She tipped her head back to stare up at the ceiling and made that breathy little sigh that always had my cock stirring.

Her smile wasn't calculating and cruel, she looked flustered and flushed, trying to analyze her wild emotions and why our kiss was so fucking good. Small white teeth nipped her bottom lip as her smile broadened into a wide, delightful grin. A grin she couldn't contain as she suddenly stamped her feet excitedly.

She liked the kiss.

A lot.

A fuck lot.

Nelle finally realized I was there, her gaze snapping sideways, eyes widening in horror.

I stared at her and she stared back.

The tumbling emotions swiftly shifted and new ones surged to the surface. Shock and mortification. Denial and shame.

A thousand blades slashed my chest to see the secretive feminine thoughts and loveliness crumble away, like a sandcastle crumbling back to grains and clumps of sand. Beautiful but so wrong.

"What the hells are you doing back here?!" she shrieked, pushing off the wall.

"The soap," I croaked dumbly, pointing to the cake of soap that was melting away on the pebbled floor in the shower area.

She lunged downward, scooped up the soap, and hurled it at me. "Get the fuck out!"

I dodged, ducking low. The soap smacked the wall right above where I'd stood. She moved fast, going for the girly bottles and tubs on the floor.

They came in a barrage of strikes.

I sprung back, ducking and weaving, dashing through the doorway, and pulled the door shut behind me, hearing a thunder of thuds as she kept hurling tubs and bottles at the door.

I heard a shriek of frustration.

"There's a place for the soap!" I yelled. A fucking recess in the shower wall. "Can you please use it!"

"I'll do what I like, Crowther!"

"And the caps on the shampoo and conditioner. You need to close them after you finish using them!"

"You know you have a problem right, Mr. Neat Freak?!"

"I like things just right!" I yelled back. Is that so fucking hard to understand?

Silence reigned for a long drawn moment.

Then a huff.

The door gently rattled as if she'd leaned against it, then came a low, "Fuck."

She wasn't cursing at me. It was the kind of tone that was directed at herself.

I twisted slowly around and leaned my shoulder against the bathroom door too. A wide grin bloomed on my face. I couldn't hide it if I'd wanted to.

I'd caught Little Miss Fire and Brimstone out.

She'd ruined her move against me all on her own.

And now I knew that deep down inside, she didn't entirely hate me.

But I also knew she was going to be seriously pissed from this point onward.