This would be fine. She’d been off her meds for two years without a seizure. But those two years were lived in the carefully controlled environment of her home and studio. She’d never done anything even remotely as dangerous as riding a motorcycle.
If Paul got hurt because she had a seizure and dragged him off the motorcycle, she’d never forgive herself. “Paul! Let me—” The bike surged forward with a roar that drowned out her request to get off.
She buried her face in his back and forced herself to breathe deeply as Paul guided the motorcycle onto the main street. The speed limit was only thirty-five miles per hour, and he seemed to be sticking to it, so she felt the bands of panic loosen their hold around her chest. She sucked in more air and turned her head so she could see the scenery sliding past. Although Paul’s broad shoulders sheltered her from the brunt of the wind, it still whooshed in her ears.
As they passed the last of the Victorian houses on Washington Street, the engine noise ratcheted upward, and she felt the speed increase as well.
It was fine. She was still fine.
The passing scenery became a blur and the wind yanked at the ends of her hair where they emerged from her helmet. She tightened her grip.
The bike tilted left. She felt Paul’s body leaning with the motorcycle and tried to follow his lead as he had instructed her, but every instinct in her body screamed to lean right to counteract the disorienting slant. She swallowed a sob of relief when the motorcycle righted itself.
The relief was short-lived as Paul leaned to take the next curve. She felt fear begin to clog her lungs and the old terror claw at her mind.
She couldn’t do this over and over again. The stress would bring on a seizure and she would fall off the bike like she had the horse all those years ago…only this time she might drag Paul with her.
The panic ratcheted higher, so she closed her eyes and focused on the feel of Paul’s body against hers, the shift of muscles in his shoulders as he guided the heavy vehicle under them, the way he sheltered her from the wind and anything else being thrown at them by the road. This was Paul, the man she had come to trust as an advisor and as a lover.
She felt him lean and this time she went with him, channeling all that trust into her rebellious muscles. The feeling of being melded into one with the man and his powerful machine was like nothing she’d ever experienced. She opened her eyes and laughed out loud in sheer exhilaration.
She had no idea how long they rode, lost as she was in the thrill of speed and trust and risk taking. At some point Paul turned off the highway and wound down a back road before bringing the bike to a grumbling halt in a turnoff area beside the single lane byway.
“Here we are,” he said, killing the engine and holding the bike rock steady as she climbed off.
She pulled off her helmet and shook out her hair, the grin she couldn’t wipe away still tugging at the corners of her mouth. “That was incredible!”
He unzipped his jacket and lifted off his own helmet. “You’re a natural. Once we got past those first couple of curves, I could tell you got into it.”
“It was scary at first. If I thought you could have heard me, I would have chickened out and asked to stop. But this is an experience I wouldn’t have missed for anything.”
He took her helmet from her and pulled her into his arms, the leather of their jackets creaking softly as it rubbed together. “I’m glad I could give it to you.” He bent his head and kissed her gently at first, then more intently.
The adrenaline already coursing through her body carried the pleasure in waves. She clutched at the open edges of his jacket and pulled herself inward against his chest, so she could revel in the heat of him. That wasn’t enough, so she released his jacket and slid her hands up under his tee, feeling the muscles of his abdomen contract as her palms traveled over them.
His hands slid down to her behind, and he pressed her hips against his as he ended their kiss and tilted his head back, half moaning her name. He stood like that, letting her explore his skin beneath the shirt, as his breathing grew more and more ragged. She skimmed her palms upward to brush over his flat nipples. His grip on her tightened convulsively, so she could feel his erection harden between them. When she came back for another pass, he released her and backed away as he caught one of her wrists. “We need to cool off, and I’ve got just the place to do it. Come with me.”
He turned and tugged her onto a path threading between trees undergirded by dense bushes. The sound of moving water drifted between the leaves as the dirt track tilted sharply downhill. As they burst out of the trees into bright sunlight, a river spread out in front of her, its dark-green water slipping past like glass.
Paul pulled her up onto a huge flat boulder jutting out into the water. “The mighty Limestone River. It may be a tad cold, but I could use that right now.” He shrugged out of his jacket and dropped it on the rock before he moved behind her to slip hers off her shoulders.
“What do you mean?”
“Take a swim.” He pulled his T-shirt over his head.
“But I don’t have a bathing suit.” She also wasn’t much of a swimmer, since that was one of those things that didn’t combine well with epilepsy. She had been allowed to paddle in a swimming pool under the watchful eye of a relative, but their vacations had been planned to avoid oceans—and rivers.
Paul’s shirt-tousled hair gave him a rakish look. “You ever hear of skinny-dipping?”
“In broad daylight?”
“Do you see anyone around?”
She followed his sweeping gesture, taking in the tree-lined banks, the sounds of birdcalls, and the ever-present whisper of water.
“You can wear your bra and panties, and it’s no different from a bikini.”
She took a deep breath as she stalled. The idea of being naked bothered her less than the thought of swimming in moving water. “Don’t people around here have boats?”
“Sure they do,” he said. “But there’s a waterfall just upstream from here that keeps away anyone but extreme kayakers. The next easy put-in for a boat is about half a mile down. I used to come here to drink beer with my buddies when we were under-age. That reminds me, I forgot something.”
Julia watched him disappear back into the bushes before she walked to the edge of the rock and looked down. Near the shore, she could see the outlines of water-rounded stones, so it must be fairly shallow there. At the rock’s farthest jut, the water was as opaque as milk glass and ran swiftly.
She had trusted Paul on the motorcycle and look how great it had been. He would be with her in the water. Naked. That made up her mind. She toed off her green boots and sat down to yank off her socks.
He reappeared, dangling a plaid blanket in one hand and two long-necked beer bottles in the other. He scrambled down the bank to wedge the beers in a shallow spot in the water. “Mother Nature’s refrigerator,” he said before climbing onto the rock and snapping the blanket open to cover a section just behind her. “We’ll let the sun warm it up for afterward. The swim wasn’t in my original plan, so I didn’t bring towels.” He dropped down beside her to tug off one of his heavy boots. “I see you’re getting into the spirit of the occasion.”
“I thought about the fact that you’d be naked too.”
“When you say things like that, I have to kiss you.” He sank one hand into her hair and turned her head toward him, slanting his mouth across hers and tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue.
She twisted to grab at the muscle curving over his bare shoulder. His skin was warm and smooth, and she wanted to feel it against more than just her palm. She whimpered against his lips.
He sat back, and she could see his chest expand and contract with his quickened breath. “Have you ever made love in the water?”
She shook her head.
“Then I’ll be your first time,” he said, pulling a condom out of his jeans pocket and laying it on the stone.
She glanced down at the foil wrapper. “Will that stay o
n underwater?”
“With you in nothing but a smile, there’s not a chance it will float off.” He stood and stripped off his jeans and briefs before reaching down to pull her up beside him. “Let me give you a hand.”
He snagged the hem of her T-shirt and dragged it up over her head as she held up her arms. When his eyes alighted on the lacy white bra she wore underneath, they burned even hotter than before. “Maybe we’ll leave that on. It will look mighty sexy when it’s wet and clinging.”
He tossed the T-shirt on the blanket. Then he locked his eyes on hers and set to work on the button at the waist of her jeans. He slid one index finger down between the denim and her skin, making the muscles of her abdomen contract and a pool of heat start to glow low in her belly. He held her gaze as he maneuvered the button out of its hole and slowly dragged the zipper downward, his fingertips grazing the lace of her panties, lower and lower until he was nearly at the vee of her thighs. Her lips parted on something between a gasp and a sigh as he pressed a finger right there before he slipped her jeans down to her ankles. He held out his hand to steady her as she stepped out of them and stood, mesmerized by the slow scan of his silver eyes over her body.
Her gaze drifted down to his erection. Clearly he liked what he saw. “This way,” he said, scooping up the condom and turning as he laced his fingers with hers.
“Paul.” She stopped. “I just, well, I’m not a strong swimmer.”
He laughed. “Sweetheart, what we’re going to do doesn’t involve much in the way of swimming. We’ll stay in the shelter of the rock where the current’s weak, and I’ll keep you afloat.” He lifted her hand to his lips, his eyes glinting over her knuckles. “It’s in my best interest to make sure you don’t drown.”
She started in the direction he’d been leading. Now that Paul knew she needed watching, he’d take care of her.
“Let me go first,” he said, as they reached a series of ledges on the edge of the rock.
“Go right ahead. I’m enjoying the rear view,” she said, lifting her eyes from where she’d been ogling the play of muscle in his tight buttocks as he walked.
“Stop objectifying me and pay attention to where I’m putting my feet.” He deftly stepped from one ledge to the next until his feet were inches from the water’s surface before he turned to hold both hands up to her. With his steadying grip, she followed in his footsteps until she stood beside him. She noticed the condom in his hand and realized he didn’t have any place to put it. “Why don’t you give that to me since you don’t have any pockets?”
“And you do?”
She reached for the foil envelope and slipped it under the lace of her bra, using the strap to anchor it.
His eyes went incandescent. “I didn’t think you could look any hotter, but that has definitely turned up the temperature.”
Gratification zinged through her.
He took the last step into the river, the water hitting him midshin before he turned his back to her. “Why don’t you climb aboard, and I’ll piggyback you out to deeper water so you don’t have to walk on the rocks?”
The mention of deeper water doused some of the excitement surging through her veins. Then he repositioned his arms to allow her to clamber on, and the muscles of his back flexed and shifted under his skin. She wanted to feel that against her breasts so she leaned against him, winding her arms around his neck and giving a little hop to get her legs up. He caught her under the knees and bounced her a little higher, making her already-hardened nipples drag against his shoulder blades.
She hissed as lightning flashed from her breasts straight down to where her thighs were spread against his waist.
Her toes brushed into the water and she squealed. “It’s frigid! Aren’t you freezing?”
“Not with you wrapped around me.”
As the water reached their waists, she shivered with equal parts cold and anticipation. He kept going until the ripples lapped at him midchest, then he released her legs and floated her around him until she was against his front, held there by the slight current still flowing through the pool in the lee of the giant stone. He bent her legs around his waist so his erection was locked between them, pressing hard against her clitoris. She twined her ankles together behind him and pulsed against him, stoking her own pleasure.
“Whoa, take it easy on me. I want to have time to enjoy you being wet, both outside and inside.” As he said it, he slid one hand between them, pushing aside the lace covering her crotch so he could slip a finger inside her. “Oh yes, definitely wet on the inside.”
She clutched at his shoulders as his stroking sent her arching backward. “That feels…unbelievable.”
“Mmm, now let’s get you wet on the outside.” He sank downward, carrying her with him. She barely had time to suck in a breath before the cold water closed over her head. A jab of fear made her tighten her grip on his shoulders and waist, but she relaxed as she felt his arms envelope her like a living lifejacket. Realizing she had her eyes closed, she forced them open to see his face right in front of her, slightly blurred by the sediment in the water. A school of tiny silver fish skittered past behind his head, and then she was rocketing back toward the surface.
“You dunked me,” she sputtered as she released one hand to push back the strands of hair plastered to her face.
“I reckon I did. That’s kind of what you do to your girlfriend when you’re swimming together.”
“Maybe if you’re in high school.” She gave his bicep a light smack.
“Sweetheart, that’s how you make me feel. So I’m going to dunk you again.”
He dragged her down. This time as she felt him start to push upward again, she took in a mouthful of water. When they broke the surface, she spouted it right at his forehead.
“Oh ho, you want a fight,” he said. “Bring it on.”
She noticed he moved into water where she could easily stand before he set her down, and submerged. She tracked him in the semiopaque water, the extraordinary picture he presented as the lean lines of his nude body played against the curves of the river stones arousing her artist’s instincts. The olive of his skin, greened slightly by the dark-jade water, made her long for an array of paints to capture the subtle shades of both.
Then he exploded up out of the water with a splash that drenched her and made her blink and spit water. “You are going to pay for that,” she said. She couldn’t outswim him, so she reached for her only leverage, his erect penis.
He groaned as she closed her fingers hard around him. “You fight dirty, woman.”
“We biker chicks do that.” She stroked firmly downward, savoring the jerk of his body.
He let her play with him for a few seconds longer, then he stepped in and hooked his fingers into the sides of her panties, sliding them down her thighs and following them underwater until she stepped out of them. As he came back up, his fingers grazed between her legs and she shuddered at the delicious contact. After tossing the ball of wet lace onto a ledge, he plucked the condom from her bra, brushing the back of his hand over her cold-tightened nipple.
A current of pleasure went straight down to her gut, and she gasped.
“Okay, biker chick, let me show you the pleasures of making love in the water.” He ripped open the foil and rolled the condom on, flipping the wrapper onto the rock too. Then he lifted her up, dragging her breasts up his chest and the vee of her legs up his erection until she was above it. “Put your legs around me,” he commanded.
She opened her thighs and bent her knees around his waist, feeling the head of his penis pressing against her. He wrapped his fingers around her thighs where they joined her buttocks and spread them even farther as he positioned himself. He thrust upward as he let her slide down so he was seated deep inside her.
“Oh dear God!” she moaned as the exquisite ache of arousal was partially slaked by the feeling of him filling her.
“Now lean back and let the water hold you up,” he said. “I won’t let go of you.”
>
A shimmer of nervousness amplified the sensation of being joined with him so intimately. She slowly eased backward, sliding her grip down his arms until she was perpendicular to him, touching the surface of the water. She felt her hair drift out from her head as the current caught it. The chill of the river water contrasted sharply with the conflagration pulsing between her legs, making her shiver with sensory overload.
“Is it too cold for you?” he asked, concern making him frown.
“No, no. It’s just, well, a lot of different feelings all swirling around together.”
The shadow on his face vanished. “Then I’ll have to give you something to focus on, won’t I?”
“That might help.” He flexed his hips, and the small movement centered all her attention on the place between her thighs. “Yup,” she gasped. “Totally focused now.”
“Good.” His voice had turned raspy, and she suspected his focus had gotten pretty intense too. “Sweetheart, I’ve got you, I promise. Let go. You’ll float.”
“What? Oh.” She released her fingers, which were clamped around his wrists, and felt the water cradle her, rocking gently in the wavelets that lapped at her sides. Her arms floated outward as she relaxed into the sense of being anchored and free at the same time.
“That’s it,” Paul crooned, bending over to suck at first one nipple and then the other. His motion changed the angle where they were joined, sending a tremor through her. The warmth of his mouth seeped through the wet lace of her bra, igniting a slow burn that spread over her skin and sank deep inside her. She expected the water around her to start boiling at any moment.
“Do that again!” She started to arch into him but it tipped her head underwater, so she forced her muscles to relax and do nothing but receive the sensations as he dragged his mouth over the swell of her breasts, up to nip at her neck, down to lap the water from her navel. Trusting him. Letting go.
Country Roads Page 18
