Faith in You

by Pineiro, Charity

  She patted her stomach and groaned. “I’m just a little full right now. Maybe later.”

  He nodded. “I’m stuffed as well. Maybe a little exercise will help. How about a swim?”

  Carmen turned and looked with longing at the pool behind her. The coming night enclosed them in her secret embrace, turning his backyard into their private place. As it had darkened, Paul had turned on lights in the garden and in the pool, and lit a small candle on their table. It had made their dinner intimate. The lights from deep in the pool provided muted light and turned the water a bright aqua that was inviting and reminded her of the color of his eyes. Regretfully, she wasn’t prepared. “I’m sorry. No suit.”

  Paul leaned close, smiling devilishly. “You have your birthday suit,” he reminded.

  Carmen blushed, stammered a hesitant, “Sí, I do.”

  He reached over and skimmed a finger over the flush on her cheek. “Do you know you mix in Spanish when you’re nervous?”

  Her flush deepened and she wondered whether he could feel the burn as his fingers continued to trace the line of her cheekbone. “De verdad,” she began, but stopped short at his chuckle. “Okay, you win. I’m nervous.”

  “Don’t be. I won’t press about the swim.” He rose, began to clear off the table, and when she would have risen to help, he stopped her with a polite, “Please don’t. You’re my guest and I need some time alone.”

  Carmen studied his face in the dim light. His eyes were hooded, the light blue now darker and turbulent. “I just wanted to help,” she offered by way of apology.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I just need to try and forget the thought of you in your birthday suit.” He grinned and walked away, leaving her at the table.

  Carmen watched him go and gazed at the pool again. Unfortunately, he had opened a Pandora’s box she couldn’t close and she pictured herself in the pool, her body bare to the cool waters. Bare to the heat of his gaze and her insides warmed and trembled.

  She had enjoyed herself today and come to see another side of him. She hoped he had seen another side of her and she knew it was time to do something about this relationship.

  #

  Paul left the dirty dishes soaking in the sink, not wanting to waste a minute of his time with Carmen. But when he returned to the table she was no longer there. He searched the garden and noticed the pool lights had been shut off although the lights along the walkways were still illuminated. Combined with the fairly bright moonlight, he was able to make out the edges of the pool, but nothing else. He approached and a splash at the edge of the pool reflected back the moonlight, giving him an idea of where she was.

  His heartbeat accelerated as he walked to the edge. She waited there, her bare arms leaning on the rim of the pool, her short-cropped hair glistening wet, sleek black like the coat on a seal. He bent at the knees, hunkering down until her face was visible. She was smiling hesitantly and he grinned back and kidded, “I see you found your suit.”

  Carmen pulled closer to the edge, denying him any view. “The water’s warm. Are you going to join me?”

  Paul stood, unbuckled his belt as he glanced down at her, and caught a quick glimpse of the curve of her back beneath the surface of the water. The view, short as it was, had him growing hard and his hands fumbled at the snap of his jeans. “In a second, if you promise not to look.”

  She wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “Seems fair to me. I’ll turn around.” She did as she promised, her arms crossed in front of her, still preventing him from seeing anything. Trusting her, and yet knowing her penchant for the spontaneous, he took a precaution. He turned his back to the pool and began to draw down the zipper.

  The rasp of metal broke through the night sounds. She bit her lip, intent on keeping her promise, until the thud of his sneakers hitting the cement proved to be too much temptation. Slowly she whirled in the water, gently so as to not make any noise.

  He stood not inches above her, his body illuminated by the moonlight as he peeled off his jeans and bent at the waist to remove his socks.

  He was glorious, tanned everywhere but along his buttocks where his skin was whiter, untouched by the Miami sun. Long, ropy muscles shifted along his back and legs as he removed the last bit of clothing. She groaned, sucked in a breath and he half-turned, still holding his pants in front of him.

  “You promised,” he admonished.

  Carmen shrugged again, giving him her best “I’m sorry” kind of smile. “It was just too much temptation,” she admitted ruefully, her insides tightening in anticipation.

  He raised one eyebrow, looking decidedly wicked, and turned around completely, his pants still providing strategic cover for his most private parts. When he bent, leaned over until he was nearly in her face, he kept his pants glued there somehow, denying her best attempt at voyeurism. “And what do you think should be the punishment for breaking that promise?”

  She hesitated, wanting this to progress further and yet for the moment, uncertain as to how to accomplish that. Until an idea came into her head, a naughty one she couldn’t drive out with what little common sense remained. She raised herself on her arms until the tops of her breasts were visible and she was almost nose to nose with him. “Maybe punishment isn’t quite the right thing,” she said huskily, raising one arm to wrap it around his neck, draw him the last little bit until his lips were brushing hers. “Maybe I should make it up to you somehow,” she suggested and met his gaze as he looked down at her breasts.

  “Maybe --” was all that he got out as she tightened her hold on his neck, pushed off the pool wall with her legs, dragging him into the water with her.

  Paul came up sputtering next to her, his pants still clenched in his hand. He tossed them onto the deck of the pool and reached out and laid his hands on her waist as her arms came up to rest on his shoulders, baring herself to his view.

  He hardened instantly and heat raced across his body. Paul wondered if she could feel it as she lazily stroked his shoulders. Wondered if steam was coming off his skin as the water of the pool sluiced off him. He met her gaze and trembled at the invitation there.

  “I like your suit,” he said lowly as he drifted closer to her, moving his hands up to cup the undersides of her breasts.

  She drew a quick little inhale and glanced down at his hands. Finally he moved the last tiny inches, encircled her tight nipples between thumb and forefinger until she moaned, closed her eyes and moved her hands restlessly against his shoulders.

  When he shifted his hands to her waist, she murmured a protest, until he raised her light weight out of the pool, bringing her breasts up to his mouth. He suckled her and she held his head to her, cradling him.

  Carmen rained kisses across the top of his head, his forehead as he tugged on her breasts with his mouth, creating a restlessness in her. She ran her hands across his shoulders, so broad and big. His muscles were tense beneath her hands, and she kneaded them until he relaxed, dragged her entire body against him. He groaned against her breasts, wrapping his arms around her tightly.

  She encircled his waist with her legs, embracing him with her entire body. “Paul, mi amor.”

  “Mmm,” he murmured and kissed the tip of her breast again as he slowly edged them to the steps of the pool. “Say that again. I like the way it sounds.”

  Carmen laughed huskily and he rejoiced in the sound of it. “Mi amor,” she repeated as he asked and dropped a kiss near his cheekbone.

  Paul shifted until he was beneath her, her body resting against his as he lay on the hard steps of the pool. Her head was nestled on his chest. He moved his hands up and down her back, to the small valley at the top of buttocks. He ran his index finger gently up the line of her spine there and she shivered above him.

  “What does it mean?” he questioned, his Spanish almost non-existent despite a life spent in Miami.

  She held him tighter then and stroked her hand across his chest. There was a moment’s hesitation on her part before she responded softly,
“It means ‘my love’.”

  Unrestrained joy spread through him and yet it was still difficult for him to have faith. He pulled away slightly, bumped his head against the top pool step and winced.

  “Are you okay?” Carmen reached around and rubbed the back of his head where he had struck it.

  “I’ll be fine if you tell me you really mean it. Am I your love?”

  Carmen stared down at him and was about to give him a teasing response until the earnestness in his face stopped her. The hopefulness that could be shattered so easily by a too glib response. Gently she ran her hand to his cheek, cupped it, and with one finger she traced the outline of his lips.

  “I think that you are a wonderful man. And that I care a lot for you.”

  He smiled then and warmth spread through her, from the finger detailing the shape of his smile, up her arm to her breasts and then lower. “I think,” she continued, “that you are handsome and fun. Even better when you’re you, like today.”

  He grabbed her finger, stilling its motion. “You haven’t answered the question yet, mi amor,” he said in low tones, the words hesitant on his lips and yet somehow feeling right.

  His Spanish was stilted with his accent, but it sent a little thrill through her to hear those words on his lips. “Say it again.”

  Paul brought his head up, brushed his lips with hers, but just barely, teasing as he whispered, “Mi amor, Carmen,” he repeated with more certainty. “But do you mean it?”

  Their lips were barely in contact, and yet electricity arced between them. She rubbed her lips back and forth across his, generating yet more sizzle.

  “Do you?” she questioned back.

  He gently grasped her head then to ease her away so he could see her face, his mood suddenly changing, growing intense. “I’ve never felt this before in my life.” His voice was rough. His body tense with the admission.

  It brought tears to her eyes that this very caring sensitive man had not had anyone to love him. But she did love him she realized, wanting him to know her feelings for him without doubt. “I love you, Paul. Mi amor. You are my love and I want you like I’ve never wanted any other man.”

  Paul closed his eyes and held her tight, his heart beating so loudly he thought she could feel it as she laid her head against his chest. He wanted her too, and not just for the sex. In the past two months, he had come to need her the way an addict needed a fix. She was his joy, his happiness. Her smile made even the dreariest of days come alive. She was everything he had thought was impossible for him. He loved her, with all his soul.

  “I … love … you,” he said past the thick lump in his throat, his voice rough to his own ears from the emotion. “And I want you. I want to make love to you, if you want that too.”

  She raised her head and the brightness of her smile drove away the dark of the night. “I want you. All of you, body and soul, Paul.”

  “You have me.”

  Chapter 8

  Paul rose with her, water sluicing off their bodies, leaving a trail behind them as he walked to the house. She held onto his shoulders, continuing to smile at him as he strode through the French doors and into the living room. For a second she started to slip and he bounced her higher against his chest and settled her more securely in his arms.

  She tightened her hold and leveraged herself so she could whisper in his ear, “I could get used to this.”

  He bent his head and kissed her cheek. “So could I.”

  In a few short paces he was moving up the stairs, nearly running along the steps with her until he was at the door of his bedroom. He hesitated then, glancing at her. There was no hesitation in her gaze, only desire and love.

  He walked her to the bed and stopped, giving her time to reconsider. His bed was a gorgeous mahogany sleigh bed, covered in a rich, olive-colored silk brocade bedspread, and tossed with a half-dozen or more pillows in matching colors and fabric. She wriggled in his arms. “We can’t. We’ll soak it.”

  Paul smiled, turned, and fell onto the bed much the same way she had pulled him into the pool earlier. “So?” He bent his head, nuzzled the side of her neck, earning an encouraging moan from her.

  Carmen loved the feel of his mouth on her and the length of his body as she rested against him. He was so big, so hard. She sat up and straddled his waist. He looked at her quizzically and would have spoken, but she laid her hand on his mouth. “I want to touch you. All over.”

  He nodded, raised his arms, and crossed them behind his head. She sucked in a breath, unprepared for all his blatant masculinity. The muscles of his biceps and triceps were bunched. His pectorals were firm, developed. They created a small valley in the middle of his chest. She laid her hands there and his heart beat a tattoo against the palms of her hands. She stroked her hands across his chest, through the fine line of blond hair, to his paps. They hardened beneath her fingers and she skimmed her nails across them, eliciting a groan, and a shift of his lower body up into hers.

  “Relax,” she urged, bent, and tongued first one and then the other.

  Beneath her his body tensed and he shifted his hips upward, but she gave him no quarter. She sat up again and ran her hands up the sensitive skin of his underarm. He wriggled then, reaching down to stop her hands. “Ticklish?”

  Paul smiled at the devilish grin on her face. “A boy has to have some secrets, darlin’” he drawled and shifted his hands to her thighs where he stroked his hands up and down lazily as she continued her explorations.

  She skimmed her hands to his shoulders and down his arms to his hands. Taking hold of them, she moved them to her waist, then up to her breasts. She held them against her, cupping his hands until he cradled the firm globes.

  “Sometimes it’s fun to find out secrets,” she said.

  Her hands continued to rest against his as he teased her nipples with his fingers. “Secrets like whether this is --”

  “Nice,” she finished for him on a groan and dropped her head back, arching her body into his hands.

  “Very nice.”

  Paul’s hands shook as he treasured her and his body ached painfully. Worse, he wanted more. More of her secrets. More of her body bared to him, given freely to him. He encircled her waist with her hands, rolling with her until she was trapped beneath him and his arousal was pressing into the soft rounded flesh of her belly.

  He slipped to her side and bent his elbow until he could rest his head on his hand. He looked down at her for a second, then reached up, stroked one breast.

  Carmen watched him intently studying her and her blood raced through her veins, flushing her body with warmth. Dampening the intimate spot between her legs. She moved her legs, trying to find some position that would ease the tension building there.

  Paul smiled above her and moved his free hand until it stopped just below her navel. He spread his fingers and with the size of his hand, he nearly covered her entire midsection. “Will you tell me what other secrets you have? What other things that you like,” he said and moved his hand lower.

  Her breath barely managed to come out of her chest, but somehow she muttered a hoarse, “This,” and with her hand, moved his down, between her legs to the place that ached so. That wanted the touch of his hands … of his lips.

  Carmen trembled as he answered part of her wish then, rubbing his thumb across the nub hidden in her brown-black curls, pressing against her gently while at the same time he bent his head, took her nipple in his mouth, and suckled.

  She held him against her, shaking as the tug of his mouth on her breast created an insistent pull between her legs. Restlessly she arched her hips, and he answered by slipping his finger inside, moving in her until the pull intensified, spread throughout her body, leaving her gasping and shaking.

  “Paul,” she groaned and gripped his shoulders to find some stability as everything around her seemed to be dissolving.

  Paul fought the urge to bury himself in her moist quaking depths but knew he was on the edge of his own control as a drop
of moisture escaped him. “Carmen, mi amor,” he said huskily, pressing his arousal against the side of her hip.

  Her eyes snapped open and she met his gaze and he knew she wanted the same thing. “Are you protected?”

  “I haven’t slept around and I’m on the Pill,” she replied shakily and he slipped between her legs, but paused.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked, his heart somewhere in his throat as he waited for her answer.

  She smiled tenderly, reached up, and ran her hand along the nape of his neck. “I’ve never been more sure.”

  He slowly entered her and her body welcomed him, but not just physically. As her wet and heat urged him on, her soft heart-felt moan entered into his soul, wrapped itself around him, and he knew he’d never be free of her.

  He moved, made the union of their bodies complete, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, opening her eyes. He saw her love then, her acceptance, and it was nearly his undoing.

  Carmen cradled his jaw and lifted herself until she reached his lips. She kissed him, murmuring, “I love you.”

  He groaned, drove into her again and again as he melded his body with hers until they were both shaking, their bodies on the edge, barely holding on.

  “You’re mine,” he said against her ear, so softly she wasn’t certain she had heard him. Her climax stole over her, leaving her body trembling and her insides thrumming with the force of her release.

  She gasped, drew a shaky breath as he groaned and arched his back as he came inside her, his heat joining hers deep within. He repeated it then, more urgently. “You’re mine, Carmen. Body and soul and I won’t ever let you go.”

  Carmen held him tight, cradling his head against her breasts as his breathing slowed. She kissed his forehead and knew he still didn’t understand. He might not want to let her go, but then again, she didn’t want to go. She was his, but he was hers just as much. She just hoped that in time he would come to see that.