Winter Read online

  Aaron was just waiting for her to reach out and take what she wanted. He just hoped that he was it for her.

  He could feel her indecision. She shook and created waves of energy through the water as her mind mulled over her choices. And even though the time could be counted in seconds, it felt like hours and hours.

  And then the wait was over.

  Her fingers slipped free of his hand, but before he could grab a hold of it again, he felt her palm against his hip a moment before her fingertips dug into the top of his thigh and pulled him closer.

  Aaron slapped his hands back down on the edge of the pool, enjoying the hard scrape against his palms.

  Celeste kept a steady pressure on him, pitching him slightly forward until he moved his feet. Sliding his thigh higher between her legs, she slipped her other hand into the water at his side and traced her short-cropped nails against his thigh.

  The sensations were like fireworks, sending sparks into the darkness of his mind. Flickers of light mixed with the trails of lightning down his spine.

  “Closer,” she traced her fingertips along the back of his thigh toward the center and back again, “closer.”

  He held himself back, too eager to dive into her embrace, he worried that he’d take things further than she was ready.

  And that’s when she did as he’d hoped and took matters into her own hands… and arms.

  Wrapping an arm around his body, her hand on his lower back, she lifted herself a few inches up from the rock bench and wrapped her other arm around him, higher.

  In that way, she drew herself up onto her feet until she was wound about him like a vine, clinging to his strength. She met his lips with her own, kissing him in tender, gentle touches, but even with the heat that passed back and forth between them, exposure to the cold winter air had her shivering in minutes.

  With her fingers wrapping around the back of Aaron’s neck, she drew him down with her into the water. Eager to keep her warm, he lifted his hands from the rocks at the edge of the pool and set them down beside Celeste’s hips on the rock bench beside her.

  With his size advantage and the strength of his muscles, his arms wouldn’t tire for hours, but Celeste didn’t seem to want to wait. Her hands studied every inch that she could reach on his back, his shoulders, and arms. Their movements in the water created currents of water flowing around and between them. The movements of the water seemed to swirl around them, drawing them closer together and finally, she slipped her arms under his and around to grasp his shoulders.

  Her eyes focused intently on him as she drew him down against her. His muscled body fit against her softer curves and the friction of her clingy swimsuit against his naked flesh and when she drew him flush against her he let out a satisfying groan.

  She fit perfectly against him, better than his own imagining had been able to conjure in his dreams, and when she opened her mouth to kiss him, she pulled a sigh from his lips into her own.

  Celeste drew her knees up, cradling him against her body, and when his cock touched her, he felt it like a current passing through them both. He looked at her eyes, wide and dark, glittering with starlight.

  How had he lived so long without her arms around him? Without her heat feeding his own need for her.

  He wanted nothing more than to show her what heights his love could bring her to, he pulled away enough to speak. “Let’s go home,” he murmured to her as his eyes drank in the sight of her flushed cheeks and kiss-swollen lips. “Let me love you tonight.”

  “Here.” Her lips curved into a smile. She must have seen the surprise in his expression and Celeste lifted her hand, touching the side of his face with her fingertips. “Love me here.” Her gaze lifted and over his shoulder, staring into the night sky. “Under the stars.”

  How could he deny her that request?

  He wanted her to have what she wanted. Even better that what she wanted… was him.

  Celeste, likely impatient since she’d made the decision to be with him, lowered her hand, reaching up toward her neck where the straps of her bathing suit were tied.

  “Here,” he caught her hand in his, lifting it to his mouth to nip at her fingertips, “let me.”

  He heard a little impatient grumble from her lips and knew that she suffered from the same need that he did. Reaching up, he gave a tug to one side of the straps and pulled it loose, letting go as the straps slipped from her shoulders and into the water.

  Aaron’s gaze fixed on the top edge of the suit and his lips pursed together in a thin line. Frustrated.

  She saw the look in his eyes and finally understood what it felt like to be desirable. Sexy.

  Lush.

  And wanted.

  He wanted her.

  Aaron.

  Just the sound of his name had her hot and hungry. Every inch of her called for his touch.

  Celeste took her hand away from his back, using every inch as a grazing touch to keep contact between them.

  He caught at her wrist, his hold gentle and firm. “Don’t,” his voice slayed her, “I want your hands on me.”

  How could she argue with that?

  And yet she wanted to remove her suit. She wanted to be bare against him while she still had the courage to let him see her body.

  “Talk to me, Cel.”

  “I don’t want to lose my courage in front of you.”

  She could see by the furrow between his brows that he didn’t understand.

  “I want to feel you against me. The heat of the water, the heat of your skin. I want to have that before I remember how afraid I really am for you to see the way I look.” She cringed at the way it sounded on her lips. The way it hurt her ears and her heart and yet wasn’t it a kind of triumph that she could admit it in front of him? To give him a weapon to cut her to the quick. To bare the ugly thoughts in her own head and hope that he still found her desirable when she lay naked before him in every way possible.

  He turned her arm until the furtive beat of her pulse was under his lips. And then his teeth.

  Aaron scraped his teeth lightly against the tender flesh inside of her wrist and just that sensation alone had her gasping for air. Lifting his gaze over the edge of her wrist, he drew his tongue over the same path as he’d taken his teeth, and the sensations shot through the nerves in her body. Arced through her spine and coalesced at the apex of her thighs, tightening… tingling.

  She squeezed her thighs together, trapping his hips in place as she let the waters lift her up against the hard lines of his body.

  “Oh…”

  She heard an answering groan from him and luxuriated in the feel that she could elicit that kind of reaction from him with a simple touch.

  He released her wrist and let her hand settle back into the water as he reached for her cheek.

  The water brushed their bodies together again with the ebb and flow that they were creating with their movements in the water, drawing them closer, but his eyes never left hers.

  “I have no doubt that I will love every inch of your body, Celeste. While I have dreamed of holding you naked in my arms thousands of times, nothing would compare to the reality of you. Of us. Let me see you, Cel. Let me strip you bare.” He stroked his thumb over her lower lip, his eyes following the movement with naked hunger.

  “Let me,” his voice had deepened, vibrating through the water and every inch of her skin, “let me see you in the starlight.”

  She set her hands on his shoulders, her fingers gripping tight as if she was in danger of floating away.

  “Now, Aaron. Don’t let me change my mind. I want you.” Every breath filled her lungs full to bursting. “I want this.”

  Aaron moved closer and the shift of weight in the water pushed her back against the rock-lined edge of the spring. She rose up a few inches and stopped when she felt his thigh push between her legs, holding her in place.

  Just knowing that the intent was there. Knowing what they were about to do…

  Just that touch was enoug
h to put her on the edge.

  His hands touched her sides and swept up over her ribs. Palms cupped her breasts through the thick swimsuit fabric and made her feel as if she was lush and beautiful.

  But it was the look in his eyes. The heavy, half-lidded anticipation. The breath passing between his parted lips. Even the flex of his thigh between her legs. All of it felt as if she was someone else entirely.

  Gone was the woman who changed beds and folded endless piles of towels, and in her place a seductress capable of wrapping this gorgeous man around her little finger.

  And then she was more.

  His fingers plucked at the edge of her suit, lifted and rolled until the thick skin of fabric pulled free from her skin and the sudden absence of its weight pulled a gasp from her lips and then a sigh as water swept over her skin.

  How was it possible to feel weightless and grounded at the same time? As if she could float away one moment and still be draw to Aaron like gravity.

  She had never felt like this before.

  A soft gasp of air left her lips when he swept his fingertips over her nipples, tightening them into aching points.

  Celeste looked down and watched the play of his fingers over her needy flesh. She’d never considered herself much in the way of a sexual woman. Gentle was enough for her.

  But the way Aaron touched her. The way his eyes caressed her flesh.

  She found the wanton in her.

  “Wanton.” She rolled the word over her tongue and bit her fingertips into his arms, pulling him toward her. “That’s how you make me feel.”

  “Good,” he leaned over her, his lips feeding from her own, “I want to make you feel so many things, but wanton… the smile on your lips, the darkness in your eyes… it looks good on you.”

  He kissed her, hungrily parting her lips. His hands caressing her breasts with a longing that spoke to the lonely soul within her heart.

  Her hands followed the muscles in his arms, down to his wrists and back up to his shoulders. Over onto his back as his own hands slipped between her suit and her back, rolling it down until he filled her hands with the full curves of her backside.

  When he lifted her up in the water, peeling the suit down over her hips, their bodies ground together. His hips pressed hard into her own, hard cock against the aching center of her body.

  How she’d dreamed of this, and now that it was here, she didn’t want to wait. Wiggling against him. “Off,” she groaned, “take it off.”

  “Demanding,” his voice was rough in her ears, “I like that.”

  “Needy, Aaron. I’m tired of imagining. I want to feel.”

  When she started to reach a hand down to help him, he changed his tactics. As his hands worked at her suit, he took the crest of one breast in his mouth, his tongue flat and hard against her nipple.

  “Oh!” Her hands pulled free from the water and grasped the back of his head, holding him tight against her breast.

  She felt the flex of his jaw against the inside of her forearm and then the sharp pinch of her tender flesh as he sucked her deeper into his mouth.

  “Do that again.”

  She only had a second to wait before she felt his tongue moving against her, taking her deeper, higher.

  Somewhere in the back of her mind it registered that he’d managed to work her suit down to the tops of her thighs. How he’d managed the rest of it, she didn’t understand, nor did she care. There was enough of his body against hers that she was happy to be stuck right there for a moment. Or dozens of moments.

  When he slipped his fingers inside of her, she was hotter than the water of the springs. And as amazing as the waters of Mystic Spring felt against his skin, the slick walls of her sex coated his fingers in silk.

  Pressing his fingers into her body again and again as his mouth plundered hers, he had never felt so powerful before. Nor had he ever felt so humbled. Celeste was trusting him with her body.

  And he was going to give her a taste of what her body was meant to experience in the arms of her lover.

  Mate.

  Ah yes. His bear couldn’t help himself.

  Not that he blamed the blasted animal.

  They’d both waited forever.

  Wrapping his free arm around her lower back, he held her steady in the water as his fingers and his mouth wrung yet another breathy moan from her body.

  Fill her.

  Aaron felt the bear shove at him, took a big slap to the side. And the bear rose up and bled through into his eyes, wanting a clear view of her for himself.

  She might not be ready. He added a hard tone to his voice, trying to get the bear to stand down.

  “Aaron?”

  He heard the soft confusion and wonder in her tone. “Yeah?”

  “Don’t hold back with me.”

  Aaron lifted his head and looked down into her eyes, needing to know that this was a real decision for her.

  Her eyes shone in the starlight, but he could see the clear intent in her eyes.

  “You don’t want a soft bed under you?”

  Heaven help him, she bit her teeth into her bottom lip and looked him straight in the eye. “I want you in me.”

  His bear fought him for control, wanting to rip free of their human confines and show their mate just how much they could give her.

  Reaching down, he palmed his cock in the heated water and felt the rock-hard length of his erection begging for her. And still, a quick look at the edge of the pool showed him too many ways he could hurt her. It left him a single choice to give them both their dreams.

  Sitting himself down on the rocky ledge at her side, he saw the momentary confusion on her face before he lifted her up and over until she was loosely astride his lap.

  He stroked his length again and looked up into her eyes. “Wrap your arms around my neck, Celeste. Hold onto me for a moment.”

  She didn’t hesitate a moment, wrapping her arms gently around his neck she held on and sighed as the water lapped about their bodies.

  It took no effort to find her in the water, the broad tip of his sex parting her folds. As soon as he lifted his hand from the water and settled it on her hip, she eased down.

  And the groan that fell from her lips went straight to his dick.

  It was incredible. Her voice. Her slick heat surrounding him.

  He was content to take things slow at her own pace, but she wasn’t. Celeste let out a long sigh and he felt her muscles relax around him and take him in.

  He met her halfway, hips rising into her.

  “Yes,” the single word held a hard, sharpened edge in his voice, holding desperately onto his control. “Yes.”

  Once they began, there was nowhere to go but harder, faster… and deeper.

  Finding himself balls deep in Celeste made him feel like a king… a conqueror!

  She rocked into him, her arms tightening around his neck, pressing ever closer inside and out. His breaths shortened and hers did too. His movements became near frantic and she matched him again.

  He felt the very air around them changing with energy. The waters surging as if the waters were an ocean instead of a private spring.

  Churning around their bodies, the waters took on a sound in his ears, mingling with Celeste’s breathy cries.

  His skin tightened, muscles tensed, and as he felt himself a moment away from finding his release, he heard his sweet mate utter a pointed command. “Fuck me.”

  How could he do anything less than what she wanted?

  What they needed.

  He thrust up into her body harder and faster, pushing them higher than he’d thought possible.

  He wanted to claim her and give her the mark that would proclaim her as his own, but that would come when she knew more of what that entailed. It had to be her choice.

  “More,” she panted and his sensitive hearing heard the rising thunder of her heartbeat in her chest, “just like that.”

  And he kept going, pushing them higher and higher, slipping his hand bet
ween their bodies to find the hood of her sex amidst her silken curls, he rubbed a sensuous circle around the bundle of nerves.

  A shocked gasp reached his ears and he found himself fixing his eyes on her face.

  Her eyelids lifted and she fixed her gaze on him in one moment. In the next he felt her body shudder and seize until a shout burst from her lips threw her head back in release.

  His own release chased hers over the edge and together they rode out the sensations together, in each other’s arms.

  Celeste was the first to speak.

  Barely more than a whisper, he still heard her clearly through the haze.

  “Aaron, look.”

  He opened his eyes and fixed them on her face as she looked up into the sky above.

  “Look up,” her voice urged him, and even though he was perfectly happy to keep his gaze focused on her beautiful, flushed face, he wanted to see what had her so shocked.

  It took less than a moment to understand what had drawn her eyes to the heavens.

  The sky over their heads was lit up with more than the moon. Lights curled through the dark night sky, greens and pinks and purples filled his vision.

  He heard the shock in her tone. “Isn’t that-”

  “Yes,” he nodded and met her gaze again, “the northern lights.”

  She shook her head in wonder, before darting a curious glance in his direction. “Does that… does that happen all the time?”

  “I’ve never had that happen.” He licked his lips and slipped a hand around the nape of her neck, drawing her down toward his lips. “But why don’t we try again and see?”

  He didn’t know what to expect for an answer, but he liked the answer he got when she melted into his kiss and ground her hips against his.

  Eleven

  All her life she’d kicked off her blankets. Sleeping meant that she was uncomfortable. Pillows were piled on the bed. Pillows were knocked off. And by dawn it would look like a whole bedding store had suffered through the earthquake to end all earthquakes.