Deeper Than The Ocean by Julie Ann Walker
Chapter 23
1:29 PM…
Chrissy felt eaten alive by Wolf’s kisses. But in the best possible way.
As the mist continued to shower down around them, creating a secret, magical world that seemed to hold in its palm only the two of them, she thought, This… This is how desire is supposed to feel. This is how passion is supposed to taste.
Not that she was a virgin or anything. She’d had her fair share of men.
Well, maybe not her fair share.
According to Winston, her body count was abysmally low for a modern era that included hookup culture and Tinder. And now she knew why. She simply hadn’t been doing it right. Or maybe it was more accurate to say she hadn’t been doing it with the right kind of men.
Men who set her blood on fire. Men who made her body hum. Men who made her forget herself.
For the first time, she understood what Winston meant when he spoke of being with Rosa.
“It’s like I was playing with passion before,” she remembered him saying one night after she’d invited him over for New Orleans style BBQ shrimp. “Pretending desire. Pretending need and want. And then Rosa came along and I became a thing of need and want. Need was the breath in my lungs. Want was the blood in my veins. And no matter how much I had her, I still craved more.”
Funny, Chrissy had never considered Winston a man of words. But when he talked about Rosa, he turned damn near poetic.
Winston…
Thoughts of her best friend were just the thing to bring her back to reality. To lift her out of that ocean of want and need Winston had spoken of and plant her feet firmly on solid ground.
“Wolf?” She pressed a hand against his bare chest. Despite the cool rain drenching them, his skin was warm to the touch.
Warm? No. He burned.
Burned so hot she wanted to rip the borrowed T-shirt over her head and press into him so she could feel his flame against her naked breasts.
“Mmm,” was his only response as his tongue tangled with hers, inviting her to meet his every tease and taste and lick.
For a moment, she couldn’t remember why she’d wanted to stop him. The man was so damn sexy, he short-circuited her brain. But then a whisper of sanity returned.
The plan!
She needed to tell him about the plan before they went any further.
“Wolf,” she whispered again. This time, when she pulled her mouth away, he scattered kisses across her cheek and back to her ear. Gently catching her lobe between his teeth, he flicked it with his tongue and she sucked in a ragged breath.
Who knew ears could be so sensitive?
Wolf, apparently. He growled low in the back of his throat before dipping his tongue into the delicate hollow. An exquisite intrusion that crossed her eyes and curled her toes.
The deep ache that had been at her center since the first moment she pressed her lips to his grew until there was a yawning chasm inside her. She hurtto be filled.
How easy would it be to reach down and pop the buttons on his fly? To take out his thick, turgid length and impale herself?
Soooo easy that little voice whispered.
“Wolf!” This time when she pressed against his chest, she put a good eight inches between. Well out of reach of his mesmerizing mouth.
“What darlin’?” he rasped. “What’s so all-fire important you got to stop us right when we’re gettin’ to the good stuff?”
“The rain has let up and I’m sure the gas fumes are long gone. Let’s go inside.”
“What’s inside?”
“Dry clothes.”
His upper lip curled with distaste.
“And my bed.”
He dipped his chin to stare at her from under the fringe of his dark lashes. “Now you’re talkin’.”
The look in his eyes promised unspeakable pleasures. And her gaze followed a drop of rainwater that slowly, so inexorably slowly, slid between his heavy pectoral muscles to get stuck in the line of crinkly hair that arrowed down the centerline of his corrugated stomach.
She wanted to dip her chin and follow that drop of water with her tongue. And while she was at it, follow all the other drops of water that glistened on his skin.
“Come—” Her voice was the auditory equivalent of the bucket of rusty fish hooks she stored in her shed. She tried again. “Come inside with me. I have a plan I need to run by you.”
His chin jerked to one side. “Tell me this plan involves you lettin’ me lick the rainwater off every inch of your skin.”
“Great minds think alike, I guess,” she said to herself. Then realized she hadn’t said it to herself when he chuckled.
“Your wish is my command.” He licked a lazy path down her neck. Her eyelids grew heavy. Her nipples throbbed. She couldn’t remember what—
The plan!
Scrambling off his lap, she offered a hand down to him. “Come on.” She wiggled her fingers. “Up you go.”
He leaned slightly to the side. At first, she couldn’t figure out what he was doing. Then she realized his T-shirt barely covered her butt when she was standing.
“Hey!” she squawked, hastily grabbing the towel that had fallen onto the ground. It was heavy with rainwater, but she didn’t bother wringing it out before wrapping it around her waist.
“Spoilsport,” he complained.
“Pervert,” she parried.
“Never claimed otherwise, darlin’.” This was accompanied by his patented eyebrow wiggle.
In return, she arched eyebrows imperiously and he sighed heavily. Grabbing her hand, he allowed her to hoist him to his feet.
He looked…well, there weren’t words to describe him.
Noble maybe? That certainly defined his straight back, wide shoulders, and granite-hewn jaw.
Virile? You bet. Every inch of him screamed man.From the jut of his Adam’s apple to the jut of his…
Sweet heavens, she had to look away from the front of his jeans. They were plastered against him, and the wet material left little to the imagination.
Okay, so the best word to describe him was sexy.He epitomized sex. Raw, raunchy, dirty, delicious sex.
“See somethin’ you like?” His expression was heated. It matched her fiery cheeks when she realized she’d been caught ogling him.
“Please.” She pulled him around the plunge pool. “You know you’re all that and a box of chocolates. You don’t need me to remind you.”
“Although, I like it when you do.” He let her drag him through the back door and into the kitchen.
The second they were inside, he took a step toward her. “Hold that thought until we’ve closed the windows and doors.” She lifted a finger. “Also, we need to get out of these wet clothes. I’m so pruned I’m worried I’ll never smooth out again. Ah!” She pointed at his nose. “And before you come back with something decidedly Wolf-ish like, ‘I’ll smooth out all your wrinkles, darlin’,” she mimicked his accent, “please know I am determined to keep two feet of distance between us until this place is locked up and I’m dry.”
“Dry.” He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She rolled her eyes. “If I’d known a make-out session would turn you into a That’s What She Said guy, I might’ve decided to ignore all your delicious temptations. No matter how hard it would have been.”
His mouth spread wide around a lecherous grin. “That’s what she said.”
“Ugh!” She threw her hands in the air, and then they were both laughing.
That had been the thing about them since the beginning. No matter how hot they were for each other, they could always make each other laugh.
“I also need to change my bandage,” she added. “The doctor said I shouldn’t get it wet for at least two days.”
It was like someone flipped a switch inside Wolf. He went from Wolf, Grand Seducer to Wolf, All Business All the Time. “Go get dried off. I’ll close the windows and doors and meet you in the bathroom to help with your bandage.”
The man was equal parts Casanova and companion. Playboy and partner. Seducer and sidekick. A guy who seemed so comfortable in his own skin that he made her feel comfortable in hers.
Which waswhy she was so determined to follow through with her plan. If it worked out, they’d exhaust all their explosive sexual chemistry, and then—hopefully—end up as friends.
Passing the coffee table on the way to the bathroom, she frowned down at the candle. The creamy wax in the center was still liquid. Its French vanilla scent lingered in the air.
When did I light that? she wondered, pressing a hand to her forehead.
She recalled thinking about lighting it; the house had smelled musty. But she didn’t remember actually doing it.
Then again, she didn’t remember leaving her stove burner on either, but she’d had a house full of noxious gas fumes to prove her recall wasn’t exactly up to snuff.
No more pain meds,she vowed, chucking the bottle in the trash as soon as she walked into the bathroom and saw it sitting on the vanity.
Aside from not killing herself or anyone else, she needed all her wits about her if she had any hope of seeing her plan through without breaking her own heart in the process.
Because yes, okay, Wolf would be easy to fall in love with.
“There,” she said to the empty room. “I admitted it. Are you happy now?”
As always, the room remained aggravatingly silent.