Closing his eyes, he swore he could feel the wet heat of her surrounding him.
He clenched his fist in his hair. How many more days could he stand the torture?
And yet, he wanted to fight it. He refused to surrender his sanity even one second sooner than the Fates decreed.
* * *
Grace felt Julian's presence. Turning around, she saw him outside the shower, completely naked.
Her gaze feasted on every inch of that golden body, but it was his warm, charming smile that absolutely stole her heart and made her breathless.
Without a word, he stepped inside.
"You know," he said with a casualness that astounded her. "I found something interesting this morning."
She watched the water fall over him, slicking his hair back until it fell in short, wet ringlets about his face.
"Did you?" she asked, resisting her impulse to reach up and capture one of those locks between her fingertips. Or better yet, her teeth.
"Mmm," he said, running his hand up the long cord of the shower until he took the shower head from its cradle. He turned the dial to a soft massage. "Turn around."
Grace hesitated before she obeyed.
Julian ran his gaze over her sleek, wet back. In all his life, he'd never seen a woman more inviting.
She was everything he'd ever dreamed of having and yet he dared not hope. Dared not dream.
He lowered his gaze down her voluptuous curves. Her legs were slightly parted as she stood. An image of spreading them wider and plunging himself into her tore through him.
Struggling to breathe, he aimed the shower head at her shoulders.
"That feels so good," she whispered.
Julian couldn't speak. He clenched his jaw to keep himself from yielding to his body's ravenous demand for hers. His need to touch her was so profound that it made a mockery of the one he felt for food and water while trapped in the book.
Grace turned to him, her face glowing. She reached around him and picked up the washcloth and soaped it. Julian didn't move as she bathed him. Her hands slid over his chest and abdomen, firing his hunger for her even more.
He held his breath in eager anticipation as her hand moved lower and lower.
Grace bit her lip as she touched the rigid muscles of his stomach. She looked up to watch Julian watch her. His eyes were half-closed, and he appeared to be savoring every stroke of her hands on his skin.
Wanting to please him, she ran the cloth over the coffee-colored curls at the center of his body. He sucked his breath in sharply as she reached between his legs to cup him gently in her hand. She smiled again as she felt a shudder run through him.
The look of pleasure on his face delighted her. Her heart pounding, she moved her hand up to gently massage his swollen shaft.
She heard the shower head hit the side of the tub an instant before he enveloped her in his arms and buried his lips against her neck.
Grace trembled from the sensations as their wet bodies entwined. The love she felt for him swelled through her, begging for a miracle that would let them have a life together.
In that instant, she wished she could feel him inside her. Feel him take possession of her body the way he had her heart.
As his lips tortured her with pleasure, he brought his thigh up between her legs. The tiny hairs on his leg teased her in a way that melted her will.
Feverishly, Grace rubbed herself against his wet, sleek thigh, relishing the feel of his strong muscles contracting between her legs as he continued to suckle her throat. Oh, how she loved this man. How she longed to hear him tell her that she meant as much to him as he did to her.
He ran his hands over her back, then her front.
His gaze scorched her as he lowered her to the bottom of the tub.
"What are you…" Her words ended in a gasp as he plunged his tongue into her ear.
She felt his arm flex as he reached for the shower head and brought it back to pummel her body with its pulsating heat. He moved it in slow, sensuous circles over her breasts, her stomach. On fire from the stimulation of the water and his body, she struggled to breathe.
Julian shook all over in desperate need. He wanted to please her in a way he'd never wanted to please anyone. He longed to see her writhing beneath him. Hear her screaming out her release.
Nudging her thighs farther apart, he moved the shower head to spray between her legs.
Grace choked as an indescribable pleasure ripped through her. "Julian?" she gasped as her body quivered from the feel of his fingers inside her, filling her, teasing her while the water heightened his moves.
Never, never had she experienced anything like it. He rotated his wrist, circling the pulsating water around her until she couldn't stand it.
When her climax came a second later, she screamed from it.
Julian smiled while he held his body rigidly still to keep from filling her. Even so, he wasn't through with her. He would never be through with her.