Waterfall(29)

A groan rumbled from deep in his chest. “Celeste.” Her name danced in the air. “Write your note. I want to swim with you.”

“Swim?”

“Quite so, but not in the sea. In something warm.” His lips continued to press and nip the flesh of her neck. Hours prior that one word would have terrified her. So much had happened, she now questioned that fear. He slowly backed the two of them toward the stool, then rotated his body behind her and pushed her down with his hands.

His teeth scraped up to her ear, and her knees buckled. She sat with an ungraceful thud, the desk before her and Jordan behind.

He knelt and trailed his fingers along her exposed shoulder blade. His breath puffed in her ear. “Write.”

She picked up the quill and flipped open the ink. Her soul played with his as she placed the quill to paper. His fingers shifted around her sides and gently pulled the fabric up her legs to pool in her lap. Her insides quivered, and the flesh between her thighs wept, wanting his touch. His teeth scraped along the back of her neck, and with a feather-light touch, he traced her right nipple. Her vision hazed, and her hand moved the quill without thought on the paper. Heat pulsed through her body to the core of her sex.

She slipped her legs apart. Her head fell forward, and her hand hastened across the paper. His fingers traced and then flicked her nipple. She lifted the quill, dipped the tip into the ink, and placed it back on the paper.

His other hand dropped to the swell of her belly and directly to the curly hair beneath the edge of the cotton shirt. Her stomach jumped and quivered. His fingers pushed down and rubbed two firm circles at the apex of her thighs.

Twinges clenched the lips of her sex. He certainly did things to her body in a way she had always imagined passion could be. He circled his fingers downward and pushed the fabric between her legs. He wiggled his fingers and parted the lips of her sex through the cloth. Her cunny contracted, and her mouth dropped open. The quill stopped on the parchment. He tapped his fingers against the lips of her sex. The cotton shirt clung to the moisture of her opening. My stars, the shirt’s barrier stopped his fingers’ entry and she wanted his touch inside her. She wiggled her hips, and his fingers retreated, continuing the circle’s path up and around the top of the hair.

“Concentrate on the task at hand, Celeste,” he scolded in a playful manner.

Her hand continued across the paper, but words blurred in the sensations he created.

His lips seized the column of flesh just below her ear, and the hand that teased her breast pinched her nipple. She arched her head away from him. She wanted him to bite her again as he teased her with his hands. Would he?

His breath warmed her ear. “Not now. Finish your letter, and we shall go for a swim so I can teach you more of what I know and don’t know.”

She turned her head and gazed into his eyes. “You don’t know?”

“There are so many questions all of us have. You need to know them. Since we found each other, I don’t know more than I did before; I know less. I am sure that is a scary prospect for you.” His face was soft, and his eyes held a hungry desire unlike anything she’d ever seen between couples she’d known.

She laid the quill down on the paper, sprinkled the drying powder and turned on the stool to face him.

He tightened his hold around her torso. “Done?” His eyebrows lifted.

“For now.” Honestly, she had no idea what she’d written. She touched the front of his shirt, needing to feel him beneath her fingers. His heart beat equally as fast as hers under her trembling palm. “I need to know more.”

He pushed up to stand. “Then come.”

He led her out of the room, down a lengthy hall lined with landscape paintings. The cool stone beneath her feet, combined with the fresh air that drafted through the hall, chilled her through. She shivered.

Jordan wrapped his arm around her shoulder and hooked her knees with his other hand. He swooped her up. “The house is drafty. I am sorry. Ilmir needs the air movement to remain comfortable. I will keep you warm until we get to the water.”

Ilmir? Carmen had said Ilmir was Jordan’s brother, the one who had opened the sash at Hudson’s. Possibly for more air movement? But why had he been in her room? She bit her lower lip. She had so many questions for Jordan. He said he would teach her, and she would try to be patient.

They turned down another long hall. She laid her head on his chest, and his heart beat beneath her ear. The hall decorations turned from landscapes to tapestries. The first was of silver-stitched swirls with elongated tails. The second was copper-stitched in the shape of a triangle with rolling lines inside. “What do the symbols stand for?”