Marc shrugged and sprawled on the deck chair. “It’s like anything else. People tend to ignore luxuries after a while,” he murmured distractedly, most of his attention focused on Mari’s fingers as she unbuttoned her sundress. “I’ve only been up here a couple times this summer myself. Holy… I’m a genius.”
He raised his sunglasses. Mari paused in the action of tossing her sundress on a chair. Marc was too busy checking her out in her new bikini to really take in the amused expression on her face. Maybe the new suit did have more coverage, but it did amazing things to Mari’s figure.
“I’m never going to hear the end of it, am I?” she said under her breath as she came down next to him on a recliner.
“Never,” he agreed. “A man has to take credit where credit is due, and I definitely deserve huge accolades for finding that suit.” He unglued his eyes from the swells of her breasts in the V of the top and lazily trailed his gaze down her belly and curving hips. Her smooth, golden skin looked downright edible next to the white fabric.
“Marc.”
He blinked and glanced up from her lap to her face. She was staring incredulously at him.
“What?”
“We’re not alone,” she whispered.
“All I was doing was looking,” he said, flipping his sunglasses back into place.
“Somehow it didn’t seem that innocent,” he heard Mari say under her breath.
He chuckled and stood. “Want to get in?” he asked.
“I’ll wait. I think it’s you wh
o needs to cool off,” she said wryly as she dug around in a canvas bag and retrieved a magazine.
He laughed, tossed off his glasses and dove into the deep end of the pool. The water was refreshing, but nowhere near as cold as he needed it to be. After he’d swum some laps, he raised his head. A quick survey of the pool told him Mari and he were alone.
He swam to the side and poked his head up over the ledge. Mari was watching him over the top of a magazine with a smirk on her face. He crooked a finger at her in a come-here gesture. She shook her head, her gaze returning to the page. He continued to beckon her silently, however. She finally stood and sauntered toward him. Instead of sitting on the ledge and easing down into the water next to him, giving him the opportunity to touch her honey-colored, smooth skin, she dove straight over his head into the water. He grinned as he watched her swim underwater toward the shallow end of the pool. He plunged after her. When she reached the end of the pool, he was there a split second before her. He leaned his back against the wall, his feet on the bottom of the pool and his legs bent, like he was sitting on an invisible chair. He grasped Mari’s shoulders.
“What are you… How did you get there so fast?” she sputtered as her head came out of the water.
“I was inspired,” he told her as he pulled her over a few inches so that she was above him. As her buoyant body drifted down to touch bottom, she encountered him instead. She scooped up some water and splashed him in the face.
“Hey,” he murmured, not at all bothered. He wiped the water out of his face while Mari pushed her long, wet hair away from her eyes. There was laughter in her whiskey-colored eyes when they met his.
“I’ll race you to the other end,” she challenged breathlessly.
“Uh-uh,” he said quietly as he arranged her so that she straddled his belly in the water, his weight bracing her. Grasping her upper arms, he brought her closer with his hands until her heaving breasts tickled his chest. It felt good—really good—to have Mari’s naked skin sliding ever-so-subtly against his in the cool water. “I like it too much right here.”
“Do you?” she murmured, her mouth hovering just inches from his, her breath striking his lips in warm, fragrant puffs of air. He placed his hands on her hips, loving the way the curve of them fit into his palms.
“I think you know the answer to that.” He slid his hands along her water-lubricated skin. He felt her go still as he traced the beguiling swells of her hips and the indentation of her waist and then her heaving ribcage. “Do you recall how you told me not to come on so strong during this visit, Mari?”
“Yes,” she replied, her eyes glued to his mouth. She gasped softly when he shifted his hands so that his forefingers were just below the fullness of her breasts and his palms cradled her ribcage. He felt her heart beating into his palms, rapid and strong.
“If you kissed me right now,” he murmured. “I wouldn’t be breaking any rules.”
“Well, I’d hate to be the one to turn you to truancy.”
He held his breath as she slowly leaned forward. She very carefully kissed the drops of moisture off his lips one by one, and then rose to do the same for his nose. He closed his eyelids when she transferred her attention there, her quick, elusive caresses creating a riot of sensation in his body. By the time she’d dried his whole face with her sweet, seeking lips, he was starting to hurt with desire.
Her mouth settled on his. He could just as easily have single-handedly stopped the rotation of the earth than prevented himself from transferring his hands to her upper arms and sliding her closer to him. He gave himself twenty seconds to drown in the taste of her, twenty seconds to show her how much he wanted her, twenty seconds to glory in the fact that her hunger seemed every bit a match for his.
She whimpered softly when he sealed their kiss and moved away from her.
“I think I’ll do a lap or three dozen,” he muttered before he plunged into the water. He tried to banish Mari’s dazed expression and flushed cheeks from his mind’s eye as he set a hard, brisk pace for himself, but it didn’t really work.
Not in the slightest.