She snapped him a look and he chuckled.
“Your face is priceless. I’m wearing a suit.” He stood in a rush of water so she could see the snug band of black.
Not much of a suit. The water trickled and slid in silvery trails down every glorious bronze plane and dent in his chiseled physique. A black arrow of hair disappeared into the low band and the fabric cupped—
She jerked her gaze off that bulge and quickly wet her dry throat with a gulp of champagne. She thought he chuckled again, but he turned away to fetch the bottle out of the bucket, which he’d left on the edge near the stairs. He waded across to top up her glass, then refilled his own and settled beside her.
But she sensed his tension.
“Are you angry that we had to come here?” she asked.
“I don’t have to do anything.” He turned his head to regard her. “Neither do you.”
And just like that, she understood his tension was the same kind that gripped her—sexual.
“What if I want to?” It was her honeymoon.
He stretched out his arm, setting his glass on the edge and tipping back his head. His chest rose above the water as he took in a deep breath and let it out.
“Do you know where babies come from, Luli?”
“Oh, for—Is that a real question? Yes.” She rolled her eyes.
“Being a virgin, I’ll presume you’re not on any sort of contraception?”
“I’ve heard of something called condoms?” she shot back facetiously, then buried her mouth against the rim of her glass, admitting, “I’m curious.”
“Curious is fine.” He abruptly gathered her, easily floating her in the water so she was sitting with her knees straddling his thighs. His hands sat against the crook where the tops of her thighs met her hips, hot palms branding her through the fabric of her short shorts. “I’m more than curious. I’m obsessed with finding out how high this fire between us might burn.”
That fire was beginning to consume her now. “Okay,” she breathed, leaning in.
His thumbs dug in at her hips.
“But slipups happen. I signed our marriage contract thinking you would provide me an heir. If you don’t want children, I’m not going to force you, but I will need some. If you don’t want them, we’ll have to divorce at some point so I can marry someone else who does.”
She sat back and bit her lip in consternation.
“You see? I wasn’t entirely joking when I said you shouldn’t give your virginity to the first man you marry. How involved do you want to get, knowing this marriage won’t last?”
“What is my second husband likely to think if I show up a virgin? You’re appalled and—”
“I’m not appalled. I’m recognizing that your inexperience makes you vulnerable.”
“Then give me experience,” she near cried. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, never done anything. Here I am married, on my honeymoon, and I get nothing? That’s so typical of the way my life goes.”
She started to shift off his lap, but his hands tightened. His cheekbones were like scraped granite, high and hard.
“Stay.” His voice was harsh, but not angry. “Kiss me. Take what you want, then.”
She wanted to ask if he meant it, but her voice was caught in her throat and her thoughts burned away in the flare of heat in his gaze.
His hands shifted, barely moved really, but the easing of his thumbs at the front of her hip bones and the subtle pressure of his fingertips against the swells over her butt urged her to lean forward.
She started to set her hands on his shoulders, realized she still held her half glass of champagne and put it on the edge. Then she set her hands against the tense muscles of his neck and kissed him.
She kissed him the way he had kissed her, with long slides of her mouth across his, lips parted so they could taste one another. He was delicious. Better than champagne. And the way he kissed her back was pure magic. She wanted to do this forever, mouth catching at mouth, easing away then sinking back to be devoured by him.
She couldn’t get close enough. She shifted, arched under the slide of his hands up her back and—
Oh. She knew what that pressure was, startlingly hard against the tender flesh between her legs. She tensed in surprise, rising slightly as her thighs tried to close.