Authors: Christine Feehan

Water Bound (49 page)

BOOK: Water Bound

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Lev landed in the dirt beside Jonas, who was barking orders into a radio, presumably calling the fire department. The trees and ground were damp but not soaked, and the arsonist was using a highly flammable accelerant.

The hillside was lit up a bright orange in the night. The crackling flames leapt and breathed in answer to the man’s demands. He couldn’t get the
Sea Gypsy
, although he’d tried, spraying out the flames in a wide arc as he’d run for the hills, hitting the dock, burning it black, but not igniting the wet wood. Smoky vapor rose from the dock, the heat mixing with cold and rising like a gray mystical cloak, surrounding the boats and obscuring vision out over the river.

Sea Haven and most of the adjoining towns were too small to have a paid fire or police department. The sheriff patrolled the long coastline and volunteers manned the fire trucks. Jonas didn’t wait for backup; he started up the hill, trying to make his way through the fire line to get to the arsonist, but it was impossible. In the end, Lev and he worked as fast and as hard as they could to save the structures and trees as the fire tried to rush up the hill toward the heavier forest.

It seemed hours before they could go back to the farm. More photographs. Statements. The fire department thoroughly putting out the last of the blazes. They had shell casings to bag and every scrap of evidence taken. Both of them were covered with black smoke. The car didn’t look much better, but it had survived with only superficial damage. Apparently that was also included in evidence.

By the time they returned, tired, throats hurting and eyes burning, the women were obviously upset. Jonas collected his wife and Blythe looked both men over thoroughly before she left. Lev waited until the cars were far down the drive before he allowed himself to look at Rikki. Her eyes were overbright, as if she might have been crying or might be close to tears.

No one had ever cried for him. He touched her face with gentle fingers, tracing a path from the corner of her eye to her chin.

“You’re alive, then,” she said, her voice husky. “That’s good.”

“We missed him,
lubov moya
. He managed to slip away from us. The cops are searching for him, but they aren’t going to find him. He started multiple fires and you weren’t there to put them out.”

“Come take a shower and then you can tell me what happened.” She tugged at his hand, dragging him through the house to the bathroom.

He was fairly certain she couldn’t talk. She kept her head down, but he could see she was very shaken. He started to give her reassurances, but she just shook her head and pointed toward the bathroom. Glancing in the mirror, he could see why. His face was streaked with grime and he was certain he smelled like smoke.

“I’m throwing your clothes away,” she announced once the water was pouring over him.

“I don’t have very many clothes,” he pointed out. “Maybe we could wash them.”

“I’m taking them out to the garbage.”

She slammed the door and he took that as the final word. Smiling, he turned his face up to the water. He was beginning to love it as much as she did. He took his time, allowing her the space she needed to cry out her relief in privacy. His heart beat hard, though, at the thought that she’d been worried about him—that she cared enough to cry.

He padded barefoot and naked from the bathroom, toweling off his shaggy hair. Over the last few weeks it had grown out from his military cut, spilling down around his eyes. He would have to get a trim, but he thought the longer hair added something to Levi Hammond’s personality.

“Where are you, Rikki?” He knew where she was. In her inevitable hammock swing on the back porch, but he’d wanted to give her the courtesy of a warning.

“Out here,” she called back.

He heard the rustle as she slipped out of the chair and came to the door to watch him come toward her. She’d definitely been crying. Tears tangled and clung to her long lashes, leaving them spiky and glittering with liquid diamonds.

“You all right,
laskovaya moya?”
His voice was tender as he wrapped his fingers around the nape of her neck and drew him to her.

Rikki wrapped her arms around Lev and buried her face against his chest. “I was so scared for you. Why did you go without me?”

“I was perfectly safe.”

“You weren’t safe. Don’t lie to me. I could feel you were in trouble. I would have tried to touch your mind with mine, but I was afraid I would distract you and you’d get hurt.”

He stroked her hair, loving the way her body melted into his like liquid velvet. She would always remind him of the sea, stormy and gentle, welcoming and mysterious. Like the waves against rock, he could break into a million pieces, scatter into molecules, tiny particles, and fall whole into the warmth of her love.

“Come lie down with me,” he invited.

“Lev, I was so afraid for you.” She looked up at him and those dark eyes were drenched with tears. “I didn’t know I could feel like that.”

“Now you know how I feel about you. You terrify me, Rikki, with the risks you take.”

He brushed back her hair and bent to coax kisses from her. Her lips were trembling, and he caught her full lower lip between his teeth and tugged gently. She opened her mouth to his, taking as much as she gave. Her slender arms circled his neck, holding his head to hers, her body pressing into his.

“I don’t take risks. I’m a safety diver,” she whispered into his mouth. She kissed him with growing hunger, each kiss longer and more demanding.

“Come to bed, Rikki.” Lev took her hand and drew her into the house, locking the door and leading her through the rooms to the bedroom, pausing only to turn off the lights.

There was little moonlight shining silver through the window, but enough to spill over her pale body as he tugged her shirt over her head. He kissed his way from the corner of her mouth to her breast, one hand cupping the soft weight in his palm while he fed. He trailed his other hand across her bare tummy, the pads of his fingers massaging gently. There was possession in those long, spread fingers as he teased the underside of her breast, enjoying her reaction, the shiver of excitement, the small tremor that ran through her body, and the small whimper that told him she was already wet for him.

He tugged her jeans down over her slim hips, taking her panties with them as he slid them from her legs. She put a hand on his shoulder to steady herself as she stepped out of them, leaving her completely naked. He walked around her, drinking her in. She didn’t move as he circled her, his fingers caressing her waist, then her hip, rubbing her buttocks and the seam where thigh and bottom met. He loved stroking her soft skin, loved the way she simply gave herself so completely to him.

Back in front of her, he skimmed his hand over her breasts and flicked her sensitive nipples on his way to the junction between her legs. His hand caressed, fingers sliding deep and then coming shallow to circle, so that her body flushed and her breathing changed. He felt the heat of her channel close tightly around his fingers, and her hips moved in an involuntary response.

He closed his eyes and savored the feel of her silken heat. For him. A welcoming. Her hands came up to his chest as she rocked against him and she licked at his flat nipple. As if on an electrical wire, the sizzle ran from her tongue to his groin. His heavy erection grew even fuller and pulsed in anticipation.

Lev bunched her hair in his hand and pulled her head back, indulging himself, kissing her over and over, devouring the sweet taste of her, reveling in the way she opened to him and took him in. He swallowed her moan, that soft sound that hardened him even more. He dreamt of that sound sometimes, and woke up hard and aching. When he turned to her, she always, always met him with eagerness.

“On the bed,
laskovaya moya,
before I have no control.”

Her eyes darkened and she lay back, beckoning with her finger. His hands parted her thighs and just the warmth of his breath made her cry out. Then he lapped at her, a cat after cream, using his tongue, driving her up hard and fast, taking her right to the edge and then pulling back again. He loved the way her body shuddered, the way her hips bucked and the way that soft, breathless music played in his ears. She tasted wild and free, and his need for her grew each time she writhed and moaned.

He inhaled her scent, the fragrance of his woman, and rubbed his beard between her thighs, watching the ripples of arousal move up her legs to her channel and even her belly, where the muscles bunched tightly in reaction.

Lev.

The sobbing plea he’d been waiting for, signaling she was coming undone, that he’d pushed and stretched her limits just a little more. He caught her body and flipped her over, dragging her hips up and back to him, so she was on her hands and knees. He kept one hand on her back, forcing her head down so her hips were in the air.

She gasped as he pressed the throbbing head of his cock into her entrance. She pushed back, trying to impale herself on his thick shaft. He stroked his fingernails gently down her back and over her buttocks. Again there was a ripple effect, her legs shaking, her body trembling. He gripped her hips and slammed home.

Her body took his into her tight, hot haven, wrapping eagerly around him, stroking and caressing as she slowly, almost reluctantly allowed his invasion. There was always that exquisite moment when she was so tight he was uncertain if he could force his way into heaven, but the petals unfolded and allowed him entrance. Scorching hot. Velvet soft. Tight and constricting, gripping him, as he surged deep, withdrew and drove home again.

He set a fast, hard rhythm, her position allowing him even deeper access so that it felt as if he’d welded them together for all time. His blood turned hot, flowing like liquid gold, rising from somewhere deep inside him, spreading like a firestorm of passion through his system. He bent forward to kiss her spine. The movement set off ripples in her body so that she clamped down on him like a vise.

“Not yet, not yet,” she chanted. “Not like this.”

He took a breath, set his jaw and stilled. “Tell me.”

“I want to see your face,” she whispered. “I have to see your face.”

He clenched his teeth together as he obediently withdrew. She cried out as he left her, turning to sprawl across the bed, her thighs open for him, feet flat on the bed, knees wide. He caught her bottom with one hand, wrapped her hips with his arm and, gaze locked with hers, buried himself deep with one thrust, sinking to the hilt. Lights and colors seemed to burst behind his eyes, even as he watched her face, that miracle of beauty, the gaze, the breath, the flush as he took her higher.

He trailed his free hand over her breasts, down her stomach to the soft mound where they were joined. She arched her back, her hips moving into the rhythm of his, time suspended. There was only the sound. The scent. The sensation. He let go, let himself drown, giving himself up to her soft music and the love in her eyes. Her body clamped down on his, held him as the ripples turned to swelling tides and his hot release washed inside of her. He felt the rush through his body, through hers, through their joined bodies.

He waited, locked inside her, fighting for breath. Waited. She just looked at him with a glazed, sexy, giving look that turned him inside out.

“Say it. I have to hear you say it,” he ordered, holding her beneath him.

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. She smiled at him, that Rikki smile that could take his breath. “I love you, you goofball.”

He stared down at her for a few more seconds, and then rolled over laughing, gathering her close to him. “I’ve never been called a goofball before. There’re just so many firsts with you.” He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck. “Go to sleep.”

“Already there,” she murmured drowsily. Her hand moved over the top of his and they fell asleep together, bodies tight against one another.

LEV scowled as Jonas Harrington swung out of his truck, and Blythe slid out of the passenger side. Rikki, in her hammock swing, stiffened, but she covered it well, taking a sip of coffee and peering at their visitors over the rim of the steaming mug. Just to give her added confidence, Lev moved close behind her, dropping his hand casually on her shoulder.

“I was hoping not to see you for a while,” Lev greeted. He rubbed his jaw. “I’m a little stiff and not certain I want to go another round.”

Rikki glanced up at him, her dark eyes searching his face. He winked at her.

Jonas followed Blythe up onto the porch. “I think I got the worst of the deal, so don’t complain. I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee, since no one’s offering.”

Rikki flushed. “I’m sorry. I should have...”

“Rikki,” Jonas interrupted gently. “I was teasing. I grew up with the Drake girls and spent my younger years tormenting them. I have a tendency to do that with those I consider family. You and Blythe are family to me.”

“I’m getting the coffee,” Blythe said.

“There goes my morning,” Lev muttered.

Rikki sent him a reprimand from under her long lashes, just as he knew she would. He bent to whisper in her ear. “Little miss prim and proper.”

BOOK: Water Bound

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