Chapter Nineteen
Harley
Great minds think alike. So do devious ones.
Harley knew exactly what Clay was doing—the same thing she’d been trying to do when she’d knelt at his feet and freed his stupid beautiful cock from his shorts—but that didn’t keep her traitorous libido from responding. She eased into the cool water beneath the falls with her skin burning and her body aching for more of what he’d started. More of his hands and his mouth and that clever mind that was every bit as sexy as the rest of him.
But if he thought she could be manipulated by a taste of the way things used to be, he was about to learn just how wrong he was.
He could smolder and seduce and boss her around her all he wanted, but she was never going to tell him where Jasper was. She was going to get close to him, get off, and then use his own tactics against him.
He was weakening. There had been nostalgia in his voice when he’d quoted the joke she’d made the first time she’d gone down on him—in the shower, licking him up and down before dragging her teeth lightly along his shaft. And he’d smiled at her, more than once. Maybe they were false, but even forced smiles had power. She had forced a smile for Jasper’s sake more times than she could count and discovered in the process that if she kept a grin plastered on her face for long enough she would eventually start to feel happier. Or at least more relaxed than she’d been before.
She didn’t need Clay to love her again or even like her; she just needed him to relax his guard long enough for her to take advantage.
Harley picked her way over the smooth stones beneath the water, scanning the pool for signs of danger. But there were no snakes, no large animals lurking in the ferns along the shore, nothing but the frayed ribbon of the falls whispering down, sending ripples out across the pool. Unexpectedly, the water was cool enough to be chilly—unlike the ocean this time of year—but she barely noticed the cold. Her senses were focused on the sound of Clay easing into the water behind her and the way her nerves sizzled in response.
She glanced over her shoulder, the sight of him taking her breath away.
He was even more stunning than he’d been when they were younger. He’d thickened through the shoulders and the cuts defining each dip and curve of his muscular frame had deepened. If she’d been the sort to wax poetic, she could have written a verse or two about the sharp V running up either side of his hips, the veins on his powerful forearms, the sprinkling of golden hair at the base of his abdomen, and the rakish lilt of his cock.
It still curved lightly to the left as if trying to help him hitch a ride to somewhere better than here.
“There’s nowhere better than here,” she murmured as he closed the distance between them, a predatory look in his deep blue eyes that made her shiver.
“It doesn’t matter if there is or there isn’t,” he said, remembering his response to their private joke. “Here is where we are. And I’m going to make the most of it.”
He stopped in front of her, close enough for her to feel the heat rolling off of him in waves and to realize how desperately she wanted his hands on her, his mouth on her.
“What do you want, Harley?” he asked, his voice husky. “How do you want me to touch you?”
“I don’t,” she lied, even as his pine and soap smell sent fresh heat rushing between her legs.
“So you don’t want this?” He brought his hands to her breasts, cupping her in his warm palms before capturing her nipples between his fingers and rolling her taut flesh. “You don’t want me to touch you here?”
She bit her lip and fought to hold still. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of even that small response, but she couldn’t help herself. She needed the pain of her teeth digging in deep to keep her back from arching, her thighs from squirming, and her hands from reaching for him.
“Or maybe you would prefer my mouth?” He knelt in the water. Before she could move away, his tongue was flicking across her nipple, sending a wave of heat surging through her core.
Her breath rushed out, but she sucked it back in, holding it trapped in her lungs, hoping it would help her stay strong as he licked and sucked. Licked and sucked…licked and…
“Fuck me,” she said with a groan, her resistance crumbling as she drove her fingers into his hair.
He sucked her nipple deep in response, trapping it against the top of his mouth and doing that thing he did. That wicked thing that had once made her come simply from having her nipples ravaged by his mouth. Soon, her breath came in pants and her knees had turned to jelly and still he suckled her harder, trapping her other nipple between his fingers and pinching her in time to the suction of his mouth.
Her womb tightened and her hips began to rock, instinctively seeking friction though there was nothing but water between her legs.
But she wouldn’t need much more. She was so close, so fucking close, so—
She cried out, a sharp sound of shock and dismay that tumbled from her lips as Clay abruptly pulled away from her nipples.
A second later, he took her by the arms, spinning her around. “Time to get wet.”
She barely had time to pull in a breath before he had pushed her forward, sending her tumbling into a deeper portion of the pool. As her head slipped beneath the surface, she opened her mouth and screamed, giving her rage and frustration to the water, even as she tried to get her body back under control.
She had to regain control, had to firm up her defenses and get ready for a fight.
If she knew Clay—and she did, that fucking bastard—this was only the beginning of her suffering.