Sixty-three
Andras took his time, just to look at her after she had said the words, the words that had made every part of him ache with a longing he had never admitted to owning before.
She parted her lips to speak and he tensed, scared that she would suddenly take back what she had said, that all this would sift through his fingers like the fine sand they were sitting on.
‘Andras,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know how this has happened … it shouldn’t be …’
‘I know,’ he replied. ‘I feel it too. That the circumstance of us meeting was so …’
‘Ridiculous,’ she offered. ‘Crazy.’
‘Beautiful,’ he added, his fingers reaching up into her hair.
He couldn’t wait a moment longer. His whole body was so wired, desperate to express exactly what she had grown to mean to him so quickly. He drew her towards him, lips seeking hers, longing to feel the heat of her mouth on his and, as they connected, a sound came from her that had his arousal deepening further still.
Their lips together, mouths entwined, he lowered her down on to the sand, his body resting over, until finally he withdrew, making a distance to just look and admire her.
‘Don’t stop kissing me now,’ she begged.
He smiled down at her. ‘Do not worry,’ he said. ‘I have only just begun.’
Despite the sizzling temperatures, Tess was shivering, every centimetre of her on the highest of alerts. Her back flat against the heat of the beach, her nipples grazing the inside of her sundress, she had never felt so utterly in the moment and it was both ecstasy and agony because of how unfamiliar it felt.
She drew her arms up off the sand, her fingers reaching for the buttons of Andras’s shirt. She wanted to see him, feel him. She slid back one plastic button, releasing it from the white cotton, until he caught her hand in his, aligning their fingers together but stopping her from performing the task she wanted to perform.
‘Arga,’ he whispered.
‘What does that mean?’
‘Slowly,’ he replied.
She closed her eyes, letting him guide her hand to each button in turn, helping her pop them loose. She felt her fingertips touch his skin and she couldn’t do it blind any more. She wanted to look. Opening her eyes, she took in every sinew of that magnificent body she had seen at close quarters since she arrived on the island. Firm pecs moved to tight abs, honed olive skin covering each defined muscle. She put her hands on him, smoothing up from his stomach to his shoulders, pulling him closer to her, wanting to engage with his mouth again.
Then, as he kissed her, she felt his hand moving against her skin and the straps of her sundress. So gently, he edged each spaghetti strand down until she had no choice but to move her arm up and out. As soon as she was free she re-found his hair, diving her fingers into it and pulling him closer, strengthening their kiss.
She writhed as his fingers traced down her arms, over her ribs, before brushing teasingly close to her now bare breasts. She just wanted him to touch her now the passion and intensity was welling up so thick and fast …
His ripped his mouth away from hers, breathing hard and heavy, as those deep brown eyes gazed at her. She had never been looked at like that before, like she was the only woman in existence, like he was having difficulty with the ‘slowly’ he had suggested.
And then his mouth found one of her now olive-sized nipples and she was taken to a whole different level of turned-on. His luscious mouth licked and teased and delivered perfect strokes of heaven to her already aroused skin as she both gave in and fought over it, bare back shifting in the sand, fingers whirling in the hair at his nape.
She couldn’t wait any longer. If she knew the Greek word for ‘fast’ she would have been shouting it for the whole of Vidos Island to hear. She sat up, shifting him away from her, her fingers reaching for the waistband of his trousers, wanting to tear the things right off him.
‘Tess,’ he said, palming her hands.
‘No,’ she answered, feeling for the zip.
‘Tess,’ he repeated, an undisguisable edge of heat to his voice.
‘Take them off,’ she ordered. ‘I want to see you.’
Her words stung Andras in the sweetest, most sensual way and it was all he could do to stop himself from doing exactly what she asked. But he had to. He needed to commit to this with everything he had, with his heart and soul. Because, despite them living in different countries, this was not like anything he had had before. He wanted to savour every moment.
‘What’s wrong?’ Tess asked, looking at him with concern painted on her expression.
‘Nothing,’ he answered, his eyes locked with hers.
‘Then …’
‘I do not know how this will work, Tess,’ he admitted. ‘But, I do know that I want this, what we are about to do, to mean … everything.’
He kept watching her eyes, trying to see or read what she was thinking.
She reached out, taking his hand in hers. ‘Andras,’ she said, ‘it already does.’
She leaned forward, lightly kissing his lips, her fingers moving to touch his body again, fingernails teasing his skin from the top of his core to his navel.
He got to his feet, standing up, his back to the ocean, the sun licking the skin on his shoulders and put his hands to his waistband. His eyes on her, he slowly pulled down the zipper. Inching the material down over his hips, he let his underwear come too, sliding both down over his thighs until they pooled at his feet. He stepped out and onto the sand, all the while watching her.
Before another thought could enter his head, Tess was up off the sand, slipping off her panties and moving towards him, jumping up into his arms, her mouth finding his with a desperate urgency.
He held her tight, her legs swinging around his hips, her heat so tantalisingly close to his arousal he could barely breathe. His kissed her hard, his arms holding her up, securing her against him.
‘In the water,’ she breathed, her lips close to his ear. ‘Make love to me in the water.’
Andras was carrying her like she weighed nothing, across the sand, towards the sparkling water, her nakedness kissed by the Corfiot sun, her heart thumping a rhythm she didn’t recognise. She wanted this moment more than she had wanted anything else. Nothing before had been like this, she had meant that, not with any of her Hooked Up liaisons, not even with Adam. This was something completely indescribable.
The water hit her toes first, then, as Andras walked them in deeper, she felt the cool lapping of the waves on the rest of her skin until she couldn’t be passive any longer. She wanted to get down into it, feel every part of the ocean on every part of her. She slid down out of his grasp, submerging herself, her shoeless feet uncaring for what lay beneath. The water was so clear, such a tonic not just to her skin but to her soul.
She turned to face him, smiling, with everything she had, beckoning him towards her. There was nothing else to say. No words were needed any more.
Andras stood before her, waist deep in the sea, beads of water sparkling across his bare chest, and she wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her.
She looped her arms around his neck and let him raise her up until she could feel the length of his arousal. She held his eyes, dipping her body slowly until she felt him push forward a little. She gasped, feeling him enter her, and then he drew away, denying her, teasing her. She tipped her hips towards him again, wanting the connection back, needing it.
‘Andras,’ she breathed.
‘What?’ he asked, breathless himself. ‘What do you want?’
‘You.’ She shuddered. ‘I want you.’
And then she felt him, all of him, firm, solid, slipping inside her, the waves aiding her to rock back and forth against him. Clinging to him, she closed her eyes, letting her other senses take over – the smell of his skin as she breathed in, the taste of the saltwater on her lips, the sound of the ocean, the touch of his hands at the base of her spine.
‘Tess,’ he whispered as their moved in perfect unison.
‘Call me Trix,’ she said, smiling.