The Affair

He reached, rubbing the lotion onto a smooth, sun-warmed thigh. He found himself staring at the small, red triangle of cloth covering her mound. “I’m fine,” he muttered.

“Really?”

“Do you think I’m going to burn?” he asked dryly, glancing up into her face. He looked away when he saw her slight a

But what could Va

He gritted his teeth at the reminder of the things Emma had said that morning, doing his best to ignore his swelling erection. It a

He knew firsthand what it was like to thirst for the answer, though, aching to find it in her deep, warm depths.

He glanced up and saw Ari’s rigid expression as Va

“Va

He glanced up at her face. She blinked in surprise. He realized he’d been snarling a warning at Ari.

“Yes?” he asked, forcing his face into impassivity.

She bit her lip in a gesture he recognized as an anxious one. “Should I take off my top?” she whispered.

He blanched, his gaze unerringly lowering to her breasts. Her nipples were erect against the relatively insubstantial fabric of the bra. Was she growing as aroused as he was, touching her? Or did she enjoy Ari’s attention on her? The thought scalded him. He poured more lotion onto his hand and began to apply it to her arms.

“Do you want to?” he asked evenly, rubbing up and down on both her upper arms at once, the rhythmic movement striking him as sexual. Everything was striking him as sexual. His cock swelled tighter. Dammit. What was wrong with him? The hot summer air surrounding him suddenly felt thick and electric. He couldn’t get enough oxygen in his lungs.

“I don’t know. I just feel . . . so American.”

“You are American,” he replied drolly.

“I’ve never equated the word with feeling like a Puritan until now,” she said under her breath.

“I like your America

He didn’t know what was wrong with him. Why didn’t he just tell her to take off the top? He’d sunbathed with girlfriends going topless hundreds of times while he was in the South of France, never thinking more of it than Niki did about Georgia.

Emma was no different.

The emotion he’d been tamping down since this morning threatened to swell higher. He gritted his teeth. She was different. He liked everything about her. He adored her freshness and sexy sweetness and otherworldly wisdom. So how come he wanted to punish her for those things she’d said this morning? How come he wanted to hurt her a little for hurting him? He knew she hadn’t meant to cause him distress. He knew she was kinder and just . . . better . . . than anyone he’d known since he was an adult.

Ever known.

But he still wanted to see her undone, just a tad anxious . . . not to mention writhing with excitement, whimpering in pleasure.

His fingertips brushed across the tops of her firm, thrusting breasts. He felt the pulse in his cock. In the distance, he noticed Niki get up and ask everyone if they wanted refreshers on their drinks. He didn’t look around even when his friend called, “Van? Emma?” Vaguely he was aware of Emma shaking her head. He stared fixedly at the pale mounds of her breasts as he rubbed them with his fingertip. Her nipples were growing more and more erect beneath the fabric. He glanced up to her face and saw that her lips were parted as she stared down at him. She was so exquisite.

Too exquisite. She was a threat, somehow.

He reached up abruptly and untied the strings at her neck. “It’s not a big deal,” he lied. He lowered the fabric, exposing her creamy, firm breasts and tight nipples. The vision taunted him. They looked so delicate . . . so naked. In the periphery of his vision, he noticed Ari start slightly and place his hands on the arm of the lounger as if in preparation to spring up. Every muscle in Va

“Fuck,” he muttered savagely, jerking the strings back up around her neck and tying them off hard. He’d been willing to expose her to assure himself it didn’t matter . . . to convince himself she didn’t matter.

“Va

Emma’s gaze skimmed across the others’ startled faces as Va

“Van?” Niki stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding a bag of ice. He looked from Emma’s dazed expression to Va

Heat flooded her cheeks when without another word, Va

“I’m sorry,” she said.

A strange expression broke over Niki’s handsome face. He looked pleased. “Don’t be,” he said emphatically.

Va

Emma had a fleeting impression of a luxury suite with gleaming mahogany wood and a king-sized bed. Then Va

She understood this was the same fire that had raged in him on the dock. It leapt up even stronger now, more furious because it had been banked and forced to simmer under wraps. She was more than willing to be the focus of his distilled desire and chaotic emotions. She wasn’t afraid of him; her own need more than matched his.

He gathered both of her breasts in his hands and plumped them for his ravening mouth. He lifted his head after a moment and switched his target, latching on to her other nipple and drawing on it so precisely, so sweetly, that she clutched at his head in rising desperation and flexed her hips, pushing her sex into the bed to get an indirect pressure on it. As if he felt the give in her flesh, he ground against her, his cock feeling like a long, heavy poker throbbing beneath the thin layer of his trunks.