Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
I smile and nod, letting her take my hand so we can leap into the cold water with gritted teeth. It has to be at least ten degrees colder than the pool on board Aurelia, and we both come up shivering. Casey laughs and swims over. Our feet tangle below the surface as we tread water.
“Let’s go closer to the waterfall,” she says just before she sets off like we’re in a race.
I catch her easily, coming up alongside her as the water roars overhead. It’s not a very large waterfall, but we still keep a careful distance from the deluge pouring into the swimming hole.
We spend the next hour swimming and eating our prepared lunches, our group spread out in small clusters. The air surrounding the swimming hole is so moist and hot that within seconds of pulling myself out of the cold water, I’m eager to go right back in.
Eventually, our guide calls out to everyone, letting us know it’s time to head back.
I don’t move, of course. A moment ago while Casey was sipping her water, I broke off and spoke with him. When Casey looks at me now, I shake my head.
“We’re staying back for a moment.”
It makes for a seamless transition as everyone gathers their gear and treks off down the trail, leaving the two of us alone in the forest.
Casey worries her bottom lip between her teeth before asking, “Shouldn’t we head back? How are we going to know where to go?”
On the marked trails with a thousand signs? We’ll manage.
I don’t tell her that. I shrug and stand. “Let’s swim.”
I’ve been out of the water for too long. I’m hot and sweaty. And I need her.
Casey doesn’t get in after me, though. I break through the surface and turn back to see her staring at the trail where everyone left. It’s been long enough that we can’t hear them anymore, but I think she’s just making sure the coast is clear before she turns and walks over to a large rock that juts out over the shallow side of the swimming hole.
“I’m hot, but I don’t think I can get back in that cold water again.”
I swim toward her. “Suit yourself.”
She lets her feet dangle over the edge, testing the cold water and recoiling back. “I just got warm again,” she protests.
That’s fine by me. I like her propped right there on the water’s edge. The perfect height for what I envision.
Casey watches me swim closer, but she doesn’t realize how nefarious my intentions are until I position myself beside her rock and I take ahold of her ankles to spread them apart.
Her eyes go wide. Her cheeks pink. “Phillip.”
Even as she protests, she scoots her bottom closer for me. Giving herself over to the moment.
“Anyone could—”
“Let them.”
I lower my face between her legs, kissing my way up her inner thigh, slowly easing her into the idea of letting me have her like this. Then her breathing picks up, and her body starts to relax. I press her thighs apart even more and hook my finger in the side of her bathing suit bottom and peel it back. For too long, I look at her. I know it makes her squirm being exposed like this, but that makes it all the more fun for me. Eventually, my head lowers, and I press a kiss to her inner thigh again, working closer to the final destination that will have her toes curling and her head tipping back. She angles her hips up for me, giving me all the access I need to taste her.
I feel her shaking. Her arms straining to hold herself up the longer I continue.
I reach an arm around her back, ensuring she won’t go anywhere.
I love feeling her come apart strand by strand, unspooling before me until there’s a sharp cry, a tense pause, and then a passionate groan of ecstasy. I take her there on the bank of the swimming hole, swapping positions with her so that I don’t hurt her. She sits over me, straddling my hips. I tug the straps of her bathing suit down, freeing her breasts, and then my lips and mouth cover her, sucking and tasting as she slides down onto me, taking me deep as she rolls her hips, lifts, and sinks even lower still.
I scrape my teeth along the peak of her breast, and she fists her hands in my hair. Already, she’s close to coming again, and I pick up my pace, unbothered by the hard rock beneath me. I’m numb to everything beyond her as I reach up to kiss her lips, holding her against me so our wet bodies are flush. It’s so intimate that it almost hurts to have her like this. I feel her squeeze me, tightening, breaking with a passionate cry, and then I find my own release, seeing stars behind my closed lids, feeling as though the universe has condensed down to a single pinprick before it explodes back with blinding light. We stay there, catching our breath. Neither one of us says a word, even as we eventually stand and dress. Even as we start back up the trail, hand in hand. The truth is so obvious to us both that it’s better just to stay silent.