His lips were on her hair. “You are my lifemate, Destiny. We are bound together, two halves of the same whole. You feel it. I know you feel it.”
She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “I know it, yes—how could I not? But what kind of lifemate would do what I’ve done to you?” She wanted him to see her. Really see her, not what he wanted to see.
He waded out into the pool, cradling her in his arms. “What have you done to me, little one? Everything I have asked of you and more. You share my mind. Do you see me thinking I have been cheated? I share your mind and what you think is nonsense.”
She tightened her hold on his neck and reached up to feather a line of kisses along his jaw, grateful for his unrelenting loyalty. His absolute faith gave her hope, melted her heart, made her feel beautiful. “I don’t think you’d ever ask anything for yourself if you thought it would make me uncomfortable or unhappy, Nicolae.”
He laughed softly. “I am not the wonder you are making me out to be, Destiny. I want you with everything I am. I can afford to be patient. We have eternity. I may feel the urgency of wanting to unite physically with you, but if we wait, I know it will happen eventually.”
“Total confidence in yourself?” Her eyebrows shot up. She attempted to tease him, wanting to find a way to salvage something of their time together.
“Total confidence in you,” he corrected, slowly lowering her feet into the pool.
The water felt amazing. Warm and wet, with tiny bubbles bursting and fizzing over her skin. She sank down into the depths immediately, delighted with the sensation. “This is fed from underground, isn’t it?”
Nicolae was very aware of her eyes on him, drinking him in shyly, warily. In the clear bubbles of the pool he could see her body, enhanced by the shimmering water. She looked more seductive than ever, a water nymph bent on bewitching him. His body hardened to the point of pain. He had thought that being in the pool would relax him, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. The bubbles felt like tiny fingers caressing his erection, bursting and fizzing over him until he couldn’t think straight.
“Tongues.” Destiny swam closer to him, her body stretched out so that her shapely buttocks flashed through the water. She ached for him all over again.
Just looking at him made her restless and edgy with need. And more than that, she wanted to please him, to do something to express the way she felt about him. Something to show him how much he meant to her.
Nicolae remained unmoving, still as a statue, watching the water caress her skin. The flickering light of the flames cast shadows across the pool, heightening their awareness of one another. “Tongues?” He echoed. The word came out a husky blend of need and urgency.
She nodded, swimming very close to him. “It feels like tongues on your body, not fingers. On my body too.” She stood up. Water ran off her body, ran down the valley between her breasts to the tight curls just below the water line.
His hungry gaze followed the beads of water like a man parched and thirsty, greedy for moisture. Nicolae realized that she was right. If it were possible, his body swelled even more at the thought. He became conscious that she was reading his mind again, that she caught every erotic image, every sensual thought. “You know what I want to do, Destiny. What is it you want? Just tell me. Say it out loud. There is no one here but the two of us. Tell me what you desire most at this time.” He wanted that much from her. He wanted the words even if he couldn’t have the action.
She blushed, the color delicately staining her cheeks. “I want to touch you, to feel my hands on your skin. The need is as strong as any compulsion I’ve ever been under, but it isn’t coming from you.”
His fingertips traced the line of color in her face. “Need between lifemates is strong, Destiny, as it should be. We live long in this world. If what was between us were a weak thing, it would never last. I have given my body into your keeping. What you choose to do with it is always right. It is good. If you feel the desire to touch me, to learn to know me physically, it is not an intrusion or a violation. I would welcome it.”