Lifebound (8 page)

Chapter Nine

J
osh eased his aching, exhausted muscles into the warm water. He wasn’t usually a bath kind of guy, but he had to admit that it felt good on his aching hip. The gash on his back stung a bit at first but then began to cool and tingle. Next to the tub was a stack of thick cloths. He took one and soaked it in the hot water, then spread it over his face to wash away the dirt and dried blood from the scrape on his cheek.

He was used to coming home a battered, filthy mess, but for some reason it had embarrassed him for Adriana to see him looking like a ten-year-old boy who’d wrecked his dirt bike. He wanted her to see him as a man, not as some reckless kid.

She sat down on the little bench that nested beneath the vanity in the huge bathroom. He’d said he didn’t want secrets between them, but he had no idea where to start.

So, you’re a lamia. I never heard of those but fill me in
.

Idiot.

“You had a chat with Rekkus, I assume?” she began.

Damn it.
He didn’t want to put the burden of breaking the ice on the whole lamia discussion on her.

Josh pulled away the washcloth, hoping he’d washed off the worst of the dirt. “Yeah. He kind of filled me in on everything.”

“And you are okay with this? With me?”

“Yeah, sure I am.” Though he wasn’t sure himself whether “okay” was the right word for it.

“I know this has to be really difficult to deal with, learning that this whole world exists.” She picked up a hand towel from the counter and fingered the fringe.

“I don’t know what was worse, seeing a giant black and silver tiger attack the giant lizard-lion thing that was trying to eat me, or seeing that giant tiger turn into Rekkus,” he said. “So everybody here is some kind of weretiger or witch or vampire or something?”

“Oh, no. Dana is human, and everybody who came on the ferry with you is human too.”

Josh grinned. “I could have sworn the guy in the three piece suit, what’s his name? Preston? I thought he had to be some kind of zombie when we got here. But he has definitely loosened up a little. When we were walking back, I saw him heading out to the pool in a Speedo.”

“Preston Mitchell in a Speedo? That’s scarier than a weretiger.” Adriana laughed.

The sound of her laugh broke down some of the anxiety that had been crawling through him. He had only known her a couple of days, but making her laugh was something he wanted to spend a lot of time doing. Her fingers played with the towel, and he imagined them playing with him instead.
Slow down. No need to rush. There’s more to love than sex.
But his dick didn’t agree, and the warm water wasn’t helping.

“Listen”—he began talking to try to take his mind off sex—“Rekkus told me about how you need a host to touch to keep you balanced or something. I can do that. I want to be that for you.”

Adriana stopped smiling and the sadness in her eyes froze him. “No, Josh. You don’t want to do that. It’s not like you think. I can’t just touch you whenever I want to. I have to be so careful to only have the contact I need to balance the energies in me and feed part of it back to the host. If I touch for too long, I begin to drain the host instead.”

“That’s no problem,” he replied, having thought all this out in advance. “Whenever you say stop, I stop. Now that I know what’s going on, I won’t push it.”

She sighed. “I have to tell you what happened to Tom Bridges.” He listened intently as she recounted the story of having almost ten good years with Tom until his wife died. “Josh, the extra little touches didn’t seem like much, but I could tell it was beginning to wear on him. He had that stroke because his body was overtaxed. And he died because I didn’t let go of his hand.”

Josh shook his head. “Adriana, you can’t blame yourself for that. Bridges had to be at least sixty. People have strokes all the time. How do you know you had anything to do with it?”

“I just know. Just like I know that if you were going to host for me, we’d never be able to keep our touching to a minimum. Right now, all I want to do is strip off my clothes and get in that tub with you. This will never work!” She stood and threw down the towel.

“Then do it.” The idea of her naked in the tub stirred his dick back into the conversation. “Strip down and come get in with me. There’s plenty of room for both of us without touching each other. I will prove to you that we can be together and not overdo it.” He leaned out of the tub, splashing water all over the floor, desperate to keep her with him. Damn it, he could do it. There was more to love than sex. He’d seen it in action.

“Please, Adriana. Give it a chance. Give us a chance.”

She turned around to face him and her fingers went to the top button of her shirt. “This is stupid.” She took a step closer to the tub. “We are only asking for trouble.”

Every step, every button made him harder in anticipation.

“We’re not asking for trouble.”
Oh, yes we are,
his dick contradicted.

She loosened the last button of her shirt and slipped it back, revealing the creamy skin of her shoulders. The shirt stopped its slide momentarily at her elbows, as Adriana took a deep breath that made her breasts rise against the silky camisole she wore beneath it. Then she let it drop to the floor on top of his T-shirt, making him actually jealous of his clothing.

She kicked off her sandals and pulled the camisole over her head. Her stomach was smooth and soft, and begged to have hot kisses trailed across it. She pushed her short skirt off her hips and stood before him in a floral print bra and matching panties.

“Do you always match your underwear?”

She touched her bra and laughed. “Yes. I like to be coordinated.”

“I’ve been known to wear two different kinds of shoes depending on circumstances.”

She was laughing again. That anxious look had faded from her face.

“You don’t laugh enough. You need to have more fun.”

She slipped out of her bra, releasing two perfect globes, just the right size to fit his palms, her nipples a rosy peach that he wanted to taste. She hesitated and pushed her panties to the floor. The hair that curled between her legs was the same dark birch-tree blond. It would be soft under his fingertips, a sweet cushion for him when he entered her.

Adriana carefully picked up all her clothing, folding each item and placing it on the vanity bench in a neat stack. Every time she bent down, he had to force himself back into the tub. He wanted to grab that sweet round ass in his fingers and press her against his now uncomfortably hard dick.

“Okay, Sally Homemaker, if you’re finished tidying up, jump in.” He shifted over in the tub to make room, but not a lot of room.

“I like to be neat. And for your information I do have fun. I go out. Sometimes.” She slid into the bath, gasping at the heat. Her breasts bobbed on the surface like bath toys—delicious, suckable, fondleable bath toys.

“You’ll have way more fun with me. I promise.”

Her skin began to turn pink in the steamy water and she stretched and sighed as she sank deeper. His dick strained toward her, almost painful in its need.
Down boy. Give it time. Nobody pushes, nobody runs.

Adriana had been pretty intimate with a couple of guys—lamia like herself. But she had never just stripped down for a man like that before. She still couldn’t believe she’d done it. But Josh had been so comfortable in his own skin and he’d been so relaxed about it that taking off her clothes for him had just been the logical thing to do.

Being with him was too easy. It frightened her a little that she was so ready to give herself to him so fast, as if she were already his. The woman in her just wanted to throw herself at him, but the lamia in her knew what would happen if she did.

That’s why she’d called his bluff. Josh had to learn for himself the impossibility of their situation.

At least that’s what she told herself.

“Feels good, doesn’t it,” he said.

She settled deeper in the water and nodded. Then she looked down past the bubbles where he stood firmly at attention. “Is the water that warm?” she asked lightly.

“It’s pretty warm, but you’ve definitely made it warmer.”

She laughed, but as the heat of the water lapped at the tender flesh between her legs she felt a heat wave of her own. He grinned and rested his arms on the sides of the huge tub. The tattoo, she realized, was of an EKG heart monitor. The lines began just over his heart and circled around his left bicep.

She wanted to ask him about it, but he closed his eyes and leaned back with a deep breath. “Relax. We’re just going to relax.”

He shifted in the water and his leg brushed hers for the briefest instant, sending a zing of energy through her. This was going to be harder than she thought. But she ignored the zing that ricocheted inside her and leaned back against the curve of the tub. The water rose to just beneath her breasts, so she pulled her hair over her head to keep it as dry as possible. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

A swirl of moving water laved her chest with its flowing warmth. She opened her eyes. Josh had sat up and pulled out a red rose from a vase at the edge of the tub.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said mischievously. “Just lean back and relax.”

She gave him the most censorious look she could muster considering the sexy smile on his face and the excitement that flashed in his eyes—those unbearably blue eyes.

Careful not to touch her in any other way, Josh reached out with that deep red rose blossom and stroked her cheek with the petals. The scent wafted over her in a wave of heady fragrance. He traced her lips and let the bloom drift down her chin and onto her throat where he let it rest a few seconds at the hollow. The scent followed his movements.

“See? I don’t have to touch you to touch you. How does it feel?”

Adriana just nodded. It felt incredible.

The petals were soft and smooth as he stroked across her chest to her other shoulder, then traced little figure eights in the center of her breastbone. Her breath quickened as he began to draw circles around her breast, allowing the flower to keep constant contact with her skin as he spiraled slowly around the soft mound.

Her skin felt as if it were waking up, as if she’d been frozen all her life until his touch. The tingle that followed that soft rosebud had nothing to do with energy. Her body felt starved and Josh was feeding it. The water splashed and surged around her as she arched more of her body out of the water into his reach.

Every dreamy circle brought the rosebud closer in, tightening its path to the apex of her breast. Her nipple began to harden in anticipation. At last, the tender bud spiraled in to caress the tender point, and she gasped as a burst of ecstasy ran straight from one nipple to the other and then in a V directly to the hardened bud between her thighs.

“How’s that?” His voice was soft, yet husky. It was the sexiest thing she’d ever heard.

“There’s no way we can do this,” she whispered. “All I want is your hands on me, right now.”

“Oh, we can do this,” he said. “It’s just going to take creativity.”

The water in the tub surged around her again as he stood, still hard.

“How well does clothing protect you?” he asked as he stepped out.

“Not very well.” She still couldn’t trust herself to stand up. “It only delays the contact for a few seconds.”

“Then we have a few seconds.” He pulled a thick bathsheet from the neat stack on the shelf beside the tub. “Come here.”

She rose and he held out the huge terry sheet before her so that it extended the entire length of her body. Then he wrapped her in it completely from her neck to her toes and encircled her with his arms.

Careful not to allow his skin to touch hers, he squeezed her buttocks with one hand and ran the thumb of his other over her already excited nipple. Even through the towel, his warmth and hardness pressed into the already overheated zone between her legs. The rough loops of the terry scrubbed against her nipple as he pinched it lightly, sending more electric zips of stimulation through her so that she gasped again and even grew a little weak in his grasp.

“This isn’t helping, Josh,” she gasped. “This just makes me want you inside me. Now.” She thrust herself into his hardened body and strong waves of pleasure gripped her core.

“Oh, but that would be touching, and we promised on our honor we wouldn’t touch each other.” Josh laughed. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got all kinds of ideas.”

Sooner than she wanted, but before the energy exchange began, he released her and motioned for her to go ahead of him into the bedroom. She toweled off quickly, then passed the terry sheet to him so that he could do the same.

She lay on her back and watched as he slowly dried his back and shoulders, that dimpled grin promising all kinds of mischief.

“I can’t reach this part.” He pointed to his penis.

She took the outstretched towel. Okay, if he wanted to play rough, she could give as good as she got. She took the towel and wrapped his shaft in one corner of the huge towel. One light rub was enough to cause him to strain against her hand. Another firmer rub brought a sexy groan from his throat.

“Okay, I’m dry.”

“No, you aren’t. You aren’t nearly dry enough.” She knelt in front of him and paid lavish attention to his penis with the terrycloth, then gave the soft hair downing his testicles a good fluffing. When a tingle of life began to whisper to her through the barrier of the towel, she dropped it to the floor.

“Now I’m dry.”

“I don’t think so.” Softly she blew against his skin and the tip of his penis quivered.