Mail-order Bridegroom Part 73

away a mosquito, and glared at him.

"I'll pretend I swam."

"Maybe you can pretend your hair's wet, too."

Kate picked up a handful of sand and threw it at him.

"Just shut up and swim. I'll close my eyes."

"Don't do it on my account," he said as his fingers went to the snap of his

shorts.

She should have.

For a moment she did, shutting her eyes against the sight of his hands

lowering the zip. But the temptation was too great, and her eyes flickedopen again to watch as Damon slid the shorts down his hips and stepped out ofthem.

He was only the second male she'd seen totally nude. The first, of course,had been Bryce. But it took scant seconds for Kate to realise that Brycenaked was as different from Damon as it was possible for a man to be.

Blond and slim, Bryce had always looked suave and sophisticated in thethree-piece suits he favoured. But whenever Kate had seen him undressed he had always seemed diminished somehow, lanky and hesitant, as if the clotheshad indeed made the man.

The opposite was true of Damon.

If Damon Alexakis in a suit and tie had seemed to Kate the embodiment of masculine power, he was no less so stark naked. In fact, he was more. Damon was lean without being lanky, firmly muscled without the least hint of fat. His chest was broad, his hips narrow, and his. . well, his. . Kate blushed and looked away, but not without having a.s.sertained that it was everything she might have expected.

"Little late to be checking out the merchandise, isn't it?"

"You said you didn't mind!" Kate muttered, her cheeks burning.

He grinned.

"I don't. Want to return the favour?" He stood right in front of her, looking down at her, still smiling and making no move to cover himself.

"No, I do not."

"Spoilsport."

"Just go swim." Kate said to the sand.

"Sure you don't want to come along?"

"I'm fine."

"Suit yourself, but you'll get awfully hot."

He failed to mention that she would also get bitten by a million mosquitoes.

She slapped one and then another, and another, and another. She jumped upand wrapped the towel around herself, swatting at (he dive-bombing insectseven as she did so. Damon, swimming away from her out in the middle of thecove, didn't notice.

"Drat!" She smacked her arm, getting two with one blow. But she couldn't even feel much satisfaction; three more took their places. She scowled fiercely, walked towards the trees in hope of some respite. But the insects were, if anything, worse there than they had been on the sand. She walked back towards the water.

Damon was perhaps forty yards out now, not really moving any longer, justfloating, looking back at her. She slapped a mosquito on her leg, thenanother on her arm, then glared at him.

He smiled. There was no breeze to speak of in the cove, either. Heavy dark clouds hungon the horizon, but they moved so slowly that Kate felt as if everything hadstopped. She felt clammy, sticky, sweaty. Rivulets of perspiration ran downher neck, sliding along her spine, sticking between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

She glanced at her watch. Silas wouldn't be back for at least another two hours.

"d.a.m.n it," she muttered under her breath, then out loud she called, "Shut your eyes!"

What? ""You heard me, Alexakis. d.a.m.n it, shut them!"He grinned. She couldn't tell if he shut them or not, he was too far away.She wrapped a towel loosely around herself, then fumbled beneath it, unb.u.t.toning her s.h.i.+rt. Then, holding the towel close, she slipped the s.h.i.+rtoff. Her bra was sticking to her and she held the towel with her teeth whileshe wrestled it off. Then she wriggled out of her brief white shorts. Sheconsidered leaving her panties on. Silas would never know.

But the shorts she wore turned almost transparent when wet. A pair of wet

panties under them would guarantee that the secret would be out.Fuming, Kate peeled the panties off as well. She lay her clothes in a neatpile. Then with the towel still wrapped around her, she headed for the water.

"I think Silas is going to notice if the towels are wet, too," Damon said from only twenty feet away.

Kate spun around.

"You're supposed to have your eyes closed."

"It isn't as if I haven't seen a naked female before. I did grow up with six sisters."

"And I suppose your sisters were the only ones you ever saw."

"Well, there were maybe a few others." He was smiling as he moved towardsher."I'll bet. Stay where you are."

Obediently Damon halted.

"I'm not the philanderer you seem to think I am."

Kate wasn't going to argue with him. But she couldn't imagine Damon had

spent much of his adult life as a practising celibate.She was out past her knees when she knew she would have to get rid of thetowel because she couldn't throw it any further. She cursed the gradualdrop-off, but she had no choice. Whipping the towel towards the sh.o.r.e, she dived beneath the water in one fluid motion. She banged her nose on theshallow bottom and came up spluttering.Damon stood a few feet away now, laughing."Wretch!" she cried, and flung herself at him, intending to drown him.It was a major mistake.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

'ooof! Kate! Wait.--' But there was no waiting, no stopping. There was onlyfury, wild, unbridled frenzy, the product of a week and more of pent-upemotion, anguish, hunger.

Desire.

Of course, Kate didn't recognise that particular emotion at the moment ofimpact. All she wanted then was to throttle him, to choke his laughter, towipe the mocking grin off his handsome devil's face.

But as satisfying as it was to knock him down, her own jolt was greater. He took her with him, grabbing her so that they both went under, their headsbanging, their legs tangling, their bodies rubbing one against the other,inciting, exciting.

And when, at last, they righted themselves and stood, trembling, stilltouching, in waist-deep water, he didn't let her go.

"DDamon."

"Shh." He drew her closer until her sea-slick body pressed once more againsthis, and then he bent his head and kissed her with a hunger that matched her own.

She knew she should be stopping him, pulling back, saying no. She didn't.

She couldn't.

She wanted it--she wanted him--too much.

She was wrong. She was foolish. She'd be sorry. She wasn't far enough goneto deny any of the above. And yet still she parted her tips under his andwelcomed the touch of his tongue, meeting it with her own.

Perhaps it was because she'd been alone so long. Perhaps it was the pressure of propinquity, the temptation of this island paradise, a conspiracy of G.o.d, Greek mothers and mosquitoes. Kate didn't know.

She only knew she could fight no longer.

As his hands roved over her back and slid down to cup her b.u.t.tocks, her own glided up the length of his arms and laced against the back of his neck. She rocked her hips forward into his. Then she felt herself being lifted and carried towards the sh.o.r.e.

He was as uncontrolled as she, as desperate, as hungry. He lay her down on the hard-packed sand at the water's edge and covered her body with his own, his damp hands stroking her with a fine tremor, his lips learning the line of her jaw, then touching her mouth again.

If there were mosquitoes then, she didn't notice them. If there was sand in her hair, she didn't care. The only thing that mattered was this terrible need that had been building for as long as she could remember.

And the only place to a.s.suage it seemed to be in Damon's arms.

He pulled back for a brief moment to settle himself between her legs and eventhat fleeting separation found her reaching for him, drawing him down onceagain.

Damon didn't argue. He came to her, crus.h.i.+ng her into the sand, biting downon his lower lip as he reached the centre of her, shuddering as he stopped,held perfectly still, his eyes locking with hers.

It was insanity. Madness.

It was the most beautiful thing on earth.

Love.

Or if it wasn't love, it was the closest thing Kate had

ever known, the closest she'd come to feeling favoured, cherished, beloved in her entire life.

For Damon was nothing like Bryce had been. Bryce had been so perfunctory, so

mechanical and sometimes so obviously elsewhere that she'd despaired of

reaching him. There was nothing like that about Damon. He was so clearly

eager for her that Kate found herself coming to meet him, lifting her hips to

draw him further within, arching her back so that her b.r.e.a.s.t.s brushed against

his chest, digging her fingers into his hard-muscled b.u.t.tocks, making him

lose control.