Body of Water Ch. 02

We burst into the house later that night and I struggled to quiet Angela's shrill laughter. I wrapped an arm around her waist when she stumbled while trying to remove her stilettos. She sagged against me and I managed to drag her as far as the living room. I left her on the couch with a blanket pulled over her body.

I walked upstairs and my pulse pounded as I recalled the strange events of the night. After meeting that stranger in the bar, I'd cooled down in seconds. Within an hour, I'd convinced myself I'd imagined the whole thing.

He was just some guy who bumped into me. He held onto me to keep me from falling over. I was unbalanced on those ridiculous shoes.

It sounded reasonable and so I accepted it.

As I reached the second floor, I was aware of a second heartbeat down the hall. I bit my lip and tiptoed to Harlowe's door. I'd never gone to him in his room but I told myself he wouldn't mind. Something had been roiling within me all night and I couldn't put my finger on it. An hour in Harlowe's arms would help.

I slipped into his dark room after tapping on the door. As I made my way to his bed, I removed the tight red top and the little black skirt. I shook my hair loose, ignoring the pins falling like rain against my shoulders. Then I removed my underwear, shuddering as I peeled the damp fabric from my swollen and sensitive skin. I reached for his bed covers and knelt on the edge of the bed, leaning over him.

"Harlowe." I ran my hand up his arm. I tickled the skin behind his ear, where I knew he was most sensitive.

He came awake with a jolt and I giggled behind my hand as he looked up at me in surprise. "Nerina? What are you doing here?"

I stretched out next to him. "I wanted to see you."

"I thought you and Ang went out."

"We just got home. You want me to let you to sleep?" This I asked as I ran a hand through the coarse hair covering his chest. I felt him shiver as my palm slipped lower, teasing the crisp hair above his burgeoning member.

"No," he ground out in a hoarse tone as his hands closed around my waist.

His surprise over my late night appearance was short-lived. He responded to my touch and pressed his head back against his pillow as I followed my touch with kisses. When I took him into my mouth, he groaned.

"Nerina," he hissed my name from behind clenched teeth.

I felt his hands tunnel into my hair, yanking the few pins I'd missed. The sting was minimal and I was too intent on my task to notice. I licked him, tasting his salty essence as I cupped his testicles and massaged them. He thrust into my mouth and I took him in deeper, sucking on him. I didn't usually enjoy this but it seemed I was not myself tonight.

I was more than aware of his pounding heartbeat, the twitching of his muscles as he held himself back from spewing into my mouth. He wanted what I wanted, to empty himself inside of my body.

So I did something else I didn't normally do.

I released him from my mouth with a final suction of my lips, making him gasp in surprise. Then I knelt above him, straddling his thighs. His hands closed on my hips, lifting me. He was such an experienced lover, he knew what I wanted. I was more aware than ever of my body's responses. It was less forced, more intense, even though it still didn't reach quite deep enough to make me ignite.

I lifted myself at his urging and circled his engorged member with my fingers. I rubbed my swollen flesh against the tip, wetting it, and gave a happy sigh as I brushed it over my sensitive nub. Then he was hauling me down, forcing himself up and into me. I rocked on him, taking him deep inside and moaned, as I should, as he thrust up into me.

Harlowe groaned, his fingers digging into my hips and I felt his thighs lift against my bottom as he moved. He was frantic for me and I sensed that he wouldn't last long. I touched myself, holding my fingers on either side of his plunging member. His eyes snapped open and he watched my hand between us. His breathing was ragged as I squeezed his cock every time he pulled out of me.

When my fingers were coated with my juices, I moved higher, circling that hub of nerves above our joining. I stroked, biting my lip as my own touch brought more sensations up from deep inside. I tipped my head back and closed my eyes, conjuring an unfamiliar face to mind.

Sweat dotted my upper lip and I pushed down hard on Harlowe. He grunted from the impact but continued to thrust into me. I drifted from the present as I called up images of golden eyes and overwhelming heat. I rocked against his cock, rubbed myself furiously and gasped as I ran headlong into a climax.

I wasn't certain but I think I cried out. A moment later, Harlowe's hands squeezed and I felt the warm slosh as he emptied himself inside of me.

You'd better be using birth control, a deep, masculine voice intruded through my orgasmic haze.

Of course I am. I was too annoyed at the intrusion to realize that I was speaking to myself. I'm a modern woman. I've been on the pill for years.

Later, as I drifted to sleep with Harlowe snoring against my shoulder, I told myself inner conversations were ridiculous.

No one reads minds. I yawned. Or talks to themselves during sex.

****

This time the dream made me uncomfortable.

I was drowning, instead of flowing with the current. I opened my mouth, sucking in more water, and my arms flailed on either side of me.

This isn't right.

Always before, the water had just become part of me, and I of it. We'd roll together, pushing and floating like a breeze.

This time, unseen hands clutched my ankles, yanking hard. I bobbed with my head above water, sucking in hot, sticky fumes. My eyes blinked open but I caught only the barest glimpse of rolling steam before being hauled under again.

I kicked, frantic for another breath of air and opened my mouth on a cry as my foot kicked a rock.

I was in the shallows, ground just beneath me. I stopped struggling and flattened my feet, touching down. As I straightened, my head rose above the surface. I sucked in air and blinked the water out of my eyes. This time I saw more of the spreading steam crossing the water.

You mustn't. A familiar voice rolled towards me from the cloud of steam.

What?

But I wasn't to be given an answer.

I was upended and fell beneath the water. The ground dropped away this time as I tried to stand up and I was left waving my arms like a shipwrecked human.

Something had me in a firm hold and I could no longer kick my legs. The water rushed into my mouth and up my nose. My ears exploded as water filled them and I felt panic, real, unadulterated panic settle in.

This isn't right. I'm not supposed to drown. It shouldn't be possible.

Strange thoughts, adding to my panic.

Black waves closed around me and then, for a long time, nothing.

****

In the morning, Angela was the first to wake. Then, as the saying goes, the cat was out of the bag. When she didn't find me in my own room, she hurried to Harlowe's in a panic, thinking I'd gone out again, or perhaps not come home with her. She found us wrapped naked together, breathing hard from our early morning session and screamed before running out of the room.

Harlowe and I shared a guilty laugh before I got up and crossed the hall to my own room. I was working a brush through the tangled mass of hair when Angela burst into my room.

"All right." She scowled at me as she slammed the door behind her. "Explain."

"What's to explain?" I gave her a weak smile in the mirror. "Harlowe and I slept together."

"You've got to be kidding me. I find you guys naked and sweaty and that's all you can say?" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared. She had dark circles under her eyes from the mascara she hadn't washed off last night. To be fair, I looked much the same, just with messy hair thrown in for good measure. "How long has this been going on?"

"What makes you think it's been going on for longer than one night?"

"Oh, please," she scoffed and waved a hand in my direction. "You hardly had anything to drink last night, Rina. You're not the type of girl to fuck the nearest available man."

I winced at her crass words. "Why are you so upset?"

She didn't answer and I turned to face her. She'd moved from the doorway to sit on the edge of my bed. When her face lifted, I saw a wounded look in her eyes.

"I thought we were friends, Rina."

"You know we are." I walked over and sat down beside her.

"Then why didn't you tell me you were in a relationship? I wouldn't have dragged you out last night if I'd known you were already spoken for."

I laughed before I could help it. "First of all, I'm not spoken for. What Harlowe and I have...it's not what you think. We're just..." I paused, waving a hand in front of me as I searched for the right word. Lovers? No, too intimate. Fuck buddies? Too cold. "Consenting adults. Second, even if I was taken, I'd still be able to go out with my best friend."

Angela didn't look convinced but she didn't seem as upset as before. "I just don't know why you guys didn't tell me."

I shrugged. Perhaps we should have but it had been going on for so long, neither of us considered it an issue. At first, there'd been some awkwardness over him sneaking to and from my room. Then the awkwardness had passed and it had just become part of a routine. Maybe I'd feel guilty if it was more than it was. That I didn't love him made our relationship inconsequential.

"We didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable." Discussing my unattached feelings for Harlowe wouldn't change things at this point.

"Hmm, you were probably right to keep it a secret." Angela turned to me with a smile. "If I'd known you guys were sneaking around, I might have felt compelled to chaperone more strictly."

I smiled, glad she was making a joke.

"Anyway, I should be relieved it's not serious."

"Why?"

"Well, I saw you talking to that guy last night and when I saw you with Harlowe this morning, my first thought was 'how could she flirt with another man while she's with Harlowe?'"

I started at her mention of a guy at the club and the memories washed over me. I felt heat suffuse my face and neck as I called his face to mind.

"I still can't believe he was there," Angela said, bringing me back to the present."

"What?" I felt confused and more than a little off-balance. "What do you mean?"

Angela gave me a funny look. "That guy you were talking to? He's the owner of the Firehall."

My eyes widened and I gaped at her. "You're kidding. Do you know what his name is?"

"Of course. You mean he didn't tell you himself?"

No, but he pulled my name from my mind. I shook my head.

"Well, he was only talking to you for a minute."

Again, I was dumbfounded. A minute? It had felt like hours. "What's his name?"

Angela grinned at me. "You really don't know?"

"No. Tell me."

"How funny. You were talking to him and you don't even know who he is."

"Ang! Please, just tell me his name."

Her smile drooped but she obliged. "Aedan McKay. He owns several nightclubs downtown but I've heard he spends most of his time at the Firehall."

I didn't hear anything else she said. I heard his name and the rest of her words faded, becoming background noise.

Aedan. Aedan McKay. I know you, Aedan.

You do.

The responding words sent a shiver up my spine and I must have made some noise because Angela stopped talking to give me a strange look.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," I whispered, afraid that if I spoke any louder, I'd forget it all again. "I think I just...I'm just tired."

Angela grinned and nodded as she patted my leg. "I'll bet. Harlowe must have tuckered you out last night."

Harlowe? Who the hell cares about Harlowe? Then I felt ashamed. No matter what I felt, or however strange I felt, Harlowe was a dear friend. He deserved better than me.

"I don't think I can keep sleeping with Harlowe."

Angela's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Why not?"

"It's not fair to him." As I said it, I realized it was the truth. "Or me. We both deserve the chance to be with people we truly care for."

"You don't care for Harlowe?"

"Not in that way. He's a great guy and good in bed, but I don't love him."

Angela nodded like she understood. Then her mouth turned down in a frown and she stood up from the bed. "I hope things don't get awkward if you hurt him."

I smiled. "I won't hurt him. This was only a convenience thing for both of us. Especially him. It's easier to come home to a warm body than to seek one out."

Interesting choice of words.

The thought pushed into my head and I frowned, aware of the fact that it wasn't mine.

"All the same, I'd hate to see either of you get hurt." Angela paused as she opened my bedroom door. "I think I'm hungry. You want to go out for breakfast? I'll see if Harlowe wants to come too."

I smiled at her effort to keep us together, the same happy family we'd been for years. "I'm up for breakfast. Let me shower and I'll be ready in half an hour."

"Sounds good." She left me alone.

Aedan. I rolled the name over and over in my head. It was familiar and yet it wasn't. I'd never heard his name before this morning but I felt as if I knew it.

Aedan.

Don't summon me unless you mean it.

I shuddered and told myself it was only my imagination. Then I got up and went to shower.

****

Monday rolled around all too soon and it didn't launch me into a productive week as it normally did. I walked into my office on time and tried to start my computer. It whirred and loaded and then died, with the screen going white.

"What the hell...?" I reached down to push the restart button. The tower was on a little wooden stand on the floor and my leg rested against it.

I waited and sipped my coffee as the computer shut down, then clicked back on. My desktop came on screen and as I moved the mouse to open my email, it froze. Scowling, I hit 'escape' and 'control, alt, delete.' Still nothing. Another few seconds passed and the screen went white again.

"Oh, for crying out loud."

I picked up the phone and dialed the IT department. No one answered but I left a message, urging someone to come to my office as soon as possible.

With a sigh, I wandered out to the showroom, deciding to get a jump on samples for my first client that morning. I went to the kitchen section first, pulling down rows of countertop sample chips and a board filled with brass and pewter handles. As I arranged the samples on the large table in the center of the showroom, the main door opened and in walked the most exotic looking man I'd ever seen.

He was tall and lithe, moving with an almost feline grace. His skin was the dark mocha of the Middle East and his hair was black. Without seeing him close up, I knew his eyes were dark brown, like muddy waters. As he came closer, I saw that his charcoal suit was custom made, tailored to his lean form. He wore no tie, only a crisp green shirt that complimented his skin tone perfectly. He grinned at me when he was only a few feet away and I rocked back on my heels.

It was the same sort of smile Aedan had given me the other night and it unsettled me. Instead of feeling hot, and feeling sweat trail down my back, I felt my chest squeeze. I tried to draw in air and couldn't. It brought the memory of my dream back in a rush and I paled, feeling the panic rise in my throat.

Just as suddenly as the feeling had come, it was gone. Air rushed into my lungs and I made a choking noise as I resumed breathing.

"Are you all right?" the man asked, his voice faintly accented. It was a raspy voice, like sand washing over rocks and I shivered. "I hope I'm not intruding."

"Of course not." I was glad when my voice didn't crack. "Welcome to Landbourne's design center. Did you have a meeting with someone today?" I knew the receptionist out front was often late and sometimes people came into the showroom for assistance.

"No. No meeting," he replied. "I came to see you."

"Me? Why? Do we know each other?"

He moved closer to me, circling the sample table and stopping a few feet from my left side. "We've not been introduced." He gave me a crooked smile. "Recently, that is."

Something in his tone stirred something inside of me. I swallowed, feeling my mouth go dry. I didn't thirst, not like I had with Aedan, but it was a strange feeling, nonetheless.

"I-I'm s-sorry," I stuttered and flinched as he moved closer. It was the same sort of non-movement Aedan had done the other night. If this guy had not been of Middle-Eastern descent, I'd have thought they were related.

The open smile on his face dimmed and I had the sense that perhaps he knew my thoughts, as Aedan had.

"Not in the same way," he murmured, standing practically on top on me now.

How did he get so close? I swallowed around the thickness in my throat. Then I frowned, recalling his words. "What do you mean?"

"I am not the same as he is."

I sucked in a breath and clenched my hands into fists. This can't be happening. This isn't real. No way can he read my mind like Aedan.

Then he was touching me, his dark hand cupping my cheek and I smelled something on him; something musky and heavy. It was intoxicating. Aedan's nearness had made me burn, but this man's close proximity made me feel wondrously full and heavy.

"Yes." His breath stirred against my cheek. The smell was overpowering then, thick and moist like a rainforest. "You can feel it, can't you, my nymph."

What a strange endearment. I rested my head in his hand.

His other hand came up to rest on my other cheek and his scent swirled all around me. I fell my body sag and slouch closer to him. The blood in my veins slowed and I felt light-headed, still not pulling enough air into my lungs.

I want to feel you around me. His thoughts washed through me, unbidden. As with Aedan, I didn't try to listen; they just came to me. I yearn for your moisture, your sweet dew.

The words, so intimately sexual, should have made me blush. I felt so full, like he was already invading my body.

Yesss...

His mouth touched mine and I felt my chest constrict. I panicked. Lifting my hands, I shoved against his chest, hard. He stumbled back a step, shocked and for a moment, I saw something darker cross his chocolate-colored eyes. Then the calm exterior was back and he was smiling at me.

"I'm sorry if I startled you."

"Who are you?" My voice sounded harsh even to my own ears.

He cocked his head to one side as he studied me, the smile playing around his full lips. They'd felt odd against my own. I pushed the thought away as I tried to focus on him.

"You know me."

I laughed, the sound ragged in the empty showroom. "I wish I did."

His eyes narrowed and I felt more than a little uncomfortable under his gaze. He was standing very close to me again, his musky scent permeating my senses. "You know me."

I ordered breathlessly, struggling to keep from pressing myself against his firm body. And it was firm; I'd felt the solidity of his chest and familiar moisture dotted my panties the longer he stood before me. "Tell me your name."

"Which one?"

I gaped at him. Was he serious? "The one you answer to."

"In this life, I'm called Avanindra."

"Ava- I'm sorry, what was it?"

He chuckled and my body pulsed with sudden, aching need. As if he knew what he'd just done to me, he moved closer. His arms closed around my back and I felt him open a palm over the swell of my bottom. I shuddered and braced myself against his chest.

This is all happening way too fast.

I turned my head to avoid his kiss. I don't know how I knew he was going to kiss me again. I just knew his lips were descending and I wanted to not feel that choking sensation again.