Chapter 345

It was difficult to wait the hours needed for everyone else to have gone to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about Nicholas, and being in his arms again. A late night swim sounded dangerous but I trusted him to keep me safe.

All I had to do was wait.

Finally, after Elva was deeply asleep and the house grew quiet, I exited my bedroom. The guard at the door nodded at me but didn’t otherwise comment. He probably noticed that Nicholas hadn’t returned to his room yet. The guard likely knew exactly where I was going.

Desire filled me so much that there was no room for embarrassment.

I turned from the guard and tip-toed down the stairs. I was barefoot, wearing only my swimsuit, a new one that Nicholas had ordered for me when my others had gone missing. I didn’t want to wake anyone else and have them asking questions.

Fortunately, the house was so well-maintained that there weren’t even creaks in the floorboards, and I was able to descend the stairs without incident.

The first floor was eerily quiet. Without the staff and with the lights turned off, the house felt abandoned. The starlight was bright from outside, however, and illuminated the way down the hall. The back door to the deck was unlocked as I slid it open.

Down by the water, standing just at the shoreline, I saw a familiar silhouette.

I approached Nicholas and without a word came to stand beside him. He was wearing his swim shorts and nothing else. It was difficult not to stare at him, and to instead look up at the stars. Both were equally as breathtaking.

In the city, I never saw stars like this. Here they completely covered the sky.

I wanted to say so to Nicholas, but I held my tongue. This close to the mansion, I was afraid anything I said would be overheard.

Nicholas glanced at me. Then he tilted his head to one side, gesturing further up the shoreline. I nodded, and together we walked around the water’s edge, up to the very same alcove where we had made love.

My heart hammered in my chest, as my eyes traced forward to the spot where we had laid together. There was no lingering evidence of it now. Water and wind had returned everything to how it was before we had been there.

Nicholas stopped when we were safely hidden from the house by the trees. He looked at me with hungry eyes, and I knew, though the land had forgotten what had happened here, Nicholas hadn’t.

And neither had I.

“Nick,” I whispered. We were a good distance from the mansion now. The crush of the waves would likely hide our regular speaking voices. But the moment felt too soft, like speaking too loudly might break it somehow.

Nicholas stepped closer to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist, then lowered his face down to mine and kissed me.

I sighed as I looped my arms around the back of his neck.

His kiss was gentle, but the firm press of his hard body against my curves sparked a fire within me. I immediately wanted more. I moaned a little, hoping he would take the hint and kiss me deeper.

Instead, he broke the kiss to chuckle. “Someone is eager tonight.”

“Don’t tease me,” I said, with a bit of a pout.

“Who’s teasing?” he replied. His gaze dropped down to my lips and then down farther, to where my breasts smooshed against his hard chest. “I like you like this.”

Then, at once, he surged forward and reclaimed my mouth. He showed no hesitation this time, as he licked his way past the seam of my lips. He delved deeply into my mouth with his tongue, tangling with my own.

The kiss stole my breath away. I had to hold on for dear life, as my knees felt like they would give out at any moment.

When we parted, mostly to breathe again, Nicholas looked at me for a long moment. Then he said, “Come with me into the water.”

By now my legs had resumed some basic functionality so I nodded. He released me and I stood on my own. Then he took my hand in his and clasped it.

Side by side, we slowly waded into the water. The waves were mostly calm now. As the water reached our stomachs, the waves simply lifted and lowered us gently, like a rocking cradle.

Even as a decent swimmer, I was still nervous about entering the deep water. Fortunately, Nicholas didn’t take us beyond where my feet could touch the ground while my shoulders remained above water.

Then, turning toward me, he lowered his hands down my thighs, and lifted me up against him so that I was his level. I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist and my arms around his shoulders. Like this, he kissed me.

“Nick,” I moaned against him.

The grip of one of his hands tightened on my thigh, as the other slide upwards toward my core. He teased his finger along the edge of my panty line, before slipping one errant finger underneath. He touched my clit, and I bucked against him. I broke our kiss to gasp.

The ocean water was cool, but his body was hot. And with the way he was teasing me, tracing small circles around my clit with his fingertip, I was close to igniting.

“Does it feel good?” he asked. A smug smile pulled at his lips. He seemed pleased with himself at how easily I was losing myself to the feel of him. I bucked and grinded against him, almost too lost to answer.

“Yes.”

He dipped his head down and latched onto the side of my neck, sucking in a mark.

I buried my fingers in his hair, desperate to keep him right where he was. All of it felt so good. I didn’t want it to end.

“Nick…Oh, oh… Don’t stop.”

“I won’t,” he promised. He licked over the mark he’d made, easing the initial sting. Meanwhile, his fingers continued to work wonders on my clit. He added some pressure now, bullying me, heightening my pleasure to record peaks.

“Nick!”

“You’re mine, Piper.” Nicholas spoke now, like a man possessed. “No one else will ever get to see you like this.”

It sounded like a promise, and the picture of it, of being only Nicholas’s for the rest of my life, helped topple me over the peak and straight into climax.

“Ah—” I cried out, only to be cut off when his mouth closed over mine. He swallowed all of my sounds of pleasure as if taking them into himself, claiming them as he had claimed me.

Later, as we made our way to the shore, Nicholas held my hand again, no less tightly than before. Even through my pleasure-addled mind, I could tell something was amiss.

I tugged at him when our feet reached dry sand, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer directly, but after a moment, he turned to me, his expression filled with worry. “Please be careful during the race tomorrow.”

Did he think that I wouldn’t be? I had far too much to lose. “I’ll be careful,” I assured him.

That didn’t seem like enough. “If you sense anything wrong… alert someone. Anyone. Preferably me, but whoever is nearest to you. As soon as you sense it. Okay?”

He seemed to be letting his worries overwhelm him. But, given everything that had happened lately, I supposed I couldn’t blame him. Truthfully, I was nervous too, though I couldn’t let it stop me.

I was going to do whatever it took to get to the top of this competition and not to be eliminated.

But a promise was what he wanted, so that was what I would have to give. “I promise,” I said.

And I hoped I could keep it.