A Wicked Good Witches Paranormal Romance Books 1-7 (Wicked Good Witches Seasons) (19 page)

“Do you trust me?” There was menace in her tone. She stepped closer to the edge of the quarry.

“Trust you? Hmm…” He got to his feet, facing her as if trying to read her thoughts. “I guess this means I do.” His voice inflected maybe, maybe not, but I’m game either way.

“You’re probably going to want to take your clothes off then.” Melinda proceeded to peel off a sweater and lift her tank top over her head.

“What are you doing?” he breathed out through puckered cheeks.
Oh, wow!
So perfectly curvy in all the right places…
he didn’t know what she had in mind but he had a few ideas tossing around. Mostly along the lines of tracing all those curves with his hands. Or tongue, yup, definitely with his tongue.

Melinda swallowed a nervous breath after he licked his lips as if he’d just tasted something delicious. She waved, got him to look at her eyes and shot him a look that said undress already.

“Okay, okay. Your wish, my command,” he surrendered hastily.

A nervous pit expanded in her chest.
What the heck am I doing?
Standing half-naked next to a perfect stranger...
yeah, this isn’t the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.
She unbuttoned her jean
shorts, slinking out of them, allowing them to slither down her legs to the ground. She swore she heard a hungry groan from Riley’s direction but didn’t dare look his way. If she did, she’d lose her nerve.

Thank God, she’d at least worn a matching bra and panties set today. Bright pink, making her skin look the color of cream. She worked hard to keep her hands by her sides, rather than letting them enclose around herself. He’d already seen what she looked like. He either liked it, or didn’t.

Dumb dumb dumb,
she repeated to herself.
I didn’t even suck in my pooch.
Ugh… dreaming about this is so much easier.
And thinking and saying like it or leave it was a thousand times easier than actually believing it.

Melinda sucked in and thought,
Screw
it! I’m not doing anything like I would normally today.
Her eye caught him staring at her… he was looking right at her stomach, licking his lips again like she looked… edible.

She jerked her head forward, worked-up-level threatening to boil her blood at any second. Except this time, it wasn’t a dream. Motorcycle man was just a few feet away. Undressing. Because she’d asked him to.

She didn’t know why she felt so comfortable and daring around Riley. Maybe it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with her. Still, she had a gut instinct that she could trust him. But that instinct had led her into the arms of jerkwad…
fuck that douchebag.
And that wasn’t her so much as her under-utilized hormone levels that didn’t want to hold the title, virgin, any longer. Maybe she could just pretend jerkwad didn’t happen. It hardly counted as real sex anyway. He certainly didn’t leave her satisfied.

Regardless of her past choices, there was something different about Riley. She wondered how many naive women had said that same thing right before a serial killer snuffed out their lives.

Melinda refused to lose her nerve. She moved to the edge of the quarry, toes dangling precariously over the edge of the granite. She glanced over, unable to see the bottom as steam and fog rolled lazily across the surface.

Riley stepped up alongside her, just inches away, taking a safe peak over the edge.

Her gaze wandered to his nearly naked body. He wore just a pair of form fitting knit boxers. She had to stop her hand from reaching out and stroking the artwork that was his chest. He was all lean and muscly under that leather jacket. Tan. Smooth. So magnificently shaped.

Hands wrapped around her waist.

She gasped, not because of that, but because she’d nearly lost her balance and toppled over the side of the granite cliff. He steadied her, holding back an amused grin. He graciously said nothing and released her. Melinda sucked in a deep pocket of air, berating herself for ten seconds that went on for a year.

Riley chuckled.

She exhaled. Humiliation buried. Determination returned.

“Take my hand,” she ordered him, retaking her position at the cliff’s edge.

“Um, why?” he asked, with slight trepidation. “You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?” he backed away a few steps.

“Are you afraid of heights?”

“Not really, but, you can hardly see the water. How do you know what’s down there?”

“I could jump anywhere in this quarry with my eyes closed. Do you trust me?” she asked him again. 

Riley eyed her, his look one of uncertainty. Was this some test of bravery? Meant for him, or her? He supposed if this test were something she needed, he’d oblige. He rejoined her, standing so close that their bodies were practically touching.

Melinda had no idea where this newfound bravery was coming from, but she refused to question it. Adrenaline surged through her body and she didn’t want it to stop. It felt like she had been asleep for a very long time and had just awakened and remembered she had a life to live.

“Take my hand,” she whispered with a hard swallow.

He did so.

Melinda jumped, taking Riley with her.

She didn’t even know if he screamed on the way down. All she could hear was the rush of air flying by, and the waterfall crashing onto the water’s surface below. Cool water bit at her sun-warmed skin as she hit the surface. She plunged underneath, fully submerged, moments later kicking upward her head popping out of the water.

She’d lost her grip on her motorcycle man.

“Riley,” she called out. He didn’t answer and she couldn’t see him.

Her heart raced, blood pumping through veins that had been sedentary for years, each pulse surging with an intoxicating rush she wanted to repeat. She’d left the old Melinda Howard up on the ledge.

She spun around in the water, looking for Riley to surface. Her heart thudded hard when she didn’t see him. Had she messed up? Had he been injured during the jump?

It was difficult to see; the mist was thicker than she had expected.

She gasped, suddenly grabbed from behind and spun around. Riley’s moist lips charged her own. The sting of the cold water and the rushing of blood through her veins was nothing to the electrifying thrum the touch of his lips shot through each nerve. All thought, all reason, dissolved into lips consuming each other.

When Riley pulled away, his breath came out in a frantic push. “That was such a rush… I’ve never done anything like it before.”

“The jump, or the kiss?” she asked, her head in a drunken-like haze.

He swam closer, looking like he was going to kiss her again.

Melinda’s willpower sank, and drowned. She wanted a lot more than another kiss.

His eyes widened in surprised delight when she reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. She wiggled out of it, and it floated away with the churning whirlpools created by the waterfall. She left no question as to what she wanted.

Riley got her message loud and clear.

“Your wish is my command.”

She swam backwards; he kept pace until she slowed down, granite sweeping across the bottom of her feet. She stopped when cool granite caressed her back. The water reached her chest, hiding most of her from the shoulders down. 

Riley grabbed the top of the granite wall, drawing his body closer to hers. His lips trailed down her cheek, her neck, nibbling on her ear. It was heavenly as she thought it would be.

“I’ve never met anyone like you, Melinda.”

“I bet you say that to all the girls.”   

“There haven’t been that many,” he returned. “But they were just that.
Girls.
” The way he said the word was like describing her as the epitome of womankind. 

Heavenly puffs of white steam enclosed around them.

His lips lowered, nuzzling the curve of her breasts.

Her reaction pleased him. She thought at least, by the moan that came out of him.

He lifted his head, finding her lips again. It wasn’t a full invasion. He seemed to be holding back. Or maybe he wasn’t, Melinda had no idea. She only knew she was falling hard. And fast. Too fast, she was certain most any sane person would say.

Shit. Shit. Shit.
A surge of doubt swept through her.
What am I doing?
 

He pulled away gently, almost as if he sensed her tension. He was far too perceptive.

“I feel like I’ve known you forever, Melinda. Like we were destined to meet. Wow, um, sorry,” he said with a hint of disbelief. “Even to me that sounded like a lame ass pick up line.” He let out a frustrated chuckle.

She recalled feeling the same way when she’d run into him the evening before. Like destiny had knocked on her door. “Well, since we’re being lame and cliché, you should know I don’t normally do this sort of thing. It’s so… not me.”

“And not to meet, or beat, your cliché, but I usually do like to date, first,” he said. “If you want to stop, Melinda, we can. The truth is...” he let out a timid breath. “The truth is, from the moment I ran into you last night I haven’t stopped thinking about you. I don’t understand it exactly, but when I looked into your eyes they begged me to love you. To wrap you up in my arms and protect you. To please you in every way possible. I’ve had an urge to do just that ever since and that’s not going to change if you want to slow down.” He looked directly into her eyes to be sure there was no doubt.

She glanced down into the water and smirked.

“I didn’t say it would be easy to stop.”

Riley was a stranger and yet she looked into his eyes and all doubt swept away.

“I won’t ever do anything you don’t want me to,” he whispered, a slight tremble in his voice. “I want you to know you can trust me, Melinda. However long that takes.”

God, could he be anything but perfect? Could he say anything that wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear? Warning bells should have sounded in her mind, instead, they were drowned out by the pulsing of her heart and belief in what he was saying even if it was naïve… erased and replaced by a need she had to have satisfied before she lost her mind.

She was done not living her life anymore. Finished wasting away the days without taking a chance. A risk… everything required risk. It was time she took one without worrying about the consequences.

She reached in front of her and grabbed hold of Riley’s boxer shorts, pulling them down over his ass. He kicked them off, needing no further encouragement. They popped up somewhere behind him, floating away into the steamy plumes. Riley’s hands ran down her sides, eagerly sliding hers down over her hips. She wriggled out of her pink panties and lost them in the swirling water.

His hands wrapped around her backside, bringing her body up against his.

Her arms slid around him.

The hardness rubbing in between them sent a jolt of current through her.

“I want to take you out of the water, Melinda.”

And didn’t that cool things off. A lot. 

She didn’t answer him right away and cast her gaze downward, shyness instant and unwelcomed. Seemed she didn’t really leave old Melinda back up on top of the cliff after all.

There would still be steam hiding them from any potential onlookers, but there would be nothing hiding her from Riley. He’d see every part of her. There would be no way to hide anything.

His fingers caught her chin and gently pulled it up so he could see her eyes.

“If you’ve changed your mind…” she shook her head.

“It’s not that. It’s just… I may have given you the impression I’m a confident person, Riley, but I’m not.” It was painful to admit. “I don’t… it’s very… exposed.”
As in, you will see all of me and I don’t know if I can do that.

He pressed into her, the thick bulge between them reminding her of what she was doing to him. “Will you let me prove to you why you should be confident?”

She let out an uneven breath.

“Have you ever looked at yourself, Melinda? For real?”

She didn’t respond.

“I don’t think you have the right view of yourself at all,” he whispered softly.

“Um…” She let out another shaky exhale.

“If you still don’t believe me…” he grinned, grabbed her hand, and brought it into the water and held her palm against the length of him. “Your hot little body is driving me insane.”
 

“There you go again…” it came out riding a sigh. “Saying every right thing. How do you do that?” She almost felt tears welling up.
Seriously? Tears?

He did call me hot.

Screw the jerkwad!

He can take his
adorable
and shove it up his ass…

Riley shook his head. “It’s all you, Melinda. You make me say things, think things, I’ve never thought before. Never imagined saying to anyone before. You make me understand the meaning of every lame pickup line, love song I’ve ever heard, or romantic movie I’ve ever been suckered into watching.”