Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

information.”
    She suddenly smiled. “Well, I guess we’d better have a plan for when that happens.”
    He stared up at her face for a long time, wondering how he’d found her.
    The water was so cold, so dark, his lungs burned and his ears had nearly imploded, and his body and head had been battered against rocks, tumbling until there was only death waiting. He’d seen death. It hadn’t been any better for him than life. And then Rikki. He touched her with reverence.
    “You know that I intend to make love to you.”
    She went very still, just as he’d known she would. “You haven’t tried.”
    He wasn’t certain what that meant, whether she was disappointed or just stating the truth. He figured it was probably the latter. She was very accepting of reality. “It has to be right with you, Rikki. You’re different.
    You’re real, not a job. You matter. I’ve never been with a woman who mattered to me.”
    “I can’t imagine you not getting any woman you wanted, Lev.”
    He smiled, his heart suddenly lighter as he kissed her thigh right on one of those shimmering raindrops. He was very fond of her boy shorts. The ones she was wearing had little pink stripes wrapping around her as if she were a gift to be opened. “Thank you, but I never wanted a woman for myself. There’ve been women. Too many. Assignments. I used them to get what I wanted. This isn’t ever going to be about using you. This is going to be about making love to you.”
    192

    He stroked his fingers over her satin thigh, over the drops. Were they tears? How could she be so soft when she spent so much time in the water?
    There was always a faint fragrance just out of his reach, subtle, yet so Rikki.
    “I’ve got to warn you, Lev”—her voice trembled, and for the first time when he looked at her, she looked away from him—“I’m not very good at lovemaking. It’s not like I have a lot of experience, and when someone touches me, sometimes it hurts.”
    He propped himself up on one elbow and slid her down so that she sprawled out beneath him. “Well, we’ll have to go slow and see what you like and what you don’t like, won’t we?”
    193

Chapter 13
    THE butterflies were out in force, taking flight in the pit of Rikki’s stomach. She stared up at Lev’s face. So dominant. So beautifully masculine. Why him? Why did Lev send every single nerve ending in her body into high alert? Why did she wait for the brush of his fingers on her skin when she could barely tolerate other people’s touch? The center of her left palm pulsed and she closed her fingers over the tingling warmth.
    His eyes were amazing. A deep-sea blue she was immediately lost in. If she had a thought of self-preservation, it was gone the moment she looked into his eyes. There was desire smoldering there, a scorching intensity that burned right through her. His eyes couldn’t lie, he actually wanted her that much and how could she ever resist?
    Rikki touched his face tentatively. His hand was on her bare stomach, his fingers spread wide to take in as much territory as possible. She was acutely aware of the skin-to-skin contact; he seemed to burn a brand right through the surface and deep into her body. She’d never felt like this with anyone. His touch was as real and as vivid as the world of the sea, or the rain.
    She became aware of the music in the rain changing—not through her, but through him, as if he conducted now. Dreamy, sensual, an exotic, erotic beat that kept time with the movements of his fingers. Each stroke sent little tremors through her body. She was mesmerized by him, by the sight and feel of him, by the way he looked at her—as if she were the only woman in the world. It was there in his head, that conviction that there could be no other for him. It was a fairly heady aphrodisiac when she’d spent so much of her time alone—when no one had ever really seen who she was and wanted her anyway.
    Everything he said, she felt the truth of. The connection between them was so strong, she doubted if he could lie effectively to her. For some unknown reason, and she was grateful for that reason, Lev had settled on her as the one. She’d never really been anyone’s one.
    194

    Daniel had loved her in his way. She was a good companion to him, a diver who understood their world. She demanded little from him. He cared for her and he liked sex with her, but he’d never thought to take his time to try to please her. She had such a difficult time with