Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

and someone had been looking into her life. He doubted if it was the local sheriff. The man had had plenty of time to look at her if he was suspicious of her in any way and wouldn’t go back for a second look. No, Ivanov had heard of the female sea urchin diver and she would be his first choice to look into.
    Someone would remember she hadn’t been at the wedding on the day the yacht sank. Ivanov by now would have visited the local sheriff and the hospitals and clinics. Finding nothing, he would have started trying to blend in and get acquainted with the locals to hear all the gossip.
    Rikki came in, breaking his concentration, and went past him without a word. He heard the shower start up a few minutes later. He sighed and sat back. The woman was beginning to make him a little crazy. Where had all his training and discipline gone? He erased his history and logged off.
    Leaning on the doorframe, he studied her through the glass as she showered. She was wholly focused on the water and obviously wasn’t aware of him. Laskovaya moya, do you believe I’m playing you? Using you?
    She didn’t look up. Nor did she stiffen. She left the water running over her shoulders and back as if she ached. It occurred to me that it was possible until I felt my palm aching. She rubbed the center of her palm and he felt the touch as if it were physical, stroking and caressing his cock. I’m in your head and you’re in mine. It might work for a short period of time, but you can’t hide from me any more than I can hide from you .
    She turned her head and looked back at him through the glass. Her eyes met his, locked and held. He felt that look stab deep, penetrate straight through his chest to his heart. There was love in her eyes. She didn’t bother to hide it. She never voiced the sentiment aloud to him. Maybe she didn’t realize he said it to her because he always used his native tongue, but he could see it there in her solemn eyes.
    / see you, Lev. I will always see you, no matter what skin you have to wear or how many times you have to shed it and grow a new one. I’ll see you when you’re in the shadows. The real you is always safe here with me.
    I’m not going anywhere.
    His eyes and throat burned. He couldn’t move, couldn’t turn away from her, and he knew the raw emotion was there on his face for her to see. He broke open and spilled out in front of her. The man he’d wanted to be, the man who had fallen so hard for a woman he couldn’t ever find his feet-or his heart-again, could only look at her and know for certain he was where he was supposed to be.
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Chapter 16
    EYES locked on Rikki’s, Lev pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. It took a minute to remove his shoes and socks and strip off his pants. She waited, her eyes darkening with passion. He could drown in her eyes, he decided, locking his gaze with hers, stepping close to pull open the glass door.
    She inhaled sharply, tilting her head as he came closer. Lev wrapped his fingers around the nape of her neck and drew her to him. The moment he touched her, he felt complete. The water poured over both of them like an exotic waterfall. The entire shower had been constructed to appear as if they were out in the wild, the sea surrounding them, and the water, either rain or a cascading fall, added to the effect. She belonged in that setting, and when her body moved against his, she was relaxed and welcoming.
    He loved the scent of her, the womanly fragrance drifting around him like a heady perfume. The trust in her eyes, the need and passion, aroused him as nothing else could. Her hands moved over his chest, her fingers tracing defined muscles. There was possession in her touch for the first time.
    A claiming of her own.
    The breath slammed out of his body when her fingers closed over his engorged cock, trailing sizzling sensation up and down its length and around the thick girth. She knelt there on the cool gray and blue tile, and cupped the weight of his balls in her palms.
    “What are you doing?” He could barely get the words out as he felt her breath, already hot, already sweet, bathing the throbbing mushroom head.
    With shaky hands he changed the cascade of water falling on them to a gentle rain.
    “Practicing,” she replied in a husky, sensual tone. “I like to be good at whatever I do and I like pleasing you.” She licked at the pearly drops and then hummed, savoring them as if he had given her the finest of wines. ”You taste