Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

and eyes burning, the women were obviously upset. Jonas collected his wife and Blythe looked both men over thoroughly before she left. Lev waited until the cars were far down the drive before he allowed himself to look at Rikki. Her eyes were overbright, as if she might have been crying or might be close to tears.
    No one had ever cried for him. He touched her face with gentle fingers, tracing a path from the corner of her eye to her chin.
    “You’re alive, then,” she said, her voice husky. “That’s good.”
    “We missed him, lubov moya . He managed to slip away from us. The cops are searching for him, but they aren’t going to find him. He started multiple fires and you weren’t there to put them out.”
    “Come take a shower and then you can tell me what happened.” She tugged at his hand, dragging him through the house to the bathroom.
    He was fairly certain she couldn’t talk. She kept her head down, but he could see she was very shaken. He started to give her reassurances, but she just shook her head and pointed toward the bathroom. Glancing in the mirror, he could see why. His face was streaked with grime and he was certain he smelled like smoke.
    “I’m throwing your clothes away,” she announced once the water was pouring over him.
    “I don’t have very many clothes,” he pointed out. “Maybe we could wash them.”
    “I’m taking them out to the garbage.”
    She slammed the door and he took that as the final word. Smiling, he turned his face up to the water. He was beginning to love it as much as she did. He took his time, allowing her the space she needed to cry out her relief in privacy. His heart beat hard, though, at the thought that she’d been worried about him—that she cared enough to cry.
    He padded barefoot and naked from the bathroom, toweling off his shaggy hair. Over the last few weeks it had grown out from his military cut, 275

    spilling down around his eyes. He would have to get a trim, but he thought the longer hair added something to Levi Hammond’s personality.
    “Where are you, Rikki?” He knew where she was. In her inevitable hammock swing on the back porch, but he’d wanted to give her the courtesy of a warning.
    “Out here,” she called back.
    He heard the rustle as she slipped out of the chair and came to the door to watch him come toward her. She’d definitely been crying. Tears tangled and clung to her long lashes, leaving them spiky and glittering with liquid diamonds.
    “You all right, laskovaya moya?” His voice was tender as he wrapped his fingers around the nape of her neck and drew him to her.
    Rikki wrapped her arms around Lev and buried her face against his chest. “I was so scared for you. Why did you go without me?”
    “I was perfectly safe.”
    “You weren’t safe. Don’t lie to me. I could feel you were in trouble. I would have tried to touch your mind with mine, but I was afraid I would distract you and you’d get hurt.”
    He stroked her hair, loving the way her body melted into his like liquid velvet. She would always remind him of the sea, stormy and gentle, welcoming and mysterious. Like the waves against rock, he could break into a million pieces, scatter into molecules, tiny particles, and fall whole into the warmth of her love.
    “Come lie down with me,” he invited.
    “Lev, I was so afraid for you.” She looked up at him and those dark eyes were drenched with tears. “I didn’t know I could feel like that.”
    “Now you know how I feel about you. You terrify me, Rikki, with the risks you take.”
    He brushed back her hair and bent to coax kisses from her. Her lips were trembling, and he caught her full lower lip between his teeth and tugged gently. She opened her mouth to his, taking as much as she gave. Her slender arms circled his neck, holding his head to hers, her body pressing into his.
    “I don’t take risks. I’m a safety diver,” she whispered into his mouth.
    She kissed him with growing hunger, each kiss longer and more demanding.
    “Come to bed, Rikki.” Lev took her hand and drew her into the house, locking the door and leading her through the rooms to the bedroom, pausing only to turn off the lights.
    There was little moonlight shining silver through the window, but enough to spill over her pale body as he tugged her shirt over her head. He 276

    kissed his way from the corner of her mouth to her breast, one hand cupping the soft weight in his palm while he fed. He trailed his other hand across her