Bound

Real

CLAIRE POV

My inhibitions were well and truly compromised by the time we emerged into the suffocating heat of the afternoon. A were metabolism can only go so far in the face of twelve courses of tiny platters paired with a disproportionately large serving of charismatic alcohols.

Alexi's hand had found a small diamond panel on my lower back somewhere between the staircase and the door, and the heat from his touch was curling evocatively in my lower belly.

Halfway from pier to shore a strong hand caught the swing of my wrist and spun me into a broad expanse of solid chest. A peal of delight stole from a secret place and ran away with the wind and the waves.

I don't know how long we stood there with the sea breeze curling around my bare leg and whispering secrets in our ears. Long enough for me to pull away, but I didn't. Long enough for Alexi to step back into the respectful distance we had been maintaining, but he didn't either.

"Claire." Alexi said eventually, breathlessly, as if we had been doing much more than standing closer than the world thought we should be. One hand resting on his chest. One gentle but immovable arm wrapping around my waist. Two hearts teetering on the edge of racing into madness. "You can hold this against me later, but I am at the end of my self control."

Despite the urgency of his tone, it was with gentle fingertips that he brushed the side of my face and tilted my chin upwards.

This was a bad idea. I should not be doing this.

He ran his nose along the line of my jaw, savouring the smell as the pounding of my heart sank to a throbbing in the center of my desire.

I should be pulling away right now. Diving into the ocean to cool off. Flying into the sunset. Running screaming towards shore. Anything but this. Anything but biting my lip and closing my eyes, surrendering to the whims of my body in his control. Definitely not that.

But it was exactly what I was doing.

By the time his lips made their way to mine I was practically thrumming with need. They met with an outpouring of sensation that did not correspond to the softness of the act. A shudder coursed from where we joined to the tips of my toes, and right back up again.

A soft, wet tongue parted my lips ever so gently as he savoured the taste of me, and I of him. A moan escaped as rough fingers trailed the length of my spine, and searching hands buried themselves in russet locks.

Let me in Claire. Linked the man whose arms held me like I was a treasure. Please.

I would like to say that this request shocked me into reason enough to take that step back. I would like to say that I was strong enough to take a taste of the sweet escape, and recognise the poison lacing underneath.

But it did not. I was not. I did not.

I caved like a meringue into a powdery sugary mess in Alexi's arms, opening the pathway that separated our minds. Filling myself with the sharp edges and burning pull of him. Pouring in the torn convictions and tornado of sheer animal magnetism of me.

Senseless to the world around us, I bunched my fingers through those thick russet curls and pulled. Securing our faces together with a wild crash of teeth and unadulterated need.

Without a word he pulled away and led me to a ladder I hadn't seen on the way up. The brand of scalding metal bit into our palms as we descended to a metal filigree platform beneath the pier. Hidden to both the shore and the restaurant.

The diamond pattern of the platform sat on level with the ocean, and extended between four wooden pillars that disappeared into the depths of the ocean. Mollusc shells clung in uniform coverings, up to the line the tide raised itself to when it came in. Waves rolling toward the shore covered the platform, only to expose the grated surface again a few seconds later.