Broken Bonds (Lizzie Grace 3)

“Do you carry half your wardrobe around with you or something?”

“A good ranger is prepared for any eventuality.”

“Even seduction on the banks of an old watering hole?”

“Indeed.” He touched my spine and lightly pressed me forward. “I used to come here a lot when I was a teenager.”

“Oh, yeah? And how many seductions happened here?”

“A few.” He grinned and cupped his hands. “I’m a ranger, not a Boy Scout.”

I snorted and placed my foot into his hands. He boosted me up easily, waited patiently while I rather awkwardly clambered over the top and dropped down onto the other side, and then followed me over. He was decidedly more graceful than me.

He caught my hand and then led me forward. We were soon deep within a forest of beautiful old gums, but the area wasn’t silent. The hum of cicadas filled the air, and magpies sang melodiously in the distance. We walked up a slight incline and came out of the trees. The swimming hole was oval shaped, fed by a spring on one edge and draining into another on the opposite side. The water was dark, which indicated depth, and the bank a mix of green grass, wildflowers, and dirt.

“This is very pretty,” I said.

“Which is why it was once such a popular seduction spot.”

We walked down to a thick patch of grass, where he dropped the towel, blanket, and the clothes he was carrying. “Do you need help stripping off?”

I ignored the wicked twinkle in his eyes and began pulling off my clothes. “You’re the one that majorly stinks right now. How about you just get into that water ASAP, before the full force of the potions hit and you get the mother of all boners?”

“Not a bad thing—”

“It is if it lasts days.”

“And could it?”

“Yes.”

“Moving as ordered, then.”

He hastily undressed, then ran for the water and dived in. I stopped close to the water’s edge and warily dipped a toe in. “It’s damn cold!”

He grinned. “I’ll warm you up quickly enough.”

I snorted and went as deep as my ankles. A shiver ran through the rest of me. “I’m not a fan of cold—” The rest of my sentence ended in a splutter as he swept an arm across the water and sent a huge wave over me. “Damn you, Ranger—”

He laughed. “I’ll do it again if you don’t get in.”

I dived in and swam over to him. “You still smell. Dunk under a few more times.”

He did so. Once the stench was all but gone, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. He caught my waist, drew me even closer, and deepened the kiss, his mouth hungry against mine.

“Condom impossibility is the one problem with seductions in water,” he said eventually, his words little more than a harsh rasp. “Are you protected?”

“Yes.” I raised an eyebrow. “Are you clean?”

He grinned. “As a whistle. I’m a very careful werewolf.”

“Good, because I’m a very careful witch who doesn’t want anything nasty.”

“You’ll get nothing more than a good time from me,” he said. “A promise I make in the full knowledge that you could probably send a curse my way that would totally end my sex life if I was stupid enough to lie.”

“You’d better believe it, Ranger.”

He laughed again. I wrapped my legs around his waist and felt him slide deep inside.