He reached for her again, pulling her onto his lap, and she luxuriated in her excitement and happiness. None of this scared her. It would be complex, maybe even difficult, but Rosemary had done any number of difficult things.
It was always good to have a mountain in front of her.
They stayed in the hot tub for a long time. The more she had to drink, the more relaxed she became, and the lower she slipped into the foam. She reached out her foot and slid it up Kal’s thigh.
“Whoa,” he said.
“Bad whoa?”
“Not necessarily a bad whoa.”
She put her drink down and bobbed over to straddle his lap. “I’m very warm,” she said, “and very amenable.”
“What are you amenable to?” His hands found her arse and pulled her close enough to verify that he was at least halfway to amenable.
“What do you say in America? To riding your pole?”
Kal laughed. “Nobody ever says that anywhere.”
“I just said it, though. Disproving your point.” She wiggled up and down in demonstration. Kal closed his eyes and blew out a long breath.
That only made Rosemary want to wiggle more.
“Jesus, woman.”
“You should say, ‘Jesus, Lady Rosemary.’?”
“Lady Rosemary of the Pole.”
“Stop talking now.” She kissed him. His hands came up out of the water to find the back of her head, her hair stuck in dripping ropes to her chest, his mouth hot and hungry, tasting of licorice and hard spirits.
The water made it difficult to keep her position, but that only made it more interesting, everything slippery and wet, Kal’s hands roaming, his fingers seeking between her legs, surprising her with need.
“We should get out of the water,” he said.
“Don’t want to.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to tempt fate. If we have sex without a condom, I’m pretty sure the gods are going to decide we’re morons and give us a baby.”
“Is that how it works?”
He licked behind her earlobe, making her shiver. “Don’t tell me you don’t know how sex works, Rosemary.”
“I haven’t a clue, actually. Why don’t you show me?”
Kal tried to stand with her all wrapped around him, but the water sloshed everywhere and he slipped, which made them both laugh. The air outside the hot tub was cool, gravity impossibly heavy. She dripped a mess all the way to the bed, where she spread-eagled. Kal crawled over her.
He kissed her, holding her wrists to either side of her head, making such a thorough job of it that she grew impatient with him and tore her mouth away to bite his shoulder. He just smiled that Kal smile, then kissed his way down her body without missing a single important part on the way.
He held her knees open and licked her. Rosemary decided that mildly intoxicated head was her favorite kind.
Or perhaps it was that she loved him.
Either way. She lost her train of thought as he got busy with his tongue, his fingers, perhaps those were his teeth, it didn’t signify, only that it felt amazing and she clutched the sheets in both hands, raked her nails over his shoulders, held on and held on and held on until he got her too close and she started to hit him.
“What’d I do wrong?”
“Come up here.”