But then again, Franklin was known to enjoy many ladies in his time, though public record did not chronicle opinions of his habits. Ginny thought she would probably have liked him for his autonomy of spirit, if for no other reason.

It was so pleasant, being lulled into tranquility by the rushing sound of water and the heat of the sun on her body. Her breasts were warm, the nipples tightly beaded. It was strangely arousing to lie beneath the sky in such abandon.

Droplets of water spattered on her belly and thighs, and over the noise of the waterfall she heard Steve say, “You look like a virgin sacrifice.”

She smiled blindly, relishing the damp heat that rose from the rocks, arching upward when she felt Steve’s hand on her belly, then her breast. It was exquisitely erotic, lying atop the rock while he stroked and caressed her, her eyes closed as she gave herself up to pure sensation.

His hands moved over her leisurely at first, touching her with familiar assurance, palms spread over her ribs, then testing the cushion of her breasts, his skin abrasive enough to send delicious little shivers through her at his caress. With the heat of the sun on her bare body and the stroke of his hands along her thighs, then between, Ginny felt wanton, a purely sexual excitement throbbing inside her, turning her blood to liquid heat and her flesh to malleable clay in his hands.

He molded her, hands clever at finding the spot that elicited the most intense response, fingers sliding over her mist-dampened skin with unerring accuracy. The moss beneath her was a soft, fragrant cushion. Sunlight was displaced by the heat of his hands as he skimmed her thigh, up to the crevice between her legs. His thumb found her in a heady, potent kiss across her quivering center, and her hips arced up into his hand.

“Keep your eyes closed, Ginny,” he murmured when she started to open them. “Don’t think. Don’t talk. Just feel.”

The steady, loud collapse of water plummeting from two hundred feet above was a constant roar in her ears, the air alive with a damp mist that permeated muscle and bone. His hand moved, his thumb an erotic friction across the aching, melting heart of her until the heat of the sun coalesced into a blinding white flame to ignite a shuddering release that swept through her like wildfire and left her boneless, drained as she reached out for him.

“Oh God, Steve…”

Her hand encountered bare flesh, fingers finding old scars on his back, sliding up over taut muscles and smooth skin to curve around his neck, tangling in the crisp dark hair that was slightly damp.

“You drive me to distraction, Ginny. I should have known I’d come back to find you as naked as a woodland nymph.” His laugh was rueful, swallowed as she pulled his face down to hers to kiss him deeply.