“Yeah. Felt good. You feel good.” He encouraged her other strap to fall as well.

“What are you doing?”

“We obviously need to do this more often so you aren’t confused,” he said, still bent to his task of getting her naked.

She swiped water from her face. “What if my dress is dry clean only?”

“I’ll apologize and buy you a new one.” With her still in his arms he turned and pinned her against the tile. He knew he had her when her eyes ran down his chest and abs and then into the swirling water for the rest of him and her breathing changed. He fought the urge to crush his mouth to hers, needing her to want him as badly as he wanted her.

“I didn’t think we’d be doing this again,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because …” She paused and that’s when he knew. She was most definitely feeling the same as he was, and she was still scared. They weren’t just having fun, or exorcising ghosts. They weren’t just scratching an itch. It was more, far more, and he wanted her to say it. “Because what?” he asked, pressing a thigh between hers.

“Because it wasn’t just sex,” she whispered, eyes heated. “Was it?”

Eyes on hers, he slowly shook his head, getting even harder when she rocked into him. “No, it wasn’t.”

“I’m not ready for what this is,” she said breathlessly.

“What do you think this is?”

She opened her mouth and then closed it, either unable or unwilling to define it.

“Lily, whatever you think is happening between us, it’s under control,” he said, meaning to reassure her. But he knew that though he meant those words, the truth was he had no control over his feelings for her. He was in love, she was leaving, and he couldn’t do a damn thing about that.

She stared at him for a long beat. “I won’t want to stop,” she whispered.

Thank Christ, he thought as a groan shuddered through him. He lowered his head, skimming his lips up her throat, along her jaw to her ear, wanting her to do that thing where she hissed out a breath and clutched at him like he was the only anchor in a spinning world.

And then she did exactly that.

When he finally kissed her, she arched her wet, warm body harder into him, her breathing already labored, her hands sliding along his shoulders. One of her hands curled around the back of his neck, sinking her fingers into his hair as she slowly deepened the kiss, giving into him with the sexiest sigh of acquiescence he’d ever heard.