Love Uncovered (Forbidden Fruit) (3 page)

“What are you doing?” H
er voice sounded small in the darkness.

“Come swim with me, Jules.
Like we used to.”

The “no” sat on the tip of her tongue ready to reject him, but in the stillness a small quiet voice inside her said “why not?” Why shouldn’t she? It was so dark. She wouldn’t have to worry about how she looked, and she used to love to swim at night, floating under the stars. She nodded, unable to squeeze a response past the tightness in her throat and stood.

“Good.” Max grabbed some of the kids’ Styrofoam noodles from the boat house and tossed them into the water. He planted a smacking kiss on top of her head, let out a whoop and dove in after them. He came up spluttering and gasping for air. “Holy Christ, it’s cold!” Laughter bubbled out of her and some of the tension between them dissolved. “Come on in. The water is fine,” he said doing his best Delmar from
O Brother Where Art Thou
.

“I can tell.” She laughed. Still grinning, she shimmied out of her jeans and panties. Without giving herself a chance for second thoughts, she stripped off her shirt and unclasped her bra, freeing her full breasts. Her nipples pebbled to tight buds in the cool night air and she shivered both from the cold
and the shock of standing naked under the stars.

Unable to bring herself to dive into the dark, she climbed down the ladder, gasping as she slid into the water.

“Over here, baby.” Max waved a noodle at her, and with swift smooth strokes, she swam the short distance to him. He pushed two noodles at her, and she wiggled one under her butt, making herself a floating chair. The second one went around her back and under her arms. She leaned back buoyed by the noodles and the smooth dark water and sighed completely content for the first time in as long as she could remember.

Her breasts floated, pale orbs in the dark water.
She could just make out the shapes of her feet deep in the water below her. Letting her head fall back, she stared up at the stars. Max floated over to her in his own improvised chair and touched her fingertips with his.

“Look at how many there are,” he said, his voice filled with the awe she felt. “They go on forever.”

“Yep.” They bobbed side by side in the stillness of the night barely touching yet somehow more connected than they’d been in months. Her body had adjusted to the water temperature and only the tops of her shoulders and tips of her breasts felt the chill of the night air. The cool air on her nipples was deliciously arousing. Every so often she’d shift to lower her breasts under what now felt like warm water and shiver as she let them break the surface again, the contrast in temperature tightening her nipples to hard points and sending tremors through her body.

“I love you, Jules.”
Max slid behind her, letting his arms circle her. The extra buoyancy of him underneath her lifted her breasts slightly out of the water. Achingly slowly with feather light touches, his fingers played along the curves off her breasts. When they grazed her nipples, her head fell back to rest on his chest.

They floated weightless in the dark while he stroked
her breasts. The hard length of him nestled in the crease of her bottom, but he didn’t rush. They listened to the frogs and watched the stars as Max slowly, deliberately stoked fires Julie thought had gone out. When her breath came in quick gasps and she pressed back against his erection, he caught her earlobe between his teeth and she trembled, parts of her coming fully awake for the first time in months.

“I want to be inside you. Give me your noodles.”

The absurdity of his words had them both laughing, but only for as long as it took her to pass them to him. He doubled the floats he already had and then pulled her over to straddle him. The water and his skin slid effortlessly across her naked body. It was the easiest thing in the world to take the hard length of his cock into her slick heat. His answering groan sent a ripple of pleasure through her.

“Oh God, you are so hot.
So tight.”

He rocked against her, not thrust
ing as much as settling deeper inside her. She kissed his wet lips, teasing his tongue with hers and opening completely to him. He pressed up into her and she rode him, the two of them bobbing on the waves they made together.

It was a sweet aching grinding, but he couldn’t get leverage to thrust. Instead of surging towards the cli
max, he let the pleasure wash over them. His hands teased the limited bits of skin he could reach while still keeping them floating. Shifting slightly, he reached up and took her nipples between his fingers and tugged the way he knew she liked. Her answering moan and the way she pushed down on him, taking him even deeper, had his cock throbbing. God, she was so beautiful, her creamy curves glowing in the moonlight, and she didn’t realize it.

“You don’t know how beautiful you are, do you?” She let out a little cry and collapsed, letting her head rest on his chest. “Look,
Julie.  Look at your skin under the water.” His fingers traced the tiny bubbles that clung to her skin. “A water nymph, you’re a moonlit water nymph.” He rocked and she moaned as his cock nudged against her womb. “Touch yourself for me. Come on, baby. Please, let me see you.”

He could tell she was uncertain, but he watched as her hand dipped under the water. Her fingers found the place where their bodies joined and she stroked, riding his cock and her hand until her breath came in gasps and her head fell back.

“Coming,” she panted. “I’m coming.”

“God,
Julie.” He groaned as her muscles pulsed, milking his cock and taking him over the edge with her. She fell against him, forehead to forehead, but neither of them moved to separate. They floated together until he felt her shiver with cold instead of passion. “Come on, let’s get you warm.”

“I don’t want to leave.”
As she said the words he felt her tremble.

“I know, baby
, but you’re cold. Let’s go light a fire.”

They swam to the dock and he waited while she climbed the ladder and pulled herself out of the water. Even in the dark he could see her shiver. “Should have brought towels,” she said as her teeth chattered and she searched in the dark for her clothes.

“Next time. Don’t worry about the clothes. We’ll get them in the morning.” He caught her hand before she could protest and tugged her up the hill toward the cabin.

After the rough deck boards, the grass felt soft against her feet.
Julie forced herself not to think of snakes or anything else she might step on. She worked even harder not to try to cover herself with her hands. They were gloriously naked together and Max had said she was beautiful. He showed her she was. She wasn’t about to let her own insecurities ruin things between them.

“Race you!” She smacked his naked butt and bolted for the cabin
.

~~~~

She woke in a tangle of blankets in front of the fireplace. After their mad dash back from the lake, they’d pulled the mattress off the bed and hauled it into the main room. They laughed the whole time, naked by the light of an old Coleman lantern, trying to keep from knocking over the chairs. She piled their nest with blankets and pillows while he lit the fire.

They burrowed under the covers, giggling and clinging to each other for warmth. In the end, they made love by firelight, their movements a fast hard counterpoint to the gentle rocking of the water. When she finally slept, it had been wrapped in
Max’s arms, completely contented.

Pressing needs broke her contentment and woke her much too early. Enough of the gray dawn’s light filtered in through the window for h
er to see without the lantern. The fire was long out and the morning air was cool. If she didn’t need the bathroom so desperately, she might have talked herself into snuggling back in the warm pocket of blankets with Max.  With a flash of regret, she kissed his cheek and slid out of the bed, snagging one of the extra blankets to wrap around herself.

It had been so easy to be naked with him last night in the dark. The clear light of day was an entirely different matter. After a quick trip to the bathroom, she threw on jeans and an oversized sweatshirt and stumbled to th
e kitchen to light the gas stove to make coffee. She desperately needed a shower, but starting the generator would wake Max. Just because she couldn’t sleep in didn’t mean he shouldn’t be able to. 

The blue enamel coffee pot perked and steamed on the burner making the hissing burbling noise t
hat let her know it was done. She filled her mug and carried it out onto the deck to watch the sun come up. Tucking her legs up underneath her on the wooden Adirondack, Julie wrapped her hands around the mug and breathed in the rich scent of coffee and the less pleasant slightly fishy scent of lake water rinsed hair and sex.  Ughh. She had to start the generator before she could take a shower, and she needed a shower.

She took a sip of her coffee and looked out over the lake. Wispy trails of mist covered the surface of the water
, and the sun was high enough to turn the gray shapes along the shore back into trees and bushes. As the morning light intensified, the dock came back into focus and she saw the scattered piles of their clothes and shoes.

Yesterday had been such a roller coaster – first their fight in front of the kids, and then their fight on the deck. But the end had been amazing, floating in
Max’s arms in the inky night under the stars and then watching his body in the firelight as he took her again. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d made love like that. She’d felt free, uninhibited and loved. Smiling at the memory, she took a swallow of coffee and rose to go fetch their clothes.

He heard the chugging of the generator as it roared to life. He had been hoping for a little more sleep, but that seemed unlikely
. Max felt the bed dip when Julie got up. She’d never been able to sleep in, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to get up at dawn. On vacation. Without the kids. He’d gotten up to go to the bathroom and then managed to fall back asleep, dozing on and off as she banged around on the deck and in the cabin. He couldn’t sleep through the noise from the generator, but he still didn’t get up. Maybe if he waited she’d come check on him and he could convince her to come back to bed and let him make love to her again.

Last night had been like old times – better than old times because they had more history together. Lo
ving her in the lake was incredible. The way she floated over him, her skin glowing in the starlight. Thinking about it was adding fuel to his morning erection. She’d been uninhibited and so receptive to him. He hadn’t known she was unhappy with their sex life or at least hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself. Now that he couldn’t deny it any more, he wanted to take every opportunity he could to fix things between them. Last night was a fantastic start.

He heard the shower turn on and then a few minutes later heard the water shut off. No one lingered over showers at the lake.
The water either didn’t get hot enough or there simply wasn’t enough of it. The door closed and the generator went silent. He squeezed his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep, and waited for his wife to come back.

How could he still be asleep? It was after nine o’clock. In Julie’s world, adults didn’t sleep until nine unless they were sick. At first she’d tried not to make too much noise, but as the morning wore on her banging had gotten louder. She’d finally given up and started the generator so she could take a fast completely unsatisfying shower. She shut off the generator and scrubbed a towel through her hair to dry it. He couldn’t still be asleep. She blew out a frustrated breath and went in to poke at him.

“
Max, get up!” She sounded like a whiny child and was tempted to add “come play with me.”

“Hmm.”
His sleepy voice came out from under the pile of blankets.  She took a few steps closer.

“It’s after nine.”

“Hmm hmm.”

Seriously, he couldn’t still be asleep. She bent down to try to dig him out from under the blankets. As soon as she got close enough, he launched himself out of the covers and grabbed her.
She squealed and tumbled into the tangle of blankets and naked man.

“What are you wearing?”
Max straddled her, pinning her to the bed. “Too many clothes.” He slid his hands under her t-shirt and started to tug. Her thoughts immediately went to the soft flesh of her belly, and she grabbed the hem of the shirt, trying to stay covered.
 

“I got dressed. It’s the middle of the morning.
” She wriggled as his determined fingers worked to get rid of her shirt. “There’s a whole day waiting out there. Stop it!” Julie yanked her shirt down the few inches Max had been able to raise it. He froze, staring down at her.

“Why?” His gaze, i
ntent on her face, pinned her like some kind of specimen, and she could tell he didn’t have any intention of looking away or moving. “Come on, Jules. Where do we have to go?” He reached down and deliberately grabbed the hem of her shirt, his gaze never leaving her face. When her hands batted at his, he stopped, but he didn’t let go or give up the ground he’d gained. “Tell me why I can’t take off your clothes and make love to you.”