CLARA LAZILY CURLED her toes into the padded seat of the sun lounger as desire, thick and drugging, pooled in her belly. From under the wide brim of her sun hat, she watched with almost fanatical concentration as Andreas swam lengths of the pool at Varborg’s summer palace near the capital.
Her husband’s lean and powerful body barely caused a ripple on the azure blue surface as his muscular arms sliced through the water, his back flexing and clenching with every stroke.
What was it about him and water? Clara’s palms itched to get hold of him; to trace every muscle; to feel his skin and the springy golden hair of his magnificent chest; to sink her nails into those broad shoulders of his, while she cried out his name with the passion that was never far away when they were together.
Or when they were apart, come to think of it. Desperate to have him finish his swim and pay her some much-needed attention, Clara forced herself to look away from Europe’s hottest, but no longer most eligible, prince. Just because she loved the security of being held in those strong arms didn’t mean it was seemly to drool.
After all, she was a princess. They’d married in a small private ceremony on Christmas Eve, with only Prince Henrik, Alma and Freja as guests.
Now what had she been doing before she’d become so thoroughly distracted...?
Clara glanced at the paperwork on her lap, closing the folder and setting it aside. Building work was well under way on their veterans’ rehabilitation centre, which was due to open in three months’ time. With any luck, Clara would make the opening ceremony, having safely delivered their baby. But there were other projects in the pipeline: a grief counselling centre; a charity hospital in honour of Oscar; a state-of-the-art hospice facility in memory of Prince Henrik, who’d sadly lost his battle with cancer just after Christmas. Clara and Andreas had found endless ways to use their medical training to help others. That they could continue to work alongside each other was the icing on the cake.
Clara heard a splash. Andreas finished his swim and hauled his golden, tanned, athletic body from the pool using his considerable upper-body strength, all those gorgeous muscles she now knew by heart rippling.
Pretending to be asleep under her sunglasses, Clara watched him shuck off his swimming trunks, attach his prosthesis and wrap a towel around his hips, concealing his magnificent manhood from her greedy gaze.
Her core clenched as he carelessly slicked back his hair from his handsome face. She lay frozen so she could enjoy the hungry look on his face as he glanced her way. Mesmerised by his wild, Viking beauty, she watched him skirt the pool and walk her way. The water droplets on his chest glistened in the sunlight.
The molten heat between Clara’s legs built to an inferno as he paced closer.
‘I know you’re awake, sötnos. I felt you watching me.’
He paused beside her lounger and looked down at her with predatory intent, his stare raking every part of her bikini-clad body, pausing at her breasts—which were almost spilling free of the tiny bikini top—the mound of her pregnant belly and lower, to where a triangle of fabric was all that concealed how much she wanted him.
But of course he knew. They were constantly wild for each other. Clara scraped her teeth over her bottom lip, her eyes tracing one particular droplet of water that slid down his bronzed chest and the ladder of his abs into the gold-tinged trail of hair that began below his navel.
‘Can I help it if I like you all wet?’ She sighed with longing.
Before he could answer, she swung her legs over the side of the lounger and stood before him, her fingertip tracing another droplet intent on a similar path.
Quick as lightning, his fingers encircled her wrist, guiding her hand lower to press against his hardness under the towel.
‘Careful, sötnos.’ His eyes blazed with arousal. ‘I don’t want to tire you out and we’ve already made love twice today.’
Clara scooped her arms around his waist and pressed her still needy body against his, her baby bump getting in the way.
‘You know what they say...’ She raised her face to his and melted into his strong arms as he kissed her, the passionate surges of his tongue against hers spreading flames along her every nerve. ‘Third time lucky.’ She pulled back, aware that his towel had slipped, and he stood naked, proud and beautiful in the sunlight.
He cupped her face, his stare full of desire, promise and love. ‘I’m the lucky one,’ he said, tilting up her chin to press another kiss to her lips. ‘But whatever my princess wants, she shall have.’
His hands skimmed her breasts, her waist and her hips until he filled them with the cheeks of her backside, pressing her close.
Clara sighed, her heart full to bursting with love for the only man who could make her fairy-tale ending come true. ‘I want you, Andreas. Always.’
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from JC Harroway
Her Secret Valentine’s Baby
Phoebe’s Baby Bombshell
Tempted by the Rebel Surgeon
Breaking the Single Mom’s Surgeon
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Finding Forever with the Firefighter by Louisa Heaton.