Glass by Suzanne D. Williams Read Free Book Online

asked quietly. “I thought you Christians were all about faith.”
    He smiled. “We are, but sometimes life hands you something.” His gaze lingered. “I’ll be your friend if you’ll let me.”
    The lump i n her throat precluded words, and for a few seconds she hesitated. “What of tomorrow?”
    “What of it?” he asked. “ This is tonight. This is me and you. Do you trust me, Cerise?”
    Trust. The word reverberated in her brain. She’d never trusted anyone but herself because people always let her down. But he was … was … solid and firm, tangible. He made her conscious of her femininity, made her feel desirable.
    Yet that was perhaps an illusion.
    “All of this is a trick of the light and the senses,” she said. “Like the color on the water. You think you’ll dive into a pool of rubies, but really it’s the same as any other swimming pool.”
    He tipped his head left, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “You want to believe,” he stated. “In me. In yourself.”
    Yes, she did, and she wanted to give in to her feelings for once, to let her heart override her head. “I’m caught on the edge,” she replied. “Teetering between what I’ve been and what you’re asking of me.”
    He traced the line o f her cheek with his thumb. “I’m not asking anything but for you to simply ‘be’ for once.”
    “Out of control?”
    “In my control.” He took hold of her robe and slipped it from her shoulders, stroking its path downward with his fingertips and inhaling sharply as it hit the floor.
    Cool air, suspended in the large room, rushed over her exposed abdomen. She’d selected the swimsuit from one of the dressing rooms during her one free moment that afternoon, not wanting to have to do so with him watching. Whose it had been originally was a mystery, but the two pieces fit like a glove. Too much like a glove for her taste.
    “God, help me, you’ re gorgeous,” he said.
    She fixed her gaze on his. “Surely, you’ve seen women in a swimsuit before.”
    He smiled softly. “None that I wanted to swim with. Alone.”
    Alone. Heat flared in her belly. “Why?” she breathed.
    He didn’t reply but took her hand and tugged he r toward the pool. Moving to the shallow end, he went in ahead, facing backward, her fingers twined in his.
    She pushed down her panic and reminded herself that she wanted to do this, wanted to spend time with him, to be the woman alone with him. The water swirled around her legs, rising higher as she descended. She tightened her grip on his hands.
    The water chest high, h e brought her to a halt. “Okay, now, turn around.”
    “Around?”
    He made a spinning motion with his fingers. Uncertain, she obeyed. Maybe this was one of those trust exercises people did. Well, she was trying, but the water was still there and she was still in it.
    In one motion, he scooped her off her feet, and she squealed. His laughter overrode the noise and the splash of his legs, moving them deeper in the pool.
    “ Where are we going?” she asked, her voice shrill.
    He made no comment, but swam to the far side and placed his back to the pool edging. He entwined their arms together and settled her face-outward on his chest. “You’re safe.”
    And you’re magical. Her eyes had flown open at the first sudden movement, but now she shut them again, hearing only the plink of water dripping from her chin and swish of his breath in her ear. His body heat and that of the pool sent her into a dreamlike state and the illusion returned. In the morning, she’d look back and not believe in any of this, not believe a man so handsome paid her any mind, nor how easy it seemed right then to set her unsure thoughts aside.
    His hand drifted outward and he raised a strand of her hair in his fingers. “Your mother’s hair?”
    “No. Hers is brown. Grandmother’s hair was blonde in her youth.”
    “What about your grandfather’s?”
    “ Blond, but not like hers. My father looked much like