15 - Chapter Fifteen - Adler Hain's Point Of View.

Wilder didn't even warn me he was dropping his towel. He just did it. My eyes roamed down his body and it took all I had to look down at the floor and not his nicely tanned flesh. He had to know I was looking at him, if it was like when he looked at me, he knew. Like other things, he didn't bring it up; he left it alone.

I looked up again, just to satisfy my need to look. We met eyes, and I felt my cheeks heat as I looked right back down at the floor again.

"Adler."

"What? Sorry?"

The only thing he had on was tight boxers, which didn't hide a single thing. He knew I had looked at him, too.

"You should get dressed before you catch a cold."

"Right..."

When he passed me a pair of boxers, he glanced down at the floor, but I felt his eyes on me when I dropped the towel and rushed to pull the boxers on to cover me. He didn't hide his gaze when I looked up; he met my eyes. His grey silver eyes held something in them that taunted me to show him more.

God, I wanted to show him more but thought alone when I took the time to actually think about it was embarrassing. He licked his lips, and I felt his eyes wander down over my skin. Watching him lick his lips, I wanted to kiss him, just once, to see what it was like.

He passed me just a large t-shirt to cover the rest of me. He hadn't put one on, though; he was still only wearing boxers, standing there watching me. I took it from him and pulled it on. His eyes still didn't leave me for another few seconds.

He sat down on the furs only a few minutes later, just relaxing in his boxers. He pulled the leather string from his hair and it fell down and over his shoulders. It was super wavy now and I could see how smooth it looked from where I was on the furs beside him.

I reached out and touched a group of strands closest to me, enjoying the feeling of his soft hair in my fingers. He didn't seem to mind that I was touching his hair until I lightly tugged it, when I was pulling it through my fingers. He hissed, turning to give me a look.

"Sorry. It was an accident."

He just looked at me, narrowing his eyes in a way that seemed to ask me if I was actually sorry or just saying that because he hissed at me. I tangled my free hand into his hair, too. As I played with his hair, Wilder seemed to relax right under my fingers. He scooted closer to me and leaned against me. Putting more of his weight on me as I massaged his scalp. His eyes were closed, and he was just melting under my fingers.

When I stopped, he opened his eyes and looked at me. He had relaxed right into a lying position, almost in my lap. He didn't even move to get up, he just stayed where he was. I understood he wanted me to keep massaging his hair. I massaged until he finally had enough of my hands on him. He sat up and pulled his hair from my hands, but not tying it back up.

He lay flat on the furs and stretched out.

"I'm going to have a quick rest."

"Oh. I second that idea."

I laid down beside him, with just a few inches of space between us, and let out a deep sigh. It felt incredible just to lie down, a cool breeze coming through the small window. He was laid out on the tops of the furs, never thought there was a breeze. He might sweat to death under the furs in the daytime.

There were a few hours before sundown, but Wilder had a good idea. Thus, I just lay there beside him, not quite being able to get deep sleep. I felt him wake up because his skin touched mine and he was so cool to the touch. I moved closer to him, after the coldness of his skin.

He didn't move away, but he tensed up as more of our skin touched. The shirt had road up and exposed most of my right side. He turned slightly towards me, and I was grateful I hadn't opened my eyes when he first woke me up. I felt his fingers brush my skin as he pulled down the shirt and shifted closer than before. I felt him also touch my fingertips with his own, almost like he was debating slipping his hand into mine.

His actions were surprising.

But because he had moved so close when I went to roll over, to switch to trying to sleep on my stomach, I ended up half on him. The sensation that he was close to me raced through me as if the contact with his cool skin wasn't enough to tell me how close he really was. He adjusted his arm, having really no choices in where to put it.

His fingers were slipping under the hem of my shirt as he put his arm around me. He had a bit of clearance so he didn't have to touch my skin; he was choosing to have his fingers under the edge of the clothing against my skin.

Waking up completely and rolling away from him seemed like the polite thing to do. But he didn't allow me to, his arm was snaked around me.

"Wilder..."

"Shh, go back to sleep."

I opened one of my eyes to look at him; he was awake, wide awake. His eyes looking right at me. I stretched out against him. The hand that had been resting on his side stretched out enough he could sleep his fingers into it.

The connection roared to life, and his feelings of comfort and relaxation rolled over me. This did not bother him even in the slightest.

"How did you sleep?"

"I could have slept better. Why are you so chilly?"

"I always am. On warm days, I am cooler and on bitter days, I am warmer. Anyone born on the island is like that. I couldn't even tell you why."

"Odd, you're like a lizard, acclimatised."

"I suppose so."

I don't know how much longer we laid that way, connected and feeling all the same emotions. But pulling our hands apart didn't really break the connection like before. You could feel the connection through our hands die off, but everywhere we touched connected us together still. Not like when our hands were together, but so close to the feeling.

"Stronger again."

"I can feel it," I said softly, unsure how to even explain what the feeling was now. I could tell by his feelings, but I could feel everything. Just from other parts of our skin touching now. It was like I knew him so well now that I didn't need to link hands with him to cause the connection. His fingers still lingered on my skin. He didn't move them away.

"I wonder how much stronger this will get? Maybe one day shortly that connection won't break, and we will share our feelings as one."

"It would be strange, but I think it could happen, based on what happens every time we link hands."

"Are you worried about it?" He asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"No, not really. To be connected to someone so deeply without the interference of others might be a pleasant thing. Knowing you haven't been a bad thing. If I was worried about being emotionally bonded and connected to you, I would have stopped allowing you to use my gift. I don't see any reason to stop you from connecting us further. Besides, with the whole life mate thing, there are plus sides to being further connected than just words."

"You're right,"

He slipped his fingers into mine again. I felt the connection spring to life and more of his emotions flooded into the connection. I remembered what Ocean said, too.

"Wilder, I showed Ocean the emotions we share. She said they were intense."

"Hm. Did she?"

"Yes, she was overwhelmed by them. But they feel normal to me, not intense, but maybe because it's my gift, I'm just comfortable with it."

"Maybe, only you would know that."

I found my thoughts drifting to the fact that he was nearly naked underneath me; I felt my cheeks grow warm with the thought and Wilder gave my hand a light squeeze, pulling my attention back to him. He looked at me with some shock on his face, which he tried to quickly hide. But his emotions didn't lie. It shocked him that his nearly naked body affected me, well he was under me.

"Sorry."

I tried to pull my hand out of his and give him space, but he wouldn't let me go. He used his free hand to pull me closer to him and our lips brushed as he kissed me. Just a quick little kiss. My cheeks were really burning with how flushed I was. He slipped his free hand on the back of my neck and pulled me down, our lips brushing once softly before the kiss deepened to more than just the soft brushes of our lips. We were full on kissing with force and reason, though I really wasn't sure what my reason was.

When we pulled back, I lightly pulled my hand from his, using it to touch my lips.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have done that," Wilder said, carefully slipping out from under me and putting space between us. There was a soft tingle in the tips of my fingers, the hand that he had been holding only moments before.