But I was also starting to believe this,us,could be something real.
Even if I didn’t know where it would lead.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Fifi
I was floating, not just on the water, but in that hazy, golden in-between where reality felt like a dream dipped in summer sun and something dangerously close to falling.
Ben was in the lake with me, shirtless, glistening, and infuriatingly attractive with that half-smile he wore like a badge of emotional disrepair. We’d been splashing and swimming, but now…now the space between us was smaller than it should’ve been. His hands brushed against my waist in the water, and my pulse tripped over itself.
He looked at me like he wanted to do more than just float around.
And I? I was dangerously close to wrapping my legs around him like a human pool noodle.
It wasn’t even about lust anymore—okay, fine, it was alittle…a lotabout lust. The way the sunlight hit his shoulders? The way his hair curled slightly from the water? The low, rough chuckle when I teased him about lifeguard duty?
Yeah. I wanted todrownin that man.
He drifted closer, water swirling between us. His hands, underwater, found my hips, and he tugged gently, bringing me toward him until our legs brushed. I shivered, despite the warmth.
“Cold?” he asked, voice low and delicious.
“Not even remotely.”
His mouth curved like he knew exactly what kind of chaos he was causing.
We wereright there.That sweet, breathless edge where kissing was inevitable. My heart thumped so loudly I was sure it was echoing across the lake.
I leaned in—
And that’s when I saw it.
Something moving in the water behind him. Fast. Determined. Furry.
My eyes widened. “Um… Ben?”
He dopily blinked. “Yeah?”
“Don’t panic.”
“Why would I panic?”
“Because there’s an angry-looking beaver swimming right toward us.”
He froze and panicked. “Awhat now?”
I pointed behind him.
He turned just in time to see a beady-eyed aquatic menace cutting through the lake like a torpedo of vengeance.
The beaver made a weird chittering sound that sounded suspiciously like curse words in rodent language.
Ben’s eyes went wide. “What the hell?”
“It looks mad.”
“Why is it mad?”
