“Sorry, accident.” But the look on his face did not say accident at all.
“What are you doing?” I asked, out of breath from the very sudden and unexpected move that had now brought me at least ten centimeters closer to him.
But he didn’t answer. Instead his finger was on my knee, rubbing a path across an old, faded scar.
“I remember that day so well,” he said.
“Do you?” I asked, transfixed by the sight of his finger tracing the line on my knee.
“You fell out of that tree you were climbing because you were determined to save those baby birds from the nest after the neighbor’s cat caught the mom. Do you remember what you said about the cat?”
“I called it a fucking evil bitch cat from hell and told you this was why I would never own a cat. I actually thought of that when I found Petal.”
“You fractured your patella and had to have surgery. And then when you were coming round from the anesthesia, you told the doctor how gorgeous he was and asked if he would marry you.”
I laughed at the memory. “I did. God, that was so funny.”
“I was so jealous.”
“He was hot, though,” I said. Without warning, he opened his legs again and my body lurched forwards again. Another involuntary gasp escaped my parted lips. He closed his legs once more and this time, I was even closer to him.
“Hot?” he asked with a glint in his eye that was making all sorts of things fire away inside me. “When you came round, you told me it was just the anesthetic talking. That you didn’t find him hot at all.”
“Well, I guess I lied, then,” I said, and a slow smile spread across his face.
“So you can either tell me what you heard about me or we can talk about sex—your choice.” I was so close to him now that I could feel the heat radiating off his body. There was so much heat I was sure the water would start boiling at any moment.
“Well, funny you put it that way, because they are actually kind of one and the same thing.”
“I see.” He nodded at me, and then smiled that sexy, killer, panty-dropping, lopsided smile. His smile had never been this sexy before. His smile had been cute and dimpled, but there was nothing cute about his smile anymore. There was nothing cute about him either.
“What is it that you see exactly?” I asked, and as I did, he opened his legs all the way and I lurched forwards again. I reached out and grabbed on to the rim of the plunge pool. It was the only way to stop myself from totally falling into him. I stopped my body from crashing into his, but my face was now only one tiny movement from his. Like this, I could just kiss him.What would happen if I kissed him?Just one. A small one. All my inner resolve was crumbling. All previous detox thoughts faded away. Well, let’s be honest, those might have faded away ages ago. Thoughts of what a terrible idea it would be to have sex with him were all but dissolving at a very speedy pace. One. Small. Kiss.
“Are you trying to decide whether you should kiss me?” he asked.
“What!” I was so startled that I pulled back from him and toppled over into the water, very ungracefully.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He smiled while I spluttered and pushed water from my face. And then he laughed, languid and sexy and stretched his arms out, lacing his fingers together and putting them behind his head. I watched him curiously. I had never met someone so damn sexually confident and outspoken, and it was hard to reconcile it all with the boy I used to know.
“Are you ready for dinner at the lodge?” one of the staff members came up to us and asked. I started lifting myself up out of the pool, but Max leaned forwards, half blocking my exit. “We’realmostdone here,” he said to the man, who immediately walked away.
“Almost?” I questioned him, sitting back down in the pool.
He stood up out of the water and then began leaning over me. A shadow fell across my face as his body blocked the sun. He reached out, put his hands behind me on the rim of the pool and brought his face all the way to mine.
Fuuuck!I looked up at him. In this position, him hovering over me, on top of me, he was in total control. He loomed above me, powerful and confident, and I felt small and vulnerable, as if he could do anything he wanted to me . . .and I wanted him to.
“W-what are you doing?” I managed to whisper, words sticking in my dry mouth.
“I just wanted to clarify something with you.”
“Yeeees?” I whispered nervously as he leaned in even more.
“If you did decide you wanted to kiss me,” he brought his lips close to mine. “Just know that there’s no way in hell it would end at a kiss.” And then he took my chin in his hand and tilted my face towards him. His lips touched mine. He didn’t kiss me, though. Instead he dragged them over mine and let out a small, breathy groan as he did. “Let me know if you change your mind.” And then he stood up and climbed out of the pool.
What the . . .
He walked away as if he’d not just said and done the sexiest, hottest thing anyone had ever said and done to me before. He walked away as if he had not just turned me on so much that I could feel my heart beating between my legs.
