“You’re forgetting the ground rules,” she said.
I smirked. “You said we could improvise.”
I leaned forward, resting my hand on her hip. She froze for a heartbeat but didn’t move away. My thumb brushed over the thin fabric of her shorts.
“I think we need to go slow. Do you want to kiss me that badly,boyfriend?”she asked.
I flicked my gaze toward the shore. Jackson looked like he was chewing through the inside of his cheek.
Good. Let him choke on it.
“Yeah… I want to fucking kiss you,girlfriend.”
I wasn’t pretending, so I might as well lay my cards out now.
She inhaled a breath. She didn’t hesitate the way a timid girl might. Instead, she leaned a hair closer and rested her palm against my thigh. She was showing me that she was in control, that she owned me.
“Then show me how far you’ll go,” she murmured. “Make him watch.”
“Do you trust me?” I asked, a faint hum of excitement coursing through my veins.
“Yes,” she whispered. That single syllable lit something in my chest that was far more dangerous than desire.
I didn’t rush. I let the silence swell, thick and heavy. My thumb stroked lazy circles against her skin. She was breathing faster, and I could feel her struggling to control herself.
“You don’t have to kiss me if you’re not ready,” I said, voice dipped low enough to make it intimate. But in my head, I was already thinking about how easily I could take what I wanted.
She was practically begging me.
Her eyes locked on mine, searching. “I said I trust you,” she repeated.
I leaned in, not enough to touch her, just enough to trap her in my gravity. “Then tell me how far you want this to go.”
Her lips parted, but she looked away toward the shoreline. “I want him jealous.”
I grinned, letting my fingers press a little more firmly into her hip and raising them just a bit higher underneath her shirt.
“That’s a dangerous offer.”
“You afraid of danger?” she teased.
I laughed under my breath, leaning closer until my thigh pressed against her back.
“Danger should be afraid of me.”
I slid my hand up, tugged her cover-up just enough to bare her shoulder, and bent down, brushing my lips over her warmskin. It was a claiming kiss. I trailed kisses up her shoulder and neck, stopping right beneath her ear. I didn’t need to push further. The way she was looking at me told me I already had her. That pull started in my chest again.
“You think he’s jealous?” she said breathlessly, her voice one octave higher than normal, as she dropped her paddle into the water, and we started gliding toward the Baths.
I didn’t look back at Jackson. I didn’t need to. I already knew he’d keep seeing it in his head. My hand on her, my mouth on her skin. And if I had it my way, that image was going to haunt him.
“Oh, yeah.”
About ten minutes later, the sun was gone, swallowed by the night. We drifted into the clearing where the water changed, and at first, I thought we’d gone too far out. Until the black surface beneath us began to glow.
A muted, electric blue clung to our paddles, trailing us in shimmering ribbons.
“It’s like we’re floating on stardust,” Mackenzie squealed.
