Raquel had on a black bikini top underneath. Which made sense. Her brother and most of his friends were here, people she’d known all her life. Naturally, she hadn’t been stripping just for me, but fuck. My brain stopped functioning anyway and heatrolled through me, making me deeply grateful that I was still wearing my jeans.
At least they were more forgiving to my current predicament than being shirtless in swimming trunks, but shit. Fully clothed, Raquel was a bombshell. With all those curves on display in a tiny bikini top and shorts, I nearly stuffed my fist in my mouth to keep from groaning out loud.
Her eyes snapped to mine as she dropped the shirt on the chair behind her, and although she’d just caught me with my eyes fixed firmly on the cookie jar, she didn’t look offended or annoyed. Instead, she seemed pretty fucking happy about it.
A slight smile formed on her lips as she bent to grab sunscreen from her bag. Avery wandered back over, so I pretended to be intensely interested in the inner tube I was still holding.
“Are you guys ready to go?”
“Just about,” she said, giving him a bland look. “For the record, if any of your idiot friends try to make a move on me this weekend, I’ll drown them.”
Avery shrugged. “Good.”
“I’m serious.”
He smirked. “So am I.”
“Alright, then.” Raquel started backing toward the trucks, snapping a hair tie off her wrist and pulling her hair up while still glaring at him. “Keep ‘em in line this time, Avery.”
“I’ll do what I can,” he promised with a grin but then sighed once she’d spun away from us. “That woman stresses me out, man.”
I laughed. “She seems capable of handling herself.”
“That’s part of the problem.” He let out another sigh, his head shaking before he turned to me. “Thanks for being patient with her, by the way.”
I frowned, about to ask him what he meant, but he’d already taken off, jogging toward the others as he called to me over his shoulder. “Let’s go! We’re burning daylight here.”
As I watched, he hopped into the bed of a truck and the engine revved. Then the first group was gone, taking Avery with them. The campground emptied pretty fast after that as everyone left for the creek, but Raquel hung back, peering at me from where she was standing beside her truck.
“You have a lot to learn,” she teased. “Those guys take tubing pretty seriously. When they say they’re about to move, they mean it.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I think I get it now. I guess I should change.”
It took me a beat to rummage around the bags to locate my brand new swimming trunks, but once I found them, I walked to the opposite side to change. Raquel turned her back to me anyhow, but not before I’d seen the blush spreading on her cheeks.
“You’re dropping your pants right there?” she called.
“There’s no one else around, and like you said, they were serious about moving. If we take too long, they’ll be back here before we’ve even left.”
“Just put your stupid trunks on.”
I grinned but quickly changed, noticing that Raquel was very deliberately not looking. I could hear her shifting on her feet, though.
“Are you good over there?” I asked.
“I’m fine.”
“You sound stressed.”
She scoffed. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t need to. I can hear you squirming.”
“Why are you still talking?”
I laughed and folded my jeans and boxers, dropped them on top of my bag, and walked around the truck. Raquel looked up, her eyes traveling over me before snapping back up to my face. I had a feeling she hadn’t been able to help herself, but the deepening flush on her cheeks wasn’t doing me any favors right now either.
“See something you like?” I joked, flexing just a little bit.
