I’d always been unlucky in love, and it seemed like that streak was far from over. Because falling for my enemy-turned-inconvenient roommate would seal my fate as really, really unlucky.
This was it.
This was the epitome ofwhat the fuck am I doing?
Jack mechanically stripped out of his clothes as we stood at the dock on the far end of camp. There wasn’t anything particularly sexy about it, except for his stupid body.
It’s just a body, I tried to tell myself. So why couldn’t I take my eyes off him?Get it together, lust-riddled brain. Whatever this attraction was, it couldn’t happen again. No matter how amazing he felt on top of me.
I jumped into the lazy lake water, and the mud came off in chunks. The memory of the kiss and all the fire? Well, that wasn’t going to go away so easily.
The water was still cold in June. Tree cover and no days over eighty degrees meant chattering teeth, goose bumps, and way too much shivering, but not in the sexy way.
We ran our asses over to the communal showers. After several minutes of silence, I wondered how we were going to break this tension between us. The warm water washed theremaining mud away, thank goodness. I was just starting to relax when Jack’s voice ruined all chances of that happening.
“You know, getting dirty looks good on you, princess,” Jack commented from the stall next to mine. So he was going to lean into teasing me about this situation? Great.
I gave him a hearty, “Go fuck yourself, Jack.” I could just picture his smile from the other side of the wall.
“Mmm, tempting. But I bet it’s you who needs some relief. That imagination of yours is probably running rampant, isn’t it?”
Ugh. This man.
“Are you projecting your need to relieve yourself or something?” I lathered my hair with the provided haircare products and tried not to sound as curious as I was for his answer.
“Stop deflecting. I couldn’t help but notice the way you undressed me at the lake over there.”
“First of all, you undressed yourself. Secondly, for your information, no, I am not imagining anything else. That kiss was more than enough, thank you very much.”
He huffed a laugh. “Enough? Really? Because from where I stand, it seemed like you wanted more.”
Was I that transparent? I needed the upper hand back and fast. His cockiness was stifling. His ego needed a reality check.
“In your dreams. I’ve got you clocked, Hawthorne. You’re probably one of those dudes who’s selfish in bed.” I wrapped a towel around myself tightly and stepped out of the shower to grab another towel off the shelf for my hair.
Jack exited the shower, also in nothing but a towel, and his face met mine in the mirror. “You need me to prove how incorrect you are, princess? If you’d like, I can spell it out with my tongue.”
I couldn’t speak. My mouth was dry. And if I wasn’t thinking about it before… well, now I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
He seemed to realize he’d stolen my sanity as he lightly tapped his chin, a reminder to close my gaping lips. Then the asshole winked at me. That snapped me out of my stupor.
“In an alternate universe where I was somehow interested in all of… that”—I gestured up and down his body through the mirror—“you’d be the one moaning my name. Not the other way around.”
Jack’s face tilted down at me, and he looked intense, the way he did when just before kissing me, not even an hour ago. “Is that a challenge?” he asked, those burning eyes alive with a spark of rivalry in them.
This was one competition I wanted to have.
He stepped in front of me and cupped my jaw. Our eyes locked together. Was he going to kiss me again? I didn’t step away. I just listened, my pulse beating a mile a minute. Jack was right, as infuriating as that was to admit. That kiss wasn’t enough. That was a dangerous thought. Still, I leaned into him and tilted my neck ever so slightly.
But just like with everything, Jack ruined it.
He took a massive step back. “Whoa, what are we doing?” He sounded startled, as if he hadn’t expected this turn of events between us. “This can’t happen again.”
It was as if I’d been doused in a bucket of cold water. “What?”
“We shouldn’t do this.” His face was panicked.
I may have been unlucky in love, but I’d never had this reaction from someone before. “You kissed me just as much as I kissed you. This isn’t all my fault.”
