Page 59 of Hometown Hottie

With that, she dove under the water and swam away, her long legs visible despite the slight murkiness of the surface. I sighed and watched her bob around for a moment before I jumped in after her. She really is trying to kill me. That’s the only explanation.

The warm water enveloped me. I hoped it would give me the strength not to do anything stupid, but then Nova launched herself at me as soon as my head broke free and I caught her, holding her to me even as she writhed and splashed trying to get free.

“Damn it. I had the upper hand.” She laughed. “How did you turn that around on me so quickly?”

I tried to ignore the sensation of her thigh sliding against my crotch as she struggled, loving the feeling of her hot, wet skin against my own and trying to ignore that too. “What are we doing here, Nova?”

My voice came out as something of a low growl, and she giggled. Biting her lip, she turned to face me and finally stilled as her gaze met mine. “You came to get me, remember?”

Those blue eyes sparkled with laughter, but there was a heat in them that I wished I hadn’t seen. Torn between kissing the shit out of her and behaving like the good little boy I wasn’t, I finally sighed and spun her in my arms so she wouldn’t be looking at me like that anymore. Then I towed her back to the jet ski. “Ryan will kill me if you drown on my watch, so whatever you were planning, it’s not going to happen out here.”

“Do you really think you could make me so weak that I would drown?” she teased, but I heard the huskiness in her voice and I groaned.

“I know I can make your legs shaky and your knees weak. I also know I could make you scream my name and no one but me would hear it over the roar of these engines.” With that, I dumped her like a wet rat on the jet ski. “Unfortunately, I can’t do any of that either without getting killed.”

The laughter faded from her eyes. Her lids were hooded and her pupils were slightly dilated as she stared back at me. I let out another groan and shook my head at her. “I’m going to need a minute.”

Ducking under the water, I pressed at my erection with the palm of my hand and willed the damn thing to cool down enough that I’d be able to climb out. It took more than a minute, and when I eventually joined her on the jet ski, she let me drive without protest, not saying a word as I steered us toward Cassidy’s house.

I beached the craft on the shore by the dock. When we arrived, Ryan and Vance were hanging out with the girls. They were all standing around a firepit, with Ryan and Cassidy bickering over who was going to be the grill master tonight.

“It looks like we’re staying for dinner,” I said quietly to Nova, glancing down into her eyes and fucking wishing that I could close the two feet of distance between us.

“Looks like it,” she replied, sending me a small, uncertain smile. “How did Ryan end up coming with you?”

“Vance,” I explained.

She let out a long exhale and nodded, glancing at her brother. He pointed at the firepit, probably trying to make some kind of point. When she looked back at me, she smiled. “I’m glad you guys brought him. He really needs to get away more often and he looks happy. More like himself.”

I glanced at him, nodding my agreement. We joined them and Ryan immediately tried to win both of us over to his side. “Tell Cassidy that there’s no way she can cook a steak better than me. I’m the master, and therefore, I should be the one to do the grilling.”

“Bullshit,” Cassidy retorted. “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I can’t grill a damn steak. You go make the salad and I’ll cook the steaks.”

Ryan snorted and I reached into the cooler for a beer. I tossed one to Nova, knowing that I had a heated gleam in my eyes, but shit, I couldn’t help it. Not when she was still in that bikini I’d had so many fantasies about.

“I’m staying out of this,” I said as I took a seat on one of the nearby lounge chairs.

Nova went inside to take a shower. As hard as I tried not to, I found myself waiting for her to come back out. I also found myself wishing I could’ve gone with her. When I realized she was probably naked right then, I got hard all over again. Then Ryan howled with laughter—not at my bulging cock thankfully—and my arousal died an instant death at the reminder of why we couldn’t be together.

Fuck. This really is going to be a damn long weekend.

Spending the evening with her was torture, and I was relieved when the guys and I finally got back to our own cabin and opened beers on our porch. Ryan smirked at Vance, launching right back into giving him grief about shooting his shot with Nova’s friend.

“It’s Jessie, bro. In my eyes, all those girls are still, like, twelve. What the hell are you doing with her?”

This had been going on since we’d left Cassidy’s parents’ place, and Vance grinned as he turned the tables. “Says you. I saw the way you were looking at Cass all day, man, and you definitely weren’t looking at her like she was twelve.”

That was true. He’d solved the grill master problem by hauling her over his shoulders and dumping her into the water off the edge of the dock. Everyone else had been delighted, howling with laughter, and even Cassidy had seemed a little thrilled when she’d finally come out of the water.

“You guys fight like an old married couple already,” Vance said as we settled on the deck under the stars. “You might as well call it like it is and tie the knot already.”

Ryan grumbled an incomprehensible reply and washed it down with beer, but I noticed that he hadn’t flat out denied that there was anything going on between him and Cass. My eyebrows inched up and I grinned at him. “The plot thickens, huh? What’s going on, Ry? Are you secretly hooking up with your sister’s best friend?”

Part of me hoped he was. All this felt like old times and I was happy, but I still couldn’t get Nova out of my head, and if he really was crushing on her best friend, then maybe he would understand eventually. Would he really be that upset if I pursued Nova anyway, though? Or would it end our friendship just as we were getting it back on track?

I didn’t have the answers, but as I sat there and shot the breeze with them, drinking beer and feeling like all was well, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Nova should’ve been here too. At my side. Where it felt like she belonged.