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“Damn, but this feels great. Get your ass in here, Blackwell!”
I turned and spied him halfway across the pond, floating on his back for a few seconds before he whooped and disappeared beneath the surface once more.
The sun made the surface of the water shimmer like diamonds, and seconds later, his head popped up closer to shore—closer to me. He grinned and I couldn’t help but do the same as I watched him. He was like a little kid, and there was something adorable about that.
“Come on. Get your clothes off or I’ll come out and get you.”
Alarmed, I took a step back. “I told you I wasn’t sure if I was going in or not.” I wasn’t normally shy or anything, but the thought of Nate seeing me in my bikini made me nervous. Or excited. Or both.
But the thought of being so close to him when we were practically naked was way worse. That made me feel all kinds of things I hadn’t felt since…
Heck, who was I kidding? I hadn’t fel
t any of those things before. Not even back then. And it had been so long since I’d had any kind of fun. Since I’d felt like having any kind of fun that, for a moment, I don’t even think I realized what it was I was feeling.
Anticipation.
“Okay, I’m coming to get you.”
My head whipped up and I squealed, hands on my shorts. “No, I’m coming in.”
But he didn’t listen, and I’d barely gotten out of my clothes when he was there, inches from me. His tall body, wet and shiny and incredible.
My eyes dropped.
His boxers were wet and…
My breath caught as I slowly slid my eyes back up over all that skin. Over the razor-thin line of hair that disappeared beneath his boxers. Over the washboard stomach and rippled abs. Higher to the tattoo on his shoulder and arm that said danger. And sex. And danger.
Sex.
Up past his defined chest and broad shoulders.
Until I met eyes that jump-started something in me that was foreign. Something that was hot and exotic and scary.
Something that was so incredibly alive, it made me weak. I’d been half dead for so long, the sensation was almost overwhelming, and I bit my lip as tears stung the corners of my eyes.
Quickly I glanced away, ashamed at my reaction and feeling like a total dork. What was I doing here? I couldn’t play this game with Nate because I had no idea how to play it. I’d been locked in a cocoon of pain for so long that I didn’t even know how to communicate and act normal with a regular boy, let alone someone like Nathan Everets—a guy who was so far above me I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to reach him.
But the way he looked at me sometimes…
Suddenly aware of how revealing my pink bikini was, I crossed my arms over my chest and shivered.
My eyes squeezed shut, and I wished I was home with Gram, curled up on the front porch with a book I pretended to read while she flipped through her gardening magazines.
“Hey,” Nate said, a touch of rasp in his voice, and I thought that maybe a tremor rippled just beneath. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, afraid to say anything because I didn’t trust that I wouldn’t make a complete ass out of myself.
“Good.”
And then two strong arms were around my waist and a shriek fell out of me—one that would have made my mother proud—as Nate lifted me over his shoulder and carried me to the edge.
I didn’t get a chance to say anything because at the moment, my brain was focused on how hard he felt. There were no soft curves—there was no soft anything. He was all hard, lean, and muscled lines, and his skin burned into mine.
And God, he smelled so good.
I shook my head, suddenly aware that my butt was near his face and that his hand was on the small of my back, holding me in place. When I finally got my shit together and opened my mouth to say something, it was too late.
