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Despite the heat already bathing the morning, she shivered. Wow, but his mouth was close to her ear.
“Reel him in, babe.” Babe? Levi had just called her babe again. Did that mean anything or was she just totally pathetic?
“You get too much slack in the line and he’s going to get loose.”
Yeah, she was supposed to be catching a fish, not having the breath leaning against him stolen from her. Biting her lower lip, she cranked the handle, surprised at how much resistance she met.
“That’s perfect,” he praised, still standing so close she could feel the sinewy hardness of his abs, his chest, so close she could now smell the fresh scent of soap mingled with his aftershave.
Soap made her think of sponge baths.
Right back to no functioning brain cells, she groaned.
“You’re doing fine,” he reassured her, obviously misreading her groan. “With this much fight, he must be a doozy.”
Judging by the pull against her rod, she’d guess she’d snagged a whale. Well, whatever the largest freshwater fish was, that was what she’d hooked.
A prize fish. A monster fish. A—
“That’s not a fish,” she unnecessarily pointed out when her line cleared the water and she almost dropped her pole.
“Nope,” Levi agreed, laughing, his body shaking against hers in a way that sent tingles through her. “That’s a turtle who stole your bait.”
The turtle, which was about the size of a small plate, eyed her, its ugly head stretched upwards. “What do I do with him?”
She hadn’t wanted to catch a turtle. Seeing the creature dangling haphazardly from the line, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to catch a fish either. Poor thing.
“We’ll cut him free.” Levi took the bowed over pole from her, reeled in most of the line, and freed the turtle.
Moving at a much faster pace than Madison would have thought a turtle capable of, the animal made a bee-line for the lake. Weren’t turtles notoriously slow?
“What about the hook?” What about wrapping your arms back around me because I really liked that? I also liked how your body felt pressed against mine. Could we do that again too, please?
Levi shook his head. “That’s a snapping turtle, Madison. Meaning he snaps anything that gets close to his mouth. My fingers weren’t going near his mouth and neither were yours.”
“Will the hook kill him?” She hated the thought of having harmed some defenseless turtle. Well, almost defenseless. After all, he did have his snaps.
“Not likely.” Catching her distraught look, he added, “He’ll be fine.”
She winced, positive the turtle would prefer not to have bling in its jaw.
“I’m not sure I’m cut out for fishing,” she admitted, her stomach feeling a little queasy.
“No fish, no dinner. That’s the rule.” He handed her pole back to her. “Hold this while I tie another hook to your line. If you play your cards right…” he waggled his brows “…I’ll even bait it for you again.”
If she had been playing her cards right, he’d be more concerned about catching her than some hungry, unsuspecting fish. Was that why she’d agreed to come today? To try her hand at catching him one more time? Canceling her plans with Karen had been on the tip of her tongue the night before. Only seeing the flare in Levi’s eyes had kept her silent.
“As if I’d eat some poor fish I dragged from the lake anyway,” she muttered, taking the rod and reel and glaring at the device. “I may never eat fish again.”
He threw his head back in laughter. She held the pole, not sure she would cast the line but watching Levi meticulously thread the hook and tie the neatest knot she’d ever seen.
“Were you a Boy Scout?”
Grinning, he glanced up, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Do I look like a Boy Scout?”
There wasn’t a thing boyish about Levi. He was all man.
“Maybe,” she answered anyway, not looking away from the temptation of his face, the seduction of his eyes.
