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“Then you’re staying for dinner,” he states.
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
He stops and catches hold of my arm, halting me in place.
His amused blue eyes connect with mine. “What do you think?” He smirks.
“I think you’re a lot bossier than I remember. But I’m too hungry to argue with you.”
“We’ve run two miles already. Why don’t we head back to the house and I’ll fire up the grill?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
His hand falls from my arm as we begin retracing our steps. We fall into a comfortable silence, and I lose myself ruminating over all the reasons why staying for dinner is a bad idea. But none of them matter, because when it comes to Kaiden Hart, I can’t seem to listen to reason.
CHAPTER6
KAIDEN
I pausewhen we’re almost to my house. “Want to take a quick dip in the water before we head back to the house?”
She lifts one eyebrow. “For real?”
“Yeah. After I run, I usually go for a swim to cool off.” I toe off my sneakers and remove my socks, wiggling my toes in the cold, wet sand.
Rori’s wide eyes repeatedly bounce between my face and my bare chest, as if she’s trying not to look at my body but she can’t help herself.
“I don’t have a bathing suit on.”
“You can go in with that on.” I point to her shorts and tank top.
She yanks off her sneakers and socks, then surprises me by tugging her tank top over her head. I swallow over a golf-ball-sized lump in my throat when I see the purple sports bra she has on. There’s a zipper between her breasts I want to tug down with my teeth.
To make matters worse, she wiggles her shorts down her hips and they fall to the sand, leaving her in a tiny black pair of boy shorts. Now the lump in my throat feels like it’s grown to the size of a tennis ball.
“This covers me more than a bikini would,” she states before sprinting toward the water. She shouts out, “Last one in has to wash the dishes.”
Laughing, I take off after her. Her shorter stature is no match for my considerable height. I scoop her from her feet and continue running. When the water passes my waist, I throw her forward. She squeals, hitting the water ass first and sinking completely under an incoming wave. She comes up gasping and wipes the salty water from her eyes.
I dive under the next wave and reappear next to her. “Feels amazing, right?”
“I want to be angry with you for forcing me to get wet all at once, but I can’t. It’s so refreshing. I could run another four miles.”
“I don’t know if it’s worthy of four more miles, but now I’ll have the energy to grill dinner,” I say.
We spend the next half hour diving under the waves and body surfing. When we finally walk toward my house with our cast-off clothes and shoes in our hands, we’re both weak with hunger.
“Follow me,” I say when we reach my backyard. “There are a couple of outdoor showers on the other side of the house we can rinse off under.”
“A couple?” she asks.
“Yeah, I know. Why two, right? But the people who built it probably had a big family or lots of friends to fill this place up. You can leave your stuff on one of the chairs,” I say, setting my t-shirt on one. I drop my sneakers and socks on the patio and see her do the same.
The grass is soft under my feet as we leave the pool area.
“I can’t believe this property. It’s got everything you could possibly want,” she says.
“I can’t disagree. I never thought I’d use an outdoor shower, but it’s surprising how much I’ve utilized them.” I turn on the water for her and move six feet over under the other shower head and do the same. “The only thing I’d change is how they’re exposed to the neighbor’s view. You can’t take a naked shower, but rinsing off the sand and salt still feels amazing.”
