I stretched my legs and lifted my toes above the surface of the water. They didn’t look pruny yet. Then I stared up at the half moon, anywhere but at his muscular form beside me.
“Feels better than the river,” he said.
“Fewer snakes and leeches too.” I examined my fingertips.
“We saw zero snakes or leeches.”
“The operative word there issaw.How many didn’t we see?”
“If you hadn’t tipped the kayak?—”
“Cole. For the hundredth time, I’m sorry for tipping us over. Can we not talk about it? A one-night truce.”
“Okay,” he agreed, far faster than I’d expected.
I looked over at him. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His elbows rested on the side of the pool, stretching his broad chest. I knew the moon would spotlight every gray hair on my head, but the thick hair on his chest was dark, like the waves on his head. His face was unlined, and like some of the other executives, he hadn’t bothered to shave in the three days we’d been at the resort. Despite the dark stubble that shadowed his chin, he looked young and vulnerable as he relaxed, the way he never did when he glared at me in the office.
“You should take a picture with your new phone. It’ll last longer.” He cracked one mocking eye at me.
I ripped my gaze away and stared straight ahead at the bougainvillea. “I wasn’t staring,” I lied.
“You can stare. It’s only fair since I couldn’t keep my eyes off you earlier with your shirt clinging to you.”
When I looked back at him, he’d turned toward me, his shoulders so close I could’ve gripped them. My heart thumped,and he could probably see it through the thin fabric of my swimsuit. “Is this another game?”
“You tell me. You scheduled all the competitions. You’re in charge here.”
A spark of electricity started at my lower back and buzzed along my spine, tingling out to my fingernails. Nails I wanted to rake across those solid pecs to see if I could startle the smirk off his lips. Fascinated, I watched my hand lift from the water and hover over the glistening drops on his skin. I was a toaster, dangling by its cord above the water, ready to light him up and destroy us both. I gazed at his lips, soft-looking and parted. What would it be like to lean forward and touch them with mine? I tilted toward him.
“There you are,” Stan said.
Jesus Christ!I propelled myself as far away from Cole as I could get in half a second. He did the same, splashing suspiciously. The rock dug into my butt cheek.
“Fuck, Stan,” Cole drawled, but I heard a tremor in his voice. “Way to give a guy a heart attack.”
Stan stood by the bougainvillea, wearing a rumpled white Apex tee, a pair of dark board shorts, and sneakers. If he’d been wearing flip-flops like a normal person, we’d have heard his approach. Probably. If lust hadn’t been surging through my system, blocking out everything that wasn’t Cole. I squeezed my eyes shut. Thank Christ it was too dark to see my blush.
“How’s the water?” Stan asked.
“Warm,” Cole said. “Join us.”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, come on in. We can talk about the idea you had for an employee retention plan.”
He bent to untie his shoes. “It’s after hours, Bridget. Surely you don’t want to talk business twenty-four-seven? What were you and Campion talking about?”
“Games,” Cole said.
Exactly. That’s all this was to him. He’d brought his sexy body down here to see if he could distract me from the point of this trip, which was to show everyone that I deserved the CEO position solo.Not today, Satan.
“Right,” I chirped as Stan slid into the water. His chest was pale and covered in white hair, not at all sensual. And neither was Cole Campion. “Tomorrow is our last full day, so I thought we could try a game of capture the flag on the soccer field. Low-impact, of course.”
“Or we could play soccer,” Cole said. “Three on three.”
“Soccer.” I snorted. “Oh…you were serious.” It had been a long time since I’d run anywhere that wasn’t an airport. And I’d never been strong with foot-eye coordination. Back in my sloshball days, it had sometimes taken me a couple of attempts to make contact with the ball, depending on how many beers I’d had.
“Or football,” Stan suggested. “I bet the resort has flags somewhere.”
“That sounds like an injury waiting to happen,” I said. “We could do the ropes course again, see how our team trust and communication has improved.” I’d have to stay away from Cole since I wouldn’t trust him not to let me fall.
