“All right.” He digs his palm into his eye. “Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got the shop in order—”
“I’m not sleeping with her in the shop.” I can see it now, an air mattress among the wood chips—Carl, his three-fingered assistant, showing up at sunrise and kicking us out.
“Relax, genius.” Gavin narrows into me. “Geez, you really have it bad, don’t you?” He folds his hands a moment. “I was going to say I gutted the boathouse. I had it renovated a few weeks back when my sister threatened to pop into town.”
Gavin and his sister, Zoey, don’t always get along so I get why he’d fix up the boathouse.
“Is Zoey coming back?” A noise rustles in the bushes, and my heart thumps as I spot a pale shadow moving in this direction. I try not to get my hopes up in the event it’s not Reese.
“Nope. She said maybe in the winter.” He digs into his pocket and snaps a key off his chain. “It’s yours, dude.” He hops off the porch before I can say anything and heads toward his truck. “What’s up, girl?” He nods into someone just outside my line of vision, and I hear them making small talk for a moment.
A beautiful face illuminates the shadows like a pearl in the night, as the most gorgeous girl in the world bounces her way up the stairs. Her dark hair is wound in long, perfect waves. Her silver eyes reflect the light like a cat’s.
“You up for some company?” Reese flashes that million-dollar smile.
“With you? Anytime.”
Reese yanks me up by the hand and pulls me into a nice, long hug. The scent from her perfume hypnotizes me for a moment, grapefruit and vanilla—a perfect combo of sexy and sweet just like Reese.
The truth is, I’ve been under Reese Westfield’s spell for as long as I can remember. I take in a nice, slow breath, soaking in her sweet scent. It’s the same perfume she’s worn since she was a teenager.
“How was your date?” I nod for her to take a seat, and she does. Reese looks amazing tonight with her hair spiraling out in long, dark plumes like the feathers of some exotic bird. It takes all my self-control not to run my fingers through it.
“It wasn’t a date, believe me.” She wrinkles her nose as she rocks back and forth in the glider. “He had the bisque, and I had the lobster. End of story.” She skims her bottom lip with her pearly whites, and my dick perks to life as if she were throwing out an invitation.
“Lobster.” I nod. God knows I can’t afford to keep her in crustaceans. “So what’s McCarthy up to?” Really I want to know if she said anything of value to him—if he did to her.
“He’s keeping busy, helping out his dad this summer.” She reaches over and picks up my hand, her eyes drilling into mine. “I really don’t care what he does.”
“Does he care what you do?” If I make a move on Reese, I might find myself inhaling large amounts of lake water before the summer is through. Although, if the exchange rate for sleeping with Reese is something as meager as my life, I might consider the tradeoff. Reese is worth pushing up a daisy or two, but knowing Neva, I wouldn’t be lucky enough to go the casket route. She’d toss me into the fire and warm herself while I melted to ashes. When we were younger, Dad gave us strict orders not to die because funerals were expensive as shit.
“Warren always seems to care what I do.” A cheeky smile plays on her lips. “But he’s hitting the sheets early tonight. He’s his daddy’s lackey, bright and early.”
“I know how that goes.” I’ve pinch hit for my father on the lake more times than I care to remember, mostly just giving people warnings for fishing without a license. Not that I care.
“So”—she digs in her pocket and pulls out a quarter that winks like a silver eye as she tosses it in her hand—“heads, we go skinny dipping.” Reese runs her pink tongue over her lips. “Tails, we find somewhere new to hang out.” She throws it high, and I catch it before it ever has a chance to fall. I flip it onto her bare thigh, and my fingers linger over her velvet soft skin.
“Tails.” I blink a smile up at her, and my heart takes off like a greyhound down the track. “I know just the place to take you.” I hop up. “Wait right here.” I run into my bedroom and eye the box of condoms sitting on my desk. For a moment I envision Reese on top of me with her hair raining down over my face as she rides me. My dick perks up as if it were casting its vote, but I swipe the Monopoly game off the dresser and get the hell out of Dodge.
Reese and I drive down the road about a quarter of a mile, taking that last stretch nice and slow no thanks to the rocks strewn about, threatening to take out a tire. It’s dark as hell, but that’s the best time to look at the stars. I park square in front of Gavin’s boathouse and eye the tiny structure.
“The G-man’s love shack?” Her dark hair falls like a curtain as she leans in hard to get a better look. “I’m impressed.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
We get out, and I let us in. It’s clean, mostly. The light scent of pine lies thick in the air, but it smells more antiseptic than it does anything derived from nature.
Reese circles my waist from behind, and I spin into her.
“Whoa, girl.” I give a satisfied groan as she melts her fingers across my chest. “Let’s get some lights on.” I flip the switch and am pleasantly surprised to find a double bed tucked in the corner, a red, white, and blue quilt of the American flag lying neat over the center. There’s a small braided rug, a table, and a couple of chairs—a mini-fridge in the corner.
“Wow.” She steps in past me. “This place is so cute. I’ve always wondered what it was like inside. For some reason I pictured it loaded from floor to ceiling with little aluminum boats.” She eyes the box in my hand. “What’s that, Waterman?” She takes a bold step into me and bats her lashes as if trying to seduce me. And lucky for me because I’m pretty damn sure she is.
I hold up the game for a second, and she gives a long blink. “What’d you think we we’re going to do?” A shit-eating grin waits to break out on my face, but I hold back.
“I thought”—she flattens her hands over my chest and drips them down slow and even—“maybe we could do more of what we did last night.”
A dry laugh pumps through me.
