“Let’s get to work.” I’m quick to set up the board. Reese calls “bank” and sorts the cash in front of her like a seasoned teller.
“Just try to steal, and I’ll make sure you’re punished to the fullest extent of the law,” I say it dry like I mean it, and I do.
“Will you do the punishing?” Her lips part as if she were wagering just how much she should take.
“That depends. Would you want me to?” I shuffle the tiny cards in my hands for no good reason.
“Yes, Ace. You have my full permission to severely punish me.” Her eyes press into mine like she’s serious just before she jolts back to game. “So, did you think about what we said last night?” She rolls the dice. Her eyes cut up to mine, and I’m about to flip the board over and take her right here on the floor—punish her with my tongue in all the right places.
“Yup. I thought long and hard about how I should invest in hairspray because I’m confident you’re about to single handedly bring back big hair.”
“Very funny.” She glides her fingers over the board, and I move my hand before she can catch it. “So you don’t want me,” she says it low just this side of a whisper and breaks my heart in the process.
“Yes, I want you. In fact Ineedyou because it’s downright impossible to play this game by myself.” My chest rumbles with a silent laugh, but she’s not coming along for the ride. Her features soften, any residue of a smile she might have been sporting dissipates faster than snow in June.
She gives a hard sniff and locks her gaze over mine.
“Warren wants you, too,” I say it plain and simple before rolling the dice. “You go first.” I scoot them over to her, but she doesn’t budge.
“You sound like my dad.” She shakes her head. “I guess it really doesn’t matter what I want. Does it?” She leans back on her hands and stares off at the wall behind me.
“Of course, it matters what you want. In the event you haven’t noticed, you’re the only person who should care who you’re with. If you’re not into Warren, I’m sure you’ll find some other nice kid at Yeats.” Not that I want her to. I reach over and pick up her hand, massaging her palm with my thumb. “Fall in love, Reese. Get so head over heels you can’t see straight. It’ll be magic. I promise, you’ll want to write me a thank you note because when you finally have that moment, it’s going to be incredible.”
“Have you ever been in love?” It comes out raspy, sexy as hell. “So head over heels you can’t think straight?”
Right fucking now, but I don’t say it.
Reese gets up, never letting go of my hand, and slips her legs on either side of me until she’s sitting right in my lap, straddling me with her warm, soft body. Right about now I’m regretting the metric distance between my dick and that box of condoms sitting in my bedroom.
“Last night you said you’d be my someone special this summer.” She pulls off my shirt and runs her hands across my chest. Her eyes latch onto mine, and I’m dying to pluck off her T-shirt and return the favor.
“Last night was an illusion.” I replace her hands into her lap. “You’re just hopped up on hormones. It’s the heat.” I could list a thousand different things it could be, but I’m hoping not one of them is true.
“It’s the heat—my hormones,” she mocks. “You’ve got me all figured out, haven’t you, Waterman?” She leans in and takes a soft bite of my bottom lip before stretching it out, painfully slow, agonizingly perfect.
“Reese,” I whisper her name with my eyes sealed tight. One more glance at that lust-driven look she’s giving, and I might lose it. “Fuck.”
“Now we’re on the same page.” She sinks her hands down to my hips, and I catch her before she strikes a jackpot. “Ace,” she blows my name out in a sigh. “Be honest with me.” Reese pulls back, and we square off, eye to eye. “Am I like a little sister to you?” Her eyes swell with tears. Her lips turn a bright shade of crimson.
Here it is, my official out. I can say yes. I can tell her that I think of her like I do Neva and blow this entire bad idea out of the water before it ever takes flight, but I don’t.
“Reese.” I pump a quick smile. Who the hell am I to turn down Reese Westfield?
I crash my lips over hers and run my hands up and down her back like I’m putting out a fire.
Screw Warren McCarthy. Screw the man who Reese is destined to marry one day. I’m already head over heels. I can’t see straight—all I think about, see, hear or feel from eyelids open in the morning is Reese Westfield.
This is our summer.
I’m all in.
All The Dirty Details
Reese
Ace runs his tongue over mine, achingly slow, and I pull him in by the back of the neck, forcing him into me, deeper, harder. Ace Waterman has melted me for the better half of the last decade, and seeing that I’m just shy of my twenty-first birthday, that’s a pretty impressive streak.
Ace pulls back slightly and takes me in. “Okay.” He flexes those dimples that drive me wild, and my insides reduce to cinder. “Let’s set some ground rules.”
