“Throw me in there with you.” Her cheeks darken, and I’m ready to call her bluff.
“There’s nothing we can do in there that we can’t do right here.”
The whites of her eyes expand like stars as she fumbles for words.
“Knew it.” My chest rumbles over hers with a quiet laugh. “I call bullshit.” I sink out of her grasp and start swimming toward shore.
“Hey,wait.” She glides up alongside me and latches onto my arm. “I’m not playing games.” She glances down at the water and takes a measured breath. “I thought maybe, you know, we could have some fun.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll beat you at basketball in the morning. I’ll make sure you have lots of fun trying to steal the ball from me.”
She wrinkles her nose, and I do my best to hide a smile. Reese is cuter than hell when she’s pissed.
“Do you think I’m pretty?” She bats those amazing lashes at me, but there’s a hint of sadness layered just beneath the surface.
“What?” Reese is a masterpiece in and out of her blue jeans, and if she doesn’t know it, she’s got some serious self-esteem issues. “I think you’re a beautiful goddess.” There. That should cure her.
Her mouth curves with a slow smile. She seals her hips to mine once again, and my gut flinches because it’s torture having her so close and not being able to touch her the way I want, the ways I’ve meditated over for so many years.
“I want you to be my first, Ace.” The smile melts off her face as her lips come in close again. “I want to know the things you know, do the things you do—withyou.”
“Reese,” I let it out in a heated whisper. “You need to do those things with someone who means something to you—someone special. Don’t waste your time with a guy like me.” I came within an inch of calling myself a loser which I don’t believe for a second, but, in a way, I think my dad has been right all along, Reese doesn’t belong with someone like me.
“Youmean something to me.” She takes a hiccupping breath as if she’s about to cry. “I think you’re someone special, Ace.”
“I think we’re great friends”—I force a weak smile—“who just shared something amazing. But you need something bigger like love. You need flowers and candles—everything that comes with it.”
Her eyes narrow over mine, and, for a second, I think she might clock me.
“Yeah, well, I’ve already made up my mind that I’m going to have a wild time this summer.” She pushes off my thighs until she’s floating on her back. Her tits roll back just under her neck, solid and round as if someone shoved oranges under her skin, and suddenly I’m very fucking hungry for oranges. She glides backward, fanning her arms around her like an angel. “I’m so tired of my boring life,” she whispers the words to the sky, and suddenly I feel like an intruder. “I’m ready to move onto the next. Dive into the ecstasy of it all and see what the rest of the world keeps talking about.”
I swim up beside her and pull her in until her body is upright and pressed against mine once again. Reese gives a pouting smile and takes my breath away with her beauty.
“Promise me you won’t have a wild summer.” I touch my forehead to hers for a second. “Just because I’m not going to have you, doesn’t mean I want some other asshole to cash in on your brain malfunction.”
“You’ve had a wild summer every year since you were sixteen.” A laugh bubbles from her throat, and her skin vibrates in tune.
“I’m a guy—wild summer’s are practically a rite of passage.” All of the blood in my body rushes to my dick, and I might pass out and drown if I don’t do something about it soon.
“Trust me, this is far from a brain malfunction. This is happening.”
She lifts her knees to my hips, and I gently push them back down.
“Reese”—I close my eyes a moment—“what made you decide to have a wild summer? Hell,whendid you decide?”
“Youand about fifteen minutes ago.” A sly smile plays on her lips. Hot damn. Reese Westfield is hotter than a wildfire and is threatening to get out of control like one, too. Nope, I’m not going to let that happen. I think what we need here is a controlled burn under the watchful supervision of someone who cares—someone like me.
“Okay.” I take a quick breath. “I’m in.”
“You’re in?” She marvels. Her mouth parts as if she were ready and willing to start tonight.
“Yes.” I shake my head, disbelieving. “I’ll be your wild summer—your fling, whatever you want to call it.” Now it’s my face filling with heat.
“My summer fling,” she says it slow like a very sad poem. “Thank you, Ace.” Her eyes sweep over mine as her hand smooths over my features.
Reese falls into me, landing her hot mouth over mine. I run my hands along her thighs, and it takes all my strength not to venture a little further north, but I hold out. We stay in the lake with our bodies twisted around one another like rope, our lips fused together as we try to put out the inferno going off in one another’s mouths.
Reese has already turned this into the best season on record.
