"If I have any made, I'll make sure you get the first one," I assured her. "What's your favourite colour?"
"Would it be weird if I admitted it was pink?" She looked tentative, like I was going to judge her because she chose one colour over the others.
"Only if it'd be weird if I admitted it was mine too," I said, my eyes on her plush lips. Were her nipples the same shade? I was itching to find out, but that would have to wait.
"Why don't you finish up eating and get changed? We should be meeting Ryan and Blaise shortly." I glanced at the watch on my wrist.
She nodded and snagged up her swimsuit from where it lay on the small hotel bed. She took a couple of steps towards the bathroom before turning back around.
"I forgot to say thank you. For stopping yesterday. For singing last night. And for breakfast. You've helped make all of this a lot easier than it would have been."
"It was nothing," I said. "Happy to do it." I'd be even happier to doher, but I could wait. I wanted to watch her enjoy herself while the three of us got her very, very wet.
10
PAISLEY
"I don't know about this."I stared at the wake out behind the back of the boat. "Is it safe?"
"Of course it is," Ryan said lightly. "The worst thing that can happen is you fall in the water."
"I think the worst thing might be that I humiliate myself," I said, grimacing.
All three of them had the audacity to grin.
"We've all done it," Blaise said. He'd stuck close to me since we stepped off the dock and onto the boat, even helping me into my lifejacket. "Ryan sucks at it."
"I fucking do not." Ryan narrowed his eyes at Blaise, but he looked like he was trying not to smile. "Blaise is the one who sucks."
"Notice how neither of them mentioned me." Morgan smirked. "That might be because they're jealous of how good I am. I'm also really good at waterskiing."
Ryan and Blaise both snorted.
"Keep on dreaming," Ryan told him.
"I don't need to dream, I can show you." Morgan didn't seem to be bragging, just stating a fact. "Why don't I show all of you how it's done?"
"I could use a demonstration," I admitted. The closest I'd been to seeing anyone waterski was on TV. Moving across the water, it seemed a hell of a lot more daunting.
"I'm more than happy to show you all my tricks, on and off the water." Morgan pushed his feet into a pair of skis, grabbed the handle that was attached to a rope and waited for the boat to stop before stepping off the side. He turned around to face it and gave a nod for the boat to increase speed again.
Slowly, he lifted up out of the water until he was balanced on skis, riding the wake like he was born to do it. His hair, pulled back in a ponytail, whipped out behind him. He let out a whoop and raised one hand over his head like he was riding a bull.
"He made that look easy," I said.
"He's been doing this a while," Ryan said grudgingly. "We all have, but some of us don't have weeks off to play around."
The boat moved in an arc around Lake Aurora, pulling Morgan behind before he fell off the skis with a splash.
The driver turned the small boat around, slowed and stopped to let him climb back on board, skis in hand.
"See, nothing to it." He tossed the skis aside and sat down on one of the benches that stretched from one side of the boat to the other.
"Do you want to try?" Ryan asked.
"Of course she does," Blaise said. "I bet Paisley isn't scared of anything."
"I wouldn't take that bet," I said wryly. I was scared of a lot of things, including making a fool of myself. I didn't like being made a fool of, either. On the other hand, they went to the trouble of bringing me out here, so I might as well try.
