Please, please, don’t be there.
CHAPTER 15
Blake
As luck would have it,the moment my granddad and I cleared the bend and came face-to-face with the beautiful sparkling waters of Mt. Craigleith’s lake, so too did we find ourselves coming up on the sunbathing Marlow freaking Knight.
He was stretched out on the dock, laying flat on his back with a pair of dark-tinted sunglasses covering his eyes, his feet still hanging over the edge and submerged under the cool water, just like Lydia had said. His fingers were laced and tucked under his head, cushioning him from the hard wood under him.
But that wasn’t the part that was catching my eye the most. It was the fact that he was in nothing but a pair of swimming trunks that were pulled dangerously low on his hips, showing off the beginnings of his pelvis, that I had to rip my gaze away from before I got dangerously turned on.
Of course he was out here looking like a damn catalog model posing from a shoot that was beach-theme inspired. All washboard abs and thick, ropey arms that looked like they could pick up anyone under two hundred and throw them right overhis shoulder like they were merely a beach towel slung out of the way in order to carry the precious cooler of beers down to the water’s edge.
Bet the veins in his arms would pop if he did that.
Bet he could carrytwocoolers.
His tanned skin was definitely getting dark from when I’d met him a week ago, a full shade at least, and damn, did a little color look good on him. He wasn’t pale to begin with but now no one would definitely be accusing him of spending too much time indoors.
“Nice day for sunning yourself,” my granddad called out, snapping me out of my lust-filled thoughts while taking in a long sweep of the waters and the guests currently swimming in the roped off area.
“Can’t beat it,” Marlow replied instantly.
My heart thudded uncomfortably in my chest.
He didn’tsoundupset, so that was at least a positive sign. Perhaps Lydia was reading too much into his behavior. She’d only gotten to know him one other time during the hike back down from the waterfall where she couldn’t wait to tell meallabout Marlow’s quirky antics the moment she got back to base camp.
Since then, she’d kept a skeptical eye on him.
That was the man she’d had her first opportunity to know—a vivacious and eccentric personality that was both the life of the party and a master at charming anyone he talked to. A snake charmer that could flatter even the coldest of hearts.
In reality, Marlow was so much more than that.
He had depth to him. More sides than simply the class-clown mask he liked to wear when in social situations. I’d seen it for myself first hand in those passing moments when I’d actually allowed myself to stop with the professionalism and let himin a bit. When I’d actually set aside my worry with crossing boundaries and given in to the itch.
Ilikedthat side of him. It was just as compelling as his eccentric self.
If only we’d met five years ago. Maybe then, I would’ve let myself get caught up in the whirlwind.
It would’ve absolutely ended in heartbreak, but aren’t all first loves like that?
“You enjoying your time here so far?” my granddad asked.
“Besides the hangover? Absolutely.”
My brows knitted together.
Hangover?
How in the world did he manage that when we only permitted two alcoholic drinks per guest per night?
Unless he hoarded them all over the weekend from the bonfires... But then again, getting drunk off four beers,maybesix, enough that he’d woken up with a hangover this morning, seemed a little... unbelievable.
There was no way he was that much of a lightweight.
“Did you talk someone into getting you something off the property?” I asked.
Marlow shifted on the dock, his hand popping out from under his head to shove the sunglasses down under his eyes to stare at me over the rim of them. “Ah, Mr. Director... so nice of you to leave your cave and join us for a little sunlight. AC getting a little too cold up there?”
