What is he doing? Where exactly does the Nervous game end? “No.”
His fingers swirl around my inner thigh and land almost at the lining of my bathing suit. “Nervous?”
My legs instinctively open for him as if they have a mind of their own. “No.” I breathe the word because there’s nowhere elseto go. His hand moves up and over my lower stomach, toying with the top lining of my bottoms; he puts two fingers in the seam and stops himself.
“Nervous?” I ask him. What. Am. I. Doing. And what ishedoing? Our friends are still playing the game, no one is paying attention to us, and Wes is gone. There’s no one to fool, just ourselves.
“I’m never nervous,” he says into my ear as he slides his fingers down. I suck in a breath and I start to feel like I should yellnervous, nervous, nervous!That’s when Sam asks Asher truth or dare and I grab his wrist under the water, snapping my legs shut.
“Whatever the hell you two are doing under the water, please wait until you get to the bedroom to finish it, ugh.” Annica shields her eyes.
“Truth,” Asher says, wrapping his arms around my middle.
“Have you slept with the bartender at the resort? The hot one with the big boobs,” Sam clarifies, though we all know which one.
“I have,” Asher answers matter-of-factly.
“Recently?” Sam asks. And I know Sam is asking out of spite. He’s still mad at us. I hold my breath waiting for Asher’s answer. I don’t know why, because I know the answer. But I don’t want to hear it.
Asher leans his head on my shoulder and puts his lips to my skin. “You only had one question, Sam.”
He continues the trail of light kisses from my shoulder up to my neck, and even in the hot water it gives me goose bumps. When he reaches the nape of my neck my head lolls to the side, inviting him in for more, and god, what is happening right now? Every touch, every feeling of his lips on my skin, I feel like I need moreof it... and it scares me. I mean, he just admitted to sleeping with another girl to everyone while holding me. Wouldn’t a girlfriend be annoyed about that? But I’m not his girlfriend.
“I’m over this game,” Annica says, getting up from the hot tub. “And I’m over watching whatever is happening in the corner.” She waves her hand over at us, and if my face wasn’t already flushed from the hot tub, I would blush. “Dani, let’s go watch a movie,” she says to Danielle, who gets up after her.
“Sloane, come join us after... that.” Dani wags her eyebrows at us.
“You guys wanna play pool in the basement?” Jake asks the rest of the guys. Sam and Charlie get up with him, and then it’s just me and Asher.
When we hear the door shut for the last time Asher says, “I don’t think Annica will be bothering us anymore about whether or not we’re together.” Then he hoists me up, practically shoving me off him. My knee collides with the other seat and water splashes up into my face.
“Ow?” I say. “A simple ‘Can you get up?’ would have sufficed.” But he’s already getting out of the hot tub.
“I have more business at the resort tonight, so don’t wait up.”
It takes my brain a moment to catch up and come back to reality. The one where all of that was for show, and the way he was touching me is a lie. “Wait, what? You’re leaving again? After I told you there’s a potentially dangerous serial killer here?”
Asher points around the house. “Security cameras. Everywhere.”
I scoff. “It’s not even late. What am I supposed to tell everyone else?”
“Make something up. Say my dad wanted to meet me there or whatever.” He grabs a towel and heads inside, leaving me alone in the hot tub, which now feels much, much colder.
Back in the house I can hear the clacking pool balls from the basement as I trudge down the hall and toward the stairs. Maybe I’ll join Dani and Annica for their movie. Or maybe... Wesley’s door is open just a crack as I stop before it.
“I know, I miss you too,” I hear him say from inside and I roll my eyes. “Why would you even ask that? She’s in Asher’s room... Yes... No... I’m not having this conversation again, Ris.”
I back away from his door and tiptoe to my room. So Marissa does have an idea about me and him, which means she would have a motive.
After a hot shower I get in the bed, too large for just one person, still wrapped in a towel and thinking about what happened in the hot tub. The way his hands gripped me, his mouth on my neck, his fingers dipping between my thighs. I wonder if we hadn’t been stopped, would he have kept going? The thought alone makes my toes curl and I slide my own hand up my thigh the way he did to me, just to feel the sensation of it again. I close my eyes, imagining it’s him until I get to the same place where he stopped. I can’t do this to the thought of Asher, I just can’t.
Instead I get up to join Dani and Annica for the movie, telling them Asher fell asleep early. Annica gives Dani a look when I say it, as if there’s an inside joke that I’m not aware of. But that’s not true, of course. I am so painfully aware of the joke. Iamthe joke.
That familiar scent of cinnamon and pine fills the room and I know without opening my eyes that Asher is back. I feel the bedmove as he climbs in beside me, but my eyes are still heavy with sleep and the way he so carefully moves tells me it’s probably still the middle of the night. So I let myself doze off again, savoring the warmth. I might even scoot a little closer.
When I start to wake on Saturday morning, I can feel his skin on mine and the way his chest rises and falls in his sleep. Somewhere in the night we’ve become almost chest to chest with his arm draped over me. I start to stir and he does too, his hand running down my side. It makes me wonder if he knows it’s me beside him. Perhaps he thinks I’m Brandy. I don’t wait around to find out as I get out of the bed, careful not to wake him.
A stream of light comes through the shades as I dress for the day. The boys are planning on going back to the resort for more snowboarding while Annica, Dani, and I go to the spa and shops. Tonight we have some nice dinner planned here at the house with the whole McCavern family. I grab the book I brought with me, intent on reading in front of one of the large windows with the view of the mountains, but when I come downstairs, I find I’m not alone. There’s an elderly man with a cane sitting in a leather recliner by the fireplace. Asher and Wesley’s grandfather. I almost pivot and go back upstairs but he turns to look at me.
