A bottle of sunblock sits on one of the loungers. Nicholas is already in the pool, doing a lap, heading away from me.
I take the lounger next to his, sitting under the umbrella on the neatly spread towel, and lay the books and my phone on a square table with a faux-glass top. I start to put sunblock liberally on my pale skin and watch Nicholas swim. He’s headed back now, using a superb butterfly. Georgia and I watch swimming events in the Olympics, purely to ogle over the hot bodies and strength evident in the different strokes. My favorite is the butterfly for its explosive power and grace. Nothing’s sexier than a man full of confidence and competence.
Nicholas brims with both.
My God, he is fast! And the force of his kick and the sinuous way his body moves are hot—seeing the display in person leaves me breathless. The air suddenly feels warmer, although a breeze has started up.
Nicholas reaches the edge of the pool, puts his hands flat on the rough surface and pushes himself up and out in one smooth motion. Water sluices from his wide shoulders along the well-developed pecs and sloping lats, all the way down to his ridged abs and strong thighs. I’ve already seen him topless, but somehow, with the light breaking over him this way, he looks even more stunning.
Despite the shade provided by the umbrella, my skin heats. He pulls off his goggles and smiles, the corners of his gray eyes crinkling.
My mouth dries, and my heart races likeI’mthe one who did the butterfly.
“Need some help?” he says.
He’s barely out of breath. A drop of water falls from the hair over his forehead and drips down his nose, all the way down until it’s clinging to the fullest part of his lower lip. An inexplicable urge to lick it off rolls through me. I clench my hand in reflex—
There’s apop, and sunblock squirts out of the bottle. The white glop lands right on my chest, and his eyes follow. My face couldn’t get any hotter at my clumsy reaction—and the fact that the sunblock spewed on my cleavage looks like something out of a third-rate porn video.
“Just, haha, putting on some sunblock. I burn, you know.” I spread the glob on my already protected chest, sticking my right index finger down between my breasts to get at the remaining slippery goo. As I pull it out, I realize how it must look, and my face flames. “And I was thinking I should probably put some on my back too!” I contort my arm behind myself…which makes me arch like I’m—
“Probably need more sunblock than that,” Nicholas says.Does his voice sound a little rough?
I can’t decide if I need to say something—my mind is blank, and all I can register is the timbre of his voice and another water drop that’s gliding down between his pecs.
He gently takes the bottle from my hand and pours a generous white dollop on his palms. “Turn around,” he says, and his velvety voice melts over my spine.
The skin on my neck tingling with heat, I present my back and pull my hair to the side. His warm palms glide over my shoulders and spine. I feel buzzed, and a shiver runs through me as though every stroke is charged. The air in my lungs grows thin, and my toes curl as heat streaks through me and pools between my legs. It’s like my entire back has turned into my most sensitive erogenous zone, and I feel his touch like a lover would.
Donotsquirm!I tense my legs and bite my lip, relieved Nicholas can’t see my expression.
Something moves in my peripheral vision. A guy with hair the color of a navel orange surges to his feet from the other side of the shrubs that dot the side of the pool. With a lanky frame and extra-pale face, he doesn’t look threatening, but you never know these days. When his owlish eyes lock with mine…
I shriek.
Chapter Sixteen
Nicholas
I purposely wanted to be doing the butterfly instead of sitting by the pool when Molly came out. Georgia mentioned once that it was Molly’s favorite, which just goes to show my girl likes only the best. The butterfly is taxing because there are only two speeds—fast and faster—and it isn’t easy to do well.
The idea was for Molly to see me doing it and—hopefully—be impressed. The charge in the air changed when she showed up, and an exuberance that had nothing to do with the high I get from swimming thrummed through my veins.
Although a pair of large sunglasses hid her eyes, I could feel her checking me out when I hauled myself out of the pool. What I was doing met with her approval. Then that sunblock had to spurt out of its bottle and land on her chest. An innocent accident, of course, but also hot as hell.
I’ve fantasized about all kinds of sexual acts with her, one of them being marking her as mine, and there’s nothing more primitive and visceral than spilling your cum on a woman. Then when she stuck a finger between her breasts, it made me think about fucking her tits.
My blood couldn’t have flowed south faster, filling my cock until it hurt.
I shifted a little to hide the reaction, but an erection is impossible to conceal in bathing trunks. I took the sunblock from her and offered to put it on her back to give myself a little time to settle down.
But her bare skin is warm and smooth under my palms, and the soft scent of her shampoo is driving me crazy. Plus she smells like my soap. I want her to smell like me in other ways, too.
A window to our left shows her reflection—eyes closed, teeth digging into the plump flesh of her lip.Is she getting turned on?It’s possible, but—
“Ack!”
I jerk my hands from her back, looking around for a bug that might’ve scared her. But no. It’s worse.
