But she didn’t look away. On the contrary, Skye couldn’t tear her eyes off the woman. Her eyes were glued to the smooth line of her back as she arched out of the water, the slope of her breasts, and to the dip where her spine met the flare of her hips.
Sheshouldturn away. Certainly, she should leave before Lucy spotted her, but for some reason her feet weren’t moving, and her mind was racing to scenarios: Skye running into the surf to where Lucy was, her hands skimming Lucy’s bare stomach while their mouths met. Or Skye wading into the ocean just far enough to meet Lucy, her fingers brushing Lucy’s bare hips as if by accident, and Lucy not flinching away, just tilting her head, smiling as she said, ‘Took you long enough.’
“Come on, Red,” she muttered under her breath. “Get control of yourself.”
It worked. The self-talk was all she had needed to get her mind at least temporarily out of the gutter. And so, she shifted her position.
If she moved slowly, carefully, then surely, she could make it to the cobbled path without anyone knowing that she had full-on stared at Lucy skinny dipping. Least of all Lucy.
She pushed up onto her feet, and then softly yet quickly brushed her hands off on her shorts. She turned and paused but didn’t dare look back at Lucy in the ocean. And then she bolted. Not a full-on sprint, but a fast walk that was basically a run. Her head was down. Her bun was loosening, and hair was spillingonto her shoulders. One of her sandals was beginning to slip off as she half-jogged toward the path.
She almost made it when a voice suddenly called after her.
“Skye!”
Shit.Skye froze mid-step, one foot halfway on the path, the other halfway out of her shoe.
“Is that you?” Lucy whispered.
Skye turned slowly.
Lucy stood only a few feet away, dripping wet and very much half-naked with nothing but a white towel slung low around her hips. Water glistened across her bare shoulders.
And suddenly, Skye had no idea where to look. Water trailed down the curve of Lucy’s bare chest. Her breasts were flushed from the cold, the swell of them barely concealed by the angle of her arms. For a split second, Skye’s gaze flickered from the soft dip of Lucy’s stomach to the dangerous line where the towel clung to her hips. For a moment, she imagined what was behind the material. Did Lucy have a landing strip, or was she as smooth as a seal? She wondered a lot of things. Which was highly problematic.
Skye cleared her throat loudly and looked down.
“I wasn’t… I mean, I didn’t see anything,” she said, staring at the ground so hard her eyes burned. But where else could she possibly look without running the risk of gawking?
“Don’t worry,” Lucy said, dropping her arms, revealing pink nipple peaks that would make any woman weak at the knees. Skye included. “I’m not embarrassed. Well, not about showing my body. Iwasembarrassed about getting to twenty-eight without ever skinny dipping, so I guess I made up for that now.”
“You know you’re not allowed outside of the red flag zone,” Skye said awkwardly, still looking down. She had noidea what else to say. Lucy, who was half naked, soaking wet, and entirely unbothered, was standing three feet away with moonlight licking across her skin.
Lucy stepped a little closer, and Skye flicked her gaze up just in time to see the towel dip a little lower.
She shuddered.
“Then I guess we’ll both have to keep our mouths shut, won’t we?” Lucy hissed.
Skye swallowed hard for what felt like the tenth time in the last five minutes. Oh, hell. How was she going to get out of this? How could she possibly tear herself away when this felt like an invitation?
Wait.Wasit an invitation?
Because it sounded like one. Itlookedlike one. The smirk on Lucy’s lips, the way she tilted her head and lingered, shifting her weight from one leg to the other, jutting out her hip. Exposing herself like that. It all certainly appeared to be a wide-open invitation. Skye’s brain short-circuited trying to calculate the odds of this moment being innocent versus orchestrated. Or maybe she was overthinking it. Many women were comfortable enough with their bodies to walk around naked in public spaces. Obviously, Lucy was one of them.
“You do realize what this is, right?” Lucy asked.
Skye shook her head slowly. Whatwasthis?
“I broke the rules,” Lucy replied, still smiling. “Apparently, I’m not supposed to go past the red flags, and that’s exactly what I did. So, all I want from you is a promise that you won’t rat me out.”
Skye nearly laughed, out of relief, out of nerves, out of disappointment. Or maybe some unhinged combination of all three. Lucy wasn’t trying to seduce her; she was simply trying not to get kicked off the show for skinny dipping in the no-go zone.
“Right,” Skye muttered, dragging a hand down her face. “You want me to lie.”
“Not lie,” Lucy said sweetly, stepping forward once more. “Just omit.”
The towel stayed miraculously and maddeningly in place. And a part of Skye, a not-so-small part just south of reasonable thought, was disappointed. Okay. Fine. Deeply disappointed. Because frankly, the space between her legs was throbbing. Her clit was about to spontaneously combust.
