It wasn’t lost on me what a gift it was that Eva trusted me enough to let her guard down like this.
“Well?” she asked. “What are you waiting for?”
I tore off my ball cap and tossed it aside with as much dramatic flair as I could muster.
Eva gave her belly laugh to the sky. It was pretty and honest and sexy as hell. I didn’t stop to think then—I scooped her up and bolted down the dock. She screamed as we flew off the edge and plunged together into cold water. Together, we sank until our toes stirred mud. She scrambled for purchase, kicking hard and climbing me like a monkey until we broke free again.
“Howdareyou!” she coughed.
I cut her off with a splash to the face. Eva shrieked and splashed me back. Soon she was giggling, holding on to the edge of the dock for balance as she tried and failed to splash more than she laughed. She was so lovely I couldn’t stand it; my cheeks hurt from smiling.
When her laugh dropped into the low spread of a hum in her chest, Eva reached behind herself and fiddled with the drawstrings of her swimsuit until the bikini popped free. Then she sank lower.
My mouth went dry. She’d turned the tables on whatever game I’d thought I was winning before. Her hands dipped below the water again, surfacing with a pair of bright blue swim bottoms. She flung the swimsuit onto the dock. “Dare,” she chirped, a task complete, then twirled a finger in my direction. “Now, then. Boxers. Off.”
I hitched a laugh.
Eva pushed off the dock toward me, both of us kicking our legs to tread water as she gently set her hands on my shoulders.
I’d promised myself I wouldn’t touch her, but I hadn’t prepared myself for what I would do ifshetouchedme. At the graze of her fingertips, my stomach pebbled with goose bumps.
Eva moved closer. The blissful glide of her skin against mine was a sweet, delicious shock. We hadn’t done this yet, not even close. Despite the cold water, my body hardened as she tugged the waistband down, tossed the boxers onto the dock and wound her legs around my waist.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“Hey, bee girl.”
She was so soft, the feeling of her breasts flattened against my chest the most erotic sensation I had ever experienced. Swallowing hard, I reminded myself to go slow.
I wanted her thighs in my hands. I wanted to kiss down her throat and taste the freckles on her skin. But even more, I wanted her to feel safe.
“This okay?” I whispered, keenly aware of the new territory we were approaching.
Eva nodded. “More than okay.” She smoothed a drop of water off my cheek. “I like this.” And then her lips moved sweetly against mine again, the slip of her tongue like a promise. I made a little sound and drew her hungrily against me. Eva’s fingers combed back my hair as I deepened the kiss, a new desperation unfurling inside me.
I like this, too.
The words I wanted to say to her stuck like molasses in my throat—heady and dark, but oh, so sweet.
I like you.
When Eva flexed her thighs around my middle, we bobbed a little lower in the water, too distracted to tread properly.
The bank exploded with bright green reeds. Something slippery brushed my calf before it shrank back from my skin, dying beneath the water’s surface. Nearby, green pads popped to the surface, pale pink and white lilies opening into full bloom.
When Eva saw them, she broke away. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I rasped. “I like what you can do.”
“Really?”
I nodded. Her tickling reeds wove through my toes before shriveling back at my touch. The slippery cold made me shiver, but so would any brush of a fish.
“You’re not scared?” Eva asked in a too-small voice.
“No.” Her gift was raw and wild. Sometimes it made me doubt that she was even real. But it didn’t scare me.
I drew her arms back around my neck and gently pinched her stomach between my fingers. Eva’s round lips puckered, and she squeezed her legs around my waist. “Touch me.”
