Even in the low light I can see the red flush on her cheeks that that comment is causing. God, I fucking love making this girl blush. As always, she recovers much more quickly than I’d like.
She steals a glance at me and subtly points to Carly with the index finger wrapped around her beer. “She looks like she’s got more STDs than IQ points.”
“At least she’s not in a trucker hat,” I retort and snort a little in disgust. “Make sure he double bags it.”
She can’t keep a straight face at that comment. She cracks a grin and I grin back. She’s got one hell of a smile. It’s like it starts in her toes and pulls up her entire body. It’s honestly contagious. I lean toward her. “Oh, and by the way, next time you stock up on condoms, make sure to buy Magnum. That one the other night was a little tight.”
“Wet Hide and Go Seek!” Audrey yells from the water’s edge.
A roar erupts and people start peeling out of their clothes. I look to Shay for some indication of what the hell that means. She turns her back to me and yanks her dress down, leaving it in a pile on the grass. She’s in nothing now but a coral strapless bikini, and the sight makes my jaw drop so low I’m surprised it’s not hitting the sand. I watch her step out of her flip-flops and take a few steps toward Trucker Hat, who is beckoning me from the shore.
Then Shay and everyone else on the beach except for Josh, who is counting down loudly from fifty with his back to the shore, is running into the water.
I don’t want to be left behind so I yank my shirt over my head, drop my keys and my cell, kick out of my shoes and run for the water. It’s fucking cold! But I would follow Shay and her coral bikini into the Arctic if I had to, so I clench my teeth and keep wading in.
Shay’s stopped to pull her hair up. Trucker Hat hasn’t bothered to wait for her, thankfully. I run toward her, water splashing up around me, and I give her ass a tiny smack as I blow by her and dive under. When I pop back up I turn toward her. She’s a shadow now, but when I hear her say, “Fucking Frenchie!” I know she’s smiling and I smile back
She’s slowly sinking deeper and deeper into the water and I can see her wincing at the cold as she does it. I swim over and reach out and grab her hand and yank her forward until the water is up to her shoulders. She squeals, but it sounds like a delighted squeal. The kind of squeal my dick wanted to make as soon as she dropped that dress and revealed that tiny bikini. I keep hold of her arm and pull her as I swim deeper into the lake, away from Trucker Hat.
“So what the fuck are we doing?” I ask her, because I don’t know what Wet Hide and Seek is. When everyone ran to the lake I just followed along.
“We’ve been playing this for years. Started in college. We used to get drunk and hop the fence at the outdoor pool on campus. The lights are always off at night and it’s pitch-black, like this,” she explains, and she keeps swimming with me even though I’ve let go of her arm. “The goal is for everyone to ‘hide’ in the water. Because it’s so dark, you can’t see a thing. The person counting has to swim out and, by feel and sound only, try and find people. You can swim around or stay put. It’s ridiculously juvenile but somehow also incredibly fun.”
I can barely touch the bottom of the lake now, so I’m sure she can’t. Something brushes by my foot, probably some lake plant or maybe a fish, but when it brushes by her she squeals again and splashes backward into the water. I’m on her instantly, pressing a wet hand to her mouth as she finds her footing.
“Shh! Josh’s almost done counting,” I warn her.
She bites down on my palm. I swallow a yelp and yank my hand away. “Since when do you like it rough?”
“One lightning-fast quickie and you think you know anything about what I like?” she says and turns and starts to swim away from me, toward the long dock that juts out into the water from the left side of the half-moon beach.
I easily swim along behind her. She reaches the dock and raises her arms, bobbing up in the water so her hands can grab onto the wooden planks above her. She steadies herself just as Josh yells out, “Ready or not here I come, bitches!”
I tread water directly in front of where she’s hanging from the dock. My eyes are level with her stomach, I think, but there’s not enough light to be sure. I want to reach out and touch her, but I want to do it with my tongue, so I refrain completely.
“You know your attitude is making this lake even colder,” I whisper to her quietly. I can’t see her but I can hear her breathing. “If you aren’t careful, it’s going to freeze over.”
She doesn’t say anything for a minute, and then another blast of cold air. “I’m sorry if you’re used to more fawning or stalking or something after a fling.”
The water ripples around me so I know she moved, and I hear the wood creek from the dock. Did she let go or just adjust her position? Is she swimming away? But then she speaks, and her voice is still coming from in front of me. “Would you like me to create an I Slept with Frenchie Facebook page?”
There’s more attitude inside her than there is blood or oxygen. And I fucking couldn’t be more turned on right now. “I was out of town,” I say, because even though the snark is hot, I need to clear the air.
“What?”
“I left the morning after we met,” I explain quietly into the darkness. “And I got back last night.”
“Oh.”
“And since you disappeared as soon as you climaxed, I had no way of contacting you until this morning.” I go on swimming a little closer to where I think she is. “Until I took your little stretching class.”
“Yoga, not stretching. And you should take a few more. You’ve got the flexibility of a rock,” she mutters.
She stops talking as we watch a shadow, most likely Josh, swim in the other direction and someone else flail and scream as he catches them. It sounds like Audrey.
“Now she’ll join Josh and hunt the rest of us down,” Shay whispers.
When we’re sure that their splashes are getting farther away, we resume our conversation.
