“Dinner was torture,” he murmured, his thumb tracing circles on the back of my hand. “Do you have any idea how hard it was not to touch you?”
“Please. You were the picture of self-control.”
“I was dying, Ava.” He turned to face me, his expression serious beneath the teasing. “All I could think about was how good you looked in that dress and how much I wanted to take it off you.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “Liam.”
“What? It’s true.” He reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, his touch gentle. “I’ve been thinking aboutyou all day. About what we could do now that we finally have some time.”
“We have all summer,” I reminded him, even as my pulse quickened.
“Exactly.” His eyes glinted in the darkness. “Which is why I think we should go to the lake tonight.”
I blinked. “The lake? It’s almost eleven.”
“Perfect.” He was already standing, pulling me up with him. “No one will be there. It’s just us and the stars and all that water. And I seem to remember a certain item on your list that requires a natural body of water.”
Skinny-dipping.
“We could get caught,” I said weakly.
“By who? The fish?” He stood up, pulling me with him and settling his hands on my hips. “Come on, Aves. Live a little. Isn’t that the whole point of the list?”
It was. That was exactly the point.
“Fine,” I said, and his answering grin was worth every risk. “But if we get arrested for public indecency, I’m blaming you.”
“Deal.” He laced his fingers through mine and tugged me toward the barn door. “Come on, Sunshine. We’ve got a lake to skinny-dip in.”
TWENTY-TWO
The lake was smooth as glass as we got out of my truck and walked toward the pristine water stretched out before us. It was dark blue during the day, but it looked black now with only the light of the moon shining on it. Ava’s hand was warm in mine, and she made a sound—this little intake of breath that hit me right in the chest.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and yet I’m always taken aback by how gorgeous it is,” she whispered. “It’s so beautiful.”
It was.
But I wasn’t looking at the lake.
I was looking at her.
The moonlight caught the angles of her face, the curve of her smile, the way her eyes were lit up with joy and awe. I loved that about her. I knew she’d seen the lake at night before, but Ava never seemed to take a moment for granted. She cherished it. I’d never met anyone who looked at things the way she did.
“Come on.” I tugged her toward the water’s edge. “You’re not chickening out on me now, Sunshine.”
“I’m not chickening out.” But she bit her lip, and I could see the nerves flickering behind the excitement. “I’m just processing.”
“Processing what?”
“The fact that I’m about to be naked. Outside. Where anyone could see.”
I laughed and dropped her hand so I could reach for the neck of my shirt. “No one’s going to see. It’s almost midnight, the nearest house is half a mile away, and the only witnesses are the fish and the frogs.” I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it on the grass. “Unless you’re worried about offending them?”
She rolled her eyes, but I caught the way her gaze dropped to my chest, then traced down my arms where the moonlight caught my ink and lingered there for a beat longer than strictly necessary. I flexed. Just a little.
“Show-off,” she muttered.
“Hey, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
