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Caleb said he needed plenty of sleep for the body to recover and build muscle. It had certainly worked. He was so ripped that when his arms lifted up over his head, she could see every rippling cord and tendon.

Down came his shorts, and as he flipped them casually over the back of the lounger, Hannah gritted her teeth and focused on her own clothing, making quick work of taking off her denim shorts and then rolling up the wetsuit legs up onto her body, being careful to sit down first for maximum pull.

This time the wetsuit didn’t roll up as it should – the crotch was halfway up her thighs and refused to budge an inch. She couldn’t understand where she’d gone wrong; Zack was already pulling up the sleeves of his, and Bianca was already suited and fussing with her hair.

Glancing over towards Caleb, she wondered how far he’d managed to get. He was bent over, and she could see a perfectly round peach of a bum peeking out from the side of the lounger as he wrestled with the knees. She suspected that if the rest of his naked body was anything like his rear, she wouldn’t have minded being subjected to it.

When he straightened up, her gaze darted away in a panic. Only to catch Emma smiling gleefully at her with a raised brow. Heat rushed up her face and neck, and it was nothing to do with her yanking on her wetsuit.

Chapter Twenty

‘Need a hand, mate?’ asked Zach, as he came to stand in front of her, his wetsuit on, except for the zip up the back, which he was even now managing to close, using the long-ribboned zip and contorting his body with ease.

Flexible people were so annoying! It was why she was still in the beginner’s yoga class.

‘Yeah,’ she sighed in defeat. When they went to surf club together, he’d usually end up having to shake her into it. Not the most elegant way of getting into a wetsuit, but at least it worked. ‘I tried rolling it, but it’s stuck halfway up my thighs, and I swear I’ve managed to get sand in it already,’ she grumbled.

‘Stand up and turn around,’ Zach commanded, and when she did, he grabbed the suit around her thighs and began to jig her up and down, as if she were a baby in a bouncer.

‘Christ!’ she screeched, her upper body tipping forward as her bum refused to squeeze into the tight fabric.

‘Almost there!’ shouted Zach, even though she was certain it hadn’t moved an inch.

A moment later, her forehead smacked against the same abs she’d been admiring a second ago. Caleb had pulled his wetsuit up to his waist but had rushed to her aid before fully dressing.

‘Woah!’ cried Caleb, grabbing hold of her hands as Zach continued to try and shake her into the suit. Interlocking her fingers with his, she managed to pull herself reasonably upright.

‘Jesus, Zach!’ she shouted, her hair and upper body flip-flopping around like she was a ragdoll in a washing machine. She braced her arms against Caleb’s, which gave her enough rigidity to catch her breath. Everyone else was falling about laughing, but Caleb seemed genuinely worried.

‘You, okay?’ he asked softly and with concern, making this utterly humiliating experience almost worth it.

‘Your bum’s not going in for some reason,’ Zach grumbled, even as he gave her another sharp shake that rattled her teeth.

Caleb leaned forward and around her. His warm chest and their interwoven hands pushed against her body, as he looked at her bum – the problem that apparently required two men to solve.

‘Her t-shirt’s gathered in at the front, and I don’t think the zipper is all the way down at the back,’ said Emma, peeking around Zach’s body to assess the situation.

‘Jeeez!’ gasped Zach, and with a thud he set her back down onto her feet, which only seemed to unbalance her further because she rocked back into Caleb’s chest with an audible ‘oof!’

The fact she was still gasping in air meant she was basically open-mouthed against Caleb’s chest. ‘Christ!’ she screamed, rearing back and wincing at the saliva on Caleb’s skin from her rather wet and inelegant kiss.

Caleb’s fingers untangled themselves from hers. Perhaps it was the fact she felt a little dizzy and was reluctant to lose his stability, or perhaps his solid chest had done strange things to her heart and libido, but she wished he was still holding her hands.

‘Take your top off,’ said Zach from behind, and she fumbled with the wad of fabric, pulling it out from the rubber suit now gathered around her waist. It felt slightly obscene pulling it over her head with Caleb less than half a foot in front of her.

‘Give me a sec!’ she said, carefully adjusting her boobs in her bikini. The embarrassment of her unveiling was made even worse when halfway over her head the t-shirt refused to budge any further.

‘Awr, yeah, it’s snagged on the zipper. Give us a minute,’ said Zach as he did some strange tugging below her bottom. She’d never regretted an over-sized t-shirt more.

‘There it is, you little ripper!’ declared Zach triumphantly, and when the fabric gave way, she yanked off the shirt in one sweeping motion.

‘Oh God!’ she gasped, feeling as if she’d been drowning in sweat and shame. Zach’s hands once again gripped the rolled wetsuit around her waist, and she sucked in a deep breath and gritted her teeth for another possible concussion.

‘I’ll do it!’ snapped Caleb, and then his voice became soft and reassuring. ‘Trust me.’

He lifted her gently off the ground. Maybe it was the way he lifted her, or perhaps it was the sheer force of his green-eyed stare, but she didn’t flip-flop like she had with Zach. He continued to hold her entire body weight up in his firm grim. The fabric of the wetsuit began to stretch and loosen around her body, gravity finely doing its job and allowing her body to slide – bum and all – into the suit with an embarrassing creak.

A loud sigh of relief that was frankly bizarre escaped Hannah’s lips.