Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“What’s this?” I asked, reaching out despite just telling myself a second before to keep my hands to myself.
But there was a strange, round, puckered, skin-colored scar on his stomach.
“That is what happens when you get shot in the stomach,” he admitted.
“Shot?”
My fingers touched the spot, finding it somewhat raised, but impossibly smooth.
Beneath my touch, Nave’s muscles twitched.
“I’ve led an interesting life,” he said, making my gaze lift to his. I found him already watching me—and much, much closer than I’d realized.
Up so close, I swear the man sucked up all the air because I suddenly felt breathless, maybe a little lightheaded.
Nave’s hand shot out, grabbing my forearm. “You alright? You swayed a little.”
“Yeah, sorry. Just… hot.” Just not in the way you’re thinking.
“Come on, we gotta cool you off.”
With that, he reached down for the hem of my tank top. And if he was looking to lower my body heat, feeling the brush of his knuckles against my lower back was not the way to go about it.
My arms raised instinctively, letting him pull the material off of me. I didn’t even feel the anticipated jolt of insecurity at all my exposed skin as I stood there in shorts and a cream-colored bra.
When his hands moved to my waistband, I damn near combusted.
But then my shorts were down around my ankles, leaving me in that bland bra and a pair of bright yellow panties.
Not my best look.
But I swear Nave’s jaw went to granite as he looked at me.
He was quick to force his gaze away, though, reaching for my hand instead, and leading me over toward the steps.
“I can get in, you know,” I said, charmed by his protectiveness as he insisted on holding my hand until I was down the steps.
“Not taking any chances,” he said as I slipped fully into the cool water.
Almost as if the water blocking my body from view allowed him to think straight again, he reached down to remove his own pants.
I wasn’t entirely sure I kept the little whimpering sound inside me as he stripped down to nothing but a pair of boxers.
Then he started to make his way over toward the water.
“Better?” he asked, making his way in.
Words didn’t seem possible then, so I nodded instead.
Once he was down in the water too, a little bit of the pressure on my chest seemed to subside.
“This is nice. I haven’t been in a pool in ages.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine Ben wanted to share water with someone else.”
“Can you imagine?” I asked, snorting. And, God, it felt good to be able to laugh about him instead of feeling that knee-jerk panic at just the thought of him. “Though, these things are full of chemicals. And chemicals were his favorite thing. I have proof.”
I leaned back in the water to lift a leg out of it, pointing it toward him.
“What am I looking for?” he asked.
“It’s a ‘know it when you see it’ sort of thing.”
“This?” he asked, his finger tracing over the side of my big toe. “What is this?”
“A chemical burn. Ben brought home some new kind of cleaner. I was told to clean the shower with it. But it was a stall shower. So I had to get in it to clean it. And I didn’t want to get my slides wet, so I went in barefoot. Big mistake. God, that hurt.”
“Asshole,” Nave grumbled as his finger gently slid over the still-pink skin. I wasn’t sure it would ever go back to normal.
“Needless to say, I never used that again. I love the cleaner that Ariah and Kit make. It’s all natural and works great.”
“They drop off bottles of that shit to everyone when they make a big batch,” Nave said. “Even cater the scents to everyone’s preferences.”
When they’d realized I had such an aversion to lemon, the bottles that ended up at my door were all lavender. I’d never felt so seen as I had since I came to Navesink Bank.
“What’s your scent?”
“I don’t have my own yet. The clubhouse gets this amber-scented one? I dunno. Smells kinda like cologne but in a subtle way.”
“That fits,” I said as I spread my arms and floated onto my back, closing my eyes, enjoying the sun on my face and the coolness all around me.
If I’d been chasing freedom when I left the glass house, I’d fully found it now.
For just a few, precious moments, the rest of the world disappeared. And all there was for me was calm, pleasure, peace.
A hand closed around my ankle, gently pulling me, making my eyes fly open. I lifted my head so my ears were out of the water in time to hear Nave say, “You were about to hit the wall.”
“Oh, oops. I was having a moment,” I admitted.
“You looked at peace,” Nave said as, safely back in the shallow end, I flipped back upright. Only I misjudged just how close I would be to Nave when I did so. With the wall at my back, there was nowhere to go. Not that any part of me was screaming to retreat.