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)
“I was,” I admitted, painfully aware that if I took a deep breath, our chests would brush. I almost wanted to try it out to see.
“That’s nice to see,” he said, his hand lifted. Water dripped from his fingertips for a second before he reached to brush my wet bangs to the side.
“It’s nice to feel.”
So what if I took that deep breath?
His fingertips had moved down my temple to tuck my hair behind my ear, dammit.
I watched as Nave’s eyes flickered before igniting.
His hand flattened on my neck.
That hunger looking back at me chased away any of my innate sense of self-preservation.
“I don’t regret it,” I said, watching as he processed the words. “Just so you know.”
It seemed to be what he was waiting to hear.
Suddenly, both his hands were at my hips, grabbing, lifting.
Water cascaded down my body as I found myself sitting on the edge of the pool.
Nave’s body pressed against my knees, and my legs parted effortlessly for him, welcoming him closer.
His hands slid up my sides, igniting little sparks that quickly became a wildfire that tore through me.
He pressed closer.
My heartbeat fluttered. My legs closed around him.
Then his hands were framing my face, and his lips were on mine.
There was nothing tentative this time, no soft explorations, no uncertainty.
Our lips collided, full of heat and need and the ache of denial.
My fingers danced up his arms to slip around his neck, pulling him flush against me, and his lips muffled my moan as the press of his desire met my core.
Nave’s head slanted, his lips sucking my lower one before they were over mine again. Harder, hungrier. Teeth grazed. Tongues teased.
Behind his back, my ankles crossed, and I used the leverage to rock myself against him, the need so strong that if he wanted to reach down and pull my panties to the side to slip inside me right there and then, I would have taken him gladly, oblivious to who might see or hear.
They didn’t matter.
He mattered.
This mattered.
But just when I was ready to beg him to take me right then and there, his lips ripped from mine. His face pressed to the side of mine, his ragged breathing in my ear.
“We can’t do this—”
“Yes, we can,” I interrupted.
“Here,” he finished, turning to look at me, heat and humor making his impossibly handsome face even more attractive.
“Oh,” I said, my own smile spreading.
The next thing I knew, he was lifting himself out of the water, soaking me through once again. But then he pulled me to my feet and wrapped a towel around me before reaching for his own.
“Hey, is this up for grabs?” a voice called, making Nave look over my shoulder toward the back door.
“No, that’s Lolly’s,” he called back.
“It smells banging.” Glancing back, I saw Dezi standing there, a big purple stain on his white tee. Judging by what I had heard about his obsession with sweet treats, I would bet good money on that being jelly from a donut.
“I can share,” I said.
“You don’t have to share with him.”
“It felt like a lot of food.”
I didn’t realize my mistake until we were dry and back inside the clubhouse. When Dezi and I were eating and Nave was offering to take Edith outside.
The moment had passed.
And my heart sank at the idea of not having another one like it again.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Lolly
Nave wasn’t wrong about the party.
Sometime just before the sun went down, Spike came crashing through the front door with his arm thrown over the shoulders of two blondes in barely-there bikinis. Behind him were Cain, Rune, Perish, and then Croft with another six women. Everyone was sun-drenched and overheated, but they paused inside only to make mixed drinks before heading out into the pool.
After that, the party just kept getting wilder and wilder. Pool games became beer pong and strip poker. Though, well, no one had much clothing on. So it went from tame to tits-out pretty quickly.
When I asked Nave if it was always like this, he shrugged and said it depended on who was single or not. Apparently, Sully and Dezi had also been big partiers. In their place now, it seemed, was Spike. With Cain, Perish, Rune, and Croft being very willing participants.
At some point, Edith took herself back into the bedroom, curling up on the dog bed on the floor when I didn’t immediately follow behind to put her on the bed.
Some time after that, Croft begged Nave to run out and grab more margarita mix since he was the only sober person around. Feeling weird being in the middle of the party and not participating, I made my way back to Nave’s room, washed all the sweat and chlorine off my skin, then climbed into the bed, listening to the music thrum.
Somehow, someway, I found myself drifting off.