leaving the cover of their hiding places for a few moments before swimming behind something else. “Perfect.”
Zack tugged his black shirt over his head, leaving him in nothing more than a pair of very low-cut white board shorts that, when wet, she had no doubt would cling to some very interesting places.
Her mind was a filthy place lately. And the sad thing was, it was hard to regret. Because it was so enjoyable.
“Swimming?”
“No.” She shook her head and gripped her sarong.
“Why?”
“It looks cold.”
He put his hands on his lean hips and sighed, the motion making his ab muscles ripple in a very enticing fashion. “It’s so hot and muggy out here it could be snowmelt and it would feel good. And I guarantee you it’s not snowmelt.”
“It just looks … cold.” Lame. So lame. But she didn’t really want to strip down to her swimsuit in front of him, not when he looked so amazing in his. She was. There was too much of her for a start. She was so very conscious of that. Of the fact that she had hips and breasts, and that she could pinch fat on her stomach.
Zack’s girlfriends had hip bones and abs that were just as cut as his.
“Ridiculous.” He walked over to her and scooped her up in his arms, her heart climbing up into her throat as he did. His arms were tight and strong around her, masculine. Lifting her seemed effortless. His large hands cupped her thigh and her shoulder, his heat spreading through her like warm, sticky honey, thick and sweet.
She realized what was happening a little bit too late, because sexual attraction had short-circuited her brain. She put her hand flat on his chest, another bolt of awareness shocking her even as Zack took two big steps off the bank and down into the water.
The hot and cold burst through her, her body still warm from his touch on the inside, the water freezing her skin.
“Zack!”
He looked down at her, smiling. She sputtered and clung to his shoulders, his arms still wrapped tightly around her. His skin was slick now, so sexy, and it took everything in her arsenal of willpower to keep from sliding her palms down from their perch on his shoulders and flattening them against his amazing, perfect pecs.
She wanted to. She wanted to press her lips to the hollow of his throat, lick the water drops that were clinging to his neck.
She wiggled against him and managed to extricate herself from his grasp. Fleeing temptation.
She walked up to the shallow part of the pool, her pink sarong limp and heavy now, clinging to her curves like a second skin. She untied it and looped it over a tree branch. There was no point in it now.
She felt exposed in her black one-piece. It was pretty modest by some suit standards, but anything that tight tended to make her feel a bit exposed.
“Well, that’s one way to get me in the water. Brute force,” she sniffed, walking back to the water and sinking into the depths quickly, desperate for the covering it would provide.
“Brute?” Zack swam to where she was, treading water, his eyes glinting with amusement.
“Uh … yeah. You took advantage of me.”
He paddled closer, his face a whisper from hers. “I didn’t take advantage of you. If I had, you’d have known it, that’s for sure.”
Strangely, with her body half submerged in water, her throat suddenly felt bone-dry. “I feel um … taken advantage … You … picked me up and threw me in and I’m … wet.”
His expression changed, his eyes darkening. “Interesting.”
“Oh, pffft.” She dunked her head, letting the cold water envelop her, pull the stinging heat from her cheeks. She paddled toward the waterfall, away from Zack. Away from certain mortification and temptation.
She surfaced again and looked back at Zack, still treading water where she’d left him.
Nice, Clara. Next time just tell him straight up that you’re hot for him and would like to jump him, if that’s all right with him.
She pulled a face for her own benefit and climbed up one of the mossy rocks that sat beneath the slow flowing falls, water trickling down, mist hovering above the surface of the cool, plant-covered stones.
She pulled her knees to her chest and looked up, squinting at the sunlight pouring through the thick canopy of trees.
“You’re like a jungle fairy.”
She looked down into the water and saw Zack, his hair wet and glistening.
“You’re startling me,” she said. More with his statement than with his presence, but she didn’t intend to elaborate.
He planted his palms flat on the rocks and hoisted himself up, the muscles in his shoulders rolling and shifting with the motion. He sat next to her, the heat from his body a welcome respite from the cold. But that was about all it was a respite from. Because mostly he just made her feel edgy.
And happy. He made her so happy that it hurt. Just being with him made everything seem right. Like a missing part of herself was finally in place. Like some of her insecurities and inadequacies didn’t matter so much.
And that was just stupid. Not to mention scary. Because it was an illusion. He would never be with her in the way she wanted, and watching him marry another woman, give someone else everything she longed for, that would turn her happiness into the bitterest pain.
The kind she wasn’t sure she could withstand.
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
She turned sharply to look at him, her heart in her throat. “What?”
“Just stating a fact.”
“It’s not one you typically state. About me, I mean.”
He put his hand out and brushed a water drop from her cheek with his thumb, the motion sending an electric shock through her body, heat pooling in her stomach and radiating from there to her limbs.
“Well, I thought it needed to be said.”
It was so tantalizingly close to what she wanted. But to him it was simply an empty compliment, or maybe he even meant it. But not in the way she would. He didn’t mean she was beautiful in the same way she found him beautiful. The way that made her body warm and her heart flutter.
“Thanks for that. You aren’t so bad, either.” She tried to sound casual. Light. Like a friend. Like she was supposed to sound.
He smiled and lifted his arm, curling his fist in, showing off his very, very impressive biceps.
“You’re shameless,” she said, somehow managing to laugh around her stubborn heart, still lodged firmly in her throat.
“Sorry.”
“About
