The Perfect First (Fulton U, #1)(49)

She dropped her hand into her lap.

“We’re almost there. How do you feel about trying out a pool again?”

Her eyebrows scrunched along with her nose in her telltale confusion face. “I didn’t bring my suit.”

My smile was real now, and I couldn’t have held it back if I’d wanted to. “Oh, I know.”





18





Seph





We pulled up around the corner from a house and as Reece flicked the headlights off, I glanced over at him. He put on that devil-may-care smile and climbed out.

Taking my hand in his, he walked down the sidewalk toward a white three-story colonial house. Instead of walking up to the front door, he walked down the driveway to the side gate. When he hopped the fence, my heart jumped into my throat.

“Hop over.” He held out his arms to help me.

“What if we get caught?” I glanced over my shoulder.

“Isn’t that the whole point?”

I swallowed against the boulder in my throat. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed hold of the top of the fence. My feet slipped on the wood, but I found a groove to jam my foot into and, between that and his arms, I made it over. We stumbled forward, and I clutched his coat as my cheek slammed into his shoulder. When I stared up at him, our lips were inches apart.

I licked mine and he straightened himself up, taking me with him.

“Let’s go.” He took my hand and tugged me around the side of the house. Peering over my shoulder, I stared back at the safety of the car, wondering about the minimum jail sentence for breaking and entering.

At the back of the house there was a beautiful, shimmering blue pool. Steam rose off the surface of the water; it was heated. Blue lights dotted around the sides and bottom gave it a summer oasis look in the dead of winter.

“What are we doing here?”

“Skinny-dipping’s on your list, remember?” He sat on one of the loungers and tugged off his boots.

“You can’t be serious,” I whisper-shouted.

“Deadly.” He unzipped his coat and tugged his shirt up over his head. The muscles in his stomach tightened as the freezing air hit them. He turned his back to me, the wide expanse making me want to run my hands over it.

His jeans went down right along with his boxers. I spun on my heels, trying not to think about his toned ass. And, oh, what an ass it was. A warm water droplet hit my face, which quickly turned into a cold splash as the freezing air cooled it. The sharp sound of him hitting the water was the only thing I heard over the thundering jackhammering of my heart.

“I’ll turn my back. Get naked, Wild Child. Where I am is only four and a half feet deep. Stick to this end and you’ll be fine.”

Our last time in a pool flashed back to me, but this time was different. He was different, and there was no doubt in my mind I’d be safe this time.

Staring at him, I sucked in a shuddering breath. I glanced around at the high white wooden fence around the sides of the pool. Beyond that there were tall trees lining the edge of the property as far as I could see. A lot of the houses on the drive over had had their lights out. There hadn’t been any sounds other than us for a while.

“I’m turning around and covering my eyes.” He spun in the water and made a big show of bringing his hands up over his face.

My trembling fingers slid off the buttons of my coat three times before I finally undid the first one. From there, things went quicker. I shrugged off my coat. Unbuttoned my shirt. Unzipped my pants and hesitated before leaving my underwear on. Kicking off my shoes, I hopped across the cold concrete surrounding the pool and lowered myself into the water. The chilly wind forced me in quicker, frostbite battling against nerves. A tingling spread throughout my body as the heated water lapped against my chest.

He spun around, and droplets of water clung to his eyelashes.

He swam closer to me. The lyrical jingle of his body cutting through the water sent my stomach flipping. His gaze dipped down to the purple cups of my bra. “That’s cheating, but I’ll allow it.” His finger trailed along my collarbone, running it under my bra strap. Goose bumps rose along my arms and I bit my bottom lip. “You do know you’re going to have to get dressed without a bra now.” His lips turned up into a Cheshire Cat smile. He moved us until my back hit the wall of the pool.

My face dropped. “Crap.”

“I can’t say I’m complaining about it.” Pushing away from the wall, he swam away toward the center of the pool. I lifted my hand, reaching out for him. I wanted him back in front of me, so close I could smell his freshly showered scent even over the chlorine of the pool.

My heart settled back into a normal rhythm after twenty minutes in the water. Nothing was going to grab me from the deep end. We played a whisper version of Marco Polo. We had a running race to the edge of the pool, keeping to the shallow end. Our laughter bounced off the walls surrounding us and every trace of fear related to drowning was gone, but the whole being-naked-in-a-stranger’s-pool part was still very present.

“Shouldn’t we go soon? What if they come home?” I stared up at the darkened windows of the three-story house steps away. There was a one-story pool house close to where we’d undressed. It was probably bigger than a lot of people’s homes.

“What if they do?” He swam closer. The water crested over his back and shoulders. He caged me between his arms and the steps.