Arrogant Devil(51)

“Okay! Just like that. I swear I’ll catch it now.”

If she doesn’t, I’m going to drown myself as penance for my sins. I promised her I wouldn’t let it get weird, and I’m a goddamn liar.

I toss the rope one last time and she catches it at the last second. “Woo! Okay, now move back so I won’t hit you.”

I do as she says, though I know there’s not a chance in hell she’ll make it out this far.

“Either hold your bent elbows close or let your arms extend out fully, because once you get to the bottom of the arc it’s going to feel like you weigh twice as much.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure it’s not that hard.”

She jumps and barely clears the edge of the bank before inertia wins out and yanks her into the water. It was less of a rope swing and more of a rope drop.

“Oh my god! I barely even made it off the ledge.” She laughs once she surfaces, burying her face in her hands. “You made it look so easy!”

“About average for your first try.”

It was below average.

“Oh please, I basically just flopped into the water like a dead fish.”

I laugh. “Next time leave your arms fully extended like I told you and make sure to bend your knees. Want to try again?”

“I don’t know.” She bites her bottom lip, thinking it over. “That was pretty embarrassing.”

“No one saw it but me,” I reassure her.

“And Alfred.” She points over to where he’s lounging on the bank, basking in the sun, half asleep.

“Something tells me he didn’t care. Here, c’mon. Now that you know what to expect, it should go a lot better.”

She swims over and climbs back out onto the bank. Her underwear has crept up and I can see the edges of her tan butt cheeks. I’ve seen bikinis more revealing than what she’s wearing, but it’s still such a turn-on. I shift my gaze up to the oak tree and focus in on a nest. Yes, look at that—ahhh, the beauty of nature.

“Ready!” she declares.

This time she does what I tell her and actually manages to swing out toward me before she lets go of the rope and drops into the water like a pro.

She’s so proud of herself when she surfaces. I swim toward her and see she’s beaming then realize my mistake after it’s too late. I shouldn’t have gotten this close. Her eyelashes sparkle as small beads of water catch the light, highlighting the bluest pair of eyes I’ve ever seen, a blue so vibrant it looks electric, like the sky right before a thunderstorm.

The water laps up around her shoulders, and it’s tricking my brain into thinking she’s not wearing anything at all. She’s a siren. She stands, and the water barely conceals her breasts. I want to skim my hand down her delicate neck and smooth shoulders and tug down one of those delicate straps.

Then I blink and realize my wants and desires have turned into actions. My brain is the last thing to catch up. My fingertips are already on Meredith’s shoulder, dipping beneath her bra strap. Everything I imagined doing, I am doing. Her skin is wet silk. A gentle tug and she’s standing right in front of me. Her hips brush against mine in the water.

She’s holding her breath, lips parted as she stares up at me.

“You’re trembling.”

“The water’s cold,” she explains, wetting her bottom lip. “Wh-What are you doing?”

Her tone is perfect innocence.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

I’m about to kiss the hell out of her.

Her hands hit my chest and I blink my eyes closed, inhaling the feel of her palms on my bare skin.

Then she whispers my name, trying to snap us out of this moment, but I won’t let her.

“I really should get back,” she says, voice wobbly.

I snap my attention back to her face and see an expression that punches me in the gut: fear.

Before I can tell her to stay, she turns and starts swimming for the bank. “Thanks for the lesson. I’ll see you back at the house.”

I’m already swimming after her. “I can walk back with you.”

“No! No, you stay and keep swimming. I need to go home and shower. My fingers are shriveled and it’s getting late. I haven’t eaten dinner, and I should clean up a little bit.”

She’s firing off excuse after excuse as they come to mind, one after another—“Big day of cleaning tomorrow, I’m tired, I really need to call my parents”— then she’s out of the water and covering herself as she runs to gather up her clothes. She’s sopping wet yet she still tugs her shirt and shorts on rapid fire. I make it to the shore as she’s slipping her shoes on, but I don’t rush after her. I know when someone’s trying to get rid of me. She’s being smart, putting distance between us. I’m sure she saw the way I was looking at her, but it doesn’t come close to what I was thinking, the seduction I was planning in my mind. She should run away. She should scurry right on back to the shack, or better yet, all the way back to California, because the thoughts flitting through my head were filthy. Had she been a little closer and I a little more naive, I would have tugged her close and wrapped her legs around my waist. I’d have angled her face up to mine and pressed a string of kisses to her lips, her chin, her throat. That bra would have been peeled off and those panties would have followed. Nothing good would have come from it. Everything good would have come from it.