Brady Remington Landed Me in Jail(39)

He froze and studied me for a second. "Why? You have to pee or something?"

"Maybe." I shifted to switch positions. My legs had cramped up.

"We just pee in the river, most do. Some girls go up on the bank and take a squat. You could do that if you want." He looked revolted as he held onto my tube with one finger.

"Could you hold my mug for me?"

"Why?" So overly suspicious.

"I can't stay like this. I'm uncomfortable."

"Yeah." He motioned. "Your ass had been in the air this whole time. Your back's going to be a bitch by the end of the day."

"You were looking at my butt?" I blushed.

"What?" He looked disgusted. "No! I'm just saying—forget it." Then he took my mug. As I started to wiggle back and forth on the tube to switch positions, he asked, "So are you and Clarissa friends? Good friends?"

"You don't know who I am?" As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I clamped it shut. "Oh gosh. Sorry. That sounded awful."

"Should I? What do you mean? Who are you?"

"Nothing. No one. I might need to leave soon. Do you know how I could do that?"

"Leave? People don't leave the river."

"What if people get bored tubing?"

"Once you're in the tube, you stick it out until your stop comes up. The rides are waiting for us there."

"Oh." I brightened. "So you mean people can't join us once we're in the river?" That would solve a whole bunch of problems.

"Oh, no." Derek was oblivious to my dilemma. "Other people tube too and sometimes they'll join up or people jump in from wherever all the time, especially if they do their own pick-ups. You've never been tubing before?"

Not only was he looking at me like I was an idiot, but he made me feel like one. "No. I'm very studious."

"I figured."

I got hot when I heard his condescending tone. "What does that mean?"

Derek jumped backwards in reflex and let go of my tube.

"Hey!" I tried to scramble to catch him. No avail. My tube caught a torrent in the river and off I swooped.

"Rayna! Where are you going?" Clarissa called out as my tube sped up even more.

I shifted and yelled back, doing my best to hold on, "I don't know what to do!"

"Jump off!" one of the guys yelled out.

"Get off the tube!" Clarissa shouted alongside him.

"Oh man." I heard Matt laugh before he offered, "I'll get her. I'm surprised this girl isn't dead yet."

"Maybe that's why Remy doesn't bring her around."

I gritted my teeth when I heard the snide tones from the number one mean girl.

"Just fall in the water," Matt called as he waded downstream after me.

The river wasn't going that fast and I knew it was shallow, but I was a little relieved my tube had put some distance from the group. Matt's earlier warning concerned me and I wasn't sure what to do if either Kid or Brady showed up. I was almost disappointed when Matt caught up and took hold of my tube.

Then he stopped and studied me, or as much as he could around the glaze of booze in his eyes. "You don't look that scared. You could've just stood up or don't you know how to swim?" A different look in his eyes flared. "Did you do that on purpose?"

Then I heard from above on the bank's cliff, "Rayna? What are you doing here?"

My hope that neither would show shriveled inside of me. Brady stood in navy blue swim trunks with a rope in his hand. He stood poised at the edge of the bank, frowning down at us.

"Brady! Don't do it, man!" Matt laughed.

The frown vanished and I saw the mischievous Brady come to light. Even though he wasn't dared, he might as well have been. He grabbed the rope tighter and then leapt off the cliff, swung down to us, and scooped an arm around me as we both hurled into the river. Swallowing a mouthful of water, I kicked off Brady's chest, and ignored the sweep of his hand as it grazed my breast. As we popped back up, I pretended to punch him in the chest. Brady dodged my hand and caught my hands. He twisted them so I was held hostage against his chest.

"What were you saying, Matt? Rayna can't swim? That's nonsense." Brady chuckled and hoisted me in the air over his shoulder.

"Don't you dare," I started to warn, but bit down on my words as he launched me in the air. When I slammed into the water, I shot my legs down to shoot back up.

"Rayna's a fish in water. We grew up on the river by her grandparents' farm."

"Really?" Matt asked with an evil grin. "So if I threw her over my shoulder, she'd be fine?"

"Don't you dare! Either of you!" I waved a finger at both of them and then moved towards my tube which had floated near the bank. Just as I caught it, two bodies flew over the cliff and I was drenched again from their splashes. Then three more people repeated the motion and I stared, confused, as I saw the guys go towards Brady. They were all laughing together.

I realized how much of Brady's life I wasn't a part of. I had no idea who all his friends were and I hadn't really cared before. When he looked at me and his eyes darkened in desire, I knew I cared. I had a right to care.