What He Wants (Second Chances #1.5)(23)

Gasping, I shook my head desperately. “Oh no, I’m not. I don’t want to be responsible for screwing up your transmission. Seriously, it’s a bad idea and this looks like a brand new Jeep.” It even had the new car smell still in it.

Brett glared at me and actually rolled his eyes. “So?” he countered. “I trust you, Melissa. You’re not going to mess up my Jeep. What if you were stranded somewhere and you needed to know how to drive a stick. I think everyone should learn how to drive a manual.”

I huffed. “Fine, but if I break your car, don’t blame me. This all rests on you.”

Smiling, he snatched my hand off my lap and lifted it to his lips. “I’ll take my chances,” he murmured before placing a soft kiss to my knuckles.

It didn’t take long for us to get to the marina where Brett stored his boat since it was located just down the street from me. On the way over I tried to imagine what kind of boat he would have and came up with one conclusion. Something big and fast was what I was thinking, but when he took me to his boat slip I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a fast one at all. It was perfect.

At my astonished expression, Brett chuckled. “Let me guess … it’s not what you expected?”

“Not at all,” I quipped. “I’ll admit, I kind of thought you would have a fast, flashy boat, but this right here is much better. It’s more laid back. There are so many things you can do on a pontoon boat like this.”

“Yes, there is,” he mumbled under his breath. When I gazed over at him, he winked and shrugged his shoulders. “What? There is, and I didn’t mean that sexually.”

Jumping onto the boat, I dropped my towel and bag on the seat before stripping off my tank top and shorts. “Do you plan on seducing me out on the high water, Mr. Walker?” I teased.

His eyebrows shot up. “Only if you want me to, baby. I’m going by your lead here so when you’re ready I’ll be there. If not, then I’ll wait.”

Just thinking about it made my muscles clench between my legs. Instead of answering him, I smiled and spread my towel out on the wide seat so I could sit and enjoy the sprays of water that flew up each time we bumped over the waves from other boats. How long was I going to wait before I slept with him again? I wondered. I feared the more time I spent with him, the harder it was going to be to hold out.

We cruised around on the lake for about forty-five minutes until Brett pulled us into a little private alcove where no one was around. It was a hot day on the lake, and finding a vacant spot was almost impossible at times, but he found one. He stopped the engine and came to join me at the front.

“Will this do?” he asked. “I thought we could hang out and talk for a while, or maybe go for a swim.”

I cringed at the thought of jumping in the lake water. I’d been out in it a lot, riding jet skis and riding on boats, but I’d never had the desire to actually swim in it. Not only did I think the water was dirty, but I was always afraid a dead body would float up. The movie The Cabin by the Lake had turned me off of lake water … permanently.

We both sat down at the edge of the boat and stuck our feet in the water; I could handle that. “Umm … I don’t really like to get in the water,” I admitted sheepishly.

With a curious grin on his face, he asked, “Why not? Afraid something’s going to eat you?”

I smacked him on the arm. “I just don’t like swimming in water that I can’t see the bottom in. There might be dead bodies in there somewhere. Did you ever watch The Cabin by the Lake?”

He furrowed his brows together and bit his lip, thinking. When he realized what movie I was talking about he shook his head and burst out laughing. “Yeah, I remember that movie. It was kind of creepy, wasn’t it? Okay, so we won’t get in the water. It’s not that big of a deal anyway.”

“Phew.” I sighed in relief. “Thank you. I don’t get in the ocean either so it’s not just lakes. So,” I began, “where are you originally from, Brett? I know you can’t be from around here.”

He smirked. “How do you know that? Is it my accent?” Speaking of his accent, he didn’t have a thick one at all. He didn’t sound like a southerner and he didn’t sound like he was from the north either. It was hard to pinpoint it. “Actually, I’m from Charleston, South Carolina. I moved to this area when I was a teenager, and then to New York when I attended Columbia University. That’s where I graduated from.”

“Wow,” I exclaimed. “Columbia is a really good school. When did you get your job at M&M?”

Brett smiled and looked out at the water. “The same day I met you was the same day I landed the job with Galen’s company. That’s why I was out drinking.” He turned to me and grinned. “I was out celebrating.”

And celebrate we did.

I narrowed my eyes at his gray gaze. “Yeah, I remembered you saying something about a new job, but you never told me where. So to celebrate you were looking for a one night stand?”

He chuckled. “No, that wasn’t my intention at all. When I met you it just happened. Don’t forget you were there, too … and enjoyed every minute of it.”

Flashbacks from that night had me growing wet between my legs. We had celebrated for hours, nonstop. He was insatiable in the sheets, and his stamina was unbelievable; I could barely keep up with how hard he devoured me. It literally took a couple of days before the soreness went away after that night.