Intent(41)

Justin, Lily, and Layne are still in the crowd of people right where I left them, but they’re not looking in my direction at first. Justin is busy talking and happens to glance over Lily’s head in mid-conversation and sees me approaching. Through the people milling about, I catch glimpses of his arm sliding off Lily’s waist and back to his side. He’s trying to be nonchalant about it but he’s completely busted in the act.

“Justin—” I start to lay into him, but the announcer interrupts me, calling us to the starting line.

“Let’s go get a good raft,” Layne suggests enthusiastically. Not obvious at all.

“Did you just say ‘a good raft’?”

“Yes, of course. We don’t want one that’s leaking air or anything.” She speaks slowly, as if I have trouble understanding plain English.

“Let’s go, Justin. It’s time to win this race,” Lily announces quickly.

As they walk away, I cut my eyes to Layne. “Think you’re slick, don’t you?”

She lifts up on her toes and kisses me. Even with my eyes closed and her lips on mine, I feel a thousand eyes on us. “Let’s go win this thing.”

“Damn straight, slick.” I then add, “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you took your T-shirt off, too. Every male here between two and two hundred has noticed, too.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous.”

“Jealous? Nah. Protective? You bet.”

I grab my shirt behind my neck, yank it over my head, and drop it on top of Layne’s bag. Her playful expression instantly changes to pure lust when her eyes land on my bare chest. Fuck, I love how she looks at me.

“Keep looking at me like that and we really will give the town something to talk about.” I threaten and lift one eyebrow in challenge.

“Move it before you get us both arrested, troublemaker,” she grumbles with a knowing smile. “All these women are lusting after you. No self-respecting New York girl would allow that.”

Good to know she’s not jealous either.

When we reach the water’s edge, Layne stops and her jaw drops open. She slowly trains her eyes up and down the bank, taking in the multitude of brightly colored inner tubes floating in the roped off waiting area. She looks at all the people standing around waiting to rush to a tube, then back at the water again.

“What’s wrong, babe?” I goad her.

“This isn’t how I pictured it would be. I thought we’d be in one tube together. Like a two-man float. Not two separate floats tied together with a flimsy string.”

“Are you afraid you’ll lose me?” I tease.

“Not at all,” she replies with her chin lifted in defiance.

The buzzer sounds and the hordes of couples rush the water, grabbing the first set of floats they can get and jumping on top of them to be the first across the finish line. I grab our linked set with one hand and pull Layne into my side with the other. “I’ll hold it for you so you can sit down first.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “We’ll never win that way. Look at all the people sitting with their asses in the water—they have no control. We need to keep our feet in the water and kick!”

My girl has a competitive streak. It’s kind of turning me on.

“Let’s do it, then,” I agree.

We enter the water and begin maneuvering our floats between people. With so many people in such a tight space, it quickly becomes a game of bumper boats. After apologizing to the first few couples we inadvertently bump out of our way, Layne starts to laugh. When the next person is knocked out of our way, her cackles are contagious and soon we’re both devilishly laughing as we paddle through.

“Umm, Ace?” The uncertainty in her voice is so unlike her normal demeanor.

“What’s wrong, babe?”

“Is that safe?” She nods downstream, and I turn my head to follow her line of sight.

“Do you want to get in my tube with me so I can protect you? I’ll make room for you right here.” I point to the area between my chest and the inside wall of the tube.

She looks around to see if anyone is watching before she flips me off. “You making fun of me now, Sharp?”

“No way, babe. This is actually one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. With you in that itty-bitty-bikini, we could make this race a whole lot more interesting real fast.” I wink, and with a seductive bow of my head to the side, I give her an open invitation to join me.

“You are such a bad influence. And here I thought you were a good guy,” she teases back.

“I’m much better than good, babe. You already know that.”

“You didn’t answer me,” she evades. But her cheeks are red, showing she’s more affected than she lets on.

“It’s perfectly safe, I promise. They’re barely even class one rapids. It just gets shallow and the water rushes over the rocks. But you’re still welcome to join me if it’d make you feel better.”

“As inviting as that sounds, I still want to win so I have to stay in my own float.”

“Follow my lead,” I smirk. “I’ll get you there.”

We easily traverse the scary rapids, dodge the other floaters, and the finish line comes into sight as we round the last curve. She squeals in excitement because only a few other couples are in front of us now.