Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Annie must have read the room because she hugged Harley one more time. “He’s all yours. I’m going to go make up with my husband.”
“Don’t make that sound so sexual,” I called after her.
She flipped me off, and I could almost ignore her whispering, “Makeup sex,” to Harley.
Somehow, I restrained my gag.
Harley just laughed. Then, she was running across the room, throwing her arms around me. My lips were on hers, and she was against me, and the entire world was right, as it was supposed to be.
“She said you’re my boyfriend,” she said against my lips.
“I am, baby girl.”
“Never going to get used to hearing it.”
“Oh, you are. I’m going to say it so much that you’re going to tell me to stop.”
“Am not.”
I laughed. “Your boyfriend thinks that we should go kayaking.”
Her eyes lit up. “This feels familiar.”
“Thought we could have the date we never got to have all those years ago.”
Harley had come over after the first time we’d been together so that we could go kayaking. But my sister, Ashleigh, informed me of Harley’s nineteen years, and I had to cancel everything. We’d never gotten that date. And I wanted to make that right.
“What do you think?”
“Your girlfriend thinks yes.”
Then, I kissed her again, tasting the word girlfriend on her tongue.
5
HARLEY
“I am no good at this,” I said as I worked my paddle.
“You’re going to get it. I’ve been doing it for years.”
I turned around to look at him in the back of the two-person kayak. I was sure he was patronizing me, but he was sincere.
I wanted to be good at everything all the time. Sometimes, it was even hard to start new things because I wasn’t automatically good. Paralysis from the fear of failure. But Chase was coaxing me into trying something new even if I was bad. He was probably good enough for both of us after all anyway.
He had individual kayaks as well, but I was glad we’d chosen the double because he could maneuver us when I got tired. I still ice-skated at the small rink that belonged to Tech, but that really didn’t require arm strength. Totally different dynamics.
“Like this?” I asked, pushing hard into the water.
“Like that,” he encouraged.
We were going just fine. I was finally getting the hang of it. We were moving across the water. Out in the middle of this beautiful lake, and I was seeing it from a totally different perspective. The canyon walls up high all around us. Bowie barking from the shoreline. Other people enjoyed their lake day far off in the distance. Just blurs on the horizon.
I was so focused on what was ahead of me that I didn’t look where we were going.
“Harley!” Chase said as I dipped my oar too close to the floating deck.
“Shit!” I cried.
Everything happened in slow motion. I lost my balance. My body tilted sideways. A gasp escaped my mouth. And then we were tipping. Chase tried to keep us upright, but even he couldn’t completely counter my full body weight. Suddenly, gravity took over and dumped us unceremoniously into the water.
I came up sputtering, my oar a dozen feet away in the opposite direction of the kayak.
Chase’s head breached the surface of the water. He looked around in exasperation at the mess I’d caused. And then he burst into laughter.
Our eyes met, and I started laughing, too.
“Oops,” I managed.
“I used to tip over a lot more,” he said. He shook out his wet hair. “I forgot about that.”
He swam toward the kayak. I went after my loose oar, and after a few minutes, we had the equipment.
“Come on. Swim to the deck.”
I followed him with my one oar in my hand as he navigated the kayak back toward the floating deck that I’d careened us into. I dropped the oar onto the deck and used the ladder to hoist myself up onto its surface. The sun was beating down on the wooden slats, and it felt good against my now-chilled skin to pass out, panting against it.
Chase secured the kayak, dropping both oars back into the boat before pulling himself up. My eyes dragged down his sculpted body. The hours on the water and in the gym sure had chiseled his arms and chest, and the defined V that led down to the now-soaked board shorts that clung to every inch of his powerful thighs and stirring cock. My mouth went dry.
“Well, hello,” I murmured.
His eyes skimmed every inch of me spread before him on the deck in nothing but my tiny black bikini.
I crooked my finger at him. He smirked and dropped down beside me. His lips kissed the water-soaked skin of my stomach, his hands running over my breasts, our bodies aligning. I moaned as he brought his tongue to the sensitive skin at my throat. I arched against him to give him better access as I clutched on to his muscled shoulders.