“Almost orgasmed? Frankie Mercer sounds like an amateur.”
“Hey, don’t say that. At least he tried. He didn’t even ask for anything in return, just touched me like I’d begged him to.”
Matt stopped treading water and stood, the water coming up to the tight buds of his nipples. “You begged?”
“Told you I was scandalous. Now, why haven’t you accepted my friend requests on your social media pages?”
A deep frown darkened Matt’s features. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit, you do. Since we’re friends, I think we should be honest with each other. We could play games if we were trying to date, but we aren’t, so let’s have it. Why not?”
Matt’s chest rose with his deep inhalation. “Because I don’t really want you to see the comments on my pages.”
“You’re afraid I’ll look at you differently if I discover you are a man-ho? I’ve already accepted that.”
“Yeah, but convincing yourself to accept that about me will be harder if you see what the girls I’ve been with post on my walls.”
“Right. Only show me your best side then.”
“You’re only here for a week, Willa. I’d rather have fun getting to know you before you judge me based on—”
“Your actions?”
“Yeah,” he said darkly. Gulping a breath, he turned, dove under the water, and didn’t come up again until he was on the other side of the waterfall against the cliff.
He wanted to get to know her? Warmth pooled in her stomach and drew a small smile from her lips. She interested him on some level. Her, Willamena Madden, awkward, clumsy, piccolo-playing human who was shite at swimming and an unintentional prude to boot, had captured the curiosity of an infinitely sexy, playboy grizzly shifter.
Unable to stifle her curiosity, she asked, “Have you ever brought a girl up here before?”
“No,” he answered easily as he shook his hair out like a Labrador.
The heat in her middle turned molten, and she clutched her stomach to settle the butterflies that had made a home there.
Stretching out her toes, she was barely able to stand on a rock under the water. She let the edge of the waterfall pour over her outstretched fingers. It was more powerful than she’d imagined, and she laughed as the sting made her yank her hand back.
“Come here. This part is gentler,” Matt said, watching her with those smiling, intense eyes. He always seemed to be studying her reaction to everything.
Holding her breath, she swam under the falls, deeper and deeper. She looked up at the bubbles all around her, the light streaming through the murky water like sunrays. It was beautiful under here. Serene even.
Matt jumped in and paddled his hands upward, sinking down beside her. Tiny bubbles clung to his cheeks, and she brushed one off and searched his bright blue eyes. Under here, the world didn’t matter. Here, it was bubbles, burning lungs, and the power of the waterfall vibrating against their skin. She reached out and touched a stripe across his chest, and before she could chicken out, she swam forward and brushed her lips against it, then kicked her legs for the surface on the other side of the falls.
Matt took longer to break the water, but perhaps she’d shocked him. She didn’t know. When he pushed himself up on the rock she had sat on, his face was carefully composed. “What was that for?”
“It was because I don’t mind your scars. I don’t know what caused them, but it doesn’t matter to me.” She nodded her chin decidedly. “You still look fuckin’ awesome.”
Matt released a shaky breath, the first proof he wasn’t as immovable as he let on. Leaning back, locking his elbows on the craggy rock under them, he said, “You look fuckin’ awesome, too.”
She waited for the punchline, but he didn’t give one. Instead, he looked out thoughtfully at the underside of the waterfall and let her keep the compliment.
With a happy sigh, she laid back and rested the back of her head on her crossed arms, then splashed her feet languidly under the gentle streams of water that fell near them. “Are there weremermaids?”
Matt laughed and hooked his foot under hers, then lifted it out of the water. “Why? Do you want to be one?”
“Maybe. My skin wouldn’t prune if I was a mermaid. Look at this.” She held up her fingertips and showed him her water-logged wrinkles there.
“You know, if you were a shifter, you wouldn’t have to wear glasses anymore. Your vision would be scary good.”
“Please, you would miss my sexpot glasses.”
“I would, actually. You have that sexy librarian look going on. I dig it.”