But not like this.
Never like this.
His golden skin gleamed in the new moon light as each new inch of his rock-hard, god-like body was revealed. Thick, round shoulders, perfect biceps, but it was the defined muscles of his chest and abs that had her palms going slick with sweat.
“Am I bleeding?”
She blinked, dragging her gaze from the narrow trail of hair that led from his belly button to the low-slung waist of his jeans to peer up at him.
“W-what?”
“You…ah, you said something a second ago but I couldn’t quite hear what it was because my shirt was covering my ears. I was wondering if I’d cut myself or had some gnarly bruise from the crash or something.”
She swayed on her feet as relief rushed over her in a wave. He’d unknowingly offered her a sweet reprieve and she clutched at it like a dying woman to a life preserver. “Yes! I mean, no. That’s what I was saying.” She pressed a hand to her heated cheek. “You look totally fine now that I can see…it all. Thank god you weren’t seriously hurt.”
“Yeah. Could've been a lot worse. I feel pretty good now, though.” He tossed his shucked t-shirt onto the sand and then reached for his zipper. She could see his lips still moving, but heard nothing as the blood rushed to her ears.
Was he getting totally naked? What this seriously happening right now?
She shot her gaze to the sky and scanned for constellations. “Oh, look. It’s Orion’s Belt.” But the talk of belts only made her even more hyper-aware of the sound of his zipper sliding down.
“Yeah, cool. Hey, Tawny…I’m planning to leave my boxers on, in case you were worried,” Luke said, a hint of a smile in his voice.
He had clearly seen right through her and she considered just calling it a day and making a sprint for it. Instead, though, her mind shot to tomorrow and the next day and the next…
Filling out job applications, updating her resume, buying an interview suit, setting up her student loan payment schedule. Resolved, she lifted a hand to her shorts and nodded.
“Worried?” she snorted. “No way. And yeah, me too. Except, uh, not boxers. Mine are…girl underwear. But it will be just like wearing a swimsuit,” she reasoned, more to herself than to Luke.
He was busy folding his jeans and setting them on top of his t-shirt, as she yanked down her shorts and kicked them aside, heart pounding wildly.
Raucous laughter broke out from afar and they both wheeled around to look in the direction of the bonfire.
The sounds of a strumming guitar filled the air followed by a chorus of voices.
“Looks like a sing along. I think they’re all feeling pretty good up there,” Luke said with a crooked grin. “We can just cool off quick and go back up if you want…”
But it was the “or not” that hung like a wish from his declaration that had her freezing like a deer in the headlights.
She knew she was attracted to him. And she knew that he had said she was pretty…so what if he’d sustained a blow to the head just prior? But it was only right this second that she realized he might be as attracted to her as she was to him.
Holy shit.
“Last one in is a rotten egg,” she blurted, too flustered to reply to his actual question. Then, she turned tail and sprinted for the lake.
The cool water hit her overheated skin and she let out a gasp of relief. She didn’t stop until it covered her ribcage and her feet sank into the soft lake mud.
“Damn, you’re fast,” Luke said with a laugh. She turned to see him a couple yards away, his white teeth gleaming. “Second race I lost today to a cheater.”
The novelty and delight of being in the water with a sexy guy in the moonlight worked in tandem with the beers she’d had and her nerves settled some. She didn’t resist the sudden urge to tease him back.
“Cheater? I hardly think that’s accurate. I told you we were racing at least a half a second before I started to run. Not my fault you’re slow.”
“Slow?” he demanded, his dark eyes gleaming with laughter a second before he dove beneath the water.
Her pulse hammered wildly as she searched the inky surface of the lake for some sign of him. Was he going to grab her? Dunk her? Pretend to be a gator and tickle her leg?
Despite the fact that she knew there were no gators in this particular lake, she couldn’t deny the sizzle of fear mixed with anticipation that skittered through her.
He popped up through the surface scant inches away, spraying her with water as it sluiced down his face.
“Ah!” she cried out on a laugh as she reeled backward and splashed him. “I was hoping to keep my hair dry,” she said, lifting a hand to see if that was a lost cause.