Overlooked(1)(23)

“It’s supposed to be private, you mean,” Harper says. She sits down on the edge of the grass and I join her.

I open two of the beers and hand one to her.

“Right. It needs to be something where you’re not sure you can go through with it,” I say.

“I don’t accept your definition,” Harper tells me.

I snort and take a sip of my beer. I’m not usually into anything fancy, beer-wise, but whatever the stuff is that Harper chose at the gas station, it’s pretty good, in spite of sounding fussy.

“That’s probably because you’ve never done it, right?” I look at her and hold her gaze until she blushes.

“I just haven’t wanted to,” Harper tells me in that pert voice again.

It drives me short of crazy to hear it, it makes me want to take her hair down, touch her all over, make her loosen up a bit. I’ve never had that reaction to her before in my life, and it kind of scares me, but at the same time I have to admit it thrills me too.

“Okay. Then here’s what we need to do; get naked and get in the lake,” I say.

“What?” The word comes out of Harper almost in a shriek.

“I am challenging you to a bet. I bet that you won’t skinny dip with me tonight, here, right now.”

“That’s a stupid bet,” Harper protests.

“It’s a great bet, because either I get to see a naked woman or I get fifty bucks,” I tell her.

“It’s a stupid bet because… because you don’t bet on that kind of thing. It’s a dare, not a bet,” she insists. In the pale glow of the safety lights I can see her blushing deeper and deeper red.

“Then I dare you to go skinny dipping with me tonight, or I’ll tell everyone we both still know that you flirted with me,” I say.

Harper’s quiet for a few seconds and I wonder if I’ve done something wrong.

“You really want to see me naked, huh?”

She puts down her barely touched beer, stands up and turns to face me.

“I just want to see you do something you’re not entirely comfortable doing,” I say.

“Right,” Harper counters, her voice sarcastic.

“Well, are you going to do it or not?” I say as I cross my arms over my chest.

“If I’m going to do it, you have to too,” Harper says. “I’m not going to swim naked and get caught all on my lonesome.”

“Oh, I’ll come along,” I tell her. It’s a warm night out, and I actually wouldn’t mind going for a swim, even if I didn’t have the added bonus of Harper naked in front of me.

We both start stripping down and I can’t help but start to get just a bit hard from the sight of Harper’s body, more and more of it showing as she takes everything off, right up close to me. I take off my boxers last, and hopefully before Harper can spot my erection standing at least at half-mast, I rush into the water.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN





HARPER POLSEN



I follow Zane into the water and let out a little shriek that I quickly try to muffle as the cold swirls around me, sapping my body of its heat. I hadn’t even thought I was that warm.

“See? This is totally different from going swimming in the raw by yourself,” Zane tells me, and I feel myself blushing even as I roll my eyes.

“It’s not that different at all,” I say, wading out deeper into the water.

I remember that Zane is actually a really good swimmer. He was a lifeguard at one point when we’d been in high school and I’m sure the army has only improved his skills further.

I’m grateful for the fact that the light isn’t very strong away from the shore, and I can at least pretend like Zane hasn’t seen that much of me naked and not for that long. I did catch sight of his cock starting to harden right before he ran for the water, and that sight gave me the strangest thrill.

“Come on, you have to admit that you’re at least a little intrigued,” Zane says, and he’s only a few feet away from me. Even if I can’t see him below about his chest I can only imagine that he’s probably still sporting the half-erection. That the water, cool as it is, couldn’t have possibly done much to shut down the reflex.

Is it because he saw me naked and liked what he saw? Or is it just being naked at the lake with a girl?

“It’s interesting,” I admit, almost against my will.

“Oh God, skinny dipping is interesting?” Zane laughs.

“Stop making fun of me,” I say, splashing water in his direction.

“I will, once you stop being such a cute little nerd,” Zane counters.

My cheeks burn at the sound of the word cute. He thinks I’m cute? There have been hints of it since the first party, but nothing I could ever really make a move on, nothing I could trust to not just be typical Zane Lewis flirting.