Sunlight signaled the surface and I kicked upward, a little surprised that stinging feet seemed to be the worst of my injuries. I broke the surface and gulped bitter air. I whipped around, water droplets spraying from my hair as I searched for Blair. The relief at the sight of her dark hair bobbing a few feet away almost made me throw up and I took three big strokes to her side to pull her against me.
She threw her body against mine and wrapped her strong legs around my waist. My body responded even before her lips found mine. Her tongue slid along my upper lip then toyed with mine until my blood heated. We were frozen from head to toe but our mouths were hot, pressed together and searching for a way to be closer. We kissed for longer than we should have, but I didn’t want to stop.
Good sense returned with the knowledge that as badly as I wanted this girl, now was not the time.
At the moment, I was regretting my lie about not having a condom last night, though.
“We need to move,” I murmured into her lips. “This can be continued once my balls aren’t shrunk up against my body for warmth.”
She tightened her legs around me, disproving my remark.
“Fine. Once the police can’t look over the balcony and wonder about people swimming in a freezing cold river, then.”
“Okay.”
Blair gave me a smile and started making her way over to the far bank. There was something different in her smile, in the easy way she moved, and like her burst of passion last night, it befuddled me.
My body knew what it wanted—had known since last spring. It wasn’t hard to figure out. But Blair was a different story. She had been pretty damn adamant about what she didn’t want since last spring, and even when she’d shown up and offered to help me in Melbourne, her attitude about getting involved with me hadn’t changed.
I was having trouble putting my finger on when exactly it had, and the fact that it felt . . . sudden somehow, or as though she was giving in against her better judgment, bothered me. At least, it had last night. That kiss just now, the languid pleasure on her face, had felt genuine. Filled with desire, not guilt.
If she had been that way last night, I would have grabbed the condom and gone for it.
The mud and loose debris on the bank slipped underneath my soaking wet tennis shoes, which were ruined. I didn’t want to think about what it said about me that I cared. There were boxes and boxes of similar or identical product manufactured especially for me, but I couldn’t get new ones until I was back in Australia and off the road.
I looked at Blair, her chestnut hair soaked and stuck to her cheeks and forehead, panting with the effort of the swim and the remnants of adrenaline.
She caught me looking and grinned. “I can’t believe we just did that.”
“What? It was your idea! Remember the whole ‘we’re going to be fine’ speech you gave me up there?” I jerked my chin upward, unable to stop myself from smiling back at her.
Happy Blair was a powerful thing to resist.
“I know, and I was telling the truth, it’s just . . .” Her smiled slipped. “It feels awesome to do something my mom did, even if we jumped off a house and not a cliff.”
I put an arm around her, a shiver transferring from her to me. The space between us warmed up after a few minutes, spreading outward from where we were pressed together.
She looked up at me, her cheeks pink, eyes bright. “We need to do a better job with our cover story, especially now that the cops are involved. I don’t think they’re going to bust their brains trying to figure out where we went, but they will if my dad asks. If he cooperates and hands over the video feed from the house they’ll know what we look like, and even though you’re scruffy and not dressed very nice, your face is still pretty damn recognizable.”
“What do you want me to do about my face?”
“Personally? Not a damn thing.” She winked, starting a painful, thawing ache between my legs. “But glasses, maybe? A hat?”
“You want to dress me like a hipster.”
“Sure. And we should do a better job playing a couple. If anyone asked the other passengers on that bus, they wouldn’t say we were together.”
“They would if they saw us dry humping on the seat after we almost died.”
Her cheeks bloomed red. “We didn’t almost die, and we were just kissing. You’re such a drama queen.”
“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.” I stood up before her red cheeks, soft looks, and bright eyes undid me further, then held down a hand and hauled her to her feet beside me. “Fine. I’ll get some glasses.”
“Also, we’ve got a couple of problems. First, I’m guessing both of our phones are ruined.”