COEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We pull up at the campsite just as traffic starts to pick up around dinnertime.
Jamie and I were out here about seven years ago.
It’s a campground in a rural area, not too far from the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Out here, the air is dry and hot at this time of the year.
Dust rises with every movement. The air is so clean, it feels like a cool drink of water on a spring day.
I pull the truck into an unoccupied spot at the far end and park. There are no trees for shelter, just small platforms for a tent and a spigot for water.
“There’s more people than I expected,” she says.
I take my hand from her thigh, where I’ve been touching her soft skin with my thumb for the last half hour.
It looks like five tents set up around the area.
Someone has trail horses picketed out, grazing on a patch of grass at the far end from us.
There’s a couple of vans, the doors open and people spilling out.
A couple sits by a campfire. Two older men loiter on the steps of a rusted out camper.
“Is it safe?” she asks.
We get out of the truck.
“Yeah,” I say, taking the toothpick from behind my ear and biting it. “I got a Glock on my belt in case you’re worried, though.”
“Really?” Her brows shoot up.
I shrug. “I’m from fucking nowhere Wyoming. I grew up without an option.”
She’s making a strange face, like she wants to smile, but she keeps biting on her lower lip. I circle the truck and drop the tailgate to pull everything out.
“I kinda thought you’d be used to having bodyguards,” she says, crossing her arms and popping her hip.
I would give her a look, but she won’t see behind my sunglasses.
“Well, you thought wrong. Take this.”
Handing her the bucket, which is light, I gather up the tent and go to the platform.
Right away, she gets distracted, wandering to the edge of the trees.
I unpack the tent, not bothering with the instructions.
It’s pretty straightforward, and I have it up and running in about twenty minutes.
When I dust off my hands and look around, she’s gone.
“Sabrina,” I call.
Silence. I start walking toward the tree line just as she comes bursting through it.
“There’s a lake down there,” she bursts out. “ I want to go swimming.”
“I don’t have a suit.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I grabbed one for you.”
She goes past me and starts pulling Walmart bags from the truck. The suit in question is a pair of black and blue trunks. Luckily, she didn’t pick out anything too silly, but I don’t have time to dwell on it, because she’s walking right past me and into the tent. Zip—and she’s gone.
“I’m getting in my swimsuit,” she calls, zipping it up. “Don’t come in.”
I don’t point out that I’ve seen her naked.
I’ve had my whole face between her thighs twice, but that’s fine.
I take everything else we’ll need for the night out of the truck, including the little camp stove I bought and some canned food.
When I turn around, she’s coming out of the tent. My body tingles, head to foot.
God, she’s pretty.
She’s in a little yellow flowered bikini.
The top ties between her breasts, ones that I’m thinking about how it felt to touch, to put her nipples in my mouth and curl my tongue around them.
My gaze runs over her stomach, to her navel, past it to the tiny bottoms sitting on her hips.
She comes to a halt on the edge of the platform, pulling her cowboy boots back on.
I swallow hard.
Every time she takes a step, I can see the perfect seam of her pussy through the yellow and flowers. My mouth parts. I’m staring like I’ve never seen a woman in a swimsuit before. She’s always so covered up on top. I didn’t realize she was going to look like that in a bikini.
“You want to swim right away?” I ask redundantly.
“Before the sun goes down.” She pops her hip out, making the struggle to keep my dick down even worse. “You better hurry up and get your shorts on.”
I’m not about to turn down the hottest woman to ever ask me to go swimming.
Moving past her, I duck into the tent and zip it up.
I don’t know why we’re both being so private about our bodies when we’ve had sex twice.
There’s just this…formality between us that I would love to shake.
Maybe after the sun goes down and everything is a little less strait-laced, I’ll see if I can’t break down some of those walls.
I strip and pull my shorts on. Unfortunately, my dick got hard thinking about messing around with her later.
I wait. It’s stubborn.
Carefully, I unzip the top of the flap and peer through the crack.
She’s loitering by the edge of the platform, on her phone.
There’s a faint frown on her face, and she’s not scrolling, just staring at something.
Her mouth tightens, shifting as she chews the inside of her lip.
I hope her father isn’t stressing her out again.
Bill isn’t a bad guy. I trust Jamie’s judgement on him.
But there is something I’m missing about the Maxwells.
Perhaps I’ll give Jamie a call tomorrow and see if he’s got any ideas.
I pause, thinking that over as I realize that will mean me telling my agent I’m taking the slowest possible route back to Nashville with one of Bill’s daughters in tow.
And that I’ve slept with her twice already.
That’s an added complication he won’t like.
I glance down. Alright, we’re good to go.
Stepping out, I clear my throat. She glances up and looks away, and then a little smile appears.
“Looking good, cowboy,” she says.
“I could say the same for you.”
“I saw you looking a minute ago. It’s alright, I won’t tell anyone.”
She comes over, tucking her hands behind her back, and tilts her chin to look up into my face. A little breeze picks up her hair, skimming across her cheek. My pulse picks up. Gently, I brush the hair away, and she scrunches her nose. Her skin is so warm, so soft against my fingers.
I can’t think of a word to say. I’m not sure I can even think.
“So you want to go for a swim?” she whispers.
I nod, clearing my throat. “Yeah, we can go.”
Neither of us move. For a fleeting second, I consider kissing her or grabbing her like a caveman, throwing her over my shoulder and taking her into the tent. I glance over the campsite and decide the latter isn’t a great idea. The former probably wouldn’t cause too big of a stir.
“Well,” she says briskly, “let’s go.”
I waited too long. She turns and starts scrambling up the hill in her cowboy boots, half-naked ass sashaying a few feet ahead.
I go after her in my bare feet, because the ground is just dust. We don’t speak as we move through the trees and follow the path down the hill until it turns into sand.
She comes to a halt at the edge, frowning at the water.
“Do you think there’s amoebas in there?” she asks.
The thought hadn’t occurred to me. “Probably no more amoebas than usual.”
She gives me a look. “Seriously though.”
Gesturing around at the other swimmers, I step into the shallow water. “If there are, we’re all going to get one.”
“That’s so comforting. Remind me not to come to you when I have anxiety.”
She steps into the water but doesn’t go further than her knees.”
“I’m good with anxiety,” I say. “I’ve had plenty of it myself.”
She sobers. “Really?”
“Do I seem put together?” I raise a brow.
“You seem so put together, I feel like someday, you’re going to explode,” she says bluntly.
I’m unsure how to answer that. Luckily, I’m saved by her stepping in deeper and, apparently, saying damn the amoebas, diving beneath the surface.
Instantly, I go in after her, cutting through the water to where her head reappears.
Before she can turn around, I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her in.
Beneath the water, her smooth legs wrap around me. Keeping us afloat, I kiss her hard.
She makes the sweet little hum. I want that bad, so I kiss her lips apart. The taste of her tongue is everything, liquid fire in my veins, just as it was the first time we fell into bed together. Only, now that I know her better, that fire burns even hotter in my veins.
“Get a room!”
I pull back. There’s a group of guys fishing off a boat, all drunk and waving beer cans. Sabrina pulls back, grinning as she throws up two middle fingers. They love that, hollering and stomping their feet.
“Jesus. Can’t get a minute to ourselves out here,” I say, but I’m not annoyed.
She wraps her arms back around my neck. “I actually can’t swim all that well, so I’m gonna hold on to you like a monkey and let you tow me around. Okay?”
I laugh, dipping down so she can lay on my back. She locks her arms beneath mine.
“Alright, let’s go,” she says, breath warm on my ear.
It makes me pretty damn happy when she’s happy, so I do as she says.
It’s been a long time since I did something physical for the sake of fun—unless I’m counting fucking her, which is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
But with my clothes on, this is all new.
It feels like opening a valve in my brain and letting the pressure out.
We float out into the center of the lake. It’s quiet, peaceful.
At least, it is until she dunks my head under.
Then, she lets go of me and starts swimming incredibly slowly to the shore.
I pretend I can’t catch her because I want to see her smile, flipping to her back and kicking her feet as she goes.
We end up laughing, out of breath, on the shore.
I touch her hair, leaving little trails of sand at the tips.
She’s on her back, I’m laid out beside her. The sun makes her eyes so blue.
“It’s so pretty out here,” she sighs. “I might lie here and tan for a bit.”
“I might lie here and look at you tan for a bit.”
She smiles, blushing. Neither of us talk for a while. The sunlight dapples through the trees and leaves shards of gold across her skin.
“Are you happy?” I ask finally.
She has her arms crossed behind her head. I turn my head to the side to look at her profile.
“Yeah,” she says. “I love this.”
I push myself up on my elbow, looking around.
The lake has emptied, and there’s no one around except a few couples on the far end of the water.
They’re too far away to make anything out, just dots on the shoreline.
When I look back at her, she’s watching me with heavy lids.
I trace my fingers over her belly, and it quivers as her breath hitches.
“Do you mind?” I say, fingers tracing the tie between her breasts.
She glances around. “If you’re quick, before anyone comes back.”
“I think we’re good. It’s getting late.”
I pull the tie and ease the left cup of her bikini back.
Her breast is beautiful in the dappled sunlight, sand like glitter over her tanned skin.
Gently, I touch her nipple, and it hardens.
She makes a little sound in her throat, a hum, and her hips lift just a hint.
Bending in, I flick it with my tongue. Her lashes flutter.
“God, you are bad,” she breathes.
“I think I’m pretty good. At this, at least.”
Her mouth turns up in a brief smile. I peel aside the right cup, and her nipple hardens there as well.
My dick is rock hard, but I’m more focused on the feeling of awe in my chest. She’s breathtaking.
She’s beautiful with her clothes on and off, but seeing her laid out on the sand, nipples flushed pink, like some kind of goddess…
“If the campsite was empty, I’d eat your pussy right now,” I murmur, looking down at the faint seam visible through her bikini bottom.
She bites her lip hard. “I wish it was.”
“We should go make some dinner,” I say. “More time in the tent afterward.”
“Oh?”
I look around to make sure we’re alone before running my middle finger down her belly and tracing the edge of her swimsuit.
Her pupils blow, chest heaving. With my palm pressed to her thigh, I slide my middle finger beneath the fabric and touch her clit.
She inhales hard. Tracing the seam, I dip in and find the heat of her entrance. Then, I pull my hand back.
“You need to stop,” she whispers. “Someone is going to walk over that hill and see.”
I lick my fingers and get up, kneeling to tie her bikini top. That has her flushing hard. Gently, I lift her to her feet and brush all the sand off. She does the same for me, her fingers lingering on my lower stomach. I kiss her, tapping her chin.
“Alright, baby, let’s go make dinner so I can get what I really want later.”