Chapter 33 #2
“One of the perks of living in Story Lake. The only breaking and entering is usually done by bears, and they don’t need a key.”
“Bears?” she whispered as if she was afraid of conjuring one.
I pushed the door open and held it for her. “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”
“I doubt that,” she said dryly as we entered Levi’s cabin with Nana rocketing past us.
The dog led the way through the kitchen into the living room, and we followed, turning lights on as we went.
It was small and in dire need of updating.
Cam and I razzed him regularly for being the contractor with the shitty house.
But Levi didn’t seem to be in any hurry to turn the shack into anything nicer.
“Your brother has interesting taste in…everything,” Zoey observed, eyeing the ancient flintlock rifle mounted above an old writing desk where his laptop sat next to a pile of crumpled notebook pages.
Nana got a running start and hurled herself onto Levi’s ancient plaid couch. It was ugly as sin but comfortable enough no one could stay awake on it for long.
“He bought this place when it went up for auction a few years ago. Said he appreciated the hermit-like quality,” I explained. Levi wasn’t subtle about his desire to be left alone as often as possible. He tolerated the loud, messy family get-togethers, but he was most comfortable here, alone.
The property had one thing going for it. I found the touch screen mounted inside the front slider door and punched a few buttons. Zoey let out a delighted squeal.
“Let’s go,” I said, forcing the slider open on its wobbly track. Nana opened one eye to look at me, then closed it again, too exhausted from her many skunk baths to join us.
Levi’s yard rolled down a gentle slope to the lake. There was a fire ring with exactly one Adirondack chair next to it facing the water. Above us, running from cabin to fire pit, was a series of amber-colored string lights that glowed in the night.
I handed most of our haul to Zoey and set the rest on the deck. “Set up by the fire pit. I’ll get the firewood.”
“This is…really nice, Gage. Thank you,” she said.
“Maybe hold off on thanking me until you try the egg roll in a bowl,” I joked.
“Okay. You can officially add that recipe to your regular repertoire,” Zoey said, putting her empty bowl on the lip of the fire ring.
She sighed happily and wiggled back on the chair.
I eased forward in the flimsy lawn chair I’d found on the deck and stacked my bowl on top of hers.
The fire crackled, casting its warm glow over us.
“Glad you liked it. I’ve got extras in the cooler for you this week.”
“If only we were each other’s type,” she said on a satisfied sigh. “I could get used to this.”
“You need a me,” I said.
“I know. Though I don’t know how well you’d cook in a Manhattan apartment with eighteen inches of counter space. But what would a you get out of the experience with me?”
I gave her a lazy grin.
“Besides the obvious,” she added, waving a hand down the front of her body.
“Well, a you sure makes things more interesting.”
She fluffed her curls and winked. “I do, don’t I?”
“I wouldn’t break into my brother’s house for just anyone,” I told her.
“Will he be mad?”
“That all depends on if he finds out,” I quipped.
“It’s his own fault, really. I mean, what chief of police doesn’t have a security system?”
“The victim not having a security system doesn’t usually hold up too well in court as a defense,” I pointed out.
“Well, then let’s keep this out of court. I appreciate you doing something vaguely illegal for me. Maybe we’re good influences on each other?” she mused. “You feed me and keep me from overpeopling, and I introduce you to the joys of questionably legal spontaneity.”
“An interesting argument,” I said, taking her hand in mine.
A cloud slid away from the moon, making light dance on the water. We both stared out over the sparkling vista in silence. I caught the faint wheeze of Nana’s snore drifting out the door. For a weekend that had started out with a pissed-off skunk, I was pretty happy with how it was ending.
“When’s the last time you went skinny-dipping?” Zoey asked abruptly.
“How can we both be sitting here looking at the same view and thinking completely different things?”
“It’s called ‘opposites attract,’ and we’re the definition of it. You didn’t answer my question.”
“It’s April. The water is cold in July. You’d have to be extremely drunk and confused to jump in now.”
“So never then?” she prompted.
I opened my mouth to defend myself, but she cut me off.
“Me neither. I’ve always wanted to. But growing up in Manhattan doesn’t give you a ton of great opportunities to get naked in public and not get arrested.”
She stood up, pulling her hand from mine, her fingers finding the button on her jeans.
“You can’t make me do this,” I insisted.
“Come on, Gage.” She pouted prettily as she worked the denim down her legs. “Think of it as a naked polar plunge. Refreshingly naughty.”
Shit. I was already screwed, and she barely had her shoes off.
I stood up but crossed my arms over my chest. “What’s the goal here? Maybe we could accomplish it in a less hypothermia-inducing way.”
“There’s no goal. This is just fun,” she insisted, kicking off her pants to reveal that once again, she wasn’t wearing underwear.
“That water is probably sixty degrees. That’s not fun. It’s masochistic.”
Her shirt hit the ground, and my mouth went dry as the purple bra with the sequined band went next.
“Come on, Gage. You fed me. Let me entertain you.”
“I hate every single thing about this,” I complained as I toed off my shoes.
“Yay!” Her exclamation was cut off by a gasp as she jogged into the water. “Oh, that’s brisk.”
“Fuck my fucking life, this is fucking cold,” I said through clenched teeth. I slogged up to my chest after her. Zoey was in almost over her head.
This was officially the stupidest thing I’d ever done to impress a woman. My balls were in my fucking throat.
“Yeah, it’s totally horrible. But look up,” she said. At least that was what I thought she said. It was hard to tell with her teeth chattering.
I glanced up and spotted the moon, full and bright, blotting out clouds behind it.
“Yeah. Fucking great, Disaster. Now let’s get back to the fire before your tits turn blue.”
“So crass when you’re freezing to death.
I like it.” She launched herself at me, her slippery body sliding over mine beneath the frigid water.
Our lips met and tangled. A strange, heady combination of ice and heat made me temporarily forget that I hated this.
My arms were full of her, her flavor, her scent surrounding me like the water. I’d never felt more alive.
I loved the way she wrapped her legs around me and held on for dear life. I felt like an anchor, a safe harbor. She trusted me to keep her safe, and I wasn’t going to let her down…and in this moment, it meant not having sex in lake water when I didn’t know the current bacteria levels.
“We should go back to the fire,” I said against her mouth.
“And not put our clothes on?” she asked hopefully.
“Our clothes will remain off,” I promised.
“Yay! Hurry up before my labia get hypothermia.” And with that, she slipped off me and swam toward shore.
We exited the water together, laughing and shivering when headlights cut through the night, briefly landing on us and lighting up our world. I shoved Zoey behind my back.
“Oh my God,” she squeaked, teeth chattering even harder now.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
The headlights were in Levi’s driveway, pulling in next to my SUV.
“Stay low,” I ordered as I dragged her to shore, sticking to the tree line and skirting the edge of Levi’s property. There was another cabin next door, a dilapidated wreck of a place that hadn’t been lived in for years, so I pulled Zoey into its overgrown yard.
Through the trees, a backlit figure appeared on Levi’s deck, staring down toward the fire.
“Is it the cops?” Zoey hissed.
“Yeah. It’s the goddamn chief of police.”
She prodded my naked ass with a frozen finger. “You said he was out of town this weekend.”
“Sweetheart, now is not the time to get into an argument about who was right and who was wrong.”
“You’re just saying that because I was right,” she complained.
“We’re fucking naked, and Levi has been dying to get revenge on anyone who played a role in him being nominated for chief. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to jail tonight.”
“Fine. What’s the plan, Mr. Goose Bumps on His Ass?”
“Follow me and make as little noise as possible. My keys are in the truck. If we can swing around while he’s still out front, we can make a run for it.”
Zoey yelped as a branch caught her in the side. “He’s gonna know it was us.”
“I’d rather it be a Future Clothes-Wearing Me problem than a Now Naked Me problem,” I insisted. I was one thousand percent certain my brother wouldn’t hesitate to haul my naked ass to jail.
We scurried through the overgrown grass down the property’s nearly invisible drive and managed to cut across to Levi’s yard.
My SUV loomed in front of us next to Levi’s truck. I opened the driver’s side door as quietly as possible and shoved Zoey in and over the console. Given how wet we both were, she slid into the passenger seat like a seal.
I climbed in behind her and had the engine turning over before I’d even shut the door.
I floored it in reverse, backing down the driveway to the road with a roar.
Zoey squealed and held on for dear life as I whipped the front end of the SUV around. I shook my head ruefully. The woman was actually enjoying this.
Levi jogged around the corner of his house just as I shifted into drive and sped away.
“Oh my God!” Zoey said, clamping a hand to her naked chest. “Now that was a memorable night.”
I blasted the heat through the vents and turned on our seat warmers. “I feel like you should be a little more concerned with the situation.”
“Are you kidding? Some skinny-dipping, an adrenaline rush, and now a naked getaway? This is awesome. You know, you’re still sexy even when you’re all hunched over running with your man parts jiggling,” she observed.
“That’s the weirdest compliment I’ve ever received.”
“You’re welcome,” she said grandly, hugging her knees to her chest. “Can we go to your house? I need to defrost in your mega shower.”
I shook my head, a reluctant smile tugging at my lips. Zoey Moody was the most fun I’d had in my life. “Sure.”
My phone rang from the center console, and I pushed the button on the dashboard touch screen.
“Livvy,” I said with feigned innocence. “How’s your weekend training?”
“Hey, asshole. It was Friday to Saturday. Not Saturday to Sunday. What the hell were you doing at my house?”
I glanced at Zoey, who had a hand clamped over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m at my place with Zoey. It must have been someone else.”
“You left your dog here.”
Fuck.
Levi: I’m holding this dog for questioning until the two naked people who broke into my house and left her here confess.
Mom: Hi Nana!
Laura: Nice one, Gigi.
Cam: You better have been with Zoey or I’ll kick your naked ass.
Levi: Doesn’t anyone care that my property was violated by nonconsensual nudity?
Laura: Nope.
Cam: No.
Dad: Hi Nana!