Chapter 20
Kinsley
Chapter Twenty
So apparently, we were playing hide-and-seek now. I rushed through the dark green grass of the yard before stopping in the middle of it. The house was forbidden to hide in, so it felt like I had only two options, really: the forest or the lake. As almost nobody wanted to hide alone, Aaliyah insisted that I go into the woods with them and hide behind some trees, but somehow, even drunk like this, I wanted to avoid the forest, which left me with the lake. I heard Connor and Kevin counting up on the porch while Braxton and Samantha disappeared behind the house. I had no idea where Thomas was, though, and I looked around, curious where he might have hidden. I was sure he had a good hideout somewhere out there, and he would win this whole thing too. I reached the water and looked down into it. The moonlight broke in a line on the surface of it, leaving the rest of the water in darkness.
“Come on, before they find you just standing there,” came a voice from behind me, and I froze. Thomas was standing two feet away from me, still only wearing the slightly unbuttoned white shirt and his dark swimming trunks. I turned my head to where the boys were counting, and I nodded. He was right; they were pretty close to reaching one hundred.
“It’s not that cold yet, the sun just settled,” he assured me, stepping toward the water.
“Why are you trying to help me?” I asked suspiciously while keeping half of my attention on Connor and Kevin.
“Maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic,” he said with his back to me. “You like those, don’t you?” He sent me a devilish smirk. “Or maybe I just don’t want you to reveal my hiding place by just standing there,” he added before I could answer, and I made a face at him. “If I have to play, I’m here to win, Sage.”
“I don’t think anyone forced you to play,” I answered, crossing my arms.
“Maybe I forced myself,” he replied, his voice raspy as he stepped into the water. “A challenge is a challenge,” he added, turning around. His dark eyes found mine, and he tipped his head to the side. “Are you coming, or will you just give up and let me take the win?”
I stepped into the water, and the cold waves instantly closed around me. I already started to regret my decision as I almost slipped on a rock, but then I heard Connor shout ninety, and I went deeper. As the cold waves closed around me, I felt my nipples harden under the bikini top. Thomas was ahead of me, his white shirt floating around him, and when he stepped into the moonlight, he resembled an oil painting. The cold reached my chest, and I sucked in a surprised breath the same time Thomas’s arm curled around my waist, and he pulled me under the pier. His skin was somehow hot against my body even in the cold water. I shivered in his arms but lowered myself deeper down as I heard Connor and Kevin shout:
“Ready or not, here we come!”
“So much for not being cold.” I looked out at the small space between the pier above our head and the grassy ground.
I watched the two figures hurry down the stairs and split up. It was a big area they had to cover. Thomas was right behind me, his hands still resting on my waist and his hot breath tickling the nape of my neck.
“I hope at least we win,” I muttered, shivering while I tried to see through the fog that wasn’t even there a moment ago.
Suddenly being out here didn’t seem like such a good idea. As if sensing what I was feeling, Thomas’s hold grew stronger on me. I turned around to face him and our noses almost brushed against each other’s. His head was slightly dropped forward so he wouldn’t knock it into the pier above, and a smile curled on his lips. He looked mesmerizing with his wet hair, and I followed a drop of water as it streamed down his chest, back into the lake. My eyes stayed there, where the waves hid the rest of his body while, without realizing, my hands went up and dug into his soft curls.
“Sage.” His voice was husky as he brushed his lips against mine, and my knees weakened. I would never let him know how much I liked it when he called me that.
His hands went from my waist down to my legs, gripping my thighs under the water as he pulled me up against him. I locked my legs around his waist. Our faces only inches apart, our breath mixed with each other’s as he rested my back against one of the pier’s legs, lowering his head down to lend a kiss to my neck.
I sighed, melting against his body and burying my head into his wet shoulder. He smelled too good, especially after swimming in a dirty old lake. I breathed in the scent of sandalwood, cedar, and bodywash as I held onto his shirt, trying to take everything that defined him to myself. His smell, the softness and hardness of his skin, his muscles and scars, everything that made him who he was. I wanted it all. Maybe this thought should have scared me, but since it didn’t have any chance of becoming a reality, I only felt the adrenaline rush of what we could do.
He kissed his way down from my neck to my chest then back again, biting and sucking on my watery skin, but not hard enough to leave a mark. One of his hands let go of my leg, and he put a finger under my chin, forcing me to look up at him. His gaze was dark, darker than usual, and my stomach tickled.
“You have no idea.” He exhaled. “No idea how much I want this.” He rested his forehead against mine.
I shivered in his arms, pressing my lips into a thin line and pulling my head away to look up at him. “You don’t need to manipulate me.” I hardened my voice. “I’m not one of your hockey groupies. I won’t start running after you just because you fuck me.”
Thomas raised his brows. “You really think that’s what I’m doing?”
He looked…almost hurt but I knew that couldn’t be possible. He clenched his jaw while his thumb caressed my skin under the water. I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off.
“You are so wrong, Sage,” he breathed, his voice becoming husky again.
I furrowed my brows. “I really don’t think I am. You ignored me for months and then all of a sudden, when we are stuck together in one house?—”
“I didn’t ignore you because I wanted to,” he argued, and I made a face at him.
Suddenly I started to feel very uncomfortable being still wrapped around him when we were talking, but I didn’t move.
“That’s the most cliché thing you could have said.” He winced at my words.
There was a moment of silence between us while we stared at each other with storms in our gazes.
“So, you don’t believe me?” he asked, towering above me.
I bit into the inside of my cheek and tilted my head in a challenging way. “Not really. But I meant what I said about not being one of your groupies.” So why did it feel like a lie?
“I’m not going to fuck you, Kinsley,” he sighed, and my breath caught in my throat.
I needed a moment to gather myself before I tried to push away from him. I felt mortified. Thomas grabbed both of my wrists with one hand and pinned me back against the pier’s leg.
“Let me go,” I hissed. “I don’t want to hear any more of what you have to say.”
“I don’t think so,” he rasped, and my breath hitched. “I said, I’m not going to fuck you. I never said I’m not going to make you come until you forget your own name,” he added, and I froze, my heart thundering in my chest.
“Why?” I asked, but his features changed from serious to mischievous in a blink.
“I have my reasons,” he replied, leaning down and biting me under my collarbone.
“What reasons?” I asked, and he sighed, straightening up.
“One of the many is definitely you believing that I don’t want you. Did I ever tell you that?” he asked. “Because I don’t fucking remember, Sage. I crave you,” he murmured, kissing my jaw.
I tightened my legs around his waist, the cold water caressing my skin.
“Wanting you from a safe distance at school was easier. Wanting you while you are here, only two rooms down the hall, is different. It’s maddening.”
He captured my lips into a kiss before I even had the chance to reply. One of his hands grabbed my ass while the other stayed firm around my waist. I moaned into his lips, sliding my hand down to his trunks and grabbing him over the material. God, he was hard. He let out a breath that turned into a growl, and I bit into his lower lip. He broke away from me, burying his head into my neck, kissing and biting the delicate skin while I squeezed him gently.
“That’s not the game we are playing,” he gritted, pulling my hand away and resting his head against the pier’s pole.
“Such a shame,” I answered with a seductive grin.
“I bet you will think very differently after you come all over my fingers.”
I pulled his head back to me by his hair, and a devilish smile spread over his features as his body crushed against mine again, pressing me against the leg of the pier harder.
“It’s time to play, Sage. Are you ready?” he asked, capturing my eyes with his while one of his hands slid over my thigh until he reached the edge of my bikini bottoms.
“Mm-hmm,” I replied, getting lost in his dark eyes.
The corner of his mouth curled, revealing his dimples, and I sucked in a breath as he gently started to circle my clit under the water.