Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Emily
“Heath, you should join us,” Wyatt says, his voice strained.
His friend turns and frowns. “No, it’s—”
“Emily wants you to.” Then Wyatt turns to me. “Right?”
An odd, powerful calm slides over me. I nod. That is what I want. “I’d like to get to know both of you better,” I admit. Then I smile at Wyatt, so thankful that he noticed. “You read me well. Not that I would have minded it just being the two of us.”
He ducks his head, and I swear he blushes.
That’s really cute.
But just as attractive is the stern way Heath almost glares at both of us, then mutters something under his breath.
“That’s a yes,” Wyatt says to me once we’re alone. “He’s gonna get changed and join us.”
I grin conspiratorially at him. “Excellent. Good job.”
“Oh, that was all you.” He smiles down at me for a moment, then his expression shifts, his gaze getting…more serious. “You need a swimsuit, too.”
I glance down. “I’ll be right back.”
“We’ll be waiting for you.”
I feel his gaze on my back until I’m out of view, and then I shiver.
What are you doing, Emily? When they first arrived, I was confused and worried I’d done something wrong. But then over dinner, Heath’s quiet air of command kept drawing my attention.
And just now, the way Wyatt looked at me?
For a bookworm who has never kissed anyone, this is a lot to process all at once.
And as a bookworm who has read a lot of kissing books, it would be easy to get carried away with a fantasy. Because my body was definitely giving me mixed messages about what to do with these two men this weekend.
How could I be attracted to both of them? That doesn’t make any sense. In real life, I mean. On the page, I know exactly what would happen next.
A game of truth and dare in the hot tub would lead to swimsuits being tossed aside and…passions to flare wildly? I flop on my bed and curse myself for devouring horny books instead of carefully studying them like instruction manuals.
There’s no time to obsess over something that isn’t likely to happen.
I scramble off the bed and open my bag. I only have one swimsuit, and it’s nothing fancy. Just a turquoise one-piece I’ve had for a couple of years. I tug it on, then grab a few towels from the closet in the hallway—wrapping one around my body securely—and meet them back in the living room.
I’d thought they were good-looking when they arrived at the cabin. Now?
I nearly stumble when I catch sight of them waiting for me.
They’re both massive. Broad-shouldered, thickly muscled all the way down their bare torsos. And their swimsuits are riding low enough on their hips that I can see…things.
A line of hair down Wyatt’s belly, starting just below his navel and disappearing into his shorts in a way that promises there’s more of it there. I think about the neat little triangle of hair between my own legs and try to picture what his must look like.
Heath, on the other hand, has no hair on his lower abdomen that I can see, but he does have ridges of muscles curving over his hips that point in the same direction.
Both of them have bodies designed to draw my attention to the private space behind their swim trunks.
They’re built for sin, and I’m a curious little coed ready to find out how to be bad. Stop it, Emily. I can’t, though. My imagination is a dangerous thing. It’s just like a naughty book.
Oh, if only.
But the way they look at me definitely helps my vivid imagination. Heath does a slow up and down, then tells me to lead the way to the hot tub. Wyatt’s gaze is less controlled, pinging back and forth from my face to where my boobs are hiding under the towel and then back again.
When I scoot in front of them to open the back door, I imagine he’s looking at my butt too.
My imagination is very brave.
I, on the other hand, stand next to the hot tub, refusing to take the towel off my body. I’m getting in a hot tub with two strange men.
Heath picks up on my hesitancy right away. “Do you want us to get in first?” He grabs Wyatt’s shoulder and turns him around. “Or you can.”
I drop my towel and scamper into the water, lowering myself into the bubbling tub until everything is submerged from the neck down. “I’m in.”
Wyatt snaps back around, eager like a golden retriever puppy, and gives me a happy grin as he climbs in. Heath is more careful, taking his time, his gaze never leaving my face. What is he thinking?
“I just want to make sure you’re comfortable with us.”
My eyes go wide.
He smiles. “You have a very expressive face, little miss.”
“There’s that nickname again,” I whisper.
Wyatt frowns. “Does it bother you?”
I’m surprised, but no, it doesn’t. “I just don’t understand it.”
His expression slides from concerned to…chagrined?
“Wyatt,” I say, affecting my best “stern teacher” voice, which isn’t that bossy, but I’m trying. “What does it mean?”
“Emily.” Heath says my name, like a command or a caution.
I twist in the water, giving him my full attention. “Yes?”
“It’s a term of endearment. We will stop using it if you don’t like it, but we don’t know one another well enough to fully explain it with the right context. Can you trust us to share the story in time?”
I nod, surprised again. And even more shocking to me is how warm I feel inside when Heath smiles, genuinely pleased at my answer.
“Good,” he murmurs, and I feel that deep inside me.
What else can I do to get that kind of satisfied purr from this man?
It makes me feel bold. I hold his gaze for a long beat, until I sense that Wyatt needs my attention too. When I turn to the younger man, he’s watching me as intently as I was looking at Heath.
“What?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing.”
“So, what should we talk about, then, if not your curious nickname for me and not the reason you are staring at me?” I don’t need to look back at Heath to know he wants to caution me again.
“And before your boss says Emily again, I’m genuinely not sure how to entertain two strange men in a hot tub. This is a first for me.”
Heath laughs out loud at that. “Well, that’s fair, isn’t it, Wyatt? She’s never done this before.”
Wyatt grins boyishly. “How do you entertain one strange man in a hot tub?”
“I wouldn’t know, haven’t done that either.” I lift my chin. “I’m just a little miss, after all.”
Something wild flashes in Wyatt’s gaze.
Heath glances between us. “That’s interesting.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Why is that interesting? Lots of people choose to focus on school or work instead of dating.”
“Oh, I’m aware,” he says. “Wyatt—”
His friend slaps Heath in the chest. “Shut up.”
“What is it?” I push across the hot tub, getting between them so Wyatt doesn’t slap Heath again, and I give him an earnest, you can trust me look. “Are you not interested in dating either?”
“I wasn’t in the past. But that changed this spring.”
My heart flips upside down. Why does that distress me so much? Who did you find? “Oh.”
He searches my face. “I haven’t acted on it yet. I’ve never been with a woman before.”
“Really?” I squeak out the word in absolute shock, which makes Heath laugh out loud, good-naturedly.
I sputter and shake my head. “I don’t mean that to be a criticism. That would be hypocritical of me. Wow. But you must be curious?”
I have a wild idea to seduce him, so he doesn’t pursue whomever he fell in love with in the spring. If he’s never been with anyone else, then my own inexperience won’t matter.
“Of course he’s curious,” Heath says.
Heath.
Guilt floods my chest. I can’t seduce Wyatt while Heath is here. And how am I so sure Wyatt would be the right person to take my virginity anyway, when Heath’s praise makes me feel like I’m walking on air?
I nod nervously. “Well, it’s kind of nice to find someone who has also decided to wait—and it’s not like I’m waiting for marriage or anything.”
Wyatt shakes his head. “No, of course not. Not me either. But it’s just, it has to be…”
And then we say it at the same time, “Right.”
Heath grunts and heaves himself out of the water. “I’m going to find some drinks. Anyone want a beer? Pop?”
Before either of us can answer, he’s grabbed a towel and gone inside.
I feel awful. “Wyatt, I—”
“You’re fine,” he says quickly. His eyes are wide as his gaze darts down to where my body is mostly hidden under the bubbling surface, then back up to my face.
He takes a deep breath. “Emily, I don’t know how to tell you this, but in all that time that Heath and I were aware of you, both of us thought you were real pretty. ”
“Oh!”
“The thing is, you caught our eye at the same time. Our first day on campus, I saw you coming back from class and…” He looks a little embarrassed.
“My feelings were obvious to him. He reamed me out. But later that day, I found him growling at some kid from your lab who was coming around your dorm room.”
I gasp. I remember that. Not the growling, exactly, but my nemesis used to come to my room to irritate me and then that stopped.
Wyatt has no idea he and Heath are my heroes. He keeps going. “And one of the reasons you didn’t know about us until today was neither of us wanted to get in front of the other guy. I could never compete with a man like him, and he is too much of a good guy to stop me from my first crush.”
“Your first crush was…me?”
“You’re the smartest, prettiest girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“So…I’m the girl you noticed in the spring?”
“The only girl I’ve ever set my most impure thoughts to, that’s right.”
I can’t breathe. Wyatt actually has feelings for me? But that wasn’t all he said. “What are the other reasons? You said that was one of the reasons. What else? Why didn’t you approach me?”
“Heath owns the construction company. He signed a code of conduct agreement with the college. None of his employees could act inappropriately toward the students. And neither could he.”
“Asking me out would be inappropriate?”
Wyatt’s eyes blaze. “Don’t mistake us for boys, Emily. We weren’t interested in taking you to the movies.”
“So, you…and Heath…had…impure thoughts about me, and that was against the rules?”
“That’s right.”
I lick my lips. “But we’re not at the college right now.”
His eyes flare as he follows my meaning.
“Right, Wyatt?”
“That’s right.”
“And are you going to be doing any more construction in my dorm?”
He shakes his head. “We finished a week ago.”
“And if I had impure thoughts about you…”
“You should trust your instincts and do whatever feels right.”
“So, the only question is, how much trouble are we going to get into with Heath if I kiss you?”