Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“You should eat.” A.J. quickly followed Ana onto the porch. “You don’t need to go clean the mess by the pond. I’ll get that.” But like the adorably stubborn woman she was, she kept on moving.
“You know I panic-clean. I can’t relax knowing we left a mess out there.
” She tossed him a smile over her shoulder, which was damn near shocking since they’d just spent the last half hour on a video-call with Asher and Jessica retelling the story Ana had shared with A.J.
He was fairly certain it’d been much more difficult for her this time around.
He’d helped her fill in the blanks whenever she stopped speaking mid-sentence as though lost in her own thoughts.
“I’m surprised you can relax at all after tonight.” He hurried to catch up with her and they nearly collided when she abruptly stopped and whirled around to face him.
“So, help me.”
“I said I’d . . .” He raised a brow. Ah, she was playing with him. A.J. put his hands on his hips, deciding to play along. “Help you do what exactly, darlin’?”
Ana flattened her palm against his chest, and it was a reminder his attraction to her was still very much on the forefront of his mind even after the news she’d dropped on him.
“Help me relax in a way that doesn’t involve cleaning.” Her words were laced with seduction, bringing a cocky grin to his face and dirty thoughts to his mind. “I don’t want to be high-strung and tense.”
He brushed the back of his hand over her cheek before reaching for her braid. “Your beautiful red hair,” he announced, giving it a small tug. “The first step is to let it down.”
“My hair?” Her forehead tightened. The opposite of what he wanted to happen.
“You know that saying about letting your hair down and living a little?” He pulled the black hair tie free and tossed it in the grass.
She stared up at him, her green eyes wide, as he loosened the braid with his fingers, his pulse quickening at the feel of the silky strands.
The memory of their near kiss in the kitchen coming back to mind.
She had wanted to wait until he knew the truth.
Well, he knew now, and he sure as hell wasn’t going anywhere.
She shook her head once her hair was hanging free. “Now what?”
He peeked around where she stood and put eyes on the pond. “When I was a boy, and I had a bad day, I used to swim. Go jump in a lake, pond, river—you name it. It helped cool me off. Literally and figuratively.”
She slowly turned to face the pond. “Cool off in there?”
“Mmmhmm.” He marched past her, deciding not to take no for an answer.
“No way. Too many unknown variables.”
“So what?” He removed his hat and placed it on the blanket, away from any melted ice cream, then peeled off his gray shirt. “This is about relaxing.”
“Not sure how relaxed I’ll be if I’m worried something will swim up my shorts.” Her tone softened as she spoke, her eyes roaming over his abs. She drew a finger down the line of her chest to her navel as if picturing her touch was on him instead.
It took all of his strength to stifle the low growl that’d nearly escaped at the image of her hand caressing his bare skin.
Ana fidgeted with the material of her shirt, and he had the feeling she was itching to remove it but was scared. “You sure?”
He stepped in front of her and offered her his palm.
“I’ve never been surer about anything in my life.
” He banded a hand around her waist and tipped his chin to the sky.
“Sunset is at eight, and by my estimates, that was twenty-two minutes ago. You won’t get a better sky to swim beneath than a Southern one like this.
” Streaks of gold, pink, and blue lazily rolled overhead.
Ana reached for his left wrist and pulled it closer to eye his waterproof watch. “You peeked at the time first, right? No way are you that accurate.”
“I was probably off by one or two minutes.” He winked, and she playfully swatted his chest before allowing her palm to rest on his pec.
As her gaze glided down to her hand, he brought their bodies so close he was sure she’d be able to feel the hum of electricity, of want, pulsating off him.
“You got a bra and panties on under there?”
“You want me to take my clothes off?” Her focus flew to his face. “Is my relaxed state contingent upon that?” A challenging eyebrow had his smile stretching. It had him forgetting about Russian espionage. American traitors. The danger Ana was in.
“It’ll be a hell of a lot more freeing to swim without your clothes on. And what’s a bra and underwear but a bikini, anyway?”
She made an adorable hissing sound. “You know damn well my bra is see-through, especially when wet.”
“I barely remember that.” But his grasp on her hip tightened at the memory. “Maybe you ought to remind me.”
“Oh, sure.” Her chin lifted in challenge to his words. “I guarantee you remember—”
“Exactly how much you were turned on back in that kitchen?” Keeping his tone playful was proving harder than normal with her hand on his chest, his palm on her waist. He was itching to do a lot more with her than stand by the water and listen to the chorus of crickets chirping off in the woods behind the edge of the pond.
“I, um.” It sure was fun rendering her speechless.
A.J. forced himself to unhand her and backed up. “So, I’m taking off my shorts and jumping in. I hope you’ll ‘relax,’” he said with air quotes, “and join me with or without your clothes on.”
He unbuckled his brown belt and unbuttoned his shorts before kicking them off to the side. He glanced over to see her eyes glued to his boxers so intently that if she looked much harder, she might see right through them.
“Of course you’d have patriotic underwear.” And there her hand went, trailing down from her breastbone to the waistband of her shorts again.
“You counting the stars?” He winked once she’d ripped her focus back to his face.
“You can believe me when I say there are fifty. One for each state.” And with that, he reached forward, grabbed her upper arms and spun her around quickly before she realized what he was doing.
He gently pinned her back to his chest and held her still, their bodies facing the motionless water.
“Look.” A.J. nudged her cheek with his chin.
Little fireflies blinked in the air before them, their light barely a twinkle since it wasn’t too dark out yet.
Her skin was warm, and her body relaxed against him.
“I can hold your hand. We can go in together.”
“No.” She shook her head. “And what are those sounds?” She tipped her head to the side as if searching to define the “sounds” of Alabama surrounding them like a symphony of nature.
“You ain’t ever heard an owl before?” He chuckled, his mouth dangerously close to her ear.
Based on how her body had responded to him in the kitchen, he knew if he whispered his words against her skin, she’d go weak in the knees.
He wanted to see her tremble like that again.
“No bullfrogs in those big cities you lived in, either, I’m betting,” he teased at the sounds of the crying frogs.
“No, none.” He felt her body tense in his embrace, and he was worried Alabama’s normally seductive voice wasn’t quite Ana’s song. A few more days, and he was sure that’d change.
“Well, I’m going in. It’s your loss if you don’t join me, sugar.” He smoothed his thumbs down the sides of her arms, then sidestepped her to jump into the pond, remembering Grant had said it was shallow. Less than five feet deep, so no diving.
A.J. dropped to the bottom of the pond, fully submerging himself, and held his breath for a bit. He always found himself at peace when underwater.
He popped up and swiped the beads of water from his face and hair.
Ana’s rounded mouth, followed by her crossing her arms with dramatic emphasis, meant she’d been worried about his length of time beneath the surface.
“You do remember I’m a Teamguy, right? We have to hold our breath for a long damn time.
” When he grinned, she shot him daggers.
The soft, pillow kind that soothed his soul because it meant the woman cared, even if she didn’t want to admit it. “Awfully refreshing in here.”
Her nerves were still all tangled up, but he was fairly certain it was more about letting go and jumping in and not because of the truth she’d laid on him about her family.
“I just don’t know if I can do it.” Indecision warred across her face, but the cute way she wrinkled her nose told him she had an aching need to join him and relax—he could feel the imprint of that need as surely as he heard Mother Nature cocooning them with her lyrics and ambiance.
“No snappers in here.” He lowered himself in the water up to his chin and tipped his head back. “And probably no snakes.”
“Probably?” she shrieked.
Holding in a small laugh, A.J. stood up straight in the water.
“Kidding.” Mostly. He cupped his hands together on the surface of the pond and then squirted water in her direction.
“It’s clearly not that deep. You’re good.
Promise.” He motioned to his tossed shorts.
“And I have a knife in my pocket if we find ourselves on the other side of an angry turtle.”
“You’re hilarious,” she responded, but she strode closer, now mere inches from the edge of the pond.
“Come on, it feels great, and you need a refreshing swim. Nothing like pond water to clear your head.”
An inquisitive brow shot up. “Oh, is that a thing?”
“If it needs to be a thing, why then, yes.” He waded another few feet in Ana’s direction, pinning her with a determined look meant to let her know he’d not hesitate to spring up, grab her, and pull her in with him.
Of course, he’d prefer her to discard her clothes first, but baby steps.
“You’re coming in one way or another,” he warned.
His words were playful, but the deep, rough tone of his voice did nothing to hide the lust coursing through him.