Chapter Twelve – Burn My Summer #2
I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my shirt and shot a scowl at my dog.
He’d claimed Maisey’s bed as if it were his new favorite spot and was watching every move she made.
I let my gaze follow my dog’s. She was sweating too, ponytail askew, gray T-shirt damp.
But it was the shadows under her eyes that really got me.
She needed an escape from the heaviness of the entire week, and we both needed to cool off. So, as she flipped open a switchblade and opened a box of shoes, I pulled it out of her reach.
“No more unpacking for today. It’s time you let off a little steam.”
Her eyes went to my mouth, and her voice was breathy when she asked, “What did you have in mind?”
My dick twitched, a reaction that had somehow become my new norm with her, after years of putting her in a zone carefully labeled “friend” and never detouring from it. If I didn’t get a handle on these emotions soon, I was going to have a permanent hard-on with her living here.
“We’re busting out of here.”
“I’ve got a lot to do,” she said, reaching for the box, and I just pushed it farther out of her reach.
“It’ll all be here when you get back. Vader and I need to cool off at the lake.”
Vader went from relaxed to ready to pounce in a nanosecond. He barked his approval, thumping his tail so hard it sounded like a bongo.
Indecision warred over Maisey’s face.
I tapped her on the nose with a finger. “Put a swimsuit on, my Maisey-girl, and meet me in the living room in ten minutes. If you’re not changed and ready, I’ll just toss you over my shoulder, haul you to my rig and dump you in the lake fully clothed.”
She pushed my hand away. “That’s book three you owe me, Fireball.”
I heard the hesitation in her voice. The desire to escape was just hovering around the corner. But then her gaze darted to the wall dividing her room from her dad’s, and she sighed. “I don’t think I should leave him.”
“We’ll be back in a couple of hours. In plenty of time for dinner. That’s less time than you’ll be away at work on a normal day.”
She bit her lip, worrying some more.
“I’m not letting you stop your life to care for him,” I said.
She’d already done that once with her mom.
I would do just about anything to make sure she didn’t do it again for a father who didn’t even appreciate what she’d done.
“If we have to hire someone to be here while you’re gone, we will.
But for today, you get to escape for a few hours, and he’ll be just fine. ”
She huffed. “You’re not the boss of me, Beckett. Don’t act like we’re really getting married, and you get to make those kinds of demands or those kinds of promises.”
My newly obsessed brain jumped right to all the demands and promises I could give her while she writhed on my bed and begged me for relief.
Desire hit me like gasoline reaching its flashpoint.
Sharp and fast and brutal. What would it be like if I just let myself give in to it?
What would it be like to have Maisey? To leap over the scars sealing my heart and take what I wanted?
I yanked myself back from the dangerous abyss.
Denying myself Maisey might just be the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life.
Harder than fighting fires for five days straight in the deepest mountain terrain.
Harder than carrying a hundred pounds of equipment up twenty flights in full turnout.
Harder than watching Dad all but bleed open as another woman left him for bigger dreams.
But Maisey’s friendship meant more to me than anything else on this Earth, and I wouldn’t jeopardize it. Not even for the earth-shattering sex I was suddenly certain we’d have if we gave in to this lust.
“What’ll it be, Maise? The easy way or the hard way?”
She rolled her eyes, and I grinned, dropping my shoulders as if I was getting ready to pick her up. She finally laughed, warding me off with a hand. But just that single laugh told me I’d done the right thing by pushing her.
“Fine. Fine. You get your way today. But only because I’m hot and tired and the lake sounds perfect.”
I headed to the door. “Ten minutes, Maise. Ten minutes or else.”
She threw a shoe at me, and I just batted it away with a chuckle.
? ? ?
As we crested the hill and Crystal Lake came into view, the sunlight caught on the surface, turning it into a sheet of teal-blue glass.
The mountains stood tall behind it, the forest pressing close on the far side, and just the view was enough to release some of the tension I’d felt over the last few days.
And when Maisey sighed, it reassured me I’d done the right thing in pressing her to come.
The sandy beach on the Harrington Ranch was meant for resort guests, but Maisey and I had always had free rein.
These days, I mostly came by to check on Dad or help out with odd jobs when he was short-staffed, so I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been there just to relax. It might have been since last summer.
I parked my SUV near a row of golf carts used to shuttle guests back and forth to the hotel and grabbed our bags from the back.
As we headed down the pebbled path to the beach, Vader strained at his leash, insulted I’d put it on him.
I didn’t blame him, but I also wouldn’t risk some guest freaking out because he was roaming around untethered.
The resort was packed with the Fourth of July approaching, and we were late enough arriving that almost every lounge chair and blue-and-yellow striped umbrella was taken.
Just as I was about to suggest we head in the opposite direction, out past the boat dock, a couple at the far end of the beach started collecting their belongings, and I jogged to grab their spot.
I looped Vader’s leash over the handle of the lounge and adjusted the umbrella while Maisey started rubbing sunscreen over her skin.
The scent brought back memories of summers we’d played together as kids, and she’d been doused in the stuff so her fair skin wouldn’t burn.
But once she yanked off her T-shirt, all thoughts of our childhood disappeared.
My mouth went dry at the sight of the magenta bikini top that left one shoulder completely bare.
I’d barely been able to restart my heart when she unbuttoned her jean shorts and let them drop.
My chest tightened right back up, my balls swelled, and I was sure I was going to do something incredibly embarrassing before she turned away from me and said, “Get my back, will you?”
An innocent request. Something I’d done dozens, if not hundreds, of times before, and yet I was suddenly afraid of touching her.
When I hadn’t moved after several long seconds, she peeked over her shoulder at me. Nothing sexual about the turn of her head or the look she gave me, and yet it felt incredibly sensual anyway.
“Beckett?”
I cursed silently, grabbed the sunscreen, and pretended I was waxing the engine at the station rather than slathering her with cream.
My hands slid under the strap, down along the smooth expanse of her shoulder blades, and I swore she shivered and inhaled.
It didn’t help. I had to lighten things up before I did something stupid.
“Just so we’re clear, that was you asking me to touch you. I don’t owe you another romance book for helping a friend.”
She chuckled, and as I reached around her to hand the bottle back, she turned at the same time, and it brought our mouths dangerously close. The smell of her, the water lily scent that existed below the sunscreen, filled my lungs.
“Thanks,” she said softly, looking from my mouth to my eyes and back.
She stepped away, and both relief and remorse shifted through me.
“Last one to the dogwood tree has to buy the nachos,” I said and then grabbed Vader’s leash and strode toward the lake.
I was surprised when a flash of vivid pink and pale skin sped past me.
Maisey was in the water, with a little squeal at the iciness, before I’d even dipped a toe in.
She swam almost parallel to the shore, heading for the rope that divided the swimming area from the rest of the lake.
Just past the buoys was a secret little cove, surrounded on three sides with oaks and pines and a single Pacific dogwood tree.
Too narrow for Jet Skis and boats to enter, the inlet was the perfect hideaway we’d discovered in our younger years and used to escape the crowd of guests once the resort had opened.
A laugh escaped me as I watched Maisey race through the water. How had I forgotten how competitive she could be? It was a bit of Fallon that had rubbed off on her, or maybe it was simply the Maisey who would have bloomed if life hadn’t shit on her one too many times.
I hit the water, using long strokes and strong kicks to chase after her while my dog used superhuman speed to pass her right up. I didn’t catch her until she’d already ducked under the ropes, slid past the buoy, and swam into the tiny cove.
As I drew up next to her, I looped an arm around her waist, halting her before she could win. She kicked and struggled, trying to reach the single dogwood where Vader waited, shaking his entire body on the rocks beside it.
The harder she fought to escape, the tighter my grip got. She was smiling and laughing as she turned to face me, pushing on my shoulders and causing her slim body to rub against me in all the right and wrong ways.
“Let go, you big cheater,” she laughed.
“Says the woman who started before the count.” I grinned at her.
The green of her eyes was so pale in the sunlight that it nearly vanished into the whites.
Her lips gleamed. Her hair sparkled. She was breathtaking.
One-hundred-percent Maisey, stripped to her bare essence.
Very few people saw her like this anymore.
She usually hid behind makeup and perfectly styled hair, years of old insecurities ensuring she took her time getting ready each day.
But this was the Maisey I’d first called my friend, and I couldn’t look away.
The amusement on her face slowly faded the longer I stared.
She licked her lips, and my body responded. With her pressed against me, it was hopeless to disguise the reaction, and when she inhaled sharply, I knew she’d felt it.
Her throat bobbed, and the tension between us grew, a charge waiting for the right moment to ignite. I longed to kiss her. To take whatever she was willing to give.
Then reality hit me in the back of the head like a slap. I’d promised I’d keep my hands to myself if she took this leap with me, and here I was, breaking that promise for at least the fourth time already.
I moved my hands so they circled her waist, and her eyes darkened. Her chest heaved as if she’d run a mile. So damn sexy. Inviting.
But I had to prove to myself, as much as to her, that I could ignore whatever this was that had flamed between us.
So, I planted my feet in the sand and rocks and tossed her backward in the direction we’d come.
She laughed and screamed at the same time, right before she hit the water with a huge splash.
I didn’t wait.
I hauled ass toward the dogwood, hoping to leave the scorching heat of desire in my wake.