Chapter 31
Bailey
The boat dips when Rhett cuts the engine down to a slow troll, taking us through the narrow inlet to the spot we used to call the grotto as teens. It’s empty of any other boats, which is perfect, because I have no interest in having anyone else around.
“I’m going to anchor here,” he says, “at the grotto’s entrance.
” He cuts the engine completely after positioning the boat to block any others from passing through.
The narrow inlet gives way to a wide pool that’s always been deep and perfect for jumping into from the surrounding rocks.
Although it was probably cut from glaciers at one point in history, this spot is another reason the locals always insisted on the legend — that a fallen piece of the sky had made the lake, with cliffs jutting up from the woods, then diving beneath the water deeper than any of us could ever swim.
Dusk was always my favorite time of day here.
When the gold of the sun still spills in from the top, but at an angle to make the walls of the cliffs glow.
Everything shines around us, bathed in a light that, when I was younger, seemed to beckon fairies and fireflies from the tree line, leaving their paths lit up the mossy-covered cliffs.
Rhett throws in the anchor while I stand on the tail end of the boat, ready to jump in, but I stop when I see him pulling his shirt up over his head.
My eyes graze every inch of his skin in this light; he’s glowing just like the cliffs.
The scars still make my breath hitch low in my throat.
A blinding reminder of what could have been lost.
He’s looking everywhere but at me. The rocks. The entrance. The boat motor. The trees lining the cliffs. The sheet of water cascades down one of the rock faces, crashing into the pool. Likely checking the area for anything that might make him uneasy.
I walk across the back edge of the boat like a balance beam, my arms straight out to the sides, distracting him from whatever worries he has written all over his face out here in the open.
“Do you remember when Holl and Ax had that cliff jumping competition out here?” I call out.
He finally gazes back at me. “And she kept daring him to jump off higher and higher points, until—”
“Until he smacked his face so hard on the water that he got that nosebleed?” I finish. “God, he was so mad.”
Rhett chuckles. “I don’t know why he doesn’t ever just let her win.”
“It’s not in his nature,” I remind him.
Balancing on one foot so I can dip my other toe down to the water, I skim the surface and toss some of it up into the air, hoping to get a little splash on him. But instead of a little, it’s a lot.
His head whips back as the water splashes across his face.
I gasp and cover my mouth.
“Whoops,” I say, stifling a laugh. “That was more than I meant to.”
When he opens his eyes, the look in them tells me I’m in trouble. But I barely get a chance to register the look before he—
“No!” I yelp as he lunges at me.
I try to jump out of the way, but he’s too fast and too skilled. The whole boat shifts, and I start to tip off balance, but it doesn’t slow him down. In one quick maneuver, he’s scooped me up in his arms and is jumping off, straight off the back.
The cold water takes my breath away.
By the time I get to the surface, I’m already laughing.
We begin treading water as I catch his eye.
He grabs me and kisses me, and I never thought I’d be happy to get tossed in this lake again, but as long as it brings that look back to his face and a kiss afterward, he can toss me in seventy more times tonight. And seventy more times tomorrow.
Long muscles flex in his shoulders as he makes a few quick strokes to the shallower edge of the water.
Rhett was always a strong swimmer. I used to love watching him swim laps while he trained.
Watching him now, my stomach does the same little flip as it did back then.
There’s no denying he’s sexy as hell in the water.
Droplets shimmer off his skin, dripping down his hair, while his arms pull his thick torso along the surface.
He finds a rock to stand on, mostly hidden beneath the water, so he’s only visible from his shoulders up.
When he whips his head around, he’s grinning, eyes shining. My favorite look, deep in his eye.
I follow his lead and find a rock right beside him.
It’s slippery and hard to stand on, so I perch on the one he’s using beside him, fluttering our arms back and forth in the water to keep our balance.
Rhett’s eyes are nearly translucent. Reflecting off the surface of the water, bouncing off the rocks around us until the shade of blue is almost the color of glacier ice.
He stops fluttering his arms and grabs me by the waist. His slick hands slide across my bare stomach and back under the water as he pulls me up against him, then cradles me in his arms, with far better balance than me.
“So, tell me,” he says, kissing me, and I quickly forget whatever he wants to ask, because I’d rather keep doing this. His lips slide across mine as his hands work their magic beneath the surface. His touch is more heated than the water, and he pulls back, grinning.
“What?” I laugh. “Tell you about what?”
“Everything you wrote in your book about this place,” he says, his eyes homing in on my lips. “Is that really what you always wanted to do here?”
My cheeks heat.
“Didn’t you?” I ask, my thoughts jetting back to the scene in question. If Rhett only knew how much I pictured him here while I wrote it. “Look around,” I tell him. “This place is what teenage fantasies are made of.”
“I’d argue that adult fantasies are made here, too,” he adds, and I know he’s game.
He bites on my bottom lip, growing hard against me before pulling back only far enough for three words to come out.
“Behind the waterfall?” he asks, his voice so low that it makes the center of me twist into a tight little knot that can only be undone by one thing.
“I thought you’d never ask,” I answer. I set my feet down on the rock so I can watch him swim toward the falls before following him there.