Chapter 21
SECRET TRIPS & SKINNY DIPS
Addie
Five days until Nai’s (and East’s) day.
Two till a promised Phoenix and Addie naked fun time.
Tomorrow, the Indie Rock Awards.
And now?
Attacking the to-do list from hell.
Every time Addie crossed one thing off, two more appeared. She and Phoenix, along with Bails and Maxi, showed up at Emilio’s place ridiculously early to navigate deliveries and make final preparations in the barn.
Hours into the day and things were finally taking shape.
White fairy lights wrapped around the banisters and Addie already had the lantern globes prepped and ready to hang from the rafters.
When guests returned to the barn after the vow exchange, the place would be alight with a magical glow and ready to celebrate the happy couple.
Weather anchors predicted an unseasonably warm day for ceremony day, so Emilio suggested opening both ends of the barn to allow for a sweet cross breeze.
Altering their original idea a smidge, they’d extend the seating to encompass both the indoor barn and outdoor area, allowing people to stretch their wings and dance under the stars.
Addie hung the last string light and climbed off the step stool to check her handiwork. “Damn, I’m good.” She gifted herself a mental pat on the back for a job well done, and checked another item off her list. “We may actually get this done in time.”
Phoenix stepped into the barn and immediately evaporated that optimism with a dour look.
“No.” Addie shot him an only half-joking warning glare. “We can’t afford any bad news. Make it go away.”
Phoenix’s lips quirked. “Before you panic, it’s completely fixable.”
A massive list of possible problems rushed to the forefront of her mind, making her head spin.
“Hey.” Phoenix wrapped his arms around her waist and tugged her in for a warm, tight hug.
The man really had no business smelling as good as he did while standing in the middle of a barn after hard manual labor for half the day. Still, she wrapped her arms around him and inhaled his natural woodsy scent. Almost like catnip, it immediately settled her nerves.
“When you’re done sniffing me like a weirdo, I’ll tell you what we’re dealing with here,” Phoenix teased, chest rumbling with a deep chuckle.
Her head lolled backward to peer up at him. “Okay. Hit me with it. It’s the wagons, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Emilio uses the one wagon routinely, so it was kept in pretty good shape, but the second? Not so much. In our eagerness to test out the wheels, the rusted axle shattered into red powder. We’ve got a dead wagon.”
“And that’s fixable how? Can we run to the hardware store and pick up another one?”
“Nope.” Phoenix grinned. “But Emilio has a friend one town over that has a spare wagon that they already said we can use. He’s heading over now to pick it up.”
“That’s great news. What’s the downside?”
“The friend’s a bit of a gabber, so it may be a while before Emilio can get back. When he does, we’ll see what kind of repairs it might need, or what kind of makeup we’ll have to slap on it to make it look rustic chic and not—”
“Rusted.”
“Exactly. Emilio said we have at least two hours to kill.”
“Oh. Okay.” Addie glanced around the barn and the tables that had arrived earlier that day. “Honestly, there’s not much else to do around here until the actual day.”
Mischief glinted in Phoenix’s hazel eyes as he slowly dropped his face down to hers. “That almost sounded like we have free time.”
“It did, didn’t it.” Addie’s heart pounded in her chest.
“Free alone time.”
Nervous excitement warmed her from the inside out. “What do you want to do with all that alone time?”
He caressed his lips over hers in a faint touch that left her body tingling. “Do you want to drive the ATV again?”
Addie paused and laughed. “Okay, that’s definitely not where I thought we were heading with this. Where are we taking the ATV?”
“To one of my favorite spots on the farm.”
Eagerness to learn more about the complicated man in front of her had her already walking toward the ATV parked just outside the barn, Phoenix’s chuckle following behind.
At their first meeting, he’d exuded cocky playfulness and an I-take-nothing-seriously attitude. He’d joked—a lot. He’d leaned in to the Naughty Nix persona almost as if it were a crutch, a backup to use if things got a little too real.
And boy did she know how that felt.
But the more time they spent together, the more Addie saw Phoenix Cross.
A man with an unhealthy attachment to eighties and nineties rom-coms. Talented songwriter and hopeless romantic.
A guy willing to put his own dreams on indefinite hold to see his friends’ dreams come to fruition. Doting son. Protective brother.
Amazing lover.
Phoenix Cross was what Aphrodite would call a balm to the heart.
Goddess knows he’d somehow brought calm and comfort to her own chaotic, view-distorted life.
With Phoenix’s directions, Addie guided the four-wheeler in the opposite direction of the kissing tree. The farther they went, the closer they got to the heavy thicket of trees identifying the end of Emilio’s property.
And a beautiful natural pond, its surface twinkling like diamonds sprinkled across its surface.
“Welcome to Lazy Lagoon.” Phoenix jumped off first and easily lifted her off the seat. “At least that’s what I call it. After finishing my daily chores, I came here. The amount of times this water has seen my naked ass may surprise you.”
Addie snortled. “Probably not.”
She turned and found Phoenix unbuttoning his pants.
“What are you doing?” Slight panic bulged her eyes.
“I know we’re not completely done with today, but we almost are. I’d hate to break tradition.”
“Break tradition by not getting a parasitic infection from swimming naked in stagnant water?” Addie’s gaze dropped along with his pants—and boxer briefs.
Phoenix kicked them away, grinning. Half-hard and with a little twitch, his cock bobbed heavily against his thigh before slowly rising the longer she stared. She’d been so mesmerized by what Bailey called his magical penis that she didn’t realize he’d shed everything.
“I’ve swum naked in this pond dozens upon dozens of times and haven’t gotten an infection of any kind.”
He gave her ample ogle time as he slowly stalked her way, and the closer he got, the more her body hummed.
It physically pained her to back up a step, but she did. “You go ahead and live your best skinny-dipping-in-questionable-water life, and I’ll stay here. Nice and dry. And parasite-free.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure? Didn’t that adventure bug bite you during the scavenger hunt?”
“Sure. And I stayed clothed and dry. Come to think of it, you went diving into questionable water that day, too. I’m starting to think you’re a daredevil under all those tattoos.”
She took a final step back. Her heels hit the side of the ATV and brought her to an abrupt stop.
“Phoenix…” Hands raised, she warned him off with her palms as if she had the magical ability to create some kind of force field.
She did not.
He leaped and she squealed, making a mad dash around the four-wheeler, but barely skirted around the back end when his arms hauled her off the ground.
“Phoenix, please.” Addie squirmed as he walked them to the edge of the swimming hole.
“This is your last chance, love.” His mouth brushed against her ear as he took the first step into the water. “Accept your fate and let’s shimmy you out of these clothes, or you’re going in—clothes and all.”
“I am not spending the rest of the day in sopping-wet jeans,” Addie insisted adamantly. “Okay. Fine. Put me back on dry ground and I’ll get undressed.”
He paused as if judging her sincerity before stepping back and putting her on dry land. “I’ll be watching you…”
He stepped back toward the water and did just that, eyeing her with an unmistakable hungriness as she yanked off her shirt and bra and tossed it on top of his clothing.
When they both stood there naked, all sign of the playful Phoenix who’d threatened to toss her in the pond was gone, leaving behind nothing but desire and need.
Addie needed Phoenix Cross against her body—and inside it—more than she needed her next breath.
Phoenix hauled her into his arms and against his chest, trapping his cock between their bodies as his large palms gripped her ass in a silent demand. She locked her legs around his waist instantly, and he carried them back to the water.
Addie tried not thinking about the murky depths and focused on the man hotly pressed against her flesh, the one eliciting an entire onslaught of feelings she couldn’t decipher without a few hours of serious reflection and a pitcher of frozen margaritas.
Water up to their waistlines, Phoenix took her mouth in a searing kiss that vibrated her body all the way to her toes. Hell, her hair felt it. Or that could be his hand, fisted in her messy ponytail as he angled her mouth in the best position to devour her.
“I need you, Phoenix,” Addie murmured against his lips. “Fuck. I can’t believe we’re about to do this in a bacterial playland.”
Phoenix rolled his hips and his engorged cock slid against her pussy entrance. “Do you want to do this on dry land?”
“I want to do this now.”
Phoenix chuckled at her surliness and playfully nipped at her bottom lip. “Then I guess it’s a good thing Emilio treats this water routinely in the summer months since he has campers who come for weekend events. This swimming hole is probably more hygienic than most public swimming pools.”
Addie couldn’t even chastise him for teasing her. She ached to be filled, and the longer they took, the worse that ache got. “We’re covered on my end if you don’t want to use a condom.”
Phoenix’s eyes darkened as he visually devoured every inch of her face. “I’m covered, too. But are you sure that you’re okay with it?”
“I’m good. Perfect even.” She dug her hands into his hair and yanked his mouth closer. “Now fuck me.”
Phoenix grinned against her lips. “As you wish.”