Page 39 of Lie For Me

‘Oh no, it’s okay, I can—’ then she stopped.

Of course a boyfriend would help to apply sun cream. Jack, who was holding a wet life vest by the straps between finger and thumb, as if it was diseased, happily dropped it to come to Lucy’s aid.

‘Ah yes, fake boyfriend at your service,’ he whispered as he squirted a splodge of sun cream into his palm.

Lucy stood in her swimming costume with her back to Jack while he started smoothing cream over her back. His touch was firm as his fingers splayed across her skin. She caught her breath as his fingers dipped down below the edge of the fabric where it met the small of her back and at the sides. His hands moved upwards, and he gently pulled up the straps of her swimming costume and rubbed cream over her shoulders and down the backs of her arms. He took his time as he massaged the cream into her warm skin, and she found herself relaxing into the pressure. She could feel him standing close behind her, feel his breath in her ear, and she fought an urge to lean back into him, into his solid warmth. To tip her head back and rest it on his shoulder. His hands slipped up her neck and around the base of her throat, his fingers grazing her collarbone and dropping to skim the very tops of her breasts. Her body reacted to the intimacy of the touch. She swallowed as she fought a sudden desire for him to drop his hands a little lower. The heat of the sun and the sensual, mesmeric touch of Jack’s fingers had lulled her into a trance. She shouldn’t be enjoying this quite so much.

There was a squeal of laughter from nearby as Sophie fell into the water while trying to clamber into her kayak. Suddenly the spell was broken, and she snapped to. Jack wasn’t her boyfriend—he was pretending at her request. She had no business getting turned on in response to his touch.

Lucy stepped forward suddenly.

‘I can do the rest,’ she snapped, more sharply than she had meant to, and turned and snatched up the bottle, then saw Ollie and Sophie looking over.

Jack held his hands up. ‘I was all done,’ he said.

Lucy swallowed.

‘Sorry, it’s just….’

He was gazing at her intently. She looked at his broad shoulders and the scattering of dark hairs on his chest. She kept her eyes on the bottle of factor fifty, then cleared her throat and asked, in a slightly squeaky voice.

‘Shall I do you? The sun lotion, I mean.’

She felt her cheeks flush, and her hands, slick with sun cream, fumbled to open the bottle. She swore under her breath.

‘Sure,’ Jack said.

She glanced at him but couldn’t read his expression. She moved behind him and began to smooth the cream across his shoulders.

A few yards away by the shore, Dave was being told off by Tristan for undue care when carrying an oar. Sophie bent double with laughter as she tried once more to step into the bobbing boat that Ollie was trying to steady for her. Georgia, one of Ollie and Sophie’s friends from university, was already on the water and going in circles as she tried to work out how to use the oars.

Lucy could feel the tension in Jack’s shoulders, and she kneaded at the knots as she rubbed in factor fifty and felt them loosen under her fingertips.

Jack murmured, ‘That’s nice.’

Lucy rubbed cream down into the small of Jack’s back, to the fabric line of his swimming trucks. Her mouth felt dry as she slid her fingers just below the waistband. His skin was a light golden colour. She resisted the urge to press her cheek into his back between his shoulder blades, against his sun-warmed, sun-creamed skin, and slip her arms around him from behind.

She shook the thought out of her head.

‘All done,’ she squeaked and cleared her throat.

She tried again. ‘Finished.’

She couldn’t meet his gaze, and she tossed the bottle of sun cream towards her bag, missing by about four feet.

Oops.

Jack smiled.

‘Thanks’, he said, dark hair falling over his forehead and casting a shadow across his eyes.

Lucy broke her eyes away and said, with a little too much volume, ‘Right! Let’s get on the water, shall we?’

She tried to put her life vest on, but got her arm and head stuck in the same hole. Jack patiently released her and then helped her put it on, tightening the straps on her.

‘I can do it,’ she protested as she tugged at the straps.

‘Yes, looked like you had it all in hand,’ Jack grinned.

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