Page 27 of Playmaker

Bad idea.

Maddie is applying tanning oil, and her skin is glistening in the sunlight. I avoided looking when she took off her cover-up and shorts earlier, but now that Ethan is distracted and anchoring the boat, I allow myself to take my fill.

Even though she’s short, she’s always had long legs, and they’re showcased beautifully in the scrap of fabric she calls a bikini. It’s baby pink with a tiny butterfly charm dangling between the middle of her breasts—the breasts I had the pleasure of enjoying less than twenty-four hours ago.

She’sstunning. Her blond curls are wild and free, and the coy smile she gives me when she catches me staring makes my heart lurch into my throat. It’s a smile I haven’t seen since the night we snuck out—a smile both devious and exhilarating.

What is she planning?

Before I can ask, she turns around and bends over to oil the rest of her legs . . . it’s athongbikini. It rides so far up her ass I can practically see everything, and in seconds I’m raging hard, fighting the urge to take her right against the railing. It wouldn’t be hard. All I’d have to do is pull that thin piece of fabric to the side and—

Ethan.

Same boat.

Snap out of it.

“Maddie.”Her name comes out strangled when I finally reach her. My tall frame blocks her from Ethan and Maya’s view, but when she stands upright again to spin and face me, it does nothing to stop the thrumming of my pulse. I can feel the heat radiating from her, and I don’t know whether it’s from the sun or from how much of a physical pull she has over me.

“I thought you’d stay hidden beside Ethan all day.” Then, more seriously, she adds, “I didn’t think about what coming here to the lake would do to you. I’ve seen you staring off into space for the past hour and I’m sorry if you felt I persuaded or teased you into coming.”

I’m not sure what bothers me more. The fact she thinks I’d only go on a fun outing with her because I’m being forced into it or the look of pity she’s giving me. Getting emotional isn’t something I’m comfortable with. Apologizing to her the night of Mark’s party is the closest I’ve gotten since my mom passed, and eventhatfelt like it was too much to handle. Discussing how special this place used to be and how different it is now . . .

I need to find a way back to common ground.

Deflection.

“I didn’t realize you were paying so much attention to me,” I tease. “Thinking about last night?”

She glances down at my tight board shorts before meeting my gaze. “I think that’syou, not me.”

Fuck. I forgot I’m still hard, but I’m relieved to know she isn’t going to push me on the subject and force me to open up. She’s going along with it and doing exactly what I need her to do. Distract me.

My voice drops low, seductive and charming. “You expect me not to show a reaction when you’re parading around in pieces of fabric so thin I could rip them off with just my teeth?”

The little gasp of hers makes me grin.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I take a step closer, ensuring we keep a foot of distance between us in order not to cause any suspicion. Then I do a lazy, agonizingly slow perusal of her from her perfectly pedicured toes to those blazing blue eyes. “If I took you into the cabin and continued what we were doing in the closet last night, I’d have you completely hooked. That is, if you aren’t already, of course.”

She rolls her eyes, but I can see the pulse drumming rapidly against her throat. “You’resoarrogant,” she whispers.

I shrug. “Or confident. To each their own. You can lie all you’d like, but the thought of last night turns you on, so much so that you felt the need to give me a show just now in the hopes of it happening again.”

On the outside I remain the guy who has always won girls over easily. I look like my future doesn’t hang in the balance on her reply, but it does. It kills me that we haven’t discussed what happened between us yet. It’sinfuriatingthat I can’t tell whether or not she liked it. With other girls, my phone would have been filled with texts about how good our night together was or asking when we could do it again, but Maddie never reached out. She’s kept her opinions to herself, and I’m dying to know whether or not she desires a repeat.

“Doyouwant it to happen again?” Those eyes that match the sky overhead reveal nothing as to what she might be thinking, and I can’t decipher my feelings enough to give her a genuine answer. There’s not a question in my mind that I liked what happened in the closet, but for it to happen again of our own free will, to take the chance of Ethan and her parents finding out? Of losing the people closest to me?

“I—”

“CANNONBALL!”

Ethan flies past us in a blur, somersaulting over the edge of the rail into the lake below. He hits the water with a splash, and Maya grabs Maddie’s wrist, whisking her away before I can reply to her question.

“Oh come on! You guys don’t want to do a cool flip?” Ethan shouts from below. “The water feels amazing!”

“We’ll use theladderlike civilized human beings, thank you,” Maya replies with a grin.

Now isn’t the time to discuss where Maddie and I go from here. With her best friend and her brother around, we have to pick a time when we can be alone, just the two of us.

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