Page 43 of Love Me Reckless

“Maybe it’s just a new feeling.”

She leans back to float, her eyes on the sky. The new position brings the swell of her breasts and her dainty kneecaps above the surface. I tear my gaze away before she notices.

“What do you see up there?” I ask.

“The North Star,” she replies, breathing fast from the exertion. “The Big Dipper. Cassiopeia.”

Scissoring my legs to keep afloat, I glance up. “Which one’s Cassiopeia?”

She points to the north. “She looks like a W. That’s her throne. It’s across from the Big Dipper.”

“Is she royalty?”

“A queen. She got banished to the sky for her bad behavior.”

“Poor queenie.”

“She deserved it, trust me.”

“I guess if you’re gonna be exiled, it’s not a bad place to hang out.”

“True.” Kirilee sighs, but it catches, like she’s getting cold. “Thank you for the encouragement.”

“Hot tub wish list all the way, right?”

She laughs, and her teeth give a little chatter. “Should we… get out?”

My chest feels frozen, and my fingers are throbbing. If she’s as cold as I am, she’s tougher than she looks. “Why don’t you go first? Wrap up in that robe. I’ll be right behind you.”

Water splashes and her breaths echo as she strokes over to the ladder on the side of the dock. When she climbs up, her silhouette becomes backlit by the distant resort lights.

I look away, but not before I catch the golden beads of water on her milky skin and the outline of her gorgeous curves.

It was only a glimpse, and a stolen one at that, but I’m not going to forget it anytime soon.

While she slips into her robe, I climb the ladder and wrap my towel around my waist.

“What about… my suit?” she asks, her face tense.

“What, you wanna put it back on?”

“No.”

“Nobody will know you’re naked under there.” I point at the fluffy white hotel robe wrapped around her.

“You will.”

I smile. “Your secret’s safe with me. Come on. You need a hot shower and some food.”

We walk down the dock, retracing our earlier footprints. The cool night air on my wet skin gives me goosebumps but being in the water like that gave me a rush, and I’m still feeling it. Like I’m somehow more alive right now than I was ten minutes ago.

“That story about the dress,” she says. “I’ve never told anyone.”

That she’s bringing this up sits heavy on my chest. Especially in this moment. So I risk sharing what’s on my mind. “Just for the record, I think it’s shitty, what he did.”

We pass through the empty pool deck, pausing for our shoes.

“At first, I was confused,” she says. “Why did he think this was okay? It made me feel like something was wrong with me.”

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