Page 33 of Shared By the Mountain Men

Noah dragged the kayak to the edge of the water and then held it steady while I climbed inside. There was only one paddle, the kind with blades on both ends, but he clicked a button in the middle and split it into two individual paddles. He handed one to me, climbed in the back, and then shoved off the riverbank.

“I’ve never been kayaking before,” I admitted.

“Really? Is Toledo not on a river? My Ohio geography isn’t great.”

“We have the Maumee River. People do kayak on it, but the water always looks so dirty. Everything out here is much cleaner, much fresher.”

“That’s part of why I love it out here so much,” Noah said with a happy sigh. “It’s easy. You paddle on one side, and I’ll paddle on the other.”

Now that we were on the water, gently floating along, I felt panicked. “How do we steer?”

“I’m in the back, so I’ll worry about that,” Noah said calmly. “We’re going upstream to start, so we’ll have an easy trip back.”

I gripped the paddle with both hands and dipped it into the river. It seemed to take a tremendous amount of effort to push it through the murky water.

“Am I doing it right?”

“You don’t need to shove it so deep. The blade is all that needs to go in the water.”

I changed my form. “Like this?”

Rather than answering, Noah placed his paddle into the bottom of the kayak and wrapped his arms around me. His hands closed over mine and he guided my motions.

“Like this. Dip just the blade. Now a nice, smooth stroke. See how I’m not trying to force it?”

“Is this advice for kayaking, or foreplay?” I teased.

His breath was hot on my neck. “It can be both.”

I twisted around and brushed my lips against his. Desire and need flooded my body, the memory of last night’s activities still fresh in my mind.

“But no, this is purely kayaking,” he said while still guiding my motions. “My intentions are innocent, I promise. We can have other fun when we get home later.”

“Your intentions are innocent?” I purred. “You’re doing the cheesy thing from rom coms. Showing the girl how to do something as an excuse to touch her.”

“I don’t need an excuse, but I am enjoying the physical touch,” he admitted. “How else am I supposed to explain kayaking to a novice?”

“I wasn’t complaining,” I breathed.

He rumbled a laugh, and one of his hands left mine… but instead of returning to his own paddle, it slid down my waist to the front of my shorts. His fingers lightly dove inside, splitting into a V-shape to surround both sides of my sex without really touching me. I sighed as he kissed the back of my neck.

“This is more fun than kayaking,” I whispered.

“It’s more fun than a lot of activities,” he replied, voice throaty with his own desire. He nuzzled at my neck some more.

“We can go back inside and kayak another day.” I pushed my hips forward into his fingers, but they remained maddeningly adjacent to my sex withoutactuallytouching the parts I wanted.

“After all the work of hauling the kayak onto the water?” he rumbled into me.

I twisted my head to gaze into his blue eyes. The morning sun was playing in his blond hair. Goddamnhe looked good, even better than any other time I had been around him. Although that might have been my lady parts talking, because right now they were screaming at me to take him back inside.

Suddenly, someone giggled nearby. Noah and I tore our gazes toward the shore, where two little girls had stopped riding their bikes on the path and were now openly watching us.

“And my lady-boner is gone,” I mumbled.

“Same for my gentleman boner,” he whispered back, then waved at the girls. “Morning, Carla! Shouldn’t you be in class? The school bell rings in five minutes.”

They hurried on their way, but the moment with Noah was gone. He returned to his own seat behind me, with a gap of air between us, and resumed paddling.

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