Page 76 of The Facade

“Oh, you’re not?” I arched my eyebrows, loving the playful exchange.

She shook her head again and wrapped her arms behind my neck to pull herself closer. “Is that going to be a problem?”

“Well…” I said, pretending like I needed to think about it.

“Mack.” She smacked my chest gently, making water droplets splash into the air.

I couldn’t help but chuckle because I loved this. I loved being lighthearted and fun, and also super romantic with this girl at the same time. It was the perfect mix of a relationship that I’d never had before.

Not that we were in a relationship.

I mean, we’d barely kissed twice.

But if she was anywhere near the same wavelength that I was on, I already knew that I wanted this to be more than a one-night thing.

I wanted it to continue long after the sunrise in a few hours.

Possibly much longer than that.

So after glancing at her lips and feeling a thrill of excitement twist in my stomach because I still couldn’t believe this was even happening, I said, “As long as you don’t plan to steal all my techniques to open a private tutoring practice of your own, I’ll keep you as my only student.”

“Good plan,” she said, leaning closer so her chest pressed against mine in a way that almost short-circuited my brain. “And maybe we can discover some new techniques together.”

“I like the sound of that.” I brushed my lips against hers, and then we were kissing again.

Usually, being in the hot tub for as long as we’d been here would have me overheated and waterlogged, but with the cooler fall weather and a storm brewing in the sky above, it was perfect. Perfect enough that I could probably stay here until the first rays of sunshine peeked across the trees.

We kissed until we were breathless, and I would have been happy to continue, but then a flash of lightning lit up the sky above, followed by a loud crack of thunder. I knew it was time to head inside.

“I guess we better call it a night, huh?” I asked as the first few droplets of rain landed on my face.

“I guess.” She pushed some of her damp hair back against her hairline. “I mean, I don’t think we got to the part of the lesson where you were supposed to teach me how to keep a guy wanting more, but I suppose we should stop.”

“Oh, I definitely want more,” I said, giving her a quick once over.

“Oh, you do?” She gave me a knowing smile, like she did have some insight into how much I wanted her.

“Yes.” I smoothed my hand along her side, feeling the ridges of her ribcage against my palm. “But since I do sometimes try to be a gentleman, I’m forcing myself to walk you home instead and bid you goodnight.”

“So you don’t just dress like a gentlemanly duke from the eighteen hundreds, you even know how to act like one, too?” she asked.

“Tonight I do, at least.” I leaned my forehead against hers. “But who knows, maybe next time you’ll find yourself alone with a Rake.”

Her eyes widened, a look of both alarm and intrigue filling her expression at once.

I chuckled and helped her off my lap. While she pulled the elastic from her hair to redo the messy bun on top of her head, I tilted my head back up to watch the rain falling from the sky. If we were ever going to make it out of this hot tub, I needed to keep my hungry eyes away from her as she arched her back to fix her hair.

When she was done, she held out a hand to me. “Ready to go?”

“I guess.” I took her hand and stood beside her, even though I wasn’t really ready to leave my backyard with her yet. “Let’s get you back home before your brothers find out what I’ve been doing with their sister.”

“Here, you can wear this.”I tossed Cambrielle my hoodie when I noticed how badly she was shivering after she’d toweled off.

“Thanks,” she said. As she pulled the gray hoodie over her head, I grabbed an extra towel from the basket nearby and wrapped it around my shoulders for some warmth.

After covering the hot tub and turning out the gas fire pit, I took her hand and led her through the opening in the woods between our houses.

“Want me to help you climb up to your balcony?” I offered when we made it to the side of her house, looking up at the large tree I’d climbed those few nights she’d invited me to stay in her room the first week of school.

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