Page 35 of Beauty and the Bayou

“I gue—” She cleared her throat.“I guess that makes sense, but there are bugs and sunburn to consider.”

He gave her a nod.“Sunscreen and bug repellent are important.Cora makes bug repellent that’s amazing.”

Huh.Homemade bug repellent.She might have to give that a try.These people intrigued her, she had to admit.“What about the flying debris?”

Sawyer glanced at the boards behind her.“Yeah, well, I guess we do take some risks down here.”

Ah, ha.“I’d rather be a little hot than dealing with an infection from a piece of wood imbedding itself in my skin and muscle tissue.”

Sawyer paused, then shook his head, almost disbelievingly.“Okay, girl.Then that only leaves one other thing to do when you get too hot.”

“What’s that?”

“Swimming.”

For a moment, looking into Sawyer Landry’s eyes, for the first time since she’d been ten years old, Juliet wanted to take her clothes off and jump into a body of water.

That lasted about twelve seconds.But that was twelve seconds longer than she’d considered doing it to that point.

“I don’t have a swimming suit.”

“You don’t need one.The fewer clothes the cooler you get.”

“Skinny-dipping?”she asked.

“Skinny-dipping,” he confirmed.

“You actually skinny-dip?”she asked.

“Of course.”

Sawyer Landry naked.

She just took a few seconds to relish that thought…and the images that went with it.Skinny-dipping with Sawyer might be theoneway she would ever even possibly consider any of that.“Do you have a private pool with lots of chlorine and a maximum depth of three feet?”she asked.

She wondered if being naked but with a life jacket on still counted as skinny-dipping.

“Don’t need a pool when I’ve got a whole bayou in my backyard.”

She shuddered.“There isno wayI’m jumping inthere.Clothes or not.”

“So, the naked part of skinny-dipping isn’t the problem?”Sawyer asked.“It’s the water?”

“It’s absolutely the water,” she said.It was actuallyallwater, but water where she could see the bottom,touchthe bottom, and that was pumped through a filtration system was tolerable.Maybe.For a short period.With plenty of floatation devices within reach.“I mean, other than just the dirt, there are snakes and alligators and fish…and fish and alligatorpoopin there.”She frowned.“Do snakes poop?I mean, they probably do, right?”

Sawyer blinked at her.“I’ve never really thought about it.”

She nodded.“They almost have to.And they probably do it in that water, too.”She shuddered again.“No, thank you.There are just places I donotneed dirty bayou water.”

“It’s the poop that’s keeping you from skinny-dippin’?”Sawyer asked, clearly trying not to laugh.“You arereallythinking about the wrong thing when it comes to bein’ wet and naked, darlin’.”

Okay, well, wet and naked sounded like a great idea, and when he called it “dippin’” with his Louisiana drawl and added the “darlin’,” dirty water sounded like a lot more fun, she had to admit.

It was absolutely crazy how easily this man made her body heat and her pulse race.Had she packed her vibrator?Because she might need to get something delivered if not.

“But there aresomany other places to be naked,” she said.“Cleaner places.Where you don’t risk having important things bitten.And that don’t involve poop.”

She was flirting.Kind of.Referring to poop might detract from the flirtatiousness, but it was closer than she’d been in a long time.Maybe that was why she hadn’t had sex in so long.Flirting would probably help with that.Also, not referring to poop would also probably help.

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