Page 19 of Something to Someone

Then he shifted and toed off one shoe. It wasn’t until he started on the other and tugged off the flannel he’d tossed on over his white T-shirt that I found my voice.

“What are you doing?” I spluttered.

Ryder didn’t stop. He pushed his shoes to the side and let his flannel drop on top of them.

“Getting in,” he said like it was a foregone conclusion. Like it was obvious that he would get in with me.

Shaking my head, I straightened. The cooler air was a stark difference to the heated water around me, and I immediately felt my nipples harden to little points. Not even the thicker swimsuit fabric could hide the inconvenient evidence of the change in temperature. Quickly, I resubmerged until the tops of my shoulders were exposed.

“Why the hell would you do that?”

He shrugged and reached behind his head for the collar of his T-shirt. “Because it looks…tempting,” he reasoned. I swallowed past the excitement in my throat as he clarified, “The water, that is. It’s hard to resist.”

But the way he said it, in a tone belying all the dirty thoughts in his head, I knew he couldn’t be talking about the water.

“Ryder—” I tried to say when he whipped his shirt off and exposed the shallow yet defined muscles of his stomach and the broad planes of his chest where a small smattering of neat, dark hair began. Of their own accord, my eyes followed the path it created until it disappeared behind his belt.

“Yes, Caroline?” he asked, and I whipped my attention back to his face. The cocky little grin titling his lips made me second-guess my inadvertent ogling. “If you really want me to stop, I will, but you have to tell me to. I’ll give you ten seconds.”

The imaginary timer started, but he didn’t stop. He gripped his belt and unfastened it, tugging it open while maintaining eye contact with me. In my head, I counted backward from ten as his fingers brushed against the button of his jeans.

I urged myself to say something,anything.To tell him how wrong it was and how badly it would end, but voicing those thoughts was pointless when I’d barely convinced myself. I knew it was frowned upon to desire your best friend’s son, and I had no doubt that whatever started—ifit started—would probably end poorly. But all the reasoning in the world couldn’t make me speak before the imaginary timer rang.

Ten seconds later, Ryder pushed his zipper down and stepped out of his jeans only a moment before he dove into the pool. I caught a glimpse of his tight, black briefs before he swam past me beneath the water.

Generally, I was a confident person. In my work and in my everyday life, I was decisive and trusted my instincts. Even when I dated, I was unwavering. Which was why I was unnerved by how hesitant I was of my actions around Ryder. I second guessed every word and every movement.

It was truly unsettling the effect he had on me. Actually, it was terrifying.

And attempting to act like that wasn’t the case was growing harder and harder every second we spent together. But still I tried as I stood stock-still in the middle of the pool and subtly glanced in the water around me. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of his moving form, but that didn’t keep me from startling when he breached the surface directly behind me.

A few droplets of water hit my back, and I sucked in a sharp breath. He was close,soclose that I could feel the heat of his body against my back, and his rushed exhale against the side of my neck. Of course, I couldn’t see him, but the images my imagination conjured were vivid enough.

Small beads of water stuck to his smooth, tanned skin and were reflected in the new moonlight. There was subtle movement behind me, and I imagined he pushed a hand through his disheveled hair, pushing back the black locks that always fell over his forehead back.

For a second, I thought it was still my imagination running wild when I felt the almost imperceptible brush of his fingers against my arms, but it wasn’t. I glanced down to see his hands moving through the water, carefully stroking my skin like he wanted to make sure I was really there.

I took a grounding breath that did little to calm my nerves, and instead, said, “You might as well say what you came in here to say. I know you didn’t jump in here because the water ‘looked tempting.’”

He chuckled, and his hands fell away. I pointedly ignored the disappointment that tugged at the back of my mind.

“Hmm…” he hummed. “It does with you in it.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I set myself up for that one. “Seriously, Ryder, get on with?—”

“I don’t want a relationship, Caroline. I just want you in whatever way you’re willing.”

“How is that fair?” I argued, trying not to remember the similar statement he’d made on his knees in my bathroom hours earlier.

“I don’t give a shit about fair. I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember. Do you want me to tell you about that Fourth of July party how ever many years ago? That was the first time I saw you. You were wearing a little red, white, and blue bikini with cutoff shorts,” he said with a groan I swore I could feel vibrate through his chest. “And the white top you had over it was unbuttoned so I could see your gloriously tan skin. You were so perfect, and you’ve starred in every single one of my dreams since then.”

My throat constricted, and my heart started beating a wild, uncontrollable rhythm. With each word and each second, my walls were crumbling faster than I could reinforce them. The worst was happening, and the longer we stood there together, completely alone under the moonlight, the harder it was to fight it.

“Dreams are very different from reality, Ryder.”

He shifted closer, and I held my breath when I felt him brush against my back. “But faced with the possibility of making my dreams a reality, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

I had nothing left to say. Every argument I had, he handily struck down with little effort. He’d obviously thought through the repercussions and had been thinking about it for longer than I’d realized.

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