Page 18 of Something to Someone

“Caroline? Natalie sent me to come get you,” Theo called out from the other side of the door. “They want to cut the cake, and I think the kids are planning a riot.”

“Fuck,” Caroline cursed as she slipped from my grip. “Get up.”

I did as she instructed, but I was much less worried about Theo than she was. My mom might have been Caroline’s best friend, but Theo was mine. And he wouldn’t say anything.

She took a deep breath and smoothed her hands down her swimsuit cover-up, although nothing was out of place. “Okay, this is what’s going to happen,” she said. “I’m going to go out there, and you’re going to stay in here for at least two minutes. Then you’ll come out.”

She was panicky and very serious while I was…not. I casually readjusted my erection and stuffed my hands in my pockets, biting my cheek to keep from smiling.

“Okay?” she asked when I didn’t respond to her very well thought out plan.

I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Whatever you want.”

She rolled her eyes, but they lingered on me for too long for her to actually be annoyed. Unable to suppress my smile any longer, my lips curved, and she blinked slowly before turning and shaking her head.

What I wouldn’t have given to read her mind.

Quickly, she slipped out the door and shut it behind her. I didn’t give it but half a second before I was opening the door and stepping out as well. Caroline stopped mid-sentence and halfway to her bedroom door. Theo was right behind her, and turned to look at me with wide, surprised eyes.

He glanced from me to the bathroom door then back to Caroline. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t have to. The look on his face was enough to tell me exactly what he thought.

Caroline shook her head, but didn’t say anything either as she strode from the room, firmly shutting the door without looking back.

Theo stared at the door for a long second then looked back at me. I gave him a shrug and a grin, but he also just shook his head. “Do I really want to know?”

“No, probably not.”

“Great. I’ll see you out there then.” He walked out the door, and I decided to wait the two minutes Caroline had requested. Especially when her scent still lingered around me which meant it wasmore like five minutes before I had control of myself again and eventually left the room.

TEN

LATE NIGHT SWIM

Caroline

It wasthe calm after the storm. All the children who invaded my house had left, and I’d spent the last hour and a half getting everything back to the way it was.

Natalie, my sister, and my sister’s family had stayed around to help me clean, which I appreciated, but I was happy to have an empty house once again. I liked the quiet.

For the first time that day, I slipped off my swimsuit cover-up and took advantage of my pool. With the sun nearly below the horizon, the night air was several degrees cooler, but when I dove in, the heated water was the perfect temperature.

I swam the length of the pool, back and forth, until my muscles grew tired, and I floated on my back in the middle of the water. My house was too close to the city lights to see any stars, but a few winked into existence as the sky grew darker.

My eyes slowly closed, and I took a deep breath, letting each of my muscles relax. Until I heard a sound, and I quickly righted myself. I spun in a tight circle, surveying my surroundings and slowly beginning to panic. I whipped back around to face the houseand that was when I noticed him—Ryder—relatching the back gate.

“What are you doing here?”

I dipped farther down into the water until it was just beneath my chin as Ryder turned and strode toward the edge of the pool. Motioning to the item in his hands, I didn’t recognize what it was until he said, “My mom asked if I would bring this back to you on my way home. She said she already fixed whatever was wrong with it.”

“Oh, okay,” I muttered. It was a dress I’d wanted to wear the next day that had a small rip from where the tag had been removed. And of us two, Natalie was much better at sewing. I knew it would take her less than a few minutes to fix it whereas I would have stabbed myself six times just trying to thread the needle. “You can just put it on one of the chairs.”

Ryder nodded and set the dress on the arm of a chair. Slowly, he turned and began unhurried, measured steps around the pool until he was standing just at the edge, peering down at me. With his hands in his jean pockets, he appraised me. The low lights in the pool and the water cast shadows that danced across his face. His eyes scanned my face before they dropped lower. Everything below my shoulders was distorted by the water, but I knew he could still see the shape of my blue bikini and the rest of my bare skin.

After ourincidentin the bathroom, I hadn’t stopped reliving those moments for the rest of the day. The image of Ryder on his knees, making dirty promises that I knew he was eager to keep would forever be burned into my brain.

A muscle tensed in his jaw, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. Even in the warmth of the water, goose bumps appeared down my arms and over my legs under the intensity of his stare.

Although he was silent as he watched me, his expression was loud. All the desire he’d expressed to me before was simmering and churning, apparent in every subtle dilation of his eyes and twitch of his muscles.

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