“It’s a challenge where you jump into cold water, like this.” I gestured to indicate the area in front of us. “We did it senior year because one of my friends wanted to show off on social media.”

Beau had a blank look on his face. No doubt he couldn’t grasp a world where people did stuff just for likes and shares. Come to think of it, that went along with the “caring what people think” conversation we’d had earlier.

I couldn’t really blame my friend. I’d been guilty of it too. Not doing things to go viral, but sharing only the best parts of my life and monitoring how many likes and comments I got.

“It has a lot of other benefits,” I rushed to add. “They say it refreshes your system.”

Now he turned his frown on me. “How’s that?”

“Reduces inflammation, boosts mood…I don’t know, a bunch of other stuff.”

“Maybe I’ll jump in the lake next time I feel foul,” he said.

“We could do it now and see if it works,” I said.

Now I’d definitely lost my mind. I hadn’t even had a drop of alcohol, but suddenly I felt the need to be adventurous.

“In our clothes?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I guess we could strip down to our underwear.”

“Or we could just take it all off. Then when we’re finished, we put on dry clothes.”

My mouth fell open. I still wasn’t looking at him. I was staring out at the water, which probably made it look like I thought the view ahead was the most fascinating thing on Earth. But really, I was a bundle of nerves. Looking at him would have me backing out of this conversation. It was easier to pretend he wasn’t the hottest man I’d ever seen.

He was right, technically. But we’d still be putting our clothes on wet bodies. Maybe he had ideas for drying off. Things we could do while we naturally dried off. I wasn’t going to argue with that.

“Let’s go.” I reached for the handle and jerked the door open, pulling it toward me.

Nothing happened. The door was locked.

“Sorry,” he said.

Aplunksound alerted me that the door was now unlocked. Before I could talk myself out of taking the plunge—in more than one way—I pulled the handle, hopped out, and shut the door, removing my coat and dropping it to the ground before I’d even reached the front fender of his truck.

This was on. For the first time in my life, I felt fully alive, and I couldn’t wait to jump in that freezing cold water.

4

BEAU

Jumping into a pond in thirty-degree temperatures sounded like the worst possible thing I could do. Jumping into a pond in thirty-degree temperatures with the most beautiful, interesting woman I’d ever met sounded like the best thing I could do.

Okay, so maybe warmer temperatures would be much better. But I’d go anywhere with this woman, including jumping off a cliff.

And that was exactly what it felt like I was doing as I stepped out of my truck and walked toward the water. Macy was already down to her bra and panties, and the bra came off, followed by the panties, while I watched.

My dick jumped to attention at the sight of her bare backside. But she didn’t glance back at me. Instead, she headed straight into the water, shrieking at the ice-cold temperatures.

Yeah, that was what I was in for. But no way was I going to stand back here and look like a pussy. I’d endured worse than this in the military. A little cold water never killed anyone.

Or maybe it did. Could this actually shock someone’s heart? Probably. But I was a strong guy. In good shape. The worst I’d gothrough would be a little bit of misery…and a whole lot of heaven if I got to see this woman naked.

“Do you want me to close my eyes?” she asked as I reached the water.

I’d kicked off my work boots and dropped my jacket to the ground. Now I was working on my sweatshirt. At least this would remove some of the grime from the day. I had a brief thought while we were eating dinner that I’d want to shower before I got naked with this woman.

Yes, I might have been running through scenarios where I could get her naked and on my cock right there in my driver’s seat. That’s part of the reason my erection was hard as a brick right now. I’d been building up to this for a good hour.