Page 7 of The Keeper

“Of course. My mistake,” I said, my pulse quickening with anticipation. My last handful of dates had been nothing short of disasters. I couldn’t remember a time in recent memory when getting to know someone felt fun and not like a job interview. “Biker. Discreet admirer. Anything else I should know about you?”

“Yeah. I give shitty advice and likely ruined my nephew’s life.”

“Give it a few days and he’ll come around,” I insisted. Hilarious coming from someone who was an only child, but I’d worked around enough teens to know they bounced back from heartbreak faster than I did at twenty-nine. “Teenage crushes are brutal, man.”

He exhaled a laugh. “Tell me about it. I remember my first crush. Mandy Lawrence. I spent almost the entire school year trying to work up the courage to talk to her. When that didn’t work, I wrote a note, confessing my love and asking her to the end-of-year awards banquet. I gave it to a buddy to give to her, and guess who she went to the banquet with?”

“Your friend!” I exclaimed with a grimace. “No! That’s like the first rule of the bro code.”

“Yeah, no honor whatsoever. It’s funny; we had to readLord of the Fliesin middle school, and I think it stuck with me because it felt like we were living it to some degree every day. Always fighting to be on top and not caring who we stepped on to get there.” He shook off the memory before tipping his beer bottle at me with a wry grin. “Your turn.”

“Rowdy Thorne in the eighth grade. But instead of passing him a note. I—” I released his hand to cover my face. “No, I can’t say it. It’s too embarrassing, and you’ll laugh.”

He tugged my hand down, interlacing my fingers with his. “The guy’s name was Rowdy Thorne, so I’m definitely going to laugh, but you’re going to tell me anyway.”

“Fine. Instead of passing him a note, I called him one night and proceeded to play Celine Dion’sLet’s Talk About Lovealbum at max volume to let him know how I felt. Little did I know he was having a sleepover at the time.” My teeth sank into the flesh of my lower lip as I relived the mortifying moment all over again.

“I’m guessing he wasn’t much of a Celine fan,” he said carefully, the corner of his mouth twitching wildly with the grin he was struggling to conceal.

Despite the flush warming my cheeks, I smiled. “No, Ghost. He was not.”

“Dane,” he corrected.

“Well, I guess it’s a step up from Rowdy.”

He let out a low chuckle. “Oh, really? Just a step?”

“Like this much,” I said, holding my thumb and index finger about an inch apart.

Sensing things were about to get juicy, the bartender inched closer under the guise of wiping down the bar again. It would have been believable had she been holding the rag and not just making circular motions across the bar top with her hand.

“That’s it? That’s all I get over the guy who wasn’t sophisticated enough to appreciate the Queen of Power Ballads?”

“Eh.” I lifted my shoulder in a shrug, and his gaze immediately darkened.

I couldn’t decide which I liked better: the reserved giant whose flirting techniques needed some work or the brooding biker who looked like he could eat me for breakfast.

“All right. I see how it is.” He cracked his neck from side to side like a boxer limbering up for a fight.

“No, wait!” I scrambled off my stool and swam backward toward the stairs on the opposite side of the pool, doing my best to send a spray of water in his direction with each kick.

Dane disappeared beneath the surface, his muscular body gliding through the water as gracefully as a sea otter. I changed direction and barely made it to the side of the pool when a surge of movement sent ripples through the water. I shrieked with laughter when he burst from the depths seconds later, capturing my ankle in his firm grip.

The determined glint in his eyes was unmistakable as he reeled me in, effortlessly dragging me through the water while I feigned frustration and tried to wriggle free.

“Got ya,” he said, holding my gaze. We were close enough that the droplets of water cascading off the ends of his dark hair landed on my face in little splatters. Close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off his body.

His fingers trailed down my spine, and the laughter bubbling in my throat morphed into a breathless gasp. I shuddered, and his dark eyes drifted from my face down to where my nipples were straining against my swimsuit top.

“Cold?”

Not trusting myself to speak, I jerked my chin in a nod.

“Want me to warm you up?” he asked, his deep voice thicker than it had been only a moment ago.

The murmured “Please” had barely left my mouth before he was hauling me up in his arms with a low growl, his palms firmly molded around the curve of my ass.

My legs instinctively wrapped around his waist as he carried me to the edge of the pool. The water lapped gently against us, but I barely noticed. I was too focused on the way Dane’s hands kneaded my flesh, sending sparks of electricity through my body.

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