Page 104 of Off Season

He shakes his head. “Getting help doesn’t mean you're fucked up. It means you’re strong enough to take steps to overcome demons that were not of your making. Your mother was fucked up, not you. Maybe talking to Dr. Pearl will help you realize that.”

I fight back the tears. I thought he was the one person whodidn’tthink I was crazy. He told me as much.

Tossing the paper aside and feeling defensive, I bark out, “I didn’t ask for help.”

“But you tell me you’re not normal and will never be normal. I love that you’re not like everyone else. You’re the one who seemsto have a problem with it. I think you should talk to someone who can help you overcome whatever it isyouthink you need to overcome.”

“So I sit on a stranger’s couch and tell her that I’ve spent the past fifteen years of my life fucking a ton of people to numb the pain caused by having a monster of a mother?”

His eyes widen, followed shortly thereafter by mine. I think I might have gasped. I’ve never admitted anything like that. Not even to myself.

Holy shit. Is that what I’ve been doing?

He moves down to his knees in front of me and places his hands on my thighs. “I think you’re the most special person in the world. I just want you to realize that too. If Dr. Pearl can help you get there, I’m all for it. It’s obviously up to you. You need to want it for it to work.”

I cup his handsome face as I’m hit with a wave of emotion for this man, the likes of which I’ve never before experienced.

Suddenly I’m finding it hard to breathe. This is too intense. I can’t have this conversation with him.

I stand and begin to remove my shirt.

“Whatcha doing Kam bam?”

I smile as I unbutton my jeans and pull them down along with my panties. I nod toward the darkened water, illuminated only by a few exterior lights of the houses that run along the shoreline. “You didn’t think there was any chance I wasn’t going skinny dipping tonight, did you?”

I start running toward the dock and yell back, “Last one in has to smell Aunt Maria’s bra.”

He sucks in a breath as he stands and immediately begins removing his clothes too. “It won’t be me.”

I drop my bra along the way before running straight down the dock and cannonballing into the ocean. The cool, calm water feels good as my overheated body is completely submerged in the quiet ocean.

My head pops back up just in time to see a naked Cheetahyelling out, “Yeehaw,” while doing a full flip over my head into the water, the resulting waves pulling me back under.

We both pop up with smiles on our faces. I ask, “Are you able to stay afloat? Or are your balls like anchors, pulling you down?”

He reaches over and tickles me, causing me to giggle.

“You think you’re so funny. I’m going to drop those balls into your mouth while you sleep tonight.”

“You don’t even need to squat to teabag me.”

He smiles as we tread water, and asks, “What happened to the guy who got fired from the teabag company?”

I twist my lips. “Hmm. What?”

“He got sacked.”

I stick out my tongue in disgust. “Yuck. That was lame. Where’s your trademark creativity?”

“Do you have a better one?”

I wiggle my eyebrows. “You know I do.”

“Have at it, princess.”

“If you teabag someone with a nut allergy, is it attempted murder?”

He starts laughing as he pulls me into his arms, his very hard dick sliding between my thighs. I wrap my legs around him, and he maneuvers us until my back is to the dock and his hands grip it, holding us in place.

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