Page 121 of Cross Checking

“Everyone can choose for themselves, but I don’t want you to wear anything.”

Oh, and he toldmeto stop being horny? Hypocrite.

I shrug. “I don’t mind, but what if your parents show up?”

“They won’t be here until tomorrow. Nudity isn’t sexual here, anyway.”

“Are yousure?”

Erik grunts and pulls his phone out. “As of five minutes ago, they were still at home in Stockholm. Even if they decided to spontaneously come here a day early, they’d still be three hours away.” As if to prove a point, he strips naked, and I check him out like it’s the first time I’m seeing him without clothes.

My god, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of running my eyes all over this man. Wide back, tight waist, firm ass, thick thighs, abs?—

Erik is now facing me and grinning. He caught me staring.

As a convenient distraction, I drop my shorts and head for my backpack. “Excuse me while I apply sunscreen to my dick.” That certainly isn’t a sentence I thought I’d ever say, but here we are.

Erik makes a face. “That’s not gonna taste good later on.”

“Didn’t youjustsay that being naked isn’t sexual here?”

“Well, you’re my boyfriend and we’re alone, so I’m allowed to make it a little sexual. Besides, the water is too cold for us to get hard.”

I scoff. “You’re really selling it now, aren’t you?”

Erik slaps my bare ass before I can dodge him. “I turned on the sauna from my phone, so it’ll be ready in a bit. We can thaw out afterward.”

“That’s an idea I can get behind,” I say, chasing Erik out of the cottage to try for some revenge. He’s too fast and I give up, and we call a sunscreen truce instead.

I peer over the dock to check how deep the water is, and the second Erik is done applying sunscreen, I give him a firm shove into the lake. He yells out an abrupt cuss on the way down, and it’s muffled out by him splashing into the water.

I squat down and give him a sweet smile as he resurfaces. “That’s for slapping my ass.”

Erik glowers at me, but I can see humor behind his glare. “You’re a fucking asshole, Luke.” Before I can react, he grabs my ankle to drag me in with him, and the water is so cold it feels like fire. Icy, frigid fire.

Erik pulls me into a hug. “Now we’re even,” he says before planting a cold, wet kiss on my lips.

“Now we’re both gonna die of hypothermia. Holy shit, this is some cold water.”

Erik climbs out and extends his arm to help me up. He smirks at me, making my core warm up. “Now you know how mean you were.”

I shiver, both from the cold and from the pang of guilt that nudges under my skin. “Shit, sorry,” I say. “That was colder than I thought.”

Laughing, he picks me up and carries me in his arms. “I’m kidding, it gives me all the excuses to give it right back to you.” Erik walks over to the edge of the dock and dangles me above the water.

I flail around, trying to escape Erik’s vice-like grip on me. “Don’t you fucking dare!”

He sets me down on the wood. “Unlike you, I’m nice, so you have nothing to worry about.”

I stare back at Erik, incredulous. “Shut up. I’m nice, too.”

His reply is to kneel next to me, run a damp hand up my inner thigh, and whisper into my ear. “Why don’t you show me just how nice you can be?” Arousal unfurls in my balls the second his husky voice hits my eardrum, frigid temperatures be damned.

I slap his hand away. “Stop trying to make me hard, you dick.”

“I can chuck you in the lake if you get too excited.” He grins as he cups my lower back, ready to hoist me up again, and I roll away to escape.

“Do that and I’ll wake you up with a bucket of ice tomorrow,” I grumble, punching Erik’s shoulder.

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