Page 56 of Teach Me
“Where did you get a swimsuit?” Jess turned the top of the skimpy blue bikini inside out, searching for a tag. Her size too. She glanced up at Conlan, wary and faintly excited.
“Cris.”
“No way!” Her friend wouldn’t—she’d been mad at Conlan, not trying to feed their mutual attraction. Hadn’t she? “When?”
“When she brought stuff to the hospital for you. I just kept it in my drawer for safekeeping.”
“You mean you hid it so I wouldn’t.”
He shot her an unrepentant grin. “I think it’s time we used it.”
“We?” It was she who would be exposing herself.
He raised one wicked black brow. “We.” He started stripping. “Let’s go swimming.”
She glanced a bit frantically around the room. “Where’s your suit?”
“Don’t need one. You don’t either, but I figured you’d prefer something instead of nothing.”
She gulped. Literally gulped. Skinny-dipping with Conlan. “I’ll go change.”
“Coward!” he called after her, his tone tinged with laughter.
“You bet,” she shot back.
She didn’t let her grin out until she made it behind the closed door of the bathroom. Just the fact that a grin was possible was such a relief she slumped against the door, the suit hugged to her belly. The past few days had been rough. Since what she thought of as the “kitchen incident,” they’d cooked and cleaned together, worked side by side on their laptops, even played games and watched movies like they were a real couple actually living together, not just forced into proximity by a madman. Still, Jess had wandered through each day numb, just going through the motions. Feeling Conlan’s concerned gaze on her and helpless to respond. Even his big body crowding her in the bed at night hadn’t elicited a response. It was as if the overwhelming flood of emotion that day had wiped out her circuits and she couldn’t find a way to reset them.
Eyeing the bikini, she wondered if maybe Conlan had.
After undressing, she struggled with the strings—strings!—but finally managed to get the tiny two-piece on. Did she need to shave? A quick glance in the mirror assured her she didn’t. It also told her she might as well be naked, but since Conlan had seen it all, thoroughly, she sucked in her belly and walked out anyway. The sudden darkening of his gray eyes as they slid over her body was all the reward she needed. “Like?” she asked, holding her hands out and doing a little twirl.
“I’d have to be dead not to.”
Judging by the stiffening of his penis, she didn’t think he was dead. The sight added a definite bounce to her step as she preceded him out the door. Conlan groaned behind her.
The sun was hot on her shoulders as they left the tree line near the shore. She knew Conlan’s home was located on a cove and that he owned the land surrounding this inlet of the lake, but she hadn’t really understood what that involved until now. As far as she could see was just water and woods. The wide expanse of the cove, maybe a thousand yards, met the shore on the opposite side, which rose immediately and fairly sharply toward a ridge towering over them. The rim flowed around the inlet, creating a bowl the cove sat in. Con’s house was the only one in sight, and it was fairly well camouflaged by its surroundings as well.
No wonder he swam naked.
Con’s warm hand on the small of her back guided her to the edge of the green-tinted water. As the gently lapping waves met her toes, she was surprised to realize it was the perfect temperature—not warm, not cold. Perfect refreshing coolness.
“In you go.”
Jess resisted his slight push on her back. “I like to ease in.”
Without warning Con scooped her up, one hand under her back, one under her knees. Jess whooped. “Put me down!”
He tucked her up effortlessly, bringing her face close to his. “I think we’ve determined I’m not the easing-in type.”
The smug twist to his lips reminded her of his words the first time they’d had sex:“We’re about to jump, baby.”Without giving her time to protest, he forced a hard kiss to her open lips and then threw her into the air. Jess landed with a scream in the chilled water feet away, her head going under, the shock of the water’s temperature zapping through her body. She came up sputtering.
Con stood in the same spot as before, laughing.
“Oh, it’s on now,” she declared, swiping hair out of her eyes, She jumped for him, and before she knew it, a full-blown water battle had commenced.
The tension that had held her prisoner slowly unknotted and floated away as they cavorted like kids in the late summer sun. It reminded her that life wasn’t only about Brit, not even partly. It was about the people she loved and lived with and enjoyed. It was about actually living, not just going through the motions—and that’s what she’d been doing for the last couple of days, just going through the motions. Letting Brit win.
Not anymore, not if she could help it.
