Page 46 of The Rookie

The truth is thinking is all I’ve been doing since we returned from Brier Island. Thinking and fantasizing and wondering what if…where Wes is concerned.

“Yeah,” I do. His eyes narrow for a second, and then he smiles. “What are you doing here?”

WhatamI doing here? Jeez, I don’t even remember. It’s awfully hard to think straight when my body is aching for his touch again. He reaches up and lightly caresses my hair away from my face, his big rough hand is so gentle against my skin. “I…I…was thinking.”

He angles his head. “About?”

“What we did on Brier Island. Maybe we could…”

God, what am I doing?

His grin is broad and wicked, and his hands clench my thighs. “You want to mess around, Charlie?”

No, I want to get serious.

Shit.

“If you do,” I say for lack of anything else, and hope I’m not making a fool of myself.

He holds his hand up. “You see these calluses.”

I lightly touch his thick, hard calluses, and his face twists like he’s in total agony. “Yeah.”

“They’re not from the hammer.”

Heat rockets through me as understanding dawns. “They’re from the hose?”

I bite back a grin as he stares at me for one long second, then he bursts out laughing. His arms slide around me and he pulls me onto his waist. I wrap my legs around him as he carries me along the upper edge of the property.

I slide my hands around his shoulders and lock them together. “Where are you taking me?”

“Down there,” he says, and off in the distance I see a pond. “I’m all hot and sweaty.”

I run my fingers through his hair. “Did you forget that I like you this way? But you know, it does look refreshing.”

He grins and starts walking down a winding path, with me in his arms. “I don’t have a bathing suit.”

“Don’t need one.” He reaches the pond, and I expect him to set me down and strip off when he starts walking right into the cool water.

I shriek. “We’re in our clothes.”

“They’ll dry.” He sinks down, bringing me to my neck and the cool water seeps into my coveralls.

“That is so nice.” I unwrap my body from his and push off. Without taking his eyes off me, he reaches down, and I can only guess he’s undressing. I stand, and slide my overall strap from my shoulders, and shimmy out of the wet material. Before I tug my T-shirt, bra and panties off, I glance around. “I’m not going to flash anyone, am I?”

“Just the beaver if it comes back, and of course me.” He wags his eyebrows playfully. “Now you have three seconds to get naked before I start ripping your clothes.” I grin, loving the urgency about him. He moves to the bank, sits down and takes off his pants and shorts.

“What if someone comes?” I ask.

“That’s the plan, Charlie.”

I chuckle at his joke, despite the shiver that just went down my spine, and I go to work on stripping and he disappears under the water, coming up right in front of me. Big hands grip my panties and he disappears again as he tugs them down my legs, and a laugh bubbles up in my throat as I lift one leg and then the other. My God, he is so much fun, so spontaneous. Easy and relaxed to be around. I love being with him.

I love him.

Shit.

He tosses my panties to the side, and I throw my bra away without a care in the world, other than feeling this man inside me again. He pulls me against him, and his erection presses against my leg as he sinks down to take my breasts into his mouth. I throw my head back, never so reckless in my life, and give myself over to him.

---