Page 4 of Under Pressure

Back the fuck off, dude.

“Uh, yeah,” I say, but as I step away, I don’t miss the way her hands linger on my body, or the way her gaze dips to see me in all my hard glory. She stares for a moment, a pink flush crawling up her cheeks. Her lips part, and her chest rises and falls as her gaze lingers. She’s fucking checking me out. The girl I’ve been crushing on since I was eight is checking me out.

I stand there and let her, but she can’t for one minute think she’s going to get an eyeful and I’m not. I take in those sweet, lush lips I want to suck on. My gaze drops to her breasts, a little smaller now that she lost so much weight. They’d fit into my mouth so nicely. I take in her tanned skin, the soft curves of her hips, and those long legs I’d cut off my left nut to feel wrapped around my back.

I slide my gaze back up, and when my eyes lock on hers, see the heat reflected there, I want to drop to my hands and knees and howl at the damn moon.

“Right this way, everyone,” one of the crewmembers says, pulling me back from my fantasy—one that has been plaguing my dreams for years.

“We, ah…we should go,” I say, my voice an octave lower.

“Yeah. It’s a long drive back to the hotel.”

“Let me get that video, okay?”

Needing a reprieve so I don’t take her right here on the catamaran and ruin everything between us, I turn and leave her standing there. But when I feel her eyes drilling into me, I look over my shoulder and catch the way she’s staring at my ass. Son of a bitch. She’s still checking me out.

So, what am I going to do about that?

Chapter Three

Reese

Honest to God, I have no idea what the hell happened between Cole and me on the boat yesterday—okay, maybe I have some idea—but were we seriously checking each other out? Gazing at each other with pure lust in our eyes? We’re best friends, for God’s sake. Best friends don’t look at each other like that, right?

Must be the tropical air.

From beneath the wide brim of my sun hat, I steal a glance at him as we hike along the cliffs of Spookdraai Mountain, a trail that is supposed to be haunted with discontented souls who wander up and down the coastline. Cole looks my way, but I’m far too slow to react. His eyes turn a deeper shade of blue when he catches me staring, and his gaze drops to my parted lips. Feeling breathless beneath his intense stare, I suck in air, but can’t seem to refill my damn lungs.

“Doing okay?” he asks.

I nod as he checks in with me. “Yeah, I guess I need to hit the treadmill more often,” I say to cover the real reason I can’t seem to breathe. What the hell is going on between us?

“You’re perfect,” he says. I’ve heard him say that to me before, even before I lost the excess weight, but why does it suddenly sound more sexual, more suggestive?

Because you two were checking each other out, and he had a huge freaking hard-on.

Oh, right.

“This is just a tough climb for someone who’s not used to it.” He stops and looks over the cliff. I follow his gaze and the water is so clear that I can see numerous shipwrecked boats on the ocean floor. The scenery around us is magnificent, breathtaking really, but my eyes keep coming back to Cole.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

He shrugs off his backpack and adjusts his ball cap, shoving his bangs inside. “We’ve been traveling for over an hour now. Let’s take a break, get a drink, and have something to eat.” He gestures with a nod to the little ghost sign up ahead. “There’s a small cave over there where we can get out of the sun.”

“I’m not going into any cave,” I shoot back quickly.

His gaze darts to mine, a small grin playing on his mouth, making him look boyishly handsome. Except after yesterday, seeing him shirtless and feeling his arousal, I know there is nothing boyish about him. “Why not?”

I plant one hand on my hip and glare at the cave. “Some girl who survived a shipwreck and made it up to one of the caves where she died, haunts them, remember.”

“Come on. You don’t believe in all that, do you?”

I step closer to the cliff and point to the water. “Of course, I do. Look at all those sunken boats. There are a lot of lost souls up here. And you read the sign back there. It says hikers can hear her singing in the caves sometimes.”

His grin widens. “Don’t worry. I won’t—”

I cut him off. “I know. I know. You won’t let anything happen to me. You’re even going to protect me from becoming a crazy cat lady.” How he’s going to do that is beyond me.

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