My body reacts so violently I feel pain at the tips of my nipples, between my legs, in my chest, all across my skin.
My skin that suddenly wants those big hands to be stroking…me.
I think I make a sound, and he turns his head to look at me. For an awkward second we both stare. He leans his free arm on a nearby tree branch that I suppose is meant to shelter him from view.
Which it doesn’t. Not one bit.
And I cannot take my eyes off him.
His eyes are so wild, they look almost unholy. “Join me.”
“You…” I shake my head.
He releases his cock and steps forward. Naked and unashamed. I’m wet between my legs, and my stomach is full of stupid butterflies.
I take a step back. “There’s no way I’m joining you.”
He pauses, and I take in every line of muscle on his chest and his dark nipples. Rivulets of water trail down to the squares of his abs and down the V of muscle on his hips and he’s…so very huge and so very hard!
He’s looking at me so casually, as if he takes showers with his female friends all the time.
I turn around and flee.
The main house is empty, but a huge buffet remains set up for latecomers. I grab a plate with shaky hands, struggling to rid my mind of Tahoe’s body.
When Tahoe appears, I almost drop the plate, flustered as I set it down.
His hair is wet from his shower and a pair of navy swim trunks hang low on his hips, a V of muscle visible just above the drawstring. He heads straight toward me, tugs me behind a thick stone column and smiles. “Hey.”
I’m struggling not to sound breathless. “I didn’t see that.”
“Yeah, you did. You couldn’t get enough.”
“Not true.” I glance downward at my sandals.
He chuckles.
“Hey,” he tips my chin, “nothing wrong with that.”
“I know.”
“So…”
“So I can’t unsee it, that’s what.”
“I don’t want you to unsee it.”
“Tahoe,” I grit, “someone is going to hear you and I don’t want to deal with questions I don’t have the answers to.”
“I like you flustered.”
“You can’t get me flustered. I won’t let you.”
“Why not?”
“Because.”
“You aren’t flustered right now?” he dares, taunting me.
“No. I’m embarrassed because I shouldn’t have seen that.”
“And yet you couldn’t stop looking. I really like how naughty you are.”
“I…” I push him.
He laughs.
I kick his ankles, trying to hide how flustered I am with mock anger.
He kicks me back playfully, dropping onto a nearby lounge seat, stretching back and crossing his arms.
Giving up the act and knowing he’s too smart not to know that he seriously affected me, I sit down next to him and sigh.
He tugs on my ponytail. “I like this. You look cute,” he says.
I pry my ponytail free. “Trent likes my hair down and flat-ironed,” I say.
I think I sound bitter because Tahoe frowns, his eyes becoming stormy in an instant.
“Do you want breakfast?” I ask, distracting him.
He eyes the buffet table with a mischievous glimmer in his eye. “Let’s do it.”
He pats my butt to get me going, and he follows close, standing right behind me as we both help ourselves to the offerings. He starts to playfully take some of my pieces.
“There’s a million croissants in the basket, why do you want mine?” I chide.
“Because it has my name written on it.” He steals another pastry from my plate. So I steal something from his in return.
“That’s my apple, Regina. Do you want a bite of my apple?” His eyes twinkle even when he scowls down at me.
“Only because you stole my croissant.”
We do this all along the length of the buffet until we each end up with basically a plate full of what the other had chosen.
We end up breakfasting on warm croissants, fruit, and sugary churros.
I can’t help the queasy feeling in my stomach as we eat in comfortable silence.
When I say comfortable, I’m of course excluding the queasy feeling in my stomach. And the occasional thoughts of how beautiful he looks and how beautiful he looked just now, my T-Rex in the wild.
We munch on churros and seem to lick our lips far more than usual to get all the specks of sugar outside our mouths.
The queasy feeling is still there as we head to the beach and I drop down to tan next to Trent and Rachel. Tahoe disappears for a few minutes, then comes back wearing a wet suit that hugs every muscle and plane, and hops on one of the WaveRunners.
“Trent? Want to join?” Saint asks. “There’s gear in the shed and a jet ski just for you.”
Trent leaps to his feet and heads out with the guys, leaving us girls to tan. I notice Tahoe actually starts showing Trent how to use the WaveRunner.
He towers over Trent unashamedly, and Trent is obviously a bit awkward with the WaveRunner when he climbs on top, but Tahoe is being patient and easygoing, treating Trent like just one of the guys.
When Tahoe says something that sends Trent into a roar of laughter, the queasy feeling returns full force.
The fact that Tahoe is man enough to show my boyfriend the ropes, even when I sense he doesn’t like him much, makes my admiration for T-Rex grow.
QUEASY FEELING OF RECOGNITION