“Hey, pretty girl.” I loved when he called me that. It made my heart race. “Mind if I steal myself a kiss or two?”
He said this while crawling over me and in the process dripping even more cool water onto my skin. Chills covered my arms and legs when he lowered his body completely over mine and pressed his lips to mine. Apparently, he had absolutely no intention of waiting for me to say yes or even deny him what he’d just asked.
It hadn’t escaped me that this was, in fact, the first time we’d shown an ounce of affection toward one another in the presence of others. It all still felt a little strange.
A few catcalls rang out around us, and I felt Mike smile against my lips, but it didn’t stop him. Instead, he deepened the kiss, teasing my lips with the tip of his tongue.
“You plan on taking care of what you’re starting, or is this just a teasing game?”
“I have every intention of taking care of whatever you need me to,” he assured me, pulling back to look me in the eyes. The mischievous look on his face excited me. “Do I ever not take care of you?”
I thought about taunting him and leading him to believe otherwise, but unfortunately, my eyes deceived me.
“That’s what I thought,” Mike said with a cocky, arrogant smile that should have triggered me to battle it out with him, only I couldn’t. I had found that I loved this side of him. For so long after he came back, we danced around one another, creating more and more tension between us. I didn’t ever want any of that back. I wanted this version of us, the relaxed one where we found our comfortable.
“I’m just gonna lay right here for a few minutes.” I cocked my head to the side, trying to figure him out, when he slowly slid off me but remained at my side. Face down, might I add. “Maybe the cool water would help calm me down, but then in order to get into said water, I would have to move.” Again, I was confused. “Babe, my flagpole seems to be a full mast right now, and forgive me, but not everyone here needs to know about my inability to control my needs whenever I’m around you.”
With this, I laughed, and what did he do? He smiled proudly.
Lord help me. Oh, how I love this man.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mike
We’d spent the day by the lake, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so relaxed. I only wished Rhett and AJ could have joined us, but Blake had been fighting an ear infection, so maybe next time.
Layne brought the beers, and Terrance and Chris brought the burgers. I brought Maddison, and in my eyes, she was without a doubt the best fucking part of the day.
I stood at the back of my truck, staring out as she gathered her towel and whatever else she had scattered around her. She placed each item into the bag she’d brought before sliding her shorts over her feet and shimmying her hips as she pulled them up over her wet, sticky skin. I had to fight against my urges before I embarrassed myself again.
There was silence around me when there should have been the sounds of everyone packing up. I looked left and then I looked right to find every single one of the guys staring in the same direction I had been.
Layne had his sunglasses pulled low as he stared up over them. Only his eyes were currently moving up and down, and I saw, after seeing the girls once more, that it was Chloe he was watching.
Terrance too seemed to be focused on someone other than Maddison, who had just slipped her tank top over her head and pulled it to cover her body. No, he was definitely not watching Mad, and when I pinned the point of his interest, I felt a spark of irritation hit me before I carefully tied it. I’d let Rhett handle the fact that his friend was obviously lusting after his little sister. The guy truly was a fucking idiot if he thought that shit would fly.
But Chris, the little asshole, was most definitely watching my girl. Without thinking, I reached out and slapped the back of his head, causing him to jerk in surprise. “What?”
“Really.” I pointed toward Maddison and held his stare. Did I for a second worry about Maddison and him? Hell no. But I felt like getting a little territorial about my girl. It was all in good fun.
“I was just looking.” He shrugged and backed away before I could hit him again. “You can blame a guy for that.”
“Eyes off, asshole.” I turned to face him, hearing Terrance chuckle as his friend carefully began to back away.
“Never bothered you before. We all did it. You can’t expect a guy not to appreciate the way she wears a bikini.”
“Dude, shut up.” Terrance tried to shut his friend up, but the guy didn’t seem to know any better.
“What, tell me you didn’t look, too.” I glanced at Terrance to find him shaking his head with his hand covering his face. “She has a killer ass, and in those bottoms, it’s even harder to look away.”
“Do you want to die today?” Layne chuckled, and by this time, the girls had started to walk our way, each one watching the situation closely as if trying to figure it all out without asking the questions.
“Okay, damn, fine.” Chris held his hands up in surrender. “I won’t
