Late in the afternoon, I headed outside and spotted Mara sitting on a lawn chaise, perched on its edge with her hands clasped on her lap. Her eyes were large, but she didn't seem freaked out like before. Some of the guests were playing miniten again, and she followed the players' movements with her eyes, flicking them left, right, left, right, up, down, right, left. Her lips curled up the tiniest bit at the corners, carving out the sweetest little dimples.
The goofy girls who'd been trying to catch butterflies this morning were at it again. One of them bumped into her friend, and the two tumbled to the ground, shrieking with laughter.
Mara smiled. Really smiled. Her teeth showed a little bit.
She was beautiful.
And just like that, my dick started to swell. Mara would freak out if she saw the lump in my pants getting bigger. I probably should've gone over there to remind those butterfly girls about the resort rules---like no body contact---but I couldn't do that when my dick thought this was a good time to get hard. Those dopey girls had wandered off toward the guest house, so I decided to give them the etiquette speech later. But I wanted to talk to Mara. Needed to. It was dumb but true.
I ducked back into the guest house to get a clipboard from the exercise room. It was the sign-up list for buying yoga mats. Didn't matter. I needed something to hold in front of my groin, and this would do. Armed with my clipboard, holding it in front of myself, I marched straight to Mara.
She noticed me and smiled, waving at me.
I clutched the clipboard to my crotch like it was glued to my body. No, that didn't look weird or pervy at all.
"Hey, Mara," I said, sitting down on the chaise next to hers. I kept the clipboard on my lap. "Seems like you're feeling a lot better about being out here with the naturists."
"I am, thank you." Her smile softened into a curling-up, dimple-carving expression that made my heart stutter. "Thank you again for our nature walk. It was amazing. And for the bazillionth time, I'm soooo sorry about the way I acted earlier. Honestly, I'm not terrified of naked people. But I was raised a certain way and taught to believe public nudity isn't proper."
"This isn't a public place. It's a private resort way out in the boonies." I tried to focus on her face, because her body looked so damn good in those pants and that top, but even her smile made me get stiffer in the one place I didn't want to get stiffer right now. "But I get that it was a shock. Glad you're feeling better."
Her brows knit together over her sweet little nose, and her gaze shifted to my lap. "Do you need me to sign something?"
I glanced down. Duh. I was holding a clipboard that had papers clipped onto it.
"No," I said, pushing my glasses up with one finger, "nothing like that. This is the sign-up sheet for guests who want to buy yoga mats from us. Do you do yoga?"
She nodded. "Not in public, though."
Of course not. Uptight city girls didn't do yoga poses in front of strangers, I guessed. But she hadn't seemed uptight when we had our picnic by the lake. The way she'd gotten so excited about seeing birds had made me want to kiss her. For a moment there, when we'd looked at each and our faces had been a breath apart, I'd been tempted to do it.
Until I remembered I was lying to her. Well, not outright lying. I let her believe I wasn't a nudist and gave her an evasive answer to her question about how I wound up working here. How could I kiss her, much less sleep with her, when I wasn't being honest with her?
Not that I intended to sleep with her. That would've been wrong. I was the assistant manager, and she was one of the guests. Even kissing her probably violated my professional ethics. I ought to avoid her as much as possible.
How could I do that when we were sleeping in the same small house?
Mara's smile had turned shy. She bowed her head, peeking up at me through her lush eyelashes.
And damn, even that made me harder.
I coughed into my fist and asked, "Did you want to buy a mat?"
"That's okay. I brought my own."
"Oh. Cool." I got up, careful to keep the clipboard in position. "I'll see later, then."
"Wait," she said. "Can I ask you a nosy question? Feel free to say no."
"Uh, sure." I sat down again. "Ask away."
She caught her lip between her teeth, letting it go little by little. "What do your friends and family think of you working at a nudist resort?"
"My parents are fine with it. They want me to be happy, that's all. My little sister doesn't care either." I tapped my finger on the clipboard, which I still held over my lap. "I don't have many close friends. But my best friend, Damian, thinks it's really funny that I work at a naturist resort."
"Funny? Why?"
"Because he dragged me to one of those adults-only naturist resorts for spring break during our first year of college. He said we needed to cut loose and get wild." I shook my head, though I couldn't help smiling a little when I remembered that vacation. "I hated that place. It was too slick and risque for my taste. I prefer---" I cut myself off before I announced I liked homey naturist resorts like this one. Maybe Mara would be okay with finding out the truth about me, but I wasn't sure. Better not to risk it. "I prefer more subdued vacation spots."
"It's nice you have a best friend. Don't think I've ever had one."
"Damian and I have known each other forever. He's lots of fun, but he really likes to play on the stereotype of gypsies."
Mara's brows crinkled. "Why would he
