Gretchen
“What’sit like being this pool’s hottest bachelor?”
The bachelor in question arches a brow from behind his sunglasses, adjusting his grip on the pool ledge. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I float in the water opposite him, my hand on the edge of the pool keeping me afloat along with my legs treading water beneath me.
“See, whatIheard you say is that you’re so accustomed to women checking you out that you don’t even notice it anymore.”
Connor Vining in nothing but swim trunks and aviator glasses should be illegal. The wandering eyes of every woman within fifty yards confirms this. In fact, I’d say we have a class-action lawsuit on our hands.
“I don’t need you stroking my ego, Gretchen.”
I fight back a grin. “It’s taking everything in me to not make a dirty joke about stroking right now.”
He mutters a string of profanityunder his breath, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. I stifle a laugh.
To these women’s credit, his body is a sight to behold. Golden skin makes his sun-kissed dirty blonde hair sparkle and he’s got the kind of muscle composition that looks like good genetics as opposed to hours spent in the gym. His abs are far from repulsive and his face is light years beyond pretty.
“Katie McBigBoobs over your shoulder hasn’t stopped staring at you. She thinks those bug-eyed sunglasses are hiding it, but we both know what’s going on behind those lenses.”
He chuckles through tight lips.
“Then there’s Jessica VonSunlessTanner laid out on her stomach with her head oh-so-conveniently turned toward you and she thinks I don’t notice every time she opens one eye to make sure you’re still there.”
Face charmed, he shakes his head. “You’re crazy.”
I lean in close and whisper, “And they both look like they want to murder me.”
Connor’s jaw tics before his hand plunges under the water and he yanks me toward him. I gasp as he turns us so my back is pressed against the side of the pool. His arms on either side of my head cage me in and I reach for his waist to stay afloat.
My gaze traces the column of his throat all the way up to his eyes. Even with sunglasses, his attention lances straight through me like a laser beam.
“Wrap your legs around my waist so you don’t sink,” he says, voice husky.
Because touching him is my new favorite pastime and my body is absolute putty in his hands, I do exactly as he says. I link my ankles around the solid pillar of him. His body presses in closer until only inches separate the space between my legs and his lower torso.
“Now wrap your arms around my neck,” he commands, widening his arms to give me space to obey. Once my arms are in place, my body quite literally propped up on his, he narrows his grip on the pool’s edge and that infamous Connor smirk comes out to play.
“Good girl,” he murmurs. “Do you think they’re staring now?”
My breaths come shallow, small bursts of air parching my lips until I skim my tongue over them. “I would assume they’re fashioning some sort of shiv to stab me with in the bathroom later.”
He drifts closer—or maybe I’ve pulled him in—my breasts now pressed into him.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, the ache between my legs building, demanding friction.
He rests his forehead against mine. “I need to make sure Katie and Jessica know I’m not interested.”
Skin to skin, my soft flesh wrapped around the hard planes of his, his proximity sets my body ablaze, yet quiets the noise inside me all at once. If all I had for the rest of my life was the nearness of him, I wouldn’t want for anything.
Heads fused together, we stay locked in our embrace, breathing each other in. Everyone and everything else fades into obscurity; it’s just us. Him. Me. And theuswe almost were back then.
Connor’s cell phone rings, severing the moment in two.
He checks his watch. “I have to answer that. It’s my mom.”
We untangle our bodies and he climbs out of the pool. I prop myself on the pool deck, forearms crossed under my chin, as Connor scampers around our lounge chairs, righting himself. He shakes the excess water out of his hair, runs a towel through it and across his bare chest, before accepting the FaceTime call.
