Up so close, I swear the man sucked up all the air because I suddenly felt breathless, maybe a little lightheaded.
Nave’s hand shot out, grabbing my forearm. “You alright? You swayed a little.”
“Yeah, sorry. Just… hot.”Just not in the way you’re thinking.
“Come on, we gotta cool you off.”
With that, he reached down for the hem of my tank top. And if he was looking to lower my body heat, feeling the brush of his knuckles against my lower back wasnotthe way to go about it.
My arms raised instinctively, letting him pull the material off of me. I didn’t even feel the anticipated jolt of insecurity at all my exposed skin as I stood there in shorts and a cream-colored bra.
When his hands moved to my waistband, I damn near combusted.
But then my shorts were down around my ankles, leaving me in that bland bra and a pair of bright yellow panties.
Not my best look.
But I swear Nave’s jaw went to granite as he looked at me.
He was quick to force his gaze away, though, reaching for my hand instead, and leading me over toward the steps.
“I can get in, you know,” I said, charmed by his protectiveness as he insisted on holding my hand until I was down the steps.
“Not taking any chances,” he said as I slipped fully into the cool water.
Almost as if the water blocking my body from view allowed him to think straight again, he reached down to remove his own pants.
I wasn’t entirely sure I kept the little whimpering sound inside me as he stripped down to nothing but a pair of boxers.
Then he started to make his way over toward the water.
“Better?” he asked, making his way in.
Words didn’t seem possible then, so I nodded instead.
Once he was down in the water too, a little bit of the pressure on my chest seemed to subside.
“This is nice. I haven’t been in a pool in ages.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine Ben wanted to share water with someone else.”
“Can you imagine?” I asked, snorting. And, God, it felt good to be able to laugh about him instead of feeling that knee-jerk panic at just the thought of him. “Though, these things are full of chemicals. And chemicals were his favorite thing. I have proof.”
I leaned back in the water to lift a leg out of it, pointing it toward him.
“What am I looking for?” he asked.
“It’s a ‘know it when you see it’ sort of thing.”
“This?” he asked, his finger tracing over the side of my big toe. “What is this?”
“A chemical burn. Ben brought home some new kind of cleaner. I was told to clean the shower with it. But it was a stall shower. So I had to getinit to clean it. And I didn’t want to get my slides wet, so I went in barefoot. Big mistake. God, that hurt.”
“Asshole,” Nave grumbled as his finger gently slid over the still-pink skin. I wasn’t sure it would ever go back to normal.
“Needless to say, I never used that again. I love the cleaner that Ariah and Kit make. It’s all natural and works great.”
“They drop off bottles of that shit to everyone when they make a big batch,” Nave said. “Even cater the scents to everyone’s preferences.”
