Behind his back, my ankles crossed, and I used the leverage to rock myself against him, the need so strong that if he wanted to reach down and pull my panties to the side to slip inside me right there and then, I would have taken him gladly, oblivious to who might see or hear.
They didn’t matter.
He mattered.
Thismattered.
But just when I was ready to beg him to take me right then and there, his lips ripped from mine. His face pressed to the side of mine, his ragged breathing in my ear.
“We can’t do this—”
“Yes, we can,” I interrupted.
“Here,” he finished, turning to look at me, heat and humor making his impossibly handsome face even more attractive.
“Oh,” I said, my own smile spreading.
The next thing I knew, he was lifting himself out of the water, soaking me through once again. But then he pulled me to my feet and wrapped a towel around me before reaching for his own.
“Hey, is this up for grabs?” a voice called, making Nave look over my shoulder toward the back door.
“No, that’s Lolly’s,” he called back.
“It smells banging.” Glancing back, I saw Dezi standing there, a big purple stain on his white tee. Judging by what I hadheard about his obsession with sweet treats, I would bet good money on that being jelly from a donut.
“I can share,” I said.
“You don’t have to share with him.”
“It felt like a lot of food.”
I didn’t realize my mistake until we were dry and back inside the clubhouse. When Dezi and I were eating and Nave was offering to take Edith outside.
The moment had passed.
And my heart sank at the idea of not having another one like it again.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Lolly
Nave wasn’t wrong about the party.
Sometime just before the sun went down, Spike came crashing through the front door with his arm thrown over the shoulders of two blondes in barely-there bikinis. Behind him were Cain, Rune, Perish, and then Croft with another six women. Everyone was sun-drenched and overheated, but they paused inside only to make mixed drinks before heading out into the pool.
After that, the party just kept getting wilder and wilder. Pool games became beer pong and strip poker. Though, well, no one had much clothing on. So it went from tame to tits-out pretty quickly.
When I asked Nave if it was always like this, he shrugged and said it depended on who was single or not. Apparently, Sully and Dezi had also been big partiers. In their place now, it seemed, was Spike. With Cain, Perish, Rune, and Croft being very willing participants.
At some point, Edith tookherselfback into the bedroom, curling up on the dog bed on the floor when I didn’t immediately follow behind to put her on the bed.
Some time after that, Croft begged Nave to run out and grab more margarita mix since he was the only sober person around. Feeling weird being in the middle of the party and not participating, I made my way back to Nave’s room, washed all the sweat and chlorine off my skin, then climbed into the bed, listening to the music thrum.
Somehow, someway, I found myself drifting off.
It was the soft click of the dresser, somehow heard over the music and laughter still going on in the main area of the clubhouse, that startled me awake.
And there was Nave.
