Beauty (A Midsummer Suspense Tale) (6 page)

She took a step toward the water. Then another. The moment waves lapped over her toes, she flinched, and for a moment he thought she’d chicken out. Sawyer chuckled and Bryar glared unconvincingly, continuing forward.

His breath came hard and fast as his gaze swept over her body, from her naked breasts with their firm nipples begging for attention down to the tantalizing spot between her legs. He was not new to attractive naked women—that ship had long since sailed—but the anticipation of being near her, of touching her, had his blood pumping south in a hurry. She shivered and he wanted to lunge for her, draw her into his arms and get both of them nice and warm.

Sawyer waded back a few more feet, the icy water creeping up his body as she responded in turn, continuing toward him. “It’s better if you just go for it.”

Bryar blew out a breath and contemplated the dark water for a moment. She stood straight despite the temperature, her arms loose at her sides instead of crossing over her chest—she showed no shyness, remaining bold about her nudity. Eventually, her expression resolved, she splashed forward, submerging herself up to her collarbone. She let out a yelp, her dark eyes growing wide. “Goddamn, that’s cold.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Liar.”

He grinned. “Yeah.” Of course, another possibility would be to use the skinny dipping here as a precursor, and then invite her back to the beach house’s hot tub. Provided Val and Scott weren’t still using it.

A dose of reality hit him then, though. How would he explain the place? Sure, he’d told her he was staying with relatives. But he wasn’t stupid—that house would definitely make her question precisely who these relatives were to afford to rent it. Then there’d be the matter of explaining her presence to the others and hoping they didn’t let anything slip.

It was risky and stupid. Best to just enjoy this.

She was frowning at him as she approached, treading water just a few feet away now. “Change your mind? Water freezing your brain?”

He blinked and tried to snap out of it.
Be in the moment. Enjoy the moment with a pretty girl who has no clue who you are—these moments are few and far between.
  “I was thinking this must be quite the spot in summer.”

“It is, but technically it’s all private property. So cops bust a lot of the parties. I was a regular fixture here in my youth.”

“But not now that you’re an old maid?”

Bryar laughed and averted her eyes. Moving closer still—close enough that he could see the fine mist of water dotting her cheeks and lips that he longed to taste. “I’m aware of the fact that rebellion hardly looks good on someone my age. I’m supposed to be in college and readying for a career, being a grownup. I’m not really good at those things. Now, you need someone to steal a car or go skinny dipping with strangers,
that
I can do.”

“I think direction in life is a little overrated.” He held her eyes, wished he could stay more. To explain that he longed to have the time in his formative years to fuck around—that rushing to be serious about life was just as much hell as the alternative. Managers and agents and studios and parents fighting over his money before he turned eighteen. Image consultants and endorsements. He tried to be grateful for everything he had, especially when so many people in the world went without, but it was exhausting. And when he did get in trouble, it was magnified by a thousand.

Which is what had brought him here, in this moment, to her in the first place.

They shifted closer in the water, whether it was the current drawing them nearer or their own movements, he didn’t know. The temperature of the lake was long forgotten, his desire heating him through. A tiny shiver worked through her, dancing along her shoulders in a twitch.

“Too cold?” His voice was thick with want and he tried to breathe deeply, to remain focused and not just reach for her.

Bryar peered up at him beneath long lashes, her lips parted invitingly. “Getting warmer.”

Damn, this woman was killing him. He gave in then, his hand gliding through the dark water to reach her waist. She drew closer the moment his fingers folded over her flesh, the tips of her breasts coming in contact with his chest. Sawyer sucked in a breath.

“I think skinny dipping with strangers is actually a very useful skill,” he said in a low voice.

She gave him a sexy little smile that had his heart beating even faster. “You’re not so bad at it yourself.”

Bryar leaned closer and the heat in her eyes matched his own. His hand moved more possessively over her waist, pulling her closer, and the previously cool water seemed to warm between them as waves gently lapped at their flesh. Another shiver worked along her arms, one he doubted was just from the temperature.

He wanted to kiss her. More than anything he could recall wanting in recent memory. Just to taste her and feel her against him, to lose himself and his troubles and make his focus her pleasure.

It was crazy and foolish, he knew, but he couldn’t resist leaning in as her chest firmly pressed against his. He was rock hard, craving the feel of being buried in her folds, of grasping her thighs and hoisting her up to wrap her legs around him. Her eyes were heavy-lidded as their lips neared and soon he felt her hot breath on his mouth, the little pants that said she was as eager for him as he was for her. He had no idea where this was going tonight but became quite certain that whatever she was up for, he’d be game as well.

Their breath mingled, that sweet moment of anticipation before the kiss rising—he could all but taste her now.

Water splashed suddenly to his right, voices raised in laughs and jeers. Sawyer blinked against the sudden flash of light—a camera.

His body iced over with fear but it was just the kids from the bonfire, someone waving around a cell phone and shouting at Bryar.

Bryar. Not him. Because they knew her and he was just the strange guy hanging around the beach with them.

“Fuck,” she cursed under her breath and he let her go as she backed off, crossed her arms up over her chest. The others were undressing, apparently liking the idea of mid-fall skinny dipping, and the spell between them now in the water seemed broken.

Goddamn
. He tried to stifle his disappointment and annoyance. “Maybe we should...” he suggested.

“Yeah.” She avoided his eyes and they swam back toward shore, avoiding the half-dozen people now stripping out of their clothes and squealing at the temperature of the water.

Sawyer moved swiftly ahead, not giving a damn about his nudity—the others hadn’t brought the phone with them to the water, after all—and gathered Bryar’s T-shirt first, walking back to the water to hand it to her while using every shred of restraint he had to avoid looking at her. She murmured her gratitude and slipped the T-shirt on swiftly. It wasn’t long enough to cover much else but the moon at her back left shadows over the tantalizing apex of her thighs. He busied himself slipping on his boxers and jeans while she slipped on her underwear. His clothes clung to his damp skin and would be extra chilly when the wind kicked up.

“And the answer to ‘what is more effective than a cold shower, is...’” She smirked at him, tucked her hair behind her ear, and scooped up her jeans.

He realized this probably meant their night was ending and there wasn’t much he could do about it. As if there was another random bonfire tomorrow? Shit, ask her on a
date
? He wasn’t sure how normal people did that anymore. And where would they go for that in Midsummer? He couldn’t say, hey, let’s have a date, only somewhere private where no one will see us together. It would make him sound like a serial killer.

The air was much colder now that his skin was wet and dampening his clothes. She likely felt it too and it wasn’t fair to extend the night when they’d just be standing around in wet clothes.

“I’ll walk you home,” he offered, sliding on his T-shirt.

She had her jeans on, jacket and shoes in hand, and the strap of her bra hanging out of the sleeve of her coat. She glanced absently down the beach before she spoke next. “Do you live around here? I mean, do you know the area? Because the shortcut is only about twenty minutes and involves a dark path through some woods. I know the way myself but I wouldn’t want you getting turned around and lost.”

He could drive her too, he supposed, but that would involve leading her back to the beach house and inviting more questions. Especially when he’d have to rouse Jeffrey just to find the keys. “Walk you part of the way?”

“Sure.”

Sawyer carted his shoes in hand as she did and threw his button down over his shoulder. Their discarded beer bottles—empty—lay to the side, and he scooped those up too to deposit where the others were by the bonfire. The sand was cold and smooth underfoot, making for slow walking but an otherwise comfortable pace considering the company.

“So your sister and brother-in-law live in Midsummer?” she said after a moment.

“Just visiting. For a few weeks.”

More silence. Now it was the awkward kind, because they’d lost that moment in the water and he desperately wanted it back though he couldn’t see how.

Her shoulder brushed his arm as they walked, winding along the beach and past the still-burning bonfire where he left the beer bottles. In the distance he could see the beach house and the glow of lights in the windows. Instead of heading that way, though, Bryar cut in front of him and toward a path to the right that arched away from the beach, through tall grass and toward the woods. Although the area wasn’t really thick with trees, he could see how it would get confusing at night without knowing the area. The ground was still sandy in spots, roughed with dry grass.

“You grew up here?” he asked as she picked her way through the path.

“Mostly. We moved around a bit when I was little but I don’t really remember much. I was running through the woods and along the beach as soon as I could figure out how to climb out my window.”

The beach was far behind now, trees clogging his view of where they’d left. Still, he had enough of a sense of direction that he’d find the way back.

Bryar stopped ahead of him and turned, tilting her head to look up at him but not quite meeting his eyes. She fidgeted a little, shifting from foot to foot. “Well, I’m not far from here—I can head the rest of the way.”

“Okay.” Jesus, why the hell was he so nervous, so bereft of something to
say
? Ask for her number. See if she’ll be around the beach tomorrow night too. Why did all of that sound so goddamn lame?

Because you’ve never really had to do this before, dumbass.

Enough moonlight worked through the trees that he could make out her face, her expression as she watched him in silence for a moment. She hesitated, lips parted like she was going to say something, eyes searching his. Then her mouth snapped closed and she gave him a half smile, turned and started down the path again.

He watched her go, just a few steps and the darkness would swallow her whole.

“Bryar,” he called.

She turned as he dropped his shoes in a pile at his feet, took three steps to close the distance between them, grasped her hand, and pulled her into his arms at last.

Chapter Four

 Sawyer’s lips found hers and an electric charge seemed to run through Bryar’s body at the contact. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulled him closer, kissing him back eagerly—the response elicited a low growl in his throat, hands gripping the small of her back tightly. Their bodies pressed together, the thickness of his erection pressed against her belly and her  pussy spasmed in return, craving the feel of him inside her.

He pulled back, still mouthing her lips gently. “Sorry if that was too sudden. I’d just been planning to ask for your number.”

Her hands moved over his chest, delighting in the feel of hard muscles against her palms. “I was thinking of doing the same—I mean the kissing thing, not the number, but I’ll take that too. I wasn’t sure if it would fall under too much too soon.”

“Nowhere near enough.” He kissed her again, their tongues tangling, a war that neither would win but neither could lose. Her entire body was on fire, yearning for him, and she didn’t care if she was being too bold or weird or whatever else, because he was warm and perfect and seemed to want her as much as she did him.

They stumbled back, fumbling at one another’s clothes. Her jacket and shoes she’d been holding hit the ground, then her back bumped against a tree. She was trapped between it and him, the hard thickness of his cock pressed into her belly. She needed it somewhere else entirely and grasped his shoulders, all but climbing him, desperate to feel him between her legs. He obliged her, large hands clasping her thighs and lifting her so she could wrap her legs around his waist.

She rolled her hips downward, grinding against him, and he groaned. She hadn’t had sex in a while and now her body let her know it, pussy wet and craving. When his hand slid under her T-shirt, fingers trailing gooseflesh in their wake, her entire body shuddered. He palmed her breast, gliding over her skin and thumb working her nipple into an erect bundle of nerves. She moaned at each touch and grasped his T-shirt, jerking it up over his torso and tossing it aside.

Her mouth left his long enough to sweep her gaze over his body, taking in the expanse of his shoulders, his defined pecs and flat abs—everything she’d seen while they were in the water. Now she could touch him anywhere and she did, enjoying the firmness, the silk of his skin, how he could be both smooth and rough all at once.

A shudder worked through him as her fingers danced over his skin and he squeezed her nipple in response. The pleasure-pain of it left her gasping and her hips undulated again.

“This isn’t too fast?” he whispered, his eyes searching hers. There was heat in his gaze, something intense and weighted, like he was holding onto control and a word from her would unleash everything held back.

Her hand slid down between their bodies and boldly grasped his erect cock as it strained against his jeans. “It could go a little faster. And harder.”