Chasing Rhodes (Rock Falls #1) (16 page)

“Let me help you with that,” I say, sliding my hand down his ripped abdomen.

He stops me before I can get to where I’m going. “Tonight was about you, Hannah. Only you,” he says, kissing my hair. “I love you.”

I lay my head back over his lion heart and tangle my leg in his. “I love you too, Greyson.”

G
REYSON FELT AWFUL
about the scene at the bar for weeks and was constantly making it up to me. Not that I was complaining about the sex, but I told him that it was done and it was time for us to move forward from it.

It is the middle of summer and it is hot as hell in Rock Falls. All of us are going swimming down at the lake today, and I am excited. Jami and Lennon are still pretending that nothing happened, but we haven’t seen the blonde from the bar since that night. Beth is still constantly sneaking out all the time and bailing on movie nights. I am starting to think that she has some secret rich boyfriend none of us know about. It is so unlike her to distance herself from Lennon and me. I make a mental note to ask her to go for dinner soon so we can talk about it.

It’s almost time to leave, but I am still the only one sitting in the living room. I holler out, “Let’s go, people! I want to get a good spot.”

Beth yells back from her room that she’ll be ready in a minute just as Lennon comes out of the hallway.

“She’s full of shit. She’ll be at least another ten minutes,” she says, rolling her eyes.
Only Beth would primp to go to the lake for the day.

I’m about to call out to Greyson when he comes into the living room. My throat goes dry. He’s wearing a pair of low-slung Billabong swim trunks and nothing else. It doesn’t matter that I left him naked in bed less than an hour ago. The sight of him still completely rattles me.

“Sorry, sweetheart. Beth takes forever in the bathroom. I had to brush my teeth.” He smiles, stalking over to me, kissing me on the cheek.

“You might want to put a shirt on, Hunnam. If you pull up at the beach like that, Hannah’s not going to be the only one looking like she wants to lick your Popsicle.”

I whip my head around to stare at my sister in disbelief.
Did she really just say that? She sounds just like Jayden.

“Gross, Beth. TMI,” Lennon says, making a gagging face.

I decide to bypass the comment all together. “Okay. Are you guys ready to go?” I’m always the first one ready. I’m chronically early. I don’t think it’s possible for me to be late for anything. I’ve always been that person sitting in the car outside waiting until it’s time to go in.

They all nod, grab their bags, and shuffle out the door before climbing into Greyson’s truck. We aren’t going to the lake by our house today. We’re going to one farther away. It’s less likely to be crazy busy on a Saturday afternoon. We stop and get ice for the cooler on our way—
cold beverages are of the utmost important in the July sun
—and in less than five minutes, we’re parking beside Jami’s Jeep at the lake.

The boys are leaning up against the Jeep, and we can hear Jayden whine as we all climb out of the monstrous black truck. “Why does Greyson always get to drive with the girls and I’m stuck looking at his ugly mug all the time?”

“If you wanted to look at my handsome face, all you had to do was ask.” Greyson chuckles, sliding his black Ray-Bans over his eyes.

“Why don’t you drive yourself then, jerkoff?” Jami snaps.
Whoa. Someone’s pissy today.

“Don’t mind him, ladies,” Jayden says, draping an arm across Beth and Lennon’s shoulders. “He’s just PMSing a little more than usual.” He nods his head towards Jami. “Heavy flow this week, bud?”

Jami whips a bottle of sunscreen and it hits Jay right in the chest. “Asshole,” Jay mutters under his breath.

“You deserved it,” Jami says, helping Greyson with the cooler as we make our way down to the water.

We find a nice spot on the grass and lay out our blankets. It doesn’t take long for us to strip down to our bathing suits, eager to enjoy the hot summer sun. I’m spraying my chest with sunscreen and rubbing it when I look over to find Greyson starting at me—or at least it looks like he is. Sometimes it’s hard to tell when he’s wearing those sunglasses. He reaches across our blanket, picks up the sunscreen, and starts to massage it over my back. I pull my hair out of the way and bite back a moan at the feel of his rough hands rubbing over my body.

“Let me help you with that, sweetheart,” he whispers in my ear, and I smile.

“Ever the gentleman, Mr. Holt,” I tease.

He takes his time working the sunscreen into my skin before he finally finishes. I snatch the bottle from his hands.

“My turn, Hunnam.”

He grins and stands for me. I got the better end of this deal because he hasn’t put any lotion on anywhere yet. I spray the sunscreen in my hands and rub them together to warm it up. I start on his arms, massaging them slowly as I go. He groans a little and I smile triumphantly.
I’m damn good at this.
Even before I went to school for massage therapy, I’d always loved everything about it, and now that I was trained, I was even better.

After I finish both of his arms, I start on his lower stomach, rubbing it over his V and washboard abs.
Jesus. I’m turning myself on.
I work the lotion into his skin, making sure not to miss any of the tattooed skin. I finish on his chest and drop a kiss on his lion heart. I move around to his back and I can feel his muscles relax under my hands. He’s always tight from either work or the gym, and I take pleasure in being able to make him feel better. I’m so focused on the heat of Greyson’s skin under my hands that I almost miss Jayden’s comment.

“Oh, ladies. Please. I can help you with that. I’d hate for you to get a sunburn.”

I peek over Greyson’s shoulders, and through the lenses of my Aviators, I see him walk over to the girls. They are both spraying on sunscreen and he’s offering to help. Sure, he said it in a creepy way, but that’s just who he is.

“You fiend,” Beth says but turns her backside towards him anyway.

“Lennon darling, it’s a two-for-one special,” he says, winking at her.

“I’ll help her,” Jami growls, standing up from his towel.
Did he just growl? Seriously. How did I not know men did this until recently? Especially Jami. Growling for Jami is a new thing.

“Your loss, Lennon. My tube is much bigger than his,” Jay says, making some kind of obscene 'jacking off gesture with his sunscreen bottle and then squirting some out onto his hand.

“Jayden King, everyone!” I say, laughing. “Never a dull moment.”

We all burst out laughing, and Jay takes an exaggerated dramatic bow and says loudly enough so the people around us can hear, “Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all day.” And with that, he drops down on his towel, folding his hands behind his head.

I swear he only gets away with that kind of behavior because he’s so good-looking. It even makes him seem a little douchey, but for some reason, it’s a façade he enjoys playing, and the female population doesn’t seem to mind it. That includes my sister.

We’ve been lying in the sun for a while now, and I am starting to get fidgety. I’m not one of those girls who can just lie in the sun and bake just for the sake of getting a tan. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve tried it before, but in less than five minutes, I’m usually checking to see if I have tan lines yet so I can do something else.

The girls and I decide that we are going to go for a swim in the lake and the boys will stay to watch our things. We head out down the dock towards the deeper end of the lake. It’s not that you can’t walk into the lake from the shore, but there are always little kids playing in the water and then you have to touch the seaweed.
Gross.
When we reach the end of the dock, we stand in a line and reach out to link our fingers together so we’re holding hands. We’ve done this for as long as I can remember every time the three of us have gone to the lake.

“Ready?” Lennon says.

“Ready!” Beth and I say in unison.

“One…two…three!” And as she says three, we leap from the dock and into the water.

We all break the surface at the same time, laughing. It’s such a childish thing to do, especially now that we are all mid-twenties, but it’s fun and it’s our thing. I don’t want to give it up anytime soon.

We swim out a ways into the lake. It’s safe because this lake is too small to allow powerboats. Only canoes or kayaks are out here today. I’m floating on my back in the water, staring up at the sky, feeling perfectly content. I love the water. My parents used to say that I was a fish because I never wanted to get out.

“I slept with Jami,” Lennon admits out of the blue.

I flail, drinking in lake water and coughing.

“Well Jesus, Han. It’s not that surprising. You don’t have to drown over it,” Lennon says, her voice serious.

I’m still hacking up lake water, but as always, Beth jumps right in. “What! When? And what the hell? Since when do you keep secrets from us? I can’t believe this! How did I not know?”

“Are you guys a thing now?” I squawk.

“Whoa. What? No. That is so not where I was going with that,” she says, pulling one of her arms out of the water to wave it in the air for emphasis. “It was the weekend after his birthday party and it was a mistake. I don’t do relationships. You know that. He’s mad at me now and I don’t know what to do.” She sighs.

I’m flabbergasted. “Well, that explains Jami’s growling,” I murmur out loud, and the girls stare at me.

“What growling?” Lennon says, looking honestly confused.

Beth pipes in again. “There’s seriously no way you could have missed that, Lennon. He looked ready to rip Jay’s arms off when he suggested helping you with his sunscreen, and that’s one of his best friends.”

“Whatever. I didn’t notice anything other than him acting like a prick,” she says, scrunching her pretty face up.

“Well, have you talked to him about it?” I ask.

I know both Jami and Lennon better than anyone, but I’m not exactly shocked that she didn’t say anything until now. She’s always been that way. It’s always been like pulling teeth with Lennon to get her to share anything with us.

She gives me her bitch face and I laugh. “Of course you haven’t. You’re the queen of not communicating.”

She splashes me. “You’re supposed to be helping me, not making fun of me!” she whines.

“He’s mad at you because he likes you, and you just shit all over his heart,” Beth says bluntly. “Goddamnit, Lennon, you’re so blind sometimes. He’s liked you for forever!”

Lennon looks at me and I sigh. “You know she’s right. You’ve only made things worse by sleeping with him. If you don’t want to date him, that’s your business, but you need to talk to him. You need to let him know where you stand or things are never going to get back to normal.”

“I know, I know. I’ll try.” Which means ‘fat chance’ in Lennon terms. The poor girl hates confrontation.

“So…” Beth says, grinning.

“So what?” Lennon answers.

“So… how was he?”

“His cock is…” is the last thing I hear before pulling my head under the water.
Gross. Jami is like a brother. I so do not want to know anything about his cock.

I stay underneath the water for as long as I can hold my breath. When I come up, they laugh at me and I splash them. “All right, you pervs. Let’s go lie in the sun!” I say before swimming back over to the dock.

When we approach our towels, I’m pretty sure Greyson’s asleep. He still has his sunglasses on, but his chest is rising and falling slowly and he’s not moving at all. I put a finger over my lips, telling everyone to be quiet, and move slowly to stand at the end of his long body. Once I get there, I move quickly and lay my cold, wet body parallel along his. He jerks awake quickly and wraps his arms around my waist, and I start to laugh.

“Tired, handsome?” I ask, winking at him.

He leans up and nips at my neck. “You’re going to pay for that later, Hannah.”

“Oh, gross! Now who’s over-sharing!” Beth laughs.

“What are you talking about, Beth?” Jami asks.

“Nothing!” Lennon and I say at the exact same time, giggling when we realize we did.

“Are you guys drunk?” Jay questions, lifting his sunglasses off his face to inspect us. “If you guys went off and drank without us, that would be seriously unforgiveable. Even if you are all smokin’ hot.” He actually looks worried, and that only makes us laugh harder.

The rest of the day at the lake is fantastic. We have so much fun and all get some major sun. We decide that we aren’t quite ready for the fun to end while Jay is still whining about the fact that we must have gotten drunk without him, so we all decide to go to the new country bar in town. It’s called The Bourbon. It opened a few weeks ago and it’s supposed to be awesome!

Greyson drops us girls off at our place to get ready and goes home to shower. We only have one bathroom and it’s hard enough to share it between the three of us. He knows he’d never get any hot water if he tried to shower at our house.