Undressed

by Kimberly Derting

  It was so not ladylike, and I so didn’t care.

  “And you grew up with this joint? How do you not weigh a ton?” I bit into my slice and moaned. Flavor exploded across my tongue. I let the mozzarella stretch until I finally had to break it off with my finger. Will waited, watching me as if he’d baked the pizza himself. When I could finally talk again, I said. “Seriously, I might have to move away just so I don’t blow up.”

  A dark look crossed his face, and I wanted it to be because I’d just said I’d have to move away. Then he picked up his own slice. “You’d be beautiful no matter what.”

  Um, what was that? Maybe not what I’d been hoping for, but still . . .

  “Did you just call me beautiful again?”

  He scarfed down a huge bite and exaggeratedly pointed at his mouth with his index finger. His eyes were wide with an I can’t answer you expression.

  “Whatever. You totally did.” Loving the way my stomach flipped. “Keep that up and a girl could get a big head.” Then I took a swig from my mug and cringed. “Okay, seriously, what’s the deal with this beer?”

  He swallowed his bite, which took a second, and wiped his mouth on his napkin. “Sorry. Shoulda warned you. Great pizza, but super-shitty beer.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “And people are . . . okay with that?”

  “It’s kinda become their thing. People come from all over because of it. You should see their Yelp reviews—the worse the beer, the better the ratings. They tried changing the formula once—getting some good local microbrews on tap—but people went ballistic. They had to go back to the shitty-beer thing.”

  When my glass was empty, Will refilled it from the pitcher on the table between us. I would have waved him off since I wasn’t particularly craving seconds, but this was an entirely new Will. This Will was relaxed, and I didn’t want the evening ending any sooner than it had to.

  I wanted to ask him about the girlfriend, and where they stood. But I never could get the question past my lips. “So, you’ve lived here your whole life?” I asked instead, completely chickening out.

  He shrugged. “Give or take a few years. I left for a while to do some other things, but they didn’t work out, so I came back.”

  “Things like what?”

  “Just . . . you know, things.” He shifted, and I realized I might be losing him. This was a road he didn’t want to go down. “What about you?” he asked, switching the subject. “You’re not from here, so where then?”

  I was even less comfortable. My past, especially my recent past, wasn’t an easy place for me, but I could field the simple questions, I supposed.

  “Grew up in Denver and went to ASU for college.”

  “Arizona, huh?” He tilted his head to the side and studied me. “So what’d you move here for? I mean, other than the great pizza and even better company.” He smiled, and it occurred to me I could get used to his cocky grins.

  This was difficult territory for me. Even Emerson didn’t know the real reason I’d been in such a hurry to leave, and I told her almost everything.

  “Em and I just wanted to . . . get away for a while.”

  “Get away, hmm?” His green eyes narrowed. “And you just thought, Hey, there’s an ocean here, maybe I’ll learn to swim, is that what your telling me?”

  I wanted to laugh, because it sounded ludicrous when he said it like that, even though that was pretty much what it boiled down to. “Look,” I told him, taking another drink of the beer, which was tasting better by the second. “Believe what you want, but what better place to learn.” I leaned back in my chair and forced myself to hold his suspicious gaze.

  He was quiet for a moment, and I could see him mulling that over. He didn’t believe me, not entirely, but eventually he nodded. “Well, you could definitely do worse in the teacher department if I do say so myself.”

  “And you do say so yourself. Right?” I goaded.

  “Hell yeah, I do.” I should be glad he wasn’t pounding his chest like Tarzan. This was definitely Cocky Will. “You could do a whole lot worse than me.”

  My eyes followed his hand. He was wearing a snug T-shirt that didn’t hide his muscled arms. Hell yeah, I could.

  I reached my glass out to his. “So then, here’s to great pizza and shitty beer.”

  He leaned forward too, and just as I touched my glass to his, his eyes captured mine. “And beautiful girls,” he added.

  LAUREN

  The house was dark when I came inside. I figured Emerson had either called it a night already or was having another sleepover at Lucas’s place. So, when her voice shot out at me, I nearly peed my pants.

  “And just where have you been, young lady?”

  I yelped, trying to find her in the crypt-like room. “Em! You scared the bejeezus outta me!”

  The lamp next to the futon flipped on, and Emerson’s face was bathed in its glow as she studied me. “Maybe you should’ve thought of that when you didn’t call to let me know how late you’d be.”

  “Since when have you decided to keep tabs on me?”

  “Since we’re living in a strange town, and you coulda been facedown in a ditch somewhere.” The look on her face said she was dead serious.

  “Okay,” I told her. “I should’ve at least texted. If you must know, I was at a swim lesson.” Emerson knew how much learning to swim meant to me, she’d even offered to teach me herself. But even if I thought she could take it seriously, Em had never given a swim lesson in her life. And knowing how to swim and knowing how to teach someone to swim were two entirely different things.

  She checked the time on her phone. “Swim? You? At midnight?”

  Was it midnight already?

  “So,” I started. “It was a lesson . . . followed by pizza and beer.”

  That perked Emerson up. “So, what you mean is, you had a date?”

  Laughing at the thought of Will and me on a date, I went to the bathroom so I could hang my swimsuit on the towel rack to dry. I needed it to be dry again for tomorrow night’s lesson. “No,” I hollered back to her. “I do not mean a date. I mean a swim lesson followed by pizza and beer. The end.”

  Emerson followed me.

  “Holy shit!” she cried, her fingers creeping toward my swimsuit like it might explode if she weren’t careful. “What the hell is that thing? When you said you were taking a swim lesson, I didn’t realize you meant you traveled back in time to take it.”

  “Shut up!” I huffed, snatching the suit back down off the rack. I clutched the soggy red fabric to my chest. I knew I didn’t have a lot of experience in this area, but I was embarrassed that I might have gotten it so wrong. I chewed my lip. “It’s not that bad . . . is it?”

  “Of course not. It’s great. If you’re trying to cover up that bulky chastity belt you’re sportin’.” She frowned at me. “Jeez, Lo, are you trying to repel the entire male species?”

  I blew out a breath. I was definitely not trying to repel Will. Was that really the message I’d been sending with my swimsuit?

  But Emerson had picked up on something else.

  “Oh, my God. You’ve found someone, haven’t you? To . . .” she glanced down to my lady parts. “Go where no man’s gone before?”

  “No!” I denied. “I mean, I don’t know. Maybe someone. I haven’t decided yet.”

  Sure, I’d crossed Will off the list right out of the gate. But this new Will, the one I’d seen over the past two days, definitely had me rethinking him as a possibility. He’d been sweet and endearing, and he’d called me beautiful.

  It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the first guy I slept with had all those attributes . . . plus rocked a hard body to boot.

  I dared a glance at Emerson, who was staring at me with her mouth hanging open as if I’d just confessed to having a thing for her dad—who, let’s be honest, wasn’t half bad in a dad sort of way.

  “Stop. Is that really so strange? It was bound to happen eventually.” I scowled at her. “Besides. I said I ha
ven’t decided yet.”

  “Does this someone happen to have a name? Is he the one teaching you to swim, by any chance?”

  I wasn’t ready to share too many details, but I nodded. “Yes. He’s giving me private lessons.”

  “And you’re wearing . . . that?” She snatched it out of my hand. “Uh-uh. Over my dead body. You’ll never seal the deal in that thing. You gotta think . . . sluttier.” She turned and went to her room and started rummaging through her dresser drawers. Finally, she came back with a teeny, tiny string bikini. “This. This is the one. No man’ll be able to resist you in this!”

  “Em, no. I can’t. No man will be able to resist because it won’t even cover anything.”

  “Exactly. That’s why it’s perfect. Trust me. Wear this and he’ll be putty in your hands.” I held it in front of me and studied myself it in the mirror, while Emerson stared at me over my shoulder. “Just look at you.” She gave my shoulders a hard squeeze. “My little girl’s all grown-up.”

  WILL

  The pounding interrupted one of the first wet dreams I’d had since I was sixteen years old, which was about the time I’d discovered I could convince real-life girls to do to me the things I’d only been doing to myself for years.

  This particular dream involved being buried between Lauren’s soft thighs, while her legs were wrapped tightly around my hips, insisting I thrust deeper and drive harder, grinding in time with her.

  I’d never wake again if I could stay like this . . . dream or no dream.

  But the pounding was like a jackhammer, and reluctantly I rolled out of bed.

  Fuck! I rubbed my hand over my cock to make my hard-on go down.

  “Hold your fucking horses! I’m coming!” I winced from the early morning sun coming through the shades. “What?” I growled, swinging the door wide.

  Camden stood there, his unwashed, greasy gray hair sticking out in every direction. He was skinnier now—hard living had taken its toll—but he was still the same Uncle Cam he’d always been, and my reaction was just as visceral as it had been when I’d up and left all those years ago.

  I’d never understood why my mom had kept letting him back into our lives, brother or not. He was a leech who never gave a shit about anyone but himself.

  Camden tried to push inside, but I pushed back. Tess didn’t need to know he was here. I dragged him around the corner of the house by one of his scrawny arms, not caring if I snapped it in the process. “What do you want, Cam?” My voice was low, but I doubted he’d missed the warning in it.

  He rubbed the scruff on his jaw. “You know what I want,” he protested, looking in several directions at once. That was the thing; he could never stop looking for the angle. Even now, he was trying to figure out if there was a way to push my buttons so he could get what he wanted.

  “I already gave you everything I have.”

  “It wasn’t enough. I need more.” He pulled his pockets inside out. “You’re leaving me no choice, Billy.” His pathetic whine made my skin crawl.

  He glanced over my shoulder then, a sly smile making an appearance. I turned in time to see Tess standing there on the sidewalk, wearing only her sleep shirt. The worried expression on her face made me want to punch Cam in the throat.

  I seized a handful of his shirt and dragged him to me. “Listen, you piece of shit, I gave you what I had, now leave us the fuck alone. If I see you around here again, I’m gonna break the last of those festering teeth outta your mouth.” When I let go of him, he flopped to the ground.

  “You’re not listening, Billy. If you don’t give me more . . . right now, I swear I’ll never sign those papers you gave me.” His voice was shrill, and I knew he meant for Tess to hear every word. “I have legal guardianship, you know. I can take her any time. It’s what your momma wanted.”

  I was afraid of what I’d do if I kept standing there listening to him, because I didn’t just want to smash his teeth in, I wanted to crack his fucking skull open. “Mom was sick and you know it,” I muttered. And then, because what choice did I have, I told him, “Stay here.”

  I wrapped my arm around Tess and drew her back inside the house, away from Cam and his threats.

  I was sure that if I took him to court no judge who really took a hard look at him would grant him custody of Tess—he was an addict. He was a fucking mess.

  But what I wasn’t so sure about was what would happen to Tess.

  I wanted Cam to sign guardianship over to me; that way, no one would come poking into our situation, questioning whether I was fit to take care of her. Because maybe a bartender who worked late hours and taught swim lessons on the side wouldn’t cut it either.

  And what if opening that can of worms meant that the courts decided to take Tess away from me and place her in foster care?

  Inside the house, I found the envelope Lauren had given me the other night at The Dunes . . . when she’d asked me to give her private swim lessons. I’d planned to give it back to her—I didn’t want her money.

  But now . . .

  Jesus! Cam left me no choice.

  I marched back outside, to where Cam was chewing on his filthy fingernails. I shoved the envelope at him. “Take it, you piece of shit. Take it and get the fuck out of here. And if there’s any shred of decency left in you, you’ll sign those papers. Otherwise I’m taking you to court.”

  “You don’t actually think you’re fit to raise a kid, do you? Where were you all these years? How you planning to support her when you can barely support yourself?” he railed.

  When I turned to leave, I nearly smacked into Tess. She’d followed me back outside. I dragged her away. Yet even when we went inside and the door was closed, we could hear him, shouting about suing and moving Tess away from here and how he would ruin our lives.

  Even though he’d be walking away with an envelope of cash in his hand, I realized it would never be enough.

  She looked at me with that same What are we gonna do? expression she’d been wearing ever since the day I’d gotten back here.

  “I told you. I got this. He can’t hurt us,” I promised for the millionth time. And, Jesus to fucking Christ, I hoped it was true.

  LAUREN

  Will was already in the pool when I stepped out of the locker room and onto the pool deck.

  This time my pounding heart had nothing to do with my lesson. I should never have let Em convince me this was a good idea.

  No way could I drop my towel.

  “This works better if you actually get in the water,” Will joked, while my fingers clung to the plain white terrycloth like it was a lifeline.

  But what was my alternative? Run back into the locker room and hope for some imaginary do-over?

  And what would that accomplish? The whole point was to get Will’s attention—at least it had been the point when Em and I had hatched this scheme of ours. If I let go of the towel, I was pretty sure that goal would be unlocked. Besides, I was already here and Will was down there, waiting for me.

  I took a deep breath and let the towel slide to the ground.

  That was all it took.

  From in the pool, I heard Will’s sharp inhale, and that one, simple sound sent electric shockwaves coursing through my body. His green eyes were on me then. All over me. Burrowing through me, scorching my skin as they roamed over every inch of my body.

  I might not have gotten my mom’s bold Latin complexion, but I’d definitely gotten the whole curves-in-all-the-right-places thing, and I’d been hoping Will would notice.

  At our first private lesson last night, I’d done what I always did: played it safe. I wore the one-piece swimsuit that, as Emerson so delicately put it was about as eye-catching as a garbage sack. But after our lesson, and after he’d taken me out for pizza, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to play it safe with Will. Maybe he wasn’t the jerk I’d thought he was.

  I hadn’t gone with Emerson’s bikini, because I had one that was even more daring, one I’d bought for Lola Bang. It had micro, micro trian
gles that barely covered my nipples, let alone my full breasts.

  It was a bold move.

  “I . . . uh . . . ,” Will stammered. He cleared his throat, which was probably the third time he’d done that since I’d dropped my towel. Finally, he tore his gaze away and scowled. “What are you waiting for? We only have about an hour of light left.”

  I made my way toward the edge of the pool. “You’re the boss.” Biting my lip to stop from smiling.

  For the first time alarm bells weren’t going off inside me as I eased into the warm water. I relished the feel of it, letting it glide over my skin. Only when I was submerged up to my neck would Will even look at me again, like somehow the water shielded him from seeing too much of me—because clearly, that’s the way water worked.

  His mood improved once I was immersed, and he managed to keep his eyes above the surface. He acted exactly like . . . himself. Like he hadn’t even noticed the bikini, or my barely covered breasts. He’d slipped into full-on teacher mode, cool and collected. He was patient as he ran through several drills, things like hanging onto the side of the pool wall while I practiced kicking, even though I assured him I already knew how to kick.

  Mostly, though, I just felt ridiculous, and moderately offended.

  I decided to put an end to this nonsense. I stood up in the waist-high water, my hands on my hips. “This is great and all, but when am I going to learn actual swimming?”

  Will let out a sigh that sounded like he was dealing with an unreasonable child. “Lauren, first you have to learn the basics.” Then, almost against his will, his eyes fell to my chest. And just as quickly he hastily looked away, his gaze landing awkwardly on my throat as he finished, “When you’re ready, you’ll swim,” he continued distractedly. “Trust me, you’re not even close yet. Swimming’s not something you can master overnight. It takes time . . . practice . . . patience.”