by Kaitlyn Rice
“Not really,” she said. “But if I did, this’d be a biggie.”
The rain started to fall more heavily now, streaking down in silver daggers that would soak them if they didn’t move quickly. Trevor turned to adjust the ropes and pulleys.
“Are you comfortable with rappelling down?” he asked as he stood up, beside her. “Remember that you control your speed by releasing the rope behind you.”
“I watched all morning. I can do it.”
With deft fingers, Trevor checked the harness and gave her a nod. Isabel immediately backed off the wall and moved down the face by bouncing her feet against the rocks.
Climbing was better, but she loved rappelling, too.
Moments later Trevor followed her with the ropes and clips fastened around his waist.
He was about three feet from the bottom when the clouds opened up. “Let’s go!” he hollered. He jumped down, grabbed her hand and ran along the path, slipping here and there on the muddy ground.
Isabel found something about the situation amusing. Maybe she simply felt exhilarated. She’d done something amazing today, with an exciting man.
She’d felt brave in every way.
Her smiles turned to chuckles as they continued along the path. By the time they were close enough to see the bus, they were both drenched and she was practically in stitches.
Although Isabel could see only silhouettes through the bus windows, she knew the boys must be watching.
She pulled at Trevor’s hand, communicating that he needed to slow down.
He did, peering back at her even while he continued walking. “You okay?”
“Just need a moment to get control,” she said. “Thanks for staying behind so I could try climbing. I had a great time.”
And then they were at the bus door. Trevor paused to let her board first, and his expression made it clear that he’d had a great time with her, too.
Chapter Ten
After pulling a long T-shirt over her swimsuit, Isabel slipped into a pair of sneakers and sat at the edge of the bed, anticipating Trevor’s arrival. They’d both left Sam and Darla’s backyard about fifteen minutes ago, after joining the couple and Angie for a S’mores cookout.
She and Trevor had made a date for a late-night swim lesson. The thought freed butterflies in Isabel’s stomach, but she wouldn’t miss tonight for anything.
While Sam had helped Angie toast her marshmallows, she’d invited him to watch Shrek with her—he’d never seen it. Isabel and Trevor must have both recognized the opportunity. They’d traded glances, and soon he was suggesting that they forgo the movie viewing for another lesson.
Despite their turmoil, she and Trevor needed something from each other. What exactly, Isabel didn’t know, but she hoped they could learn to trust their most basic feelings for each other.
She wanted the experience of knowing him better.
A knock sounded at the door.
Butterflies thrashing, Isabel crossed the room and opened it. Trevor looked tall, hot.
Intentional.
She got goose bumps.
After grabbing a towel and comb, she followed him out through the garage and across the darkened path to the lodge. She might have been tempted to fill the silence with chatter, but she was too nervous. This was the first time she and Trevor had made arrangements to see each other for the specific purpose of being alone.
Poolside, Trevor flipped a switch on the lodge wall. Isabel dropped her towel onto a chaise longue and stood looking at the water, sparkling like an aqua gemstone under the light. “Think it’s cold?” she asked, dipping her toes in.
“The pool’s heated,” Trevor reminded her. “But we can sit for a minute, if you like.”
They sat down, side by side at the edge, their feet swishing through water that felt warm against the evening breeze. Isabel wished she didn’t feel so tongue-tied.
How did she start this? What was she starting?
“This isn’t easy, is it?” she asked.
“Jumping in the pool?”
“Learning to trust someone.”
He frowned. “You having trouble trusting me?”
“I trust you in a lot of ways,” she said, studying their legs: his tanned, muscular, slightly hairy; hers pale and small in comparison. “I knew you’d catch me this morning, if I fell.”
He didn’t try to fill the silence.
“The complications are hard to ignore,” she said.
“I know.”
“We’re agreed, then. We need this.” She wouldn’t define this. He knew. “But we know whatever happens is only for now.”
“Are you all right with that?” he asked.
“I have to be.”
He glanced at her, then stared at the water. “That’s how I feel. You don’t really fit with my plans—not the ones I set a long time ago—but I don’t want to let you go.”
Exactly.
And now Isabel felt a larger quaking in her belly. One problem had been solved, presenting another.
“There are a lot of things I’ve never had the opportunity to do,” she said. “I haven’t dated much.”
“Why not?”
“No opportunity, really,” she said. “My mother always swore men were evil.”
Trevor glanced at her, frowning. “But what about your dad? Didn’t you say once that they’d never divorced?”
“They didn’t.” Isabel dug her toe into the water and flipped a spray of droplets into the distance. “I suppose they didn’t need to because neither of them ever wanted to marry again.”
Trevor put his arm behind her, leaning back. Leaning nearer. “Is your dad around?”
“I assume so. I don’t know.”
“No contact?”
“None. He left when I was very small.” She launched another foot-blast of water. “So I didn’t have guys around. By the time I was old enough to care very much, Mom got cancer. I kept busy taking care of her. Then she died.”
“Did you date then?”
“Roger.”
“Wow.” Now Trevor kicked a spray out, too, sprinkling the opposite side of the pool.
“So, I’ve had one first date, with a neighbor I already knew.” Isabel leaned back to look at Trevor. “How does it work? What do people talk about on first dates?”
“If they don’t already know each other, they start with basics. Their jobs, their histories, their hobbies.” He shot her a leer. “Unless they really hit it off.”
She rolled her eyes, then used her foot to splash water toward his face.
“Hey!”
“Hey, you.”
He put his hands up, as if surrendering. “I was only going to say that then they’d talk deeper. Hopes. Philosophies. Fears.”
Isabel studied their legs again. “What are you afraid of, Trevor? Besides marriage.”
“My problem with marriage is mostly intellectual,” he said. “Maybe the human animal isn’t designed to stay with the same lover, forever.”
“Then answer my question.”
He bumped his arm and shoulder against her side. “My fear?”
“Yeah.”
“Being wrong. Missing out.”
An unguarded answer to a tough question.
This was her favorite version of Trevor.
“What’s your biggest fear?” he asked.
Easy.
“Not finding someone. Being alone.”
The silence grew old. Heavy.
Trevor pitched headfirst into the pool, sending cold water fountaining onto Isabel’s torso. She sucked in her stomach and gasped as she watched him swim away a few yards, then flip around beneath the water.
When he popped his head out, he grinned at her. “Your best dates will know when to break the tension.” He waggled those brows. “Take off that wet shirt, come in the water and tell me more about yourself, bay-bee.”
His silliness eased any hesitation Isabel might have felt. She tugged her shirt off, then slid into the water and his embr
ace.
“Think we can continue our conversation like this?” he asked, his voice low as he draped her legs over an arm.
“Why not?”
He moved her into deeper water, then dropped her legs but kept his arms around her. “All right. Tell me something surprising about Isabel Blume.”
“I’ve been downhill skiing.”
He lifted his brows. “I had the impression you hadn’t been anywhere.”
“Callie lived in Denver with her husband for a while. The Christmas after my mother died, Josie and I went to visit and we all took off for a day to go ski at Winter Park.”
“Did you like skiing?”
“I loved it after lunch. In the morning I spent too much time disentangling my legs from my skis.”
He laughed. “Everyone does.”
“Now you go. Something about you.”
“I’ve been downhill skiing.”
She cupped a hand to shoot water at him again.
He laughed again, eyeing her, then sobered as he moved a piece of hair away from her mouth. “I’ll tell you a hope.”
“Shoot.”
He tugged her close, and she could feel his arousal. “I want you.”
“Mmm. I want you, too,” she murmured.
His lips caught hers, rough and warm. He moved his hands to her hips, cupping her bottom as he pulled her upward.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, then felt his mouth leave hers to kiss the skin above one breast.
Warm heat filled her lower belly as her body prepared for his loving. Their sexes were separated by the flimsy material of their swimsuits.
It would be so easy for her to slip out of her clothes.
So easy to answer some questions for herself.
Once again, Isabel couldn’t believe her own boldness. She wanted to touch Trevor. Wanted to discard their suits and straddle him. Wanted to accept his hard length inside herself and take on the challenge of a deeper experience with a man she’d never forget.
Damn it, she was going for it.
AS TREVOR FELT Isabel’s hands move downward, their target obvious, he was both shocked and pleased. Yet he caught her hands and brought them to his mouth.
He teased her fingertips with his lips and tongue.
Delaying.
He burned too hot to let her touch him, and he knew they should move. They were too near the lodge and cabins, where dozens of teenage boys were playing cards, eating junk, hanging out after a hot, tiring day.
Any of those kids might suddenly appear poolside.
He lifted Isabel into his arms and started for the ladder. He thought he could hang on to control long enough to lead her down the hall to his room.
Where he could close and lock the door.
But Isabel pressed both palms against his face, turned his head and kissed him, her mouth wet and open. She’d learned to use her tongue and mouth to tease.
He forgot to move for a while. And now that his hands were occupied with holding Isabel, she slipped a hand inside his swim trunks. Determined, obviously.
Damn. He couldn’t risk them being caught.
Dropping her legs so she could stand again, he caught her hand. “Not here. Some of the kids are in the lodge.”
She glanced toward the building. “Good heavens.” She stepped away from him.
Her eyes were wide, her lips swollen. Small wonder he’d been so tempted to forget responsible behavior.
“I don’t mean to insult you by this suggestion,” he said. “But we could go to my room.”
Isabel had crossed her arms in front of her breasts, and he felt a sharp regret that she was moving away from that relentless desire. “But your room is in the lodge,” she whispered. “The kids won’t barge in?”
“Hell, no. The door has a lock.”
Trevor eyed the pinkness of Isabel’s cheeks. She’d never in a million years go into that room, knowing that the kids might come along and knock or holler for Trevor to come play air hockey.
When they might make assumptions.
He was glad she was like that.
He was also as frustrated as hell.
He shrugged. “I can’t invite you back to my Boulder house, tonight—I need to stay on Burch property—but I wish we could be alone.”
“I do, too.”
“I want to be free to love you,” he said, and although the timing was bad, he asked the question screaming through his head. “Are you going home to Kansas right after Sam and Darla’s wedding?”
“I’d planned to,” she said. “They’ll be leaving on their honeymoon, and I need to get Angie home to her dad.”
So she wouldn’t be free to visit Trevor at home. He wondered if he should even entertain the thought that she might take the little girl home, then fly back to spend time with him.
Or that they could start some long-distance phone relationship that couldn’t possibly satisfy but would at least be contact.
Trevor slicked a hand through his hair, regretful as his body cooled and his arousal loosened.
He needed it to loosen.
He needed to do the right thing.
He wasn’t sure what that was.
“So it’s that room down the hall from the camp kids. Or we kiss but don’t touch?” she asked.
“Or we stop completely.”
She moved forward, leaning near his ear. “Guess what?” she whispered. “I’ll take the kisses.”
“Thank heaven.”
She looked at him lovingly, and he was tempted again.
“Just a minute,” he said. He swam to the side near the lodge, then pulled himself out of the water and turned off the lights. “This okay?” he asked. “It may not be private, but it’s better than having the dadgum spotlight on us.”
“Good idea.”
He crossed to the pool in five long strides, dived in and came up at her feet.
“I really meant to learn how to do that.”
“And I meant to teach you. We just got over here and—”
She put a hand over his mouth. “Please. I’m doing what I want to do.”
“Come here, then.”
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and stretched up to him, meeting his lips with hers. Trevor communicated his feelings with only his mouth for a good, long while as they moved slowly, weightlessly along in the water.
When water lapped against his upper abdomen, Trevor felt free to brush his fingers against Isabel’s submerged breasts. No one could see. No one would know except the two of them. He slid his fingers beneath her suit. Her nipples were firm and slick. Perfect.
He wanted to see her.
He moved her swimsuit aside, then ducked his chin beneath the water long enough to kiss her there. To nuzzle her gently before coming back up to watch her body respond.
He kissed her harder, plunging his tongue in her mouth while he moved his thumbs against her bare nipples.
“Hey, Izza-bell and Mr. Trebor. We’re goin’ on a moonlight swim, too!”
As soon as he heard that voice, Trevor moved to block the view of Isabel, waiting for her to adjust her bathing suit.
He glanced across.
Angie was standing at the edge of the pool, wearing her little orange arm floats. Her face looked…excited? Curious? He couldn’t tell, but he thought she must not have seen. It wasn’t quite light enough for her to have seen much.
“You okay?” he murmured to Isabel.
She nodded, and he turned around but continued to stand between her and the little girl. “Hi, Angie. Decided to join us, did you?” he asked.
“Yep. Dah-la’s coming, too. She went to get some extra towels out of the laundry room.” Angie leaned forward a bit. “I can’t see, ’cuz it’s dark. Did you learn to swim yet, Izza-bell?”
“Not yet.” Isabel moved to stand beside Trevor. “I’m still working on floating.”
“Mr. Trebor needs to teach you kicking. ’Cuz it didn’t look like you were kicking.”
“Maybe that
’s what I need to do.”
Darla appeared outside the lodge doors, her arms full of folded white towels. “Hey, you two,” she said. “We don’t mean to barge in, but the movie ended and Angie didn’t act at all tired. We hope you don’t mind if we join you for a lesson.” She moved to the lodge wall and flicked on the light.
Trevor didn’t answer her. He couldn’t have given her an honest answer. He did mind, very much.
But she didn’t know about him and Isabel. Heaven only knew how Darla and Sam had managed to stay in the dark.
Angie started chattering about the movie, and the evening passed and so did Trevor’s desire. Again.
For now.
He stayed for about an hour, managing to work with Isabel on her kick without embarrassing himself, and then he made his way into the lodge while she returned to the house with Darla and Angie.
As he lay in his bed, he tried not to picture Isabel there beside him. He could imagine having her next to him every day. When he went to bed. When he woke up.
He could imagine wanting her there, even past the time when this fierce need for her waned. When sometimes just talking was enough and sometimes it wasn’t.
Maybe he’d been wrong.
Maybe loving was worth the risk.
SHE FELT SOMETHING warm and breathy, against her cheek.
A deep, soft murmur. “Isabel.”
She smiled. Dreaming of Trevor.
A hand on her shoulder. Shaking her. “Isabel!”
She opened her eyes to the darkness and a shape she couldn’t see as much as sense. “Trevor?”
“Shh! Come on.” He took her hand, tugged her away from her cot.
Isabel sat up and peered over her shoulder at the bed where Angie lay with her arms and legs tangled in the covers. Fast asleep. She got up and followed Trevor out the open bedroom door into the hallway.
He closed the door behind them.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
He gazed at her, his eyes tired. “Carving out some time with you.”
She frowned down the silent hallway, lit by a couple of sconces. It was very quiet. “Is it morning?”
“Four o’clock.”
“Four o’clock! Trevor!”
He tugged her into a hug. “Shh! Remember I’m directing a summer camp. The kids and I are leaving at seven, heading for a three-day campout.” He stepped back to peer at her. “I’ll be busy with this oldest group. We tackle bigger challenges.”