Just a Summer Fling

by Cate Cameron

  It was almost startling when she felt herself caught by the current. But Josh’s hands were still firm on her ankles and as the water tried to catch her and carry her away it pushed her down toward him until her feet were braced on the middle of his chest.

  It was like artificial gravity, the force of the water making her feel as if she was standing on his body, but the stars were still in front of her and that only made sense if she were lying down. For a moment her senses rebelled and she felt absolutely dizzy. Then she let go of her attempts to sort it out and just let herself feel, and it was perfect. The water was cool but his chest and hands were warm, and her ears were underwater so there were hardly any sounds, just a dull rush. Her hair tickled her shoulders and she was weightless. She felt like she was floating in space instead of in a stream, except she was anchored to Josh and he was more earthy and real than anyone else she’d ever met.

  How could someone so determined to keep his own feet on the ground give her the freedom to fly?

  * * *

  IT all felt strangely anticlimactic. Kevin and Charlotte had eventually reappeared from wherever they’d been, and Josh and Ashley had climbed out of the water and fumbled into their clothes. They’d all been quiet on the ride back to the farm, and Josh had thought about inviting them into the house for a drink but decided against it. They’d just given the horses a quick brushing and turned them out into their pasture, and then the women had climbed into their car and Kevin had climbed into his, and they’d gone.

  So Josh was left alone on his porch, his underwear soggy and cold beneath his jeans. Daisy the Demon Dog stared at him like she, too, was expecting something a bit more exciting to round out the evening.

  “Did I call Ember a drama queen?” Josh asked the dog. “’Cause maybe I should have been talking about myself.” He’d been the one thinking about it like it was a done deal, a foregone conclusion that something was going to happen between him and Ashley. “She just wanted something quick and easy,” he told the dog. “And I turned that down. It’s done. It’s over.”

  Daisy stared at him for a while, then stood up and trotted down to the tree line, coming back with a stick. She dropped it at his feet and when he threw it she chased it obligingly, although of course she didn’t bring it back. Demon dogs might chase things if the mood struck them, but they didn’t retrieve on command.

  He stayed on the porch, watching the night, while he drank a beer and then another. He was trying to decide between going to get a third and going in to change out of his damp jeans when he saw the headlights on the driveway. Daisy came tearing in from wherever she’d been and for a moment he thought she might actually throw herself at the car, but she swerved enough to just chase alongside it, her gaze locked on the person in the driver’s seat.

  Josh was looking at the exact same place. He stood up and stepped down off the porch, wishing that he’d gotten changed at some point so he’d look a bit less like someone with bladder control issues.

  But when Ashley got out of the car her shirt was damp along her breasts and he knew her jeans would be clammy, too, and he decided it was good that they matched.

  She stood by the door of the car, not even closing it, and she stared at him while Daisy sniffed her and then trotted off. He supposed it was up to him to say something, but he was afraid it would be the wrong thing. What words would make her get back in the car and what words would make her stay? And which of those things did he want anyway?

  So he stood at the bottom of the porch, and she stood by the car, and they both stared. Finally, she shook her head as if waking from a dream. “I didn’t want it to be over,” she said, just loudly enough for him to hear. “We don’t have anything else planned. You’re done working on the cottage, and you said only two riding lessons, and that’s totally fair. More than fair. It was really generous of you. But that meant there’s no other reason for me to see you, and I felt like . . . I felt like it wasn’t finished. Or maybe just that I don’t want it to be finished.”

  He moved then. All the way to the car, but somewhere around the back wheel on the driver’s side he ran out of steam and stood there, one big stride away from her, and he couldn’t trust himself to go any closer. “You can have another lesson,” he managed to say. “If you want. Or we could do something else. I could make you dinner.” Which was a stupid suggestion, because he was a pretty terrible cook. “You could break something at the cottage and I could fix it.”

  She shook her head at that, embarrassed. “If I did that, would you trust me not to have a big fancy dinner set up to surprise you?”

  “I’d come over in the morning,” he said, shuffling a little closer to her. “And I wouldn’t give you an exact time, so you wouldn’t be able to plan a brunch or something.”

  “Crafty.” She wasn’t looking him in the eye. Her attention seemed caught by something else, and he wanted to wipe his hand over his face to check if there was something stuck to his skin. But then he licked his lips, unconsciously, nervously, and he saw her eyes widen. Oh.

  It gave him his confidence back. This wasn’t the part he was supposed to be insecure about. She’d made it clear that she wanted him, physically. Abundantly clear, on multiple occasions. And he’d spent enough time around summer women to learn that they were no different from anyone else, not when it came to their desires. He knew what he was doing, for this part at least.

  And maybe the confidence made him a little cocky, because instead of moving forward and letting himself finally touch her warm, soft body, he stepped back. “Would you like a drink?” he asked, raising the beer bottle he’d almost forgotten he was holding. “I have beer, or Scotch. Red wine, but no white, I don’t think.”

  She looked disoriented, and he liked it. “A beer would be good,” she finally said, but she didn’t sound convinced.

  Of course she wasn’t convinced. She hadn’t driven out there for a beer. She’d come for the same thing she’d wanted from him every other time. This time, she’d won, and she was going to get it. But he could at least make her wait a while. He could drag it all out, torture her with anticipation and frustration. Sure, he’d be torturing himself as well, but he’d rather have this kind of suffering than the one he was facing down the line.

  “Come sit,” he said quietly, starting toward the porch. He didn’t let himself turn to check, but he could hear the gravel crunching as she fell in behind him.

  “You going to be cold?” he asked when they reached the top of the porch steps. He turned and nodded briefly to her clothing, with its damp spots.

  She looked down at herself, then back at him. It was hard to tell in the dim light filtering out from inside the house, but he was pretty sure she was blushing. When she spoke, her voice confirmed his suspicion: the movie star was embarrassed. “I’m a mess. I didn’t think about . . . I should have cleaned up. God, I should have dried off at least! This is not how I’m supposed to look.”

  “Not supposed to look real?” he asked. “You’re supposed to wear waterproof underwear or something?” He shook his head and gestured to his own jeans. “I’m a little soggy myself. And if you think any guy is ever going to complain about you wearing something that reminds him he recently saw you mostly naked, you’re crazy.” It wasn’t much fun to torture someone who was actually suffering from it. “Sit. I’ll get a blanket in case you get cold. And a couple beers.”

  She did as she was told, and he did as he’d said he would. When he came back from inside she was sitting on the porch swing with her boots off and her feet curled up under her ass, and she looked tiny and delicate, more like someone to be protected than someone to be lusting after. Then she shifted a little and the light shone on the full roundness of her breasts, and that was it for his protective instincts.

  He handed her one of the beers and then sat down beside her, the blanket between them. They were quiet for a while, until Ashley said, “Thank you.”

&nbs
p; He looked at her quizzically, but didn’t ask for clarification. He just waited.

  She smiled. “For the beer, and the blanket, and the swim, and the riding lessons. But mostly . . . it feels like . . . I don’t know. Thank you for letting me be here. For not chasing me off and telling me to leave you alone.”

  “I’ve already tried that,” he said lightly. “It never seemed to do much good.”

  She was quiet for too long this time, and he realized that his words had hit too close to home. Or maybe they’d hit exactly where he’d intended them to; maybe he still wanted to punish her, at least a little. But that wasn’t fair. “Sorry,” he said. The word wasn’t quite enough, so he tried to find a few more to go with it. “I’m glad you’re here.” That was true, on some level, and he should have just stopped talking, but instead he added, “It’s a bad idea and I should know better— I do know better—but I’m still glad you’re here.”

  She whirled toward him with such vigor that he had to plant his feet to keep the swing from lurching out of control. “I don’t get that! What is it about me that’s so poisonous? Why is it a bad idea for us to spend some time together? I’m a nice person, Josh! I’m not . . .” Her voice trailed off, and her last words were barely audible. “Why am I a bad idea?”

  What was he supposed to say to that? He could tell her it wasn’t anything personal. That was true enough, but he didn’t think she’d believe it, not unless he went into a lot more detail than he really wanted to about it all. “Summer people,” he said heavily. He knew what he meant. Any of the other locals would know what he meant. They’d understand that it wasn’t just about the amount of time summer people spent in the place, it was everything. Wealth, status, celebrity, arrogance. The way they arrived like a swarm of locusts, sweeping over the quiet wilderness and changing everything in their paths. They assumed Vermont was theirs, that it was one more venue for their enjoyment, like an amusement park or something. They forgot that there were people who lived there year-round. People whose whole existences were anchored to the rocky soil, people who had been born there and were going to die there, just like their parents and grandparents before them. Josh was pretty sure the summer people thought the place was boxed up and stored away once fall came, and the people who’d served them all summer were packed away with it, with no thoughts or emotions or regrets about anything that had happened over the warmer months. “You treat us like we’re not real,” he said. It was the best he could do.

  But Ashley didn’t look convinced. “What does that mean?”

  “Like we don’t matter,” he tried again. Then he looked at her and saw how upset she looked. She’d come out for a quickie, and had gotten stuck with a beer and this instead. Not a pleasant surprise. So he added, “Not you.” But that wasn’t quite right. “Not just you. You’re not . . . you’re not the worst of them.”

  She stared at him, and he knew there would be more questions. He’d try to answer them, but he wasn’t really sure he’d be able to. He wasn’t great with words at the best of times, and trying to explain something like this? “It’s just not a good idea. Getting involved with summer people. Sometimes it makes you forget who you are, and who they are. . . .”

  “How do I treat you like you don’t matter?” Her voice was shaky, and for a horrible moment he was afraid she was crying. He looked at her long enough to be sure her cheeks were dry, but he wasn’t really sure what he would have done if they’d been wet.

  Probably if she’d been crying he’d have had the sense to shut up. Maybe he would have taken her in his arms, if she’d let him, and that probably would have led somewhere a hell of a lot better than this conversation. But she wasn’t crying, so, God help him, he kept talking. “Like I’m a piece of meat,” he said. “No. Not that dramatic. But you know what I mean.”

  “The bar,” she said. “That was . . . It was a mistake. I was drunk and stupid and I did something stupid.”

  “Yeah. I’ve done stupid stuff, too. Lots of it. I just . . . You aren’t that sort of person, right? Like, have you ever taken a dare like that before?”

  “No!”

  “But you did that time. Partly because of Jasmine. I know how she . . .” He stopped there. He didn’t want to tell Ashley about all that, and he could pretend to himself that it was because he didn’t want her to think less of Jasmine. “But partly you did it because you’re on vacation. You’re somewhere else, away from your real life. What happens in Vermont stays in Vermont. I get it.” He shook his head. He did get it. “But I’m not on vacation. This is real life, for me. You planning a dinner—for you, it’s just something funny, a silly thing you did one time on vacation. But for me . . . that was my cousin who saw you treating me like a boy toy. Like someone you’d decided to play with. She told my whole family about it. They laughed, mostly. Not a huge deal. But how would you feel if your whole family knew about some guy treating you like that? Some guy trying to seduce you while your cousin watched?”

  “I screwed up that time, too,” she said. “I know.”

  “Look, it’s not a tragedy,” he started. He might have had more to say, but they both heard the car coming, the low purr of its engine and the crackle of gravel under its wheels, and then they both turned to see its headlights as it approached through the forest.

  “Oh,” Ashley said. “You have a visitor.”

  A rescuer. Someone who’d keep him from making a mistake with this woman. But now that escape was at hand, Josh knew for sure he didn’t want to get away. He’d chosen this mistake, and now he wanted to make it.

  But when the car’s lights turned off, taking the glare out of his eyes, he recognized the vehicle, and a moment later, the driver who stepped out, and he knew that he wasn’t going to get the chance to make a new mistake that night. Not when one of his old ones was staring at him from the driveway.

  Twelve

  ASHLEY HAD NO idea what to say. She remembered what she was wearing, and how ridiculous she must look with patches of dark everywhere her underclothes had soaked through her clothes. She knew her hair was a mess, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. The woman walking toward them was absolutely going to pick up on all that. Then Ashley stopped worrying about that as her brain prompted her with the question it should have been asking from the start. What the hell was Jasmine McArthur doing at Josh’s cabin?

  Maybe Jasmine had come out to ask him to do a few repairs? But it was Friday night, fairly late, and Jasmine was wearing high heels and a short dress. She was holding a bottle of wine in her hand. Ashley tried to keep her mind from leaping to the obvious conclusion.

  “Josh,” Jasmine said in her low, sultry voice. “Hope you don’t mind me dropping by.” Then she squinted a little and said, “Ashley? Honestly, is that you? I barely recognize you, sweetie! Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Ashley said. Her voice sounded light and stupid next to Jasmine’s.

  “You know the dare had a time limit, right?” Jasmine sounded amused. “I think it’s a little late to try to claim a prize now.”

  Finally, Josh broke in, and his voice was as cold as Ashley had hoped it would be. “What can I do for you, Jasmine?”

  Even in the moonlight, Ashley could see the way Jasmine’s eyes flared at Josh’s tone. She was excited by it. She wanted him angry. She sashayed a little closer to the deck. “You could fetch us a couple glasses, for a start.” She held up the bottle of wine. “Ashley, you’ll join us?”

  As if Ashley was the one crashing the party. And as usual with Jasmine, the words held a little suggestiveness, the hint of the idea that maybe Ashley would be joining them for more than a drink.

  “I should go,” Ashley said desperately. Spending time with Josh and the forest had stripped away her protective armor, and Jasmine was too sharp to be around without defenses.

  Josh didn’t argue. He seemed to have removed himself from the situation almost entirely, just sitting the
re on the swing and watching the two women as they . . . as they what? As Jasmine toyed with Ashley like a cat would play with a mouse, probably. If Ashley’d had time to prepare, she could have given Jasmine a run for her money in the polished appearance department, but she’d never picked up the woman’s conversational fierceness. Yes, Jasmine was definitely a predator, and Ashley was the prey.

  Or, more likely, Josh was the prey. Jasmine was just another summer woman making a booty call, treating Josh—what had he said? Treating him like he wasn’t real. Ashley was pretty sure she understood what he meant by that now. Treating him like a servant, really. An unpaid gigolo. At their beck and call, ready to perform at their whims. Was that how Josh thought Ashley had treated him?

  Yeah, she needed to get out of there. She stood up, wishing it were darker so the others wouldn’t be able to see her messy clothes, or her messy face. At least she managed to keep herself mostly turned away from Josh. But Jasmine was watching her with savage glee, taking in every detail of her appearance, and her reaction.

  “I’m up for another week at least, and I don’t have any guests for the next couple days. We should get together, sweetie.” Her smile was wicked as she glanced at Josh and then half whispered, “We could compare notes!”

  Ashley wasn’t sure if the strange sound she made could count as a reply or not, and she didn’t think she had the self-control to clarify anything. She felt like an innocent, blundering around in some game Jasmine and Josh were playing together. Josh didn’t have a rule against summer women; he just didn’t want anything to do with Ashley. So let them sit there on the porch, let them talk about her and laugh.

  But they wouldn’t likely be sitting on the porch for long. She refused to turn around, but by the time she’d scrambled to her car and backed it up, she could see them in the rearview mirror and Josh was already standing, he and Jasmine so close together Ashley couldn’t see any light between them.