Summer Seduction

by Rachel Van Dyken

  I was Goldilocks.

  He was my bear.

  And he was going to have to burn down the cabin to get me to move. Bastard had a feather mattress! No wonder it looked so inviting. I shimmied myself into a comfortable position. The sheets were a high thread-count.

  I let out a breathy moan and turned to face the wall. I fell asleep so fast that the last thing I remembered was the smell of fresh grass.

  “COMFORTABLE?” A MALE voice rumbled behind me.

  My eyes jerked open.

  I didn’t turn.

  I was frozen in place. “Y-yes.”

  “Something wrong with your bed? The one I so generously loaned you?” I could feel him hovering over mine, casting a shadow from the moonlight; even my body buzzed with awareness.

  “You mean after giving me the scary Parent Trap cabin?”

  He cleared his throat. “Ray…”

  If that wasn’t a warning. Shoot. “You have a feather mattress.”

  “I can’t like nice things?”

  “And your pillows…” I gulped and inwardly rolled my eyes. “…are, um… fluffy?”

  “Fluffy?” he repeated.

  I couldn’t tell by his tone if he was pissed or just exhausted.

  “Right.” He didn’t say anything else.

  I was just about to get up and apologize profusely because I couldn’t take the static-sounding silence.

  But when I turned to speak the words…

  I almost swallowed my tongue.

  People needed their tongues!

  He was in black boxer briefs.

  He was also only inches from my face.

  Not really his body.

  His… just… package.

  I was afraid to move.

  Sudden movements cause things to go away, right?

  Is that how it worked?

  He licked his lips. “Scoot over.”

  “Huh?”

  “If you’re going to steal my bed, then I’m going to steal it back. Sleep here, sleep on the floor— Hey, here’s a thought. Sleep outside with the bears or go back to your own cabin…”

  “Did you say sleep here?” I asked in a weak voice.

  He let out a long sigh, and that was when I noticed the dark circles under his eyes, the exhaustion in his tone. “Yes. Just. Sleep.”

  I was not sure why I did it. And even as I moved toward him, I knew I’d regret it, but I couldn’t help myself.

  I ran my hands down his face and then moved to his shoulders. I dug in massaging down his arms as he leaned toward me, and then a little snore escaped his lips.

  I smiled at that. I loved it more than a girl who had nobody should, because it made me want more.

  It gave me hope I could have it.

  I helped him lie down, and I pulled the covers over his body, and when I turned on my side back toward the wall, Marlo pulled me against him as if it was normal.

  He claimed me as small spoon.

  And a tiny tear of happiness found its way down my cheek.

  A GENTLEMAN WOULDN’T notice how tight her ass felt against his cock; he also wouldn’t be thinking of the elderly naked in order to get rid of every straining inch of himself, but there it was.

  Her hair fell in a curtain over her face. One ear peeked out, and that one ear held my attention for longer than it should. I noticed its curve. I noticed the smooth neck connected to that curvy ear.

  And I wanted to lick my way down so desperately that I was frozen in place, afraid to move. Afraid that the alarm clock would go off too soon.

  I wanted to keep her there forever.

  Because I’d never gotten the chance to.

  Guys weren’t supposed to have dreams of waking up with girls, and for the most part, I never had.

  I sent them packing. Every time.

  But with Ray, it had been different. We’d smelled like sweat, like each other, like horny teenagers with way too much alcohol pumping through their veins.

  And it had been perfect.

  For an hour.

  For one hour, the foster kid from the wrong side of the tracks, the unwanted hired help, had held the princess in his arms.

  I sighed and pinched my nose as I recalled all of the memories that I hated thinking about.

  The stiffening of her body.

  The way she gasped as if she had no recollection of what had transpired between us. She tugged the sheet and covered her breasts, the ones my mouth had just been all over.

  And then the horrified look in her face.

  The look a princess gave a monster when she woke up from her deep sleep only to find her prince missing and someone like me in his place.

  Rejection stung.

  Rejection from the one girl who I’d waited for…

  Was excruciating.

  “Marlo.” Tears filled her eyes. “The party’s over… You could probably go home now.”

  I heard the real meaning.

  Leave.

  My throat felt swollen as rejection and hatred fused their hands together, twisting my insides, stabbing my chest repeatedly until it felt as if I would bleed out. “Right.”

  “I mean…” She offered a sweet smile while I snorted, turned around, and started to dress. “…it was fun.”

  “Fun,” I repeated in a weak voice. “Yeah, a blast. I owe you one.”

  “Marlo, stop. It’s not…”

  “Not what? Like that?”

  “No, I just mean… we don’t want to get caught.” Her face softened.

  But I also caught the lie; it was evident in her eyes, in the way they darted from left to right before finally settling back onto me. And then she smiled.

  So, I trusted the lie.

  I trusted the smile.

  And I smiled back and kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you at school.”

  “Yeah, sure.” She grinned wide.

  And I walked out of her house a man.

  Or so I thought…

  My alarm clock chose that awesome moment to spring to life, making me nearly fall out of my bed.

  And the sick part of the whole situation…

  I was petrified that she’d give me that same look.

  And because I’d let her in…

  Because I had no choice…

  I knew it would hurt.

  God, it would hurt so fucking bad.

  I waited for her to say something.

  The alarm kept ringing.

  I frowned to my right.

  “Marlo…” Her voice was deep with sleep. “…if you don’t turn that damn thing off, I’m going to choke you to death, not in a sexy way, in a you-will-not-survive sort of way.”

  A smile spread across my face. “Morning, SP. Anything else I can get you? Coffee? A massage? Bacon?”

  Her head jolted up, matted blonde hair covering part of her face. “Are you just being a jackass, or do you really have bacon hidden somewhere in here?”

  “Why don’t you just sniff it out.” I winked.

  A pillow came crashing down on me before I could get out of the way.

  “Hey!” I grabbed it from her hands, or at least tried to, but she was feisty in the morning. She slammed the pillow onto me three more times and then straddled me and jerked the one out from under my head. She clearly used the element of shock and awe against me and looked ready to smother me.

  “Truce.” I held up my hands. “I’ll grab you coffee.”

  “Promise?” She held the pillows high.

  “Pinky promise.” I held up my hand.

  Her eyes flickered to my pinky, and then she hooked hers around mine. I used that as an opportunity to jerk her against my chest. Because I couldn’t face the rest of the day without knowing what it would feel like to have her on top of me, legs on either side of my body, chest to chest, face to face. Matted hair and all.

  “I like you in the mornings,” I whispered softly, cupping her face with my free hand.

  She gulped. “Because I yell at you?”

  “That…” I n
odded. “…and because you haven’t had time to put your guard up. It’s when you’re most free.”

  She quickly looked away and moved off me.

  And I let her.

  Shit. Another moment ruined.

  The room fell silent.

  Good job, Marlo. Well done!

  “Hey, Marlo?” Her back was turned to me; she was fidgeting with the Keurig as if she didn’t know where the power button was.

  With a sigh, I walked over to it, grabbed a pod, and started making her coffee. A week ago, I would have called her spoiled; today, I just wanted her to smile at me again. Hell, I’d even take the pillow pummeling.

  As long as I survived it.

  And I’d survived it all when it came to her.

  “Yeah?” The coffee was brewing. I crossed my arms around my bare chest and waited.

  Her tongue darted out, licking her lips.

  I tried to focus on what words would be coming out from them, but all I wanted to do was capture them between mine and make promises I had no business making against them.

  “How do you do it without being afraid?”

  “Drink coffee?” I joked.

  She scowled. “How do you let go?”

  So many things to say.

  Admit.

  Confess.

  “We all have our shit, princess.” I shrugged. “I let some of mine go because if I hold onto it, it just destroys me, destroys my creative process, but that doesn’t mean I’m perfect obviously.”

  She smiled at that. “You let go because it hurts you more when you hold on to it than it does the person that you want to punish. And that’s the truth.”

  She sucked in a breath, her eyes filling with tears. “What if I want people I should love to suffer?”

  I let out a sigh and tilted her chin toward me. “Punish them with the music.” I pulled her in for a hug. “And raise hell.”

  “That’s just another way of saying to let it go, be vulnerable, give everything, jump without a parachute.”

  I released her and handed her the hot cup of coffee. “You know you never jump by yourself the first time.”

  She frowned. “What?”

  “You jump with an instructor.” I shrugged. “I’m just saying… nobody ever said you had to do this alone.”

  “But—” She shook her head. “—I’m on staff.”

  “Yup.”

  “And everyone has their jobs.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “And—”

  “Ask me what I did last night.”

  She took a sip of coffee, her eyes narrowing. “Went for another stupid run where you got birds to wave at your eight-pack and squirrels to chant your name?”

  I leaned in. “Close.” I grabbed the cup from her hands, took a sip, and handed it back. “I helped edit all of the auditions with Brax. My point being… you don’t do this alone. And as much as I hate to even say this out loud, if you need someone to help you who isn’t me, ask them. We’re a team here.”

  I couldn’t look at her anymore.

  Because I wanted it to be me.

  I wanted her to ask me to wait while she jumped in my arms.

  I would take anything I could get. I needed to make it up to her. To take a chance on something that she had no clue of scared the ever-loving hell out of me.

  “So, you think Jackson would be good then?” she called behind me.

  I gripped my shower caddy so hard I was surprised it didn’t just crumble into dust between my fingertips. Every muscle tensed. I didn’t turn around. “Yeah, he’s… a triple threat. He’d be great…”

  No, he’ll be trying to get her naked within minutes, and he’ll take advantage of that fucking beautiful face she gets when she feels her body relax into the music. He’ll see her beauty in a way that was otherworldly, and I’ll have to hit him over the head with a shovel and toss his body into the lake.

  “…just… great.”

  “Hmm, all right.”

  Was that it?

  I gritted my teeth and took another step when something hit me in the back of my head and fell to the floor. I turned.

  “You forgot your towel. Distracted?” She took another slurp of coffee then winked at me over it. “And why would I ask Jackson when I have the best choreographer at camp in my cabin?”

  I jerked my towel off the floor and pointed at her. “My cabin.”

  “I’m taking over.”

  “You have one side, just stay on it.” A smile tugged at my lips.

  She sat down on my bed and stretched an arm over her head. “You sure you want that?”

  “I can guarantee that if you don’t stop testing me, you’re going to be naked on your back in my bed, and then where will that leave us?”

  “Where… indeed?” she repeated.

  Our eyes locked.

  The tension went from zero to five hundred.

  The shower caddy slipped from my fingers and landed on floor with a thud. Her eyes raked over my body as if she wanted breakfast early, and I was the bacon.

  In two steps, I was taking her coffee from her unresisting grip and setting it on the nearby table.

  And then she was wrapping her legs around my waist as I leaned in. Our foreheads touched. Her scent wrapped around me, her warmth drawing me in.

  And naturally, a knock sounded at my screen door.

  “Interrupting?” Brax’s annoying voice had very much interrupted whatever had been about to happen.

  Ray’s chest rose and fell, her nipples hard beneath her white tank top. Never mind Jackson. I was throwing Brax in the lake and praying that a released pet piranha who had a taste for human flesh found him immediately.

  “What…” I said through clenched teeth. “…is it?”

  “Figured you’d want to announce auditions, and I just got back from HQ. We have all the signups…” He grinned at us. “So, you guys—”

  I stomped over to him, grabbed the stack of papers from his hand, then my shower caddy and my towel, and let the door slam behind me.

  With hurried footsteps on gravel, he quickly caught up to me. “Did you guys…?”

  “No,” I barked then squeezed my eyes shut. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  “It looked like she was ready to suck your face off.”

  “Romantic,” I said dryly. “Go be anywhere but here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to tie you to the shower, fill every drain with cement, and leave you there to see if you’d drown!”

  “Well, that’s weird. Why not just throw me in the lake and tie cement around my feet? Way more effective, bro.”

  “Go!” I roared.

  He held up his hands. “Interesting first two weeks, huh? Just try not to get caught in the shower again with your dick in your hand and no place to stick it!”

  My eyes widened. “Who told you?”

  “Jackson, after he told everyone else. Is it true? Did she really get you all hot and bothered then leave you high and dry? Revenge for revenge, tit for tat — I like it.”

  “It was like I took Viagra and needed to call 911. You should be more concerned for my sexual health.”

  He shook his head. “No, bro. You need to be concerned. That ain’t right.”

  “Yeah, well…” I jerked the bathroom door open. “…neither is fucking her and having my friends talk about my revenge sex plot.”

  “Touché.” He squinted. “I’ll just leave you to it then. Don’t think of me when you’re in there. I want no part in your sexual fantasies!”

  “You wish.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Don’t make it weird!” he called just as the door slammed behind me.

  And because I knew suffering so fucking well, I walked into the shower I’d shared with Ray, and I let myself relive every single moment. As the water slid down my body, I remembered hers.

  And I burned more than I’d ever burned in my life.

  IT FELT AS if he was avoiding me. Either that, or I was just used to seeing hi
m now, and when I didn’t see him, I assumed something was wrong. I was overanalyzing everything.

  Ever since two mornings ago.

  It was Saturday, and we were still in the same cabin, but he hadn’t made another move, and it was slowly killing me.

  I understood why.

  To an extent.

  He was acting like my friend.

  Offering advice.

  Making me coffee.

  Being so damn nice I wanted to slap the coffee out of his hand and ask him if I could touch his eight-pack.

  Or bulging arms.

  Or bulging anything really.

  He’d let me sleep in his bed every night.

  Technically, I’d let myself sleep in his bed, and he had begrudgingly put up with it, but he always ended up wrapping his arms around me, pulling me against his body as if I was his own personal teddy bear. And my shorts were thin so I felt him pressed against me. I felt every stupid throbbing inch in the morning.

  He was searing hot.

  And then cold.

  Because he’d pull away, grip his hair so tight I wondered if he was trying to pull it out, then walk over to the Keurig and asked how I slept.

  After forty-eight hours, I was ready to wait for him naked in his cabin with a rose between my teeth.

  And then the sick part of me wondered if it was a trick. If he was doing this just to sleep with me again, driving me to the brink of sexual insanity, only to see if he could have one more shot and then abandon me in the end.

  My trust issues were more than severe. They were paralyzing.

  I sucked it up and made my way into the main outdoor theater It seated three hundred and faced away from the lake, giving it the perfect backdrop for Dirty Dancing.

  It was beautiful.

  I was one of the staff judges.

  Along with Jackson.

  He waved me over and handed me a clipboard. “If they suck, write that they suck. Constructive criticism isn’t necessary. They either nail it, or they walk on by. Easy.” He handed me a pen and sat.

  With an exhale, I plopped down next to him. “How many tryouts for the leads?”

  He whistled. “Ten for Johnny, forty for Baby.”

  “Forty!” I repeated loudly.