by Rachel Lacey
“Wow, it’s a little intimidating from down here,” she said, looking up.
“It won’t be after you’ve jumped. Leave the backpack here.”
“Good plan.” She set it beneath a tree near the water. “Okay, let’s do this.”
They hiked away from the water, beginning their winding ascent to the top. He was pretty sure he remembered a spot they could do some low-key climbing, but it had been a long time since he’d climbed here so he wasn’t sure he knew the way.
As it turned out, he didn’t, but they stumbled upon another spot that worked out even better than the one he’d been thinking of. The rock face was about fifteen feet high, with a gentle incline and plenty of knobs and ledges for hand- and footholds. He sent Emma up ahead of him so that he could help her out if she got in a jam, but with quiet concentration, she zoomed straight to the top.
“Wow,” she said as he climbed over the top beside her. “That was awesome.”
“You just kicked ass on that rock face,” he said.
“Thanks. It felt really good. Maybe I’ll climb it again if we come back up.” With a smile, she got to her feet and led the way back to the trail.
He was hot and sweaty by the time they’d reached the top, more than ready for a dip in the sparkling blue water below. The view from up here never failed to get his adrenaline pumping, the way the world just dropped off all around them. Fucking awesome.
“Hoooly shit,” Emma whispered as she looked down.
“Not too late to change your mind.”
She glared at him. “How often have you known me to back down from a challenge?”
Hmm. “Never.”
“Right. So anything I need to know before I jump?” She reached up and yanked her T-shirt over her head.
“What?” Because he was staring at her breasts, perfectly cupped in a hot pink bikini top, and he’d all but forgotten where they were and why they’d come here.
“Pervert.” She giggled as she shimmied out of her jeans, revealing a matching pink bikini bottom that was holy shit hot. And her tattoo…
He shucked his clothes and drew her in for another kiss, and okay, an excuse to feel her up in that itty-bitty bikini.
“Ready?” she whispered against his lips.
“Shoes,” he said. They’d both worn old sneakers today to jump in. He’d jumped barefoot before, but the water hurt like a bitch when you hit. Better that they wear shoes.
She slid hers on and laced them up tightly while he did the same. “Anything else?”
“You want to stand a few feet back from the edge, get a running start, and jump as big as you can,” he said. “Keep your body straight in the air, arms above your head, toes pointing toward the water.”
“Got it.” She walked to the edge and looked down, and then she just stood there, oddly silent.
He put a hand on her shoulder and felt the tension running through her. “It’s better if you don’t look too long. Just spot your landing, and then go if you’re going.”
“I’m going, all right.” But her voice was soft, lacking the bravado she’d sported a few moments ago.
He took her hand. “Together?”
She looked up at him with a smile. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
They backed up to the tree line. “Ready?” he asked.
“Three. Two. One. Go!” She ended on a shriek, already sprinting for the edge.
Chapter Twenty-one
Emma screamed as she leaped. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryan jump beside her. Her stomach did a barrel roll as she dropped, and some last-second instinct had her squeezing her eyes shut just before…
Splash.
The water smacked her toes and slammed up her nose, and then it had swallowed her whole. She went down, down, down, her ears popping the whole time. For a moment, she hung suspended in the water. She opened her eyes to a deep blue haze and the shadowy image of Ryan below her to her right. She looked up at the surface sparkling above her and started kicking.
She broke the surface with another splash, laughing and spluttering and gasping for breath. Ryan popped up beside her, treading water with one hand while he swiped water from his eyes with the other.
“That was awesome!” she shrieked.
“Yeah, it was,” he said, a wide grin on his face.
“I want to do it again.”
Now he was laughing at her, kicking toward the spot where they’d left her backpack. She followed, gliding through the water behind him. It had felt shockingly cold when she first went in, but now that her body had adjusted, it wasn’t bad at all.
He climbed onto the rocky shore, reaching out a hand for her. She gripped it and hauled herself up onto the rock beside him. Before she’d realized what was happening, she was in his arms, her body plastered to his, and he was kissing her like a man possessed.
“You were sexy as hell jumping off that cliff,” he murmured against her lips.
“It was even more fun than I thought it would be.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
“This part’s pretty fun, too.”
Yep. They were dripping wet and completely entwined, their skin slipping together with a delicious friction that warmed the last chill of the water.
“This part’s not fun, though.” Ryan adjusted himself in his trunks.
She giggled. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, his voice all low and rough. “I’m not.”
“Well, in that case…” She leaned in and kissed him again. His tongue slid against hers, igniting a fiery need inside her. She needed this moment, this man, this life. How could she give it all up next week?
“Emma,” he rasped, pulling back, “we’d better get going if we’re going to hike back up.”
She grumbled a little in protest, and Ryan hauled her in for one more blistering kiss. His cock pressed against her, so deliciously hard inside his swim trunks. She really wanted to help him out with that problem, but yeah, she wanted to jump again, too.
“Not going to be as much fun in wet, squishy sneakers,” she said, sliding them off one at a time to empty as much water out of them as she could.
“Maybe not, but it beats climbing back up barefoot.”
“Is that what you and Derek used to do?” she asked.
He nodded with a smile. “Tore our feet up pretty bad. Never brought towels either.”
“See? We girls think of everything.”
“You do,” he agreed. “Definitely an improvement.”
She wondered if he meant that, or if a part of him wished it were still her brother out here with him, racing their way to the top, barefoot and soaking wet.
He stepped closer and took her hand, as if he’d read her mind. “It’s different. Derek and I were here to out-daredevil each other. It was wild and reckless. Fun, sure. But it’s really great sharing it with you, too. I love sharing this kind of shit with you.”
The look in his eyes made her heart turn over in her chest. Gah. He didn’t mean…but…“I love sharing it with you, too.” She pressed her lips to his again then led the way back to the path.
This climb was a little different, wearing nothing but swimsuits. She wasn’t self-conscious in her bikini, especially not with Ryan, but okay, she wasn’t exactly sorry that their slippery, wet sneakers meant they had to forgo any rock climbing this time because she could only imagine what kind of view he’d have gotten following her up the rock face…
“Best afternoon we’ve spent together in a long time,” she said, sliding her hand into his.
“Agreed.” He looked over at her with an easy smile on his face.
They hiked together in comfortable silence, coming out once more at the top of the rock. Their clothes lay right where they’d dropped them.
“I guess we should have just hiked up in our swimsuits the first time. Now we’re going to have to come back for our clothes at the end.”
“Don’t mind,” he said with a shrug.
“Me eit
her.” She walked to the edge and peered down. Beside her, Ryan looked like a god in nothing but low-slung green board shorts, his skin bronzed and glistening, all his tattoos on display. “I should spend more time with you in a swimsuit,” she said, sliding into his arms.
“Sounds like a great idea to me.”
She slid her hands over his tattooed biceps. “I want to spend more time with you, Ryan.”
“What are you saying?” A guarded look came into his eyes.
“I don’t know. Let’s just not think of me leaving next week as a good-bye, okay?” She grabbed his hand and yanked. They sprinted together to the edge of the rock, and as she leaped out into the air, she whispered under her breath, “I love you.”
* * *
Ryan surfaced with a splash, feeling oddly disoriented. He could have almost sworn he heard Emma say…
But that was ridiculous. Wasn’t it?
She floated nearby, watching him from those bright, blue eyes.
“What was that about up there, about not saying good-bye?” he asked.
“I just…I used to think I wanted to leave Haven behind and start over somewhere else, but now I’m not sure I do.”
“But your degree…”
“I had this crazy thought just now.” She kicked her feet, floating closer. “What if I don’t need a degree after all? Maybe I could just start my own landscape design firm here in Haven and hope for the best.”
His stomach had gone all tight and cramped. “Emma, this is your dream. Don’t you dare give it up because of—”
“You?” she said, her eyes sad. “I wouldn’t give up my dream for anyone, Ryan. Don’t worry. But sometimes dreams change. Sometimes once you start chasing them, you realize those dreams represented who you were ten years ago, not who you are today.”
He stared at her, completely blindsided. “What are you saying?”
She looked away. “I don’t know, really. I’m just having some second thoughts.”
“You have to go to Georgia,” he said. Because he’d known Emma forever, and she’d always wanted this chance. She’d planned and saved for years for this opportunity. And no matter what she said, he had an uncomfortable suspicion that part of her current change of heart had to do with her feelings for him. Because they’d been together awhile now, and fuck, what had he been thinking?
This wasn’t casual, not for either of them, and now he was about to derail her future.
No way. He couldn’t live with himself.
“You need to go,” he said again. “Try it. If it doesn’t feel right, drop out. But you should give it at least a semester. You’ve worked too hard for this chance to let it slip away, Emma.”
“A semester. I like that plan.” She started kicking toward shore.
He swam behind her, totally distracted by the flashes of pink from her bikini through the water. She pulled herself out onto the rock, wet and glistening and so fucking gorgeous. He hauled himself out beside her and pulled her into his arms.
“How did we get here, Ryan?” she asked softly, her lips pressed against his neck.
“I don’t know.” His voice sounded gruff because he knew what she was asking. How had they gone from friends, to friends with benefits, to this? Because this felt like something he was terrified to put a name to. It felt like whispered confessions as she leaped off the cliff. It felt like things he had no business thinking about, not with Emma.
She’d never been his, not really. They’d just been fooling around. Having fun.
And now her lips were on his, and he was kissing her until all the madness in his head stopped, until all he could think about was the way she tasted and the feel of her wet skin on his. Her hands were on his back, her fingernails skimming over his skin, driving him mad. He dropped his left hand to the red poppy on her hip, as soft now as the rest of her.
“I packed something else in my backpack,” she whispered.
“What?” He hardly dared hope.
“Condoms.”
“Is that so?” His cock surged against the confines of his trunks.
“You haven’t properly scandalized me until you’ve had me outside in broad daylight,” she said with a wicked grin.
“And you want to be scandalized, do you?”
“I do.” Her hands slid inside his trunks, squeezing his ass.
“Well then, I’d better give the lady what she wants.” He glanced around, spotting an area behind the rock that was sheltered from view of the path in the unlikely event anyone else came along. He bent and spread out the oversized yellow towel Emma had packed for him.
She came up behind him, a foil packet clutched in her palm. She tossed it onto the towel and gripped him through his trunks. He hissed out a breath as she slid her palm up and down his length, working him into a frenzy.
“Strip,” she whispered.
Too turned on—and captivated—to object, he kicked off his soggy sneakers and shucked his trunks. He spun to face her. Emma was staring at him like he was a lollipop and she needed a sugar fix.
“You really have no business being so sexy,” she said. “It’s just not fair to the female species. How could I resist doing this?” She gripped him in her fist. “Or this?” She sank the fingernails of her other hand into his ass.
He quivered beneath her touch, his dick painfully hard.
She stroked him, hard and fast, then released him and gave him a shove toward the towel. He dropped to it and sheathed himself in the condom, then looked up at her. She looked like a goddess in that hot pink bikini, the red tattoo peeking out on her hip. Just looking at her was almost more than he could bear right now; he was so hard for her, so desperate to lose himself inside her.
She shimmied out of her bikini bottom and climbed into his lap, rocking against him with a needy little whimper. He captured her mouth with his, reaching between them to tease her with his fingers, to drive her as mad as she’d driven him.
She lifted her hips so that his cock pressed against her entrance, and he clutched at the towel beneath him.
“So good,” he ground out. “More.”
“Like this?” She sank onto him, taking him all the way in.
“God, yes.”
“I can’t get enough, Ryan,” she whispered, then she kissed him, her hips pressed to his, his dick fully nestled in her tight, hot body. Their tongues tangled, thrusting desperately against each other while she held herself still in his lap.
He was on fire, burning for her, and it was the most exquisite form of torture.
She pushed him down flat on his back, looking so fucking beautiful astride him, and then she began to move. She leaned forward so that her hair fell in a blond waterfall over his chest, tickling and teasing him. He thrust up into her as she finally let herself go, riding him with wild abandon. Her eyes were closed, but he kept his open, not wanting to miss a moment.
Her head was thrown back now, her face bathed in the look of arousal he’d come to know as she grew closer and closer to her release. He pushed back his own need so that he could watch her move, watch as she bucked her hips harder and faster against his, panting until, with a cry, she convulsed around him.
He’d been so caught up in watching her that the next thing he knew, his own orgasm slammed into him, drawing a feral cry from his throat as he came. It was a good damn thing he was already lying flat on his back because he wasn’t sure he could move, let alone stand, right now. He drew her against his chest and held her tight until he’d caught his breath.
“I think bad has been good for me,” she said, her breath tickling his chest.
He managed a hoarse laugh. “Yeah.”
“Really is a shame that our clothes are on top of that rock, though.”
“It really is.” Even more of a shame that he’d have to put on his cold, wet trunks to climb up and get them.
“Next time, we hike in our suits and leave our clothes down here.”
Next time. “Yeah.” He lay there for several minutes, just holding her.
Then he got to his feet and climbed into his wet trunks and soggy sneakers. “Still worth it,” he said with a wink.
“Totally.” She tugged her bikini bottom back on and reached for her sneakers.
“You stay here.” He picked up her pink towel and draped it over her shoulders. “I’ll be right back.”
* * *
Four hours later, Emma was seated at a table surrounded by her friends, halfway through her second beer, and today was definitely right up there as best day ever. She plucked a nacho from the half-demolished platter on the table in front of her, earning a heated look from Ryan as she licked cheese sauce from her finger.
“So have you started packing yet?” Carly asked, snagging a nacho for herself.
Emma shook her head. “I’ve been too busy this week with the memorial, but next week, work will start winding down for me.” She caught Ryan watching her intently. Maybe she’d said too much earlier. She wasn’t even sure where it had come from because she was still committed to moving to Georgia. Her emotions had gotten the better of her for a few minutes there after they jumped, but she wasn’t giving up on her dream.
Ryan was right. She had to go for at least a semester. Even if she didn’t finish her degree, she’d learn valuable skills she could use in her future business. And chances were, once she got there, she’d find the enthusiasm to stay.
The one part she was no longer sure about was what happened after graduation. She’d planned to stay in Georgia, but if Ryan was willing to make a go of a long-distance relationship, she’d happily move back to Haven after she graduated. In fact, even if they broke up, she might come back here after she earned her degree.
Because the people she loved most in the world were sitting around this table with her tonight, and she couldn’t imagine leaving them all behind forever. They were her family, and Haven was her home.
“Hi, guys. Sorry I’m late.”
Emma looked up to see Jessica standing beside their table. “You’re not late. We’re still on appetizers. I’m so glad you could come.” She motioned toward the only empty seat at the table…right next to Mark.