“Hmm, Josh,” she whispered, draping around him. “This probably isn’t wise.”
“Will you get pregnant?”
“No.”
“Then it doesn’t matter.”
Jenna pushed at him, thrashing to get away. “It does matter, Josh. I had a friend that got HIV from a needle, and then gave it to another friend of mine because one night they didn’t have protection and didn’t think it mattered. It matters.”
Josh stayed very still, which was impressive because he was treading water and should have been moving somewhere. “Do you have anything, Jenna?”
“No. I’m clean. I get tested every year. I’m clean because I’m lucky, Josh. Because I got caught sneaking out by Max and didn’t meet up with Sandy the night she shared an infected needle. I got lucky. How’s that for it not mattering?”
“It doesn’t matter because we’ve messed up twice already. Also…I would take it as penance for…some personal fuck-ups in my history. Long story short, what’s done is done. That’s all it takes for that sort of thing, but pregnancy is another beast altogether. We are safe, though. I’ve been tested too. I get tested often, but…for different reasons. The social aspect is more a ‘while I’m here.’ I’m sorry I offended you.”
Jenna took a big breath and got rewarded by sinking. She felt Josh grab her and pull her in again. She clutched his shoulders.
She wiped her face of moisture. “Sorry. I can get prickly at times. What do you get tested for if not…you know? Are you a male prostitute?”
“I’ve been to a lot of exotic places. Not many of them for vacation reasons. There are some creative parasites out there, and even more creative diseases. What can I say? I’m paranoid. I’d really rather not have something floating around in my bloodstream that I’m unaware of.”
“And I thought I was abnormal.”
“Just a different version of abnormal, it sounds like. I’m sorry about your friends. It’s hard to believe some of the stories you tell me. You’re a beautiful woman. You should have a privileged life.”
“Why, because I had a pretty face?”
“That’s how it always works, isn’t it?”
“You tell me, gorgeous.” She kissed him, rubbing against his erection, wondering if she’d ruined her chances.
“After you get me fired, I’ll look for a sugar mama.”
“You’re in luck—I happen to have a shitload of money from this career I was forced into as a child. You might have heard something about it.”
“Better and better.” Josh made no move to join their bodies again.
Jenna ran her tongue along his bottom lip and reached between them to try and organize some sex. She slipped off his body and dunked herself.
“I never want to leave this lake. You are a world of entertainment.” Josh grabbed her under the arms and stabilized her.
“Oh, yeah?” With a big kick she pounced, getting her two hands on the top of his head and then pushing down. Instead of dunking him, she succeeded in putting her breasts in his face.
A moment later, she lost her top.
Giggling, she tried again, moaning when he sucked on her nipple, and then getting a face full of water when he disappeared. Fingers curled around her bottoms before the fabric was pulled down and off.
“Hey,” she said, glancing back to the shore. Only trees and an empty, muddy bank looked back.
She twirled in a circle, trying to see through the murkiness. The water lapped at her skin and rippled across her bare sex. Josh surfaced a few feet from her, holding the fabric and smiling. “You lost something.”
“This is going to be fairly awkward when the other groups show up.”
“Probably.”
“So maybe you should give me those back.” She reached but only succeeded in getting water on her face.
“Maybe.”
“It’s your job.” She swam backward and floated, the top half of her body bobbing above the surface. She felt the swirls of water lap her as Josh made his way over. A large hand felt up from her thigh, hovering on her stomach. It followed the shallow tides of water across the surface of her body, stalling on her breasts.
“You really are breathtaking,” he murmured, more to himself than as a compliment. “To think, I almost backed away from this. I keep making one mistake after the other.”
He was starting to dip into self-loathing, taking the mood a little too far into somber. Jenna wanted to ask what was so bad that he had needed to change his name, take up a job he was way overqualified and overeducated for, and virtually live as a hermit to forget his past. She knew he wouldn’t answer, though, nor should he have to. She was only three days past being a perfect stranger.
“There was no way you’d back away in the end,” she said, closing her eyes and focusing on his touch. It was familiar and exotic at the same time. Safe and dangerous. “Not when I went out to dance in the moonlight. Just be glad I forgot my broomstick or you might feel inclined to propose and leave me all your trailblazing wealth.”
Josh snorted, running his hand along her lower stomach. “You would get my beetle collection.”
As his hand dipped lower, Jenna’s eyes rolled back in her head. She was no longer capable of answering.
“We should hurry or we should wait,” Josh said in a hoarse whisper. “We don’t have a lot of time. Plus, those knucklehead New Yorkers might get themselves dead.”
“We can’t all swim like you Southern boys.”
His hand stopped at her pubic line, hesitated, and then dipped between her legs. “I vote hurry.”
Josh disappeared for another few seconds, and when he returned her legs were pushed down and her upper body was brought to his chest. His erection, now without the bunch of fabric below it, prodded her. Josh’s fingers guided his cock to her opening, and then slowly thrust, filling her up.
“Mmm, that will never get old,” she said with a sigh, squeezing in tight with her legs. “I don’t have a lot of knowledge of how to do this in the middle of a lake.”
“I’ll use my hands to keep us afloat. Rock out.”
She did. With her legs wrapped around him and her arms clinging to his hard, unyielding muscle, she made delicious friction at a breakneck pace. Despite what he’d said, she didn’t want to get him fired. The sooner they reached climax, the better. But it was tough going suspended in water.
“Kiss me, Jenna,” he whispered in her ear.
She claimed his lips, opening them to allow him in. The taste of him was intoxicating. Sweet, wild wine and spice. She was swept away, to that place that blotted out her surroundings and made her forget her name.
The friction from his sizable girth immediately had her winding up, her body tight, her pleasure heightened. She moved her hips in a circle and then pushed into him, jolting more pleasure. Then again, tightening her legs to increase the thrust. Faster and faster she worked, moaning, calling his name.
“Oh!” She gasped and squeezed him, shaking against him.
He groaned, quaking under her.
Breathing hard, allowing him to keep her afloat, she draped around him.
“Better and better,” he said with a note of bewilderment. “Maybe we should just stay here forever. In this lake.”
“Sounds cold.”
They heard laughter from back in the woods. “Time to close up shop,” she said, unhooking her legs from around his waist and gearing up to float on her own.
He didn’t let go of her. His legs kicked, keeping them up, as his face remained inches from hers.
“We still have a few days to do this, Josh,” she said quietly. “On dry land. Where we won’t drown.”
He kissed her, hard. When he finally drifted backward, regret flashed in his eyes. He took a breath and disappeared underwater.
Another spatter of laughter rang through the trees. She checked her body, knowing that people would be able to partially see her breasts even if they couldn’t see anything else.
“Where are you?” she whi
spered, staring at the trees. Something moved. A person?
Her heart started to pound. She’d been naked on photo shoots more times than she could count, but that had been expected. No one had cared. Here people would stop and gawk, then be embarrassed for her.
The water rippled. Josh broke the surface a couple feet from her before holding out her bathing suit. A clump of mud fell off the top.
“Where did you put these?” she asked, shaking the garment in the water.
“Bottom.”
“Of the lake?”
“It’s more of a pond, really. It isn’t that deep. Fifteen feet, maybe. You might give it a rinse, though.”
She splashed him and dipped under the water, incapable of swimming and violence at the same time. When she came up sputtering, he was laughing at her, his beauty giving her stomach jitters.
“You are really handsome when you smile,” she said in a breathy voice.
“Only then?” he asked with flashing eyes. “Put your suit on. We’re about to have company.”
She curled up to try and get her feet through the holes at the same time. She sank into the murky depths before struggling back up and gasping for air. “Bad idea.” She clutched him. “Hold me so I can get this on.”
After she got the bottoms on, and the top mostly on, she showed him her back so he could secure the top in place. “Okay, Josh, I have to go in. I’m tired.”
“Can you make it?” he asked.
“Of course I can make it.”
He chuckled and floated along on his back with sporadic kicks as she labored into the shore.
“You need more lessons,” Josh said when she finally made it.
“There aren’t many lakes I care to swim in New York.”
They walked around the bend to join the rest of their crew. Lewis saw them emerge. He gave her a dark look.
“Is there a problem, Lewis?” she asked tartly. “Are you wishing you weren’t such a useless, cheating bastard?”
Josh dove back into the water, swimming out to Erika and Mike, who were floating idly. Dale was missing.
“Where’s Dale?” she asked, icy fingers of dread grabbing her heart.
Ada, sunning herself while sitting on a rock, looked behind her. She shrugged and stretched out a leg. “He hasn’t been around in a while. It’s nice.”
Not a moment later, he walked through the trees with a satisfied smirk.
Jenna knew at that instant that he had seen her naked, and watched her and Josh make love.
A creepy-crawly sensation washed over her body, worse than a million invisible spider legs crawling over her skin. Her stomach twisted and bile rose in her throat.
Josh was staring at them, his face closed down into a stone mask. She couldn’t see his eyes, but she bet they were tawny murder.
She straightened her back. It didn’t matter. She’d been through worse in her life. Some creep being a voyeur wasn’t that big of a deal. “Did you enjoy yourself, Dale?”
“Twice.”
“Well, take a good, long look. That’s as close as you’ll ever get.”
Thunder rolled in waves out of the clear blue sky. Dale lurched at her, grabbing. He yanked at her top and then huddled against her chest.
She gasped in surprise, staggering backward, trying to bring her hands up to protect herself. Josh screamed her name. Water thrashed—him coming for her. Dale’s claw-like hands scraped down her arms, leaving hot liquid behind.
She thought of what bodily fluids he was wiping on her. Disgusted, the surprise wearing off, she braced and twisted, dumping him to the ground.
A smear of hot wetness washed across her torso. He fell in a heap at her feet, slapping the rocky bank. His arms spasmed and then his legs twitched. His expression, one of childlike surprise, relaxed into mild shock and pain.
Everything slowed to a crawl as Jenna stared down at him, confused. Deep red soaked into his white shirt. She blinked, not comprehending as more red spread out beneath his body, crawling along the packed earth and glimmering over shiny, wet rock. His arms, spread out strangely, didn’t match how his legs fell, as if he wasn’t registering pain. That wouldn’t have been an issue if it hadn’t been for his eyes. They were staring up at her.
Lifeless.
Pressure settling on her chest, her heart clattering against her ribs, she looked down at her torso. Red sullied her bathing suit and coated her skin. Screaming blared like sirens, all around her. Panic.
Her disbelieving eyes, distant and detached, moved back down to the body at her feet, taking in that lax expression. The unnaturally bright glimmer of red. Details blurred; memories seeped out of the background; the day bled white, overexposed, her brain shutting down. Red rolled over Dale’s skin. Rolled over pink ballet shoes.
“No!” she breathed, terror infusing her body. Trees careened as she spun, trying to make sense of this. Trying to find her way back to the present.
Pain lined Lewis’s face. Crimson squished out through the fingers clasping his arm.
A blink had her looking at Ada, seeing a finger. Pointing at her. Tears streaked the woman’s face.
Josh emerged from the water at a sprint, chest glistening in the overly bright sun, muscles bunching and waving with the pumping of his arms. His eyes flashed, and he yelled at her to get down, waving one big arm in a long arc.
She registered the fear on his face. Josh never showed emotion.
Dale was dead.
She might be next.
Adrenaline dumped into her bloodstream to replace the confusion. Her survival instinct turned from a one to a ten in a pump of her heart. Things sped up. Run!
She turned to sprint for the trees when Josh’s large body collided with her, carrying her to the ground. Another roll of thunder. It echoed. Dirt splashed ten feet from her face as something smacked into the ground.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jenna felt Josh’s strong hands grip her torso and drag her past the tree line. He propped her up next to a tree and crouched over her, shielding her with his big body. His eyes, which should’ve been panicked or at least surprised, held calm determination.
“Stay down. Don’t move,” he commanded. Power rode those words. He was in complete control.
“What’s happening?” she asked in a weak voice. Cold froze her bones and worked its way out, making her shiver.
“Hush now,” he whispered, his eyes scanning. He bent to her and grabbed her chin, peering intently into her eyes, moving her face from side to side. He palmed her chest and stomach, wiping away blood and probing. His fingers moved along her arms and then over her legs. Finally he brought her forward and felt along her back. Apparently satisfied, he hoisted her up to a low crouch.
“Stay just like this, okay?” He stared into her eyes, his face strangely distorted. Her brain wasn’t processing. “Just stay like this and run if I say.”
She probably nodded; she wasn’t sure. She couldn’t think. Images and sensations kept flickering through her memory. Bright sunlight. Pulsing waves of crimson. Freezing cold.
Is this really happening?
Dale lay in an unnatural heap on the bank. Dark blood dribbled out from under his lifeless body, mixing with mud and water before swirling in small rivulets toward the lake. His sightless eyes stared at the sky, not squinting in the sun.
His body was alone.
She leaned, immediately stopped by Josh’s firm hand. She could see the other side of the bank, though. Lewis leaned against a tree with a bleached white face, holding his arm. Erika stood beside him, her face a ragged, terrified mask, her arms hugging her torso like she was freezing.
“I have to get to Erika,” Jenna muttered, lifting herself.
Josh put a firm hand on her shoulder and forced her back down. “Do. Not. Move.” His voice was low, his eyes feral, his words clipped. Obedience skimmed through her frazzled brain, overriding the need for comfort. Just barely.
Jenna looked at Erika, who was staring back, a tear dripping down her face.
A spatter of laughter, like Jenna had heard earlier, drifted through the trees. Close now. The nature lovers must’ve found something worth their attention and were now resuming their amble toward the lake.
Josh stood in a smooth movement and pulled her up beside him. He braced her against the tree and leaned against her, keeping her put while he kept scanning. Jenna watched his face, waiting for direction, taking cues. Judging by his relaxed but coiled demeanor, his posture, and the way he was guarding her without needing to focus on her, she guessed he’d done this before. He seemed completely comfortable, ready for sudden action. Maybe even expecting it.
Hoping for it?
Orange group wandered out of the trees and onto the murder scene, laughing. Karen led the way, confident and with straight shoulders. She took a look around, focused on the lake for a moment, and then saw the man lying on the ground. There was a visible beat while she realized something was amiss. One more to realize how badly things were messed up. Another to render herself horror-struck. The color drained from her face.
“C’mon,” Josh said, gently pushing Jenna in front of him.
She staggered, her legs numb. Josh stopped suddenly and pushed her back against the tree. His face swam into view, inches from hers. She’d almost think he wanted a kiss if it wasn’t for the raging determination riding the fire in his eyes.
“You’ve just witnessed someone being shot,” Josh said in an even but firm voice. “You are in shock. I will take care of you. I won’t let anything happen to you. Do you trust that?”
She nodded, unsure.
“Indecision gets you killed. Focus.” He shook her gently. She blinked, her brain trying to start, failing, trying again, catching.
“I trust you,” she said. And she did. She barely knew him, but she trusted him with her life.
“I will protect you.” There was a fierce determination in his eyes, his brows drawn tight.
“I believe you,” she said firmly.
“We need to find out what happened. We are at a disadvantage here. I need intel before I can neutralize the threat. I need to know why you are being targeted. Isolated event, or designed plan?”
Unexpected Hero (Skyline Trilogy Book 1) Page 18