by K. A. Tucker
“Really?” I whisper, the only one left with a drink.
Kyle gives me a crooked smile. “It was fun.”
“So much fun,” Eric climbs to his feet, stumbling a step, and then claps his hands, “that it’s now tradition!”
A surge of adrenaline courses through the cabin. Everyone fumbles for support as they climb to their feet and then dart out the door, engulfed in a bubble of laughter and excitement.
I let out a nervous laugh. “They’re actually going skinny-dipping? Now? In the rain?”
“It’s barely raining and they’re going to get wet anyway.” Kyle gets to his feet and holds out a hand.
My stomach flutters.
“Trust me?”
“Of course.” I hesitate. And then I weave my fingers through his.
The light rain is a mere drizzle by the time we reach Wawa’s sandy beach, to the sound of laughter and splashes. We couldn’t be more than a minute behind everyone else, and yet most of them have already peeled off their clothes and darted into the lake. I catch glimpses of movement from two shadows nearby, but without the glow of a fire it’s impossible to identify anyone.
“Oh my—ow!” I stumble a few steps over something—a shoe, I think—and then laugh. “It’s dark out here!” And I’m way drunker than I thought.
“That’s the idea. No one wants to see Eric’s bare ass.” Kyle lets go of my hand and I sense him yanking his T-shirt over his head. “Come on, don’t be lame,” he taunts, the jangle of his belt and the pull of his zipper sounding. “It’s tradition.”
Taking a deep breath—what the hell! Everyone else is doing it!—I quickly strip off my clothes and follow Kyle’s lead into the lake, feeling every inch of bare skin that enters the water as we plunge farther in.
“Where is everyone?” Colin calls out from the distance.
“Over here!” Kyle answers, and I feel his voice deep within my belly as he curls an arm around my waist.
One by one, voices call out, followed by nervous giggles and squeals as people splash and dive.
“Vetter, where you at?” Kyle calls out.
There’s no response.
“Vetter?”
Still no response.
I sense the tension creeping into Kyle’s body. “Eric, come on.”
“Yeah! All good,” Eric finally answers.
Kyle’s body relaxes against mine. “Is Ash with you?”
“Oh, Freckles is here all right.” And there’s no mistaking the grin in his voice.
Ashley’s giggle follows.
“He’s grown some balls. Finally.” Kyle pulls me flush against him.
My hands skitter over his body as if unsure where to sit idle. I want to touch all of him. And maybe it’s the alcohol, but a second after I think of sliding my hand down his stomach, and farther, I do it, gripping onto him.
The responding kiss is searing. He reaches down to guide my legs around his hips, shifting so I’m sitting on his thighs, facing him. It’s a provocative position. All it would take is me shifting a few more inches forward. “We’re not doing that out here!” I warn him in a whispered kiss.
“But we’ll be doing it as soon as we’re back to my cabin.” He laughs, pulling me tighter, until I can feel him pressed against me. So close . . . an ache swells inside me, the urge to slide him into me overwhelming, even if for just a moment. Maybe we could do it out here. What would that be like? No one would know and I’m sure it wouldn’t be the first time.
I have had way too much to drink.
“Shh! Someone’s coming!” Avery hisses suddenly.
We freeze and stifle our giggles, turning to watch a beam of light bob up and down, lighting a path for a lone figure heading toward the beach.
Darian’s short blonde hair is unmistakable as she passes beneath the path light. “Is someone out there?” she calls out.
“Shit,” someone whispers.
“Shut up,” someone else warns.
Kyle cuts noiselessly through the water, moving us deeper just as the beam of light dances over the lake. Others must have done the same, because no one is outed in her search.
She shifts her flashlight to the sandy beach, and the scattered clothing.
“If she finds out we were drinking, we’ll be gone tomorrow,” Kyle whispers into my ear.
My stomach clenches with the thought. Tonight has been fun, but it’s not worth that. Why do we keep getting ourselves into these messes?
Oh, right. Because of Eric and Kyle.
“Huh. Gosh . . . I guess my camp counselors must have forgotten their clothes on the beach when they were swimming here earlier,” Darian says loudly. “I guess I’ll just bring all of it up and leave it at the pavilion, so they can come and find it tomorrow at breakfast!”
“She wouldn’t,” I whisper.
Darian bends down and begins collecting everything.
“It’s a good thing all my counselors are already asleep in their beds and getting well rested for tomorrow,” she goes on, and there’s no doubt she is fully aware that we’re all out here, watching her.
Has she figured out that we’re all naked?
My guess would be yes. “We have no clothes to get back to your cabin, Kyle,” I whisper.
“None of us do.” He sighs. “But at least it doesn’t look like she’s going to wait for us.”
True enough, the flashlight is moving back in the direction it came from. When Darian passes beneath the overhead light, we catch a glimpse of the heap of clothing in her arms. She’s left us nothing but our shoes.
Whispers and hisses erupt as we watch her disappear into the distance, heading back for her cabin.
“She’s evil!” Olivia declares with a nervous laugh. “What are we going to do?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Eric cuts through the water with force, not far from us, heading toward the shore. “We’re going streaking!”
I gasp. “He wouldn’t.”
“He will,” Kyle counters.
Eric’s bare feet slap against the wet sand as he exits the lake. Without a flashlight, there’s nothing to see, not until the overhead light catches him stumbling across the path, highlighting his lean body and bare white ass. Several whistles and catcalls sound, followed by laughter.
“Is he insane? If Darian catches him, he’s gone!”
“Trust me, Darian is going to hide in her cabin all night to avoid the chance of seeing a naked Eric running across the lawn.” Kyle chuckles. “He’s a nut case when he’s drunk, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I’m noticing.” I giggle, picturing him doing laps around the cabins. Someone’s going to get an eyeful.
“You’re shivering,” Kyle notes, pulling me closer to him. “Do you want to get out?”
“No!”
He begins moving us toward the beach. “Let’s get this over with.”
I take a deep breath as nervous flutters erupt in my stomach. “Are we actually doing this?” Both the boys’ and girls’ cabins are a good five-minute walk in either direction, beneath pathway lights. Five minutes, dressed and sober, that is. Drunk and naked . . . this is going to be a disaster.
“We don’t have a choice. She’s not bringing our clothes back.”
“Maybe we should wait?”
“You want to do this with Colin and Frank?”
“Good point.” I’ve been crouching for as long as possible. Now I stand. The cold air hits my bare, wet skin.
“Ready?”
“No!”
Kyle grabs my hand. “Come on!” We leave the lake and dart up the path. I hold my breath as we run beneath the impossible-to-avoid floodlight and a round of whistles and catcalls sounds out from behind us. “Oh my God!” I giggle, but I’m less bothered by the fact that five other counselors have now seen my bare ass than I expected to be. Probably because I’m drunk.
We run hand-in-hand, my free arm held across my breasts, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Getting to the boys’ cabins takes less time tha
n I expected, my breaths ragged as we do our best to avoid all the lights, my eyes scanning the cabin doors and windows to make sure no one’s watching.
Thankfully, we make it into Kyle’s cabin without a humiliating run-in with any unsuspecting counselors.
“Holy shit.” Kyle pushes the door shut, his chest heaving with exertion. “I’m fucking cold.”
Now that we’re inside and safe, my teeth begin to chatter wildly and my entire body shakes.
“Here.” He grabs his towel and quickly dries me off. “Get under the covers.”
I scramble to get into his sleeping bag, shivering violently as I watch him towel-dry himself with frenzied hands. He dives into the sleeping bag in another minute, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close to him, chest-to-chest. Our ragged breaths and sporadic giggles are the only sound in the cabin for what seems like forever, until our bodies begin to warm and calm, and the fact that Kyle is naked and pressed against me finally moves to the forefront of my thoughts.
“That was fun,” I admit. “Even the running-through-the-camp-naked part.”
He chuckles. “We won’t forget this night anytime soon.”
“I won’t forget anything about this summer anytime soon.” I press a kiss against his lips.
“We’ll have to do it again next summer. Darian just upped the stakes on the skinny-dipping tradition to include streaking.”
“Right.” Next summer. I try in vain to push aside the dread that comes with talk of next year. It’s so far away.
“You warm enough now?” he whispers, his mouth finding my throat.
I let out a soft moan of yes.
“Good.” His lips begin moving downward—along my collarbone and over my breasts, pausing to suck on a nipple, the cool metal of his lip ring tickling me. “I need to undo this.” He pulls down the zipper on the sleeping bag, opening it up so he can shift freely. He keeps moving downward, his mouth trailing softly against my skin, the nervous flutters in my stomach growing.
He pauses at my belly button, and I giggle as his tongue dips into the center, as his eyes lock on mine.
And then Kyle’s shifting farther down.
To let me experience another of so many firsts.
Chapter 23
NOW
I’m absorbed in monthly financial reports when knuckles rap twice against my glass door. I look up, expecting my dad.
When I meet Kyle’s golden eyes, I can’t help the wide grin that erupts.
“Good morning, Miss Calloway,” he says in his calm, professional tone. He holds up a small rectangular box. “You have a package.”
I lean back in my chair, taking in the sight of his hard body in that uniform. I watched him dress for work from the comfort of my warm bed at five thirty A.M.—as I have all week. It’s become routine—we part with a kiss and then I study the clock all day, counting down the hours until we’re home and we can be just Piper and Kyle again.
“Mark just stepped out to grab coffees.”
Kyle strolls in casually, coming around to my side of the desk, to set the box down. It bears my brother’s store label. “I know. I saw him and Renée leave.”
“You could have given this to him to bring on his way back.”
“I could have. I wanted to see you, though.”
“Really.” I can’t help but stare at the way he’s standing so close to me, his belt buckle and those fitted pants at eye level, the strain behind the zipper taunting. My body begins to stir. I tip my head up to find him peering down at me with heated eyes.
And, I’ll admit, as much as I can’t wait to be Piper and Kyle at home, playing senior VP and the security guard in the office garners a high level of thrill.
“Busy?” he asks.
“Always.”
His eyes flip to the numbers on my screen. “That looks . . . enthralling.” The boredom in his voice says otherwise.
I sigh. “This part isn’t, exactly. But what all these numbers and plans and meetings turn into at the end is . . . spectacular.” Skyscrapers and condo buildings, homes and jobs for thousands. A mark on an entire city.
He eyes me strangely.
“What?”
“You work a lot.”
“Yeah. I know.”
He bites his lip. “Your ex paid me a visit today.”
“What did he say?” I ask warily. It’s been four days since David found out about Kyle and me, and he has been oddly subdued. He’s made no mention to me about it. He’s walked past Kyle without acknowledging him. All in all, he’s been very un-David-like, and it’s beginning to worry me. “He didn’t say anything. He just stood there and stared at me.”
“Stared at you.”
“For ten or twelve seconds, until Gus stepped in and asked if he was okay. And then he left.”
I roll my eyes. “I’ll see what’s going on in that child’s brain of his.”
Kyle nods slowly. “Are you going to be late again tonight?”
“Probably. I’m sorry. Things are nuts right now.”
“Okay. Just let me know when you think you’ll be home and I’ll come down.”
A forty-five minute transit commute home, only to head back down two hours later? I sigh. “Why don’t you just bring a bunch of clothes with you so you don’t have to keep going back and forth after work? You can use the building’s gym. I’ll give you a key.”
His eyebrows spike. “You’ll give me a key?”
Unease settles in my spine. “Is it too soon?”
He hesitates. His long eyelashes bat as he blinks. “I don’t know. Is it?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, reaching forward to drag my nail along his thigh. “All I know is that I love being with you every night.” There has been no question or hesitation so far. Kyle finishes his shift at six and goes home to work out and change. He’s back downtown by the time I’m home from work. It’s only been a few days and yet the very idea of Kyle not staying a night, of us not waking up with our naked limbs tangled together, makes my chest tighten.
“Same.” His voice is husky.
“Okay. So . . . maybe we shouldn’t worry about moving too fast or too slow. Maybe we should just do whatever feels right.” Because, though it has only been a few days, Kyle and me have been years in the making.
His lips twist into a smile. “I’ll bring a few days’ worth of clothes with me tonight.”
My heart skips a beat. “Good.”
His eyes graze my lips. “It’s killing me not to kiss you right now.”
The tension in my office is escalating quickly. For once, I’m glad I’m in a fishbowl. If this were my father’s office, we’d likely be on my desk by now.
“Think about it all day and save it for tonight.”
His jaw tenses and I chuckle, reaching for my envelope opener, to run it through the sleek brown kraft-paper packaging. “What could Rhett have sent me now, I wonder. Oh, also . . . before I forget, I was asked to pass along this message.” I pause my unwrapping to reach for my phone and find the text from Christa to read aloud: “If your boy toy is going to be wandering around the kitchen in the middle of the night, can you ask him to put on some clothes. Thanks.”
“I had clothes on!”
I give him a look.
He shrugs. “I’ll put on track pants next time.”
“Thank you.” I pick up the note that sits on top of the wrapped gift. A housewarming gift. I pull back the tissue paper. And gasp. “I totally forgot about this!” Inside the box I find a picture of my parents, Rhett, and me, on the bow of my father’s old yacht. I’m around ten, with bangs and a blue ribbon pulled through my hair. Rhett looks like the token prep school student who he used to be. Dad and Mom stand arm-in-arm. We’re all wearing crisp white-and-navy-blue outfits, and grinning.
The frame itself is made of old bicycle chains. Another of Rhett’s creations, no doubt.
I set the frame on my desk and smile at it. “Look how happy we were.” I sigh. “So long ago now.”
; “Do you miss having that?”
“Honestly? I forget what it’s like . . . But both of my parents are happy with other people, so I guess I should be thankful for that, right?”
Kyle nods, his eyes on the picture but his gaze far off.
“Do you ever miss your family?”
“I miss certain moments with my mom, yeah,” he admits after a moment. “It took officially cutting them off to really feel it.” He smiles sadly. “Holidays are weird.”
I smooth a hand over his hip. “Well, you and Jeremy are welcome to come out to Martha’s Vineyard to watch my aunt Jackie get bombed and let me kick your ass at Monopoly.”
“Sounds like fun.” His fingers entwine with mine. “Just one kiss and then I’m gone?”
I tsk. “You’re still that same little boy stealing kisses, aren’t you?”
The crooked smirk he gives me sends my blood racing. “Do I look like that same little boy?”
“No. You do not.” And yet he’s still my Kyle.
I’m about to agree to a kiss when Renée breezes in, announcing, “Grande double macchiato!” in that impossibly charming Southern twang.
Kyle steps back, breaking our touch a split second before she looks up.
“Oh! I’m so sorry. The coatrack blocked you.” She cringes. “I should have knocked. That’s a bad habit of mine. Mark had to stop on the third floor, so he asked me to deliver.”
“It’s fine, Renée. Security just came to drop off a package for me.”
“And now I’d better keep doing my rounds.” He clears his throat. “Miss Calloway.” He strolls out, nodding once to Renée.
Her eyes trail him with interest as she watches him go. “So what’s his story?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, is he single? Is he a nice guy? ’Cause dang . . . He’s somethin’ to behold every morning on my way in.”
He’s mine.
Clearly she didn’t notice Kyle pulling away, and didn’t sense the tension crackling in my office. It’s not that my office isn’t electrified by it. But I’d bet money she would never assume that a woman in my position would be with a man in his.
I force a smile. “He has a girlfriend.”