She started shedding her clothes before she could change her mind. She stepped into the lake, letting the water seep between her toes. It was chillier than she expected, reminding her of the ice swimming they’d braved every January. When the water reached her thighs, Shay dove in, gasping at the cold. With her head underwater, she swam until her muscles ached, feeling her fear and stress grow fainter with each stroke. Lungs burning, she swam toward the shore so she could rest before starting back. She stood up and saw Cody ten feet away, staring at her.
Shay squealed and dove back into the water, emerging when it was chest high. “What are you doing here?” she asked, struggling for a steady breath. Was he following her?
The water barely covered his hips. He stepped back so he was decent. “Same thing as you, I’d say. We always did think alike.” They stared at each other in silence, his expression shadowed.
“That was a long time ago.” And he didn’t have all those rippling muscles back then.
“Yeah,” he said, looking at the waves nudging the top of her breasts.
In the dark, his tattoos were a blur across his chest. He got them a year or so before she left, but didn’t like talking about them. He still wore the same necklace, a rectangular piece of metal suspended on a leather cord. Jamie wore a similar one. His chest was tattooed as well. It seemed as if every man she knew had tattoos, but the others hadn’t filled her with this strange longing.
“What you said back at the house, about no word from me. How can you say that? I sent letters.”
“What letters?” Cody asked.
“I wrote you two letters after I left. I sent them to the address your mom gave me.”
“I never got them.” His eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t make sense. I got mail from everyone else.”
“I don’t understand.” If he hadn’t gotten them, where were they? Her stomach twisted into sick knots. She needed to go somewhere quiet and think. “I should go. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.”
“You don’t have to leave.” He moved a few steps closer and touched her shoulder.
She jerked away, and her foot slipped off a rock, plunging her underwater. She flipped, trying to regain her balance. Strong hands grabbed her, setting her on her feet. She spat out a mouthful of water as Cody’s hands gripped her waist. His hand moved lower to her hip, gently steadying her. The front of his body brushed her back. His skin was warm and hard. Something touched her shoulder. Hair? Lips?
When she was eighteen, she had fantasies of this: him and her in the lake with no clothes. She wasn’t eighteen anymore, and she couldn’t risk another heartbreak. She pulled away, putting some distance between them, but her ankle gave out when she turned.
He steadied her. “You okay?” His voice sounded strained.
“I twisted my ankle. It’s no big deal.”
“I’d better carry you out.”
“No. It’ll be okay in a minute.” Up close, he was even more intimidating. Broad shoulders, well-used muscles, and tattoos that made her want to run her fingers over them, caress them with her lips.
His gaze moved from the water skimming her breasts to her mouth. His eyes darkened as a low rumble rolled from his throat. She was trying to decide if her head was spinning or his was lowering, when a stunned voice came from the shore.
“Hell’s bells… Shay? I thought you were in Scotland.”
Cody turned, shielding Shay behind him. “What are they doing here?”
Marcas and Lachlan stared, mouths open. Marcas found his voice first. “Uh… should we leave?”
“Leave?” Lachlan pulled off his shirt, and his necklace caught the moonlight. “We just got here,” he said, unsnapping his jeans.
“No,” Cody barked. “We’re getting out. I was helping Shay.”
Lachlan raised an eyebrow. “Helping her do what?”
“She twisted her ankle. What are you doing here?” Cody’s voice was curt.
“That’s a dumb question. You’re the one who asked us for help,” Lachlan said. “We had to come home and pack—”
“I mean at the lake?”
Marcas hooked his thumbs in his pockets, quietly surveying the scene. “Lach thought he heard someone in the woods when we got out of the car. Figured it might be a bow hunter scouting out a place to hunt. Probably heard you two.”
“Somebody run around to the other side of the lake and get Shay’s clothes,” Cody ordered.
Marcas nodded and trotted off.
Lachlan snapped his jeans and snatched up his discarded shirt. “What brings you all the way from Scotland, Shay?”
Lachlan was the daredevil with the mischievous twinkle in his eyes—and his foot in his mouth, although his laid-back attitude was partly an act. Marcas was the sensitive one, serious. He usually knew what people were thinking before they did, one of the reasons Shay had avoided him nine years ago, and one of the reasons she hadn’t come back. Marcas was twenty-nine, one year older than Cody. God, she’d missed them all.
“I was on my way to see Renee,” she said, shivering with cold. “I thought I’d stop by for a visit.”
Lachlan asked about Renee and Scotland as they waited for Marcas to return. “About time you came home. Hope you’re planning to stay awhile.”
“It d-d-depends.”
Cody’s arms were covered in chill bumps as well. He took a step back and stopped. He’d put his arm around her hundreds of times over the years to keep her warm, but they weren’t grown up and naked then.
“Why don’t you go help Marcas?” Cody said to Lachlan. “Never mind. Here he comes.”
Marcas trotted up, not even winded. All the brothers were fast, although she could almost keep up. Marcas dropped Shay’s clothes next to Cody’s. “Better get out of there before you end up with pneumonia.”
“How about some privacy?” Cody grumbled.
“Want us to leave?” Marcas asked.
“No,” Shay said, quickly. “You don’t have to leave.” The last thing she needed was to be alone and naked with Cody.
Marcas and Lachlan turned around, but Shay could hear them whispering. Cody scooped her up. She squealed and grabbed his neck, to keep from falling. She saw Lachlan start to turn, until Marcas kicked him. “What are you doing?” she whispered furiously, trying to cover all her pertinent parts.
“Getting us out of the lake before we freeze our asses off.” He trudged through the water, keeping his gaze straight ahead. “Stop squirming. You’re slippery as a bloody eel.”
At the water’s edge, he set her gently on her feet. He helped her into her sweater, and she was so cold she let him. She didn’t bother with her bra.
“Here,” he said, handing over her panties.
She snatched them from his hand, afraid he would offer to help with them as well. She wiggled into them, trying not to look at his bare backside as he dragged his underwear over damp skin.
“You decent yet?” Marcas asked.
“No!” Cody said, after glancing back to see Shay tugging on her jeans. He was already snapping his.
After Cody and Shay dressed, the brothers discussed the best way to get Shay back to the house. “We could haul her out on the four-wheeler,” Lachlan offered.
Great, she thought. Like a deer carcass.
“Battery’s dead,” Marcas said. “We can carry her back to our house. It’s closer.”
“Thanks, but it’s really not that bad.” Shay pasted a blank look on her face as she slid her throbbing foot inside her shoe. “See?” She moved around a few steps, gritting her teeth so she wouldn’t wince. “You go on. I want to sit here awhile and enjoy the night.” She needed to be alone so she could think. Her homecoming was turning into a nightmare.
“I’d rather you came back with us,” Cody said. “You don’t have a flashlight, and your ankle—”
“I’ll be fine,” Shay insisted.