“I couldn’t wait. Fucking beautiful,” he said, kissing my neck, and I knew the moment he’d lifted his head and stared over my shoulder. “Jesus. They are perfect.”
Sometimes I was insecure about the size of my breasts. Syd hadn’t understood why, and time and time again, she’d told me that she wished she had what I did, but with bigger breasts came bigger problems. They weren’t perky like smaller ones. Bluish veins were visible on the sides. The skin puckered and did weird shit sometimes. But the way he touched me was reverent, and with the combination of his fingers and the water teasing the tips, my insecurities were quickly floating away.
Tanner murmured something against my neck and then his hand left my breast, gliding down my stomach. When the tips of his fingers reached the band on my bottoms, I held my breath, and those tiny kisses picked back up along my neck, scorching me.
He waited. “What do you want?”
Oh God. That was all I could think. Over and over. Oh God. Then I wasn’t thinking as his hand moved over my bottoms, between my thighs. His fingers played over the material, causing me to jerk against the arm he used to hold himself afloat.
“What do you want, Andrea?” he asked again, voice husky.
“Please,” I whispered, and I wasn’t even sure what I was asking for, but my body moved, seeking relief from the torment he was creating.
He cursed again and then his hand was slipping under the thin material of the bikini bottom. As he kissed my jaw, he touched me—really touched me. He cupped me with his longer fingers. “You’re so warm,” he said. “So hot.”
Oh my God, he was doing it…right here, in this pool, and in broad daylight. This was really happening. Hadn’t I just told him yesterday he had no chance of getting laid? Boy, I really hadn’t put up much of a fight, but I wanted him—had wanted him for so very long, and I didn’t want to think about all the nothing that came after this.
I’d never been more turned on in my life.
I didn’t have a chance to say any of that. His thumb pressed down on the bundle of nerves, and I cried out his name, trembling as startling pleasure rose violently. He didn’t even get a finger in me, didn’t even try. He worked with pressure as his other finger skimmed my center.
“Andrea.” His voice was raw, primitive in my ear. My hips moved against his hand almost frantically, and I whimpered, so close to release. “That’s it. Let go.”
I did.
I let go. Every muscle in my body tightened and then the release whipped through me so quickly I was left breathless and dizzy, spinning me into the kind of freedom a bottle could never give me. My arms turned to mush, and I would’ve slipped right under the water if it hadn’t been for Tanner pushing his body against mine, wedging me against the side of the pool.
My head fell back against his shoulder, my breathing rapid as his thumb slowed against me. I don’t even know how much time passed before he slipped his hand out of my bikini bottom, but I could feel him against me, still so hard and practically burning. He fixed my top without saying anything, his hand lingering in the most delicious way.
“You,” I said hoarsely, wetting my lips. “What about you?”
He pulled back just enough that he was able to turn me in his arms. Thrown off, I gripped his shoulders. My eyes met his and held. A heartbeat passed as he stared down at me. Our legs tangled and then he pressed in between mine. I felt him, right against my core. A strange sound rose from the depths of me, part moan and part yearning.
“Me?” He lowered his forehead to mine. His hips did this remarkable and downright sinful roll. “I can—”
Sharp bright light cut through the sky above us, wrangling a gasp out of me. Tanner’s grip tightened, and a moment later thunder boomed so loudly it felt like it rattled my bones.
“Oh my God,” I said, eyes wide.
Tanner was already turning me around, lifting me with one arm, which was freaking impressive. “We need to get out of the pool before we’re fried.”
I so was not going to dispute that.
We scrambled out of the pool, and I stopped to grab my dress just as the sky ripped open and cold rain pounded down, causing me to shriek. Tanner laughed as he grabbed my arm, dragging me over the deck as our feet slipped in the rapidly gathering puddles.
Neither of us said anything as we stared at each other in the chilled air of the house, soaking and dripping wet, but there was nothing that needed to be said. The truth lay in the open between us.
Everything had changed.
Chapter 9
Tanner
We stared at each other as the thunderstorm raged outside, the thunder cracking so loud it rattled the windows. The storm mirrored what I felt inside. My fingers still tingled from where I’d touched her, and her cheeks were flushed, eyes still shining with bliss.
Dammit, I was harder than a rock.
I wanted to go to her, but she stumbled a step back and hastily drew the dress on over her head. Once she had it situated, she swallowed hard as she looked out the windows. Rain pounded the deck. “God,” she said, voice scratchy. “Syd and Kyler are out there in this.”
“They’ll be okay. Kyler will make sure of that.”
She cast me a quick look over her shoulder. The passion had faded from her gaze, replaced by a keen wariness. “So will Syd. She can take care of herself.”
“I didn’t say that she couldn’t.” I scrubbed my hands through my wet hair and then grabbed a towel that had been left on the back of a bar stool. I soaked up as much water as I could and then dropped the towel on the puddle I’d created. The dress Andrea wore was soaking up the wetness and clinging to her curves in a way that made my mouth water, but she had checked out of the fun and naughty stuff.
I didn’t blame her. I hadn’t planned on that happening. Okay. Maybe I’d planned on kissing her, but I hadn’t expected it to go that far, especially when we hadn’t even kissed. Now I had no idea what she was thinking as she turned around, her gaze bouncing off mine.
“I think I’m going to go nap,” she said, not meeting my gaze.
My chest tightened. “Andrea, what happened—”
“It’s okay. I mean, it was great.” Her cheeks flushed as she edged around the island, steering clear of me. “We don’t have to talk about it or anything.”
I frowned as I tracked her across the kitchen. “But I want to talk about it.”
She neared the living room and the stairwell. “No guy wants to talk about that…whatever that is. I don’t have crazy expectations, so you don’t need to set me straight or anything like that.”
My mouth flopped open. “What?”
Her face matched her hair. “I know that what happened doesn’t mean anything. I know it doesn’t—”
“Excuse me?” My voice rose as irritation flooded me. “It didn’t mean anything?”
Confusion pinched her pretty face as she stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Did it?”
Did it? Holy fuck, I stared at her, and the only good thing I could think at that moment was the fact that I no longer had a raging, rock-hard boner. “Of course not,” I snapped.
Andrea flinched—fucking flinched like I’d hurt her feelings or some shit. She nodded jerkily and then turned, racing up the steps in her bare feet. I stepped forward, partly worried she was going to fall and break her neck and also to run after her.
But I stopped myself, knowing I was too damn angry to have a normal conversation that wouldn’t end in us screaming at each other. Whirling from the stairs, I stalked back into the kitchen, stopping at the glass doors with my hands on my hips.
What the fuck? That didn’t mean anything? What did she think I did? Went around randomly getting chicks off for shits and giggles? Well, actually, she probably did think that.