Mon Dieu! I could feel all the blood rush to my dick as soon as she slipped out of her dress. It was so fast and so absolute I actually felt light-headed. And so what do I do? I crawl over and put lotion on her back. Because touching her half-naked body is totally going to help stop me from getting hard. Merde, I am stupid.
My hands run over the smooth, pristine skin of her back. I slide up to her tiny shoulders and my fingertips feel each vertebra slip by as I make my way down—all the way down—to where her tiny excuse for a bathing suit barely contains her perky, tight ass. Yep! Now I’m almost completely hard. Fucking great.
I finish with the lotion and quickly scoot back to my towel and flop down on my stomach in an effort to hide the situation in my swim shorts. She glances over.
“Thanks.”
“I’ve got your back, Rose,” I reply and wink at her, which makes her smile.
We both close our eyes and lie beside each other in silence. I don’t know what she’s thinking about, but I’m thinking about hockey equipment, and shootouts, and skating drills—anything but her in that bikini.
The warm sun on my back and the need to shut my brain off is the perfect mix for a nap and I slip into sleep. I don’t know how long I’m out but suddenly I’m being catapulted rudely into consciousness by a thick trail of cold water crashing down on my sun-warmed skin. I flinch and let out a deep yelp, like an animal in a trap, and twist my head to see a soaking-wet Rose bent over above me, her long hair dripping lake water on me. I roll off the towel onto the sand and she flips her head up, wet hair flying back onto her shoulders, and grins proudly.
“You looked a little warm. Thought I would cool you off.”
I shake my head, my lips curling upward. She knows what’s coming and she turns and runs. I’m faster and reach her as she squeals, picking her up, tossing her over my shoulder and running to the water. When I’m almost waist-deep I bend and push up, tossing her from my shoulder and smiling as she flails in her backward descent into the water.
She pops up seconds later and hurls herself into me. Her slippery arms go around my neck and her svelte thighs wrap around my waist as the rest of her body slams into my torso. She’s soaking wet and the chilly water shocks my skin, but the feel of so much of her exposed skin against me—because her bikini is so damn nonexistent—is shocking for completely different reasons. I could have handled her assault without tipping over. She’s not heavy enough to bring me down, but my blood is rushing south again so I allow myself to fall backward with her on top of me. Thankfully, being engulfed in the cold lake water kills the hard-on my hormones are trying to sprout.
We both pop to the top of the water facing each other and she promptly pulls her arm back and slaps the surface of the lake, spraying me with a solid wall of water. I reach out and grab her arm, yanking her toward me, and jump up, pressing my free hand to the top of her head and shoving her under again. Under the water she places her tiny feet on my thighs and shoves with all her might. I fall backward and before I can get up she pops out of the water and jumps on top of me, her hands landing on my shoulders and pushing me down.
As we wrestle under the water, her hands slide down my shoulders and down my chest, her fingers going so far as to graze the top of my shorts. I feel a shiver of need roll down my spine and instinctually reach for her waist, my hands brushing the underside of her bikini top, grazing her rib cage, before wrapping around her back. She lets me pull her right against me, even moves her legs to either side of my waist so she’s basically completely wrapped around me. When we pop up, breaking the water’s surface, we’re still tangled intimately around each other. We’re both breathing heavily, her wet, warm skin sliding against my wet, warm skin in places we’ve never collided before. I watch a water drop slip from her earlobe to her neck and I have a sudden, unexpected urge to trace its movement with my tongue…
“Luc Richard?” A voice cuts through the air. The interruption is like an invisible wedge thrown between us, and we both instantly pull apart.
I turn and see a guy, about midthirties, standing a few feet away staring at me. I’ve never seen him before in my life and since he called my by my full name, I’m guessing he’s a hockey fan. He’s got a giant grin on his face that switches from leering to excited as he looks from Rose to me. Jessie’s joke comes back to me and I hope I won’t have to slug this guy.
“Hey there,” I say and extend my hand.
He shakes it a little too vigorously and his grin grows wider. “I’m a huge fan.”
“Thanks, man.” I nod.
“I don’t want to bug you but could say hi to my kid?” he asks me and points excitedly to the shore. “Colton is eight and he’s a huge Vipers fan, too. He’d love it.”
I nod and smile. I never say no to kids. I glance over my shoulder at Rose, who is standing there glistening in that incredible bathing suit looking more like a supermodel than Nessa ever did. She smiles encouragingly and makes a small shooing motion with her hand. She gets it. Rose has always been accommodating to fan interruptions when they happen in her presence. Nessa loved them too, but only because she used them as an opportunity to get attention for herself.
I follow the guy toward the shore, leaving Rose to swim alone, and smile and nod as he tells me how he’s been a huge fan since I was a local player and he’s really sorry for the bad luck I’ve been having since I was drafted. His kid, Colton, is an adorable, scraggly thing with a few teeth missing and he completely lights up at the sight of me. I squat down next to him and we talk hockey for a couple of minutes. As is usually the case with kids, he gives the sharpest advice. “You just gotta score more. Then the TV people won’t say mean things about you.”
I laugh as his dad’s face grows pink. “You’re completely right. I’ll try and do that next year. But even if people are mean to me, it’s okay. I can’t take it too much to heart when I’ve got cool guys like you on my side.”
He grins proudly at that and starts to tell me about how he plays hockey but he thinks he’s going to be a goalie because he doesn’t skate very well. His dad asks for a picture, which I gladly pose for next to Colton and then I offer him a selfie, which he excitedly takes. “Thanks again. I really appreciate it. Sorry I interrupted you and your girlfriend.”
I blink. “You didn’t. She’s just a friend.”
The guy’s smile turns sly. “With friends like that I guess you don’t need a girlfriend.”
He says good-bye and I walk back toward our towels. I run a hand through my damp hair and watch as Rose walks out of the water looking like a fucking Bond girl. When the hell did she become a Bond girl?
I’ve seen Rose sporadically over the last couple of years since she graduated high school. She came home every summer—and so did I—but for the first few years Jordan and I were still living with his parents in the off-season and Jordan did his best to avoid the Caplan sisters. I’d see her around town and at the occasional summer bonfire. There was no denying she had turned into a very pretty woman. I wasn’t blind and I was attracted to her, sure, but I still thought of her as this pure, innocent, sweet thing that I was meant to protect like a big brother. Today in the water, there was nothing pure about the gleam in her dark eyes as she wrapped her wet, wondrous curves around my body. In that bathing suit she looked anything but innocent.
I watch as she bends over and grabs her towel and begins to wipe the water from her skin. My eyes automatically sweep over her exposed skin and curves.
“Eyes up, Luc!”
“Damn that bikini!” I grab my own towel and swear in French under my breath. “You know, that guy thought you were my girlfriend.”
The wind picks up and the big oak nearby rustles loudly as she mumbles what sounds like “Everybody does but you.”
“What?” I ask.
She takes a deep breath and then shrugs. “I said, what are you gonna do?”
She lays her towel down on the sand and lowers herself onto it. She catches me staring at her again and I quickly look away, dropping my own towel and lying on my stomach again.
“Speaking of doing something,” I say, changing the subject because if I keep focusing on my dark thoughts about her, I’m going to get myself in trouble, “I was thinking of doing a charity event this summer.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I think it’ll… help my image.”
She smiles encouragingly at me and I’m instantly glad I shared this with her. I haven’t really thought it through, but the idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while. A lot of the more respected players in the league put together something in the off-season to promote a charity. Jordan, Devin and I always visit the local children’s hospital, make a donation and visit the kids, bringing them signed pucks, posters and jerseys, but this year I felt like I wanted to do more.
“I just don’t know what…” I confess.
“Everyone always does golf tournaments,” she replies and I feel my hope deflate a little. I was thinking about a golf tournament. She must catch the defeat on my face because she gives me a soft, sympathetic smile. “I’ll help you think of something better.”
We’re silent for a few minutes. She lies there on her back, sunglasses on, damp hair fanned out behind her, and I try to keep from leering at her again. Suddenly she sits up and claps. “All-star game!”
“What?”
“You can hold a charity all-star game!” She pulls off her sunglasses and squints at me excitedly in the bright sunlight. “There’re tons of NHL players, retired and current, who live in New England. Invite them all and invite some of your teammates and, of course, the Garrisons. Have an auction so people can bid on coaching you guys. A different coach each period. And you can have a skate beforehand with the kids. You can do it at the local indoor rink. It’ll be fun and you’ll raise a ton of money.”
I think about. She’s right… Silver Bay loves hockey, even in the summer. And I love any chance I get to skate. “You’re brilliant.”
“Yeah. I am.” She smiles and laughs at herself. “I can help you plan it if you want.”
“That’d be great.”
“Oh! It’s Kate!” Rose squeals and points to a group of girls lying on their towels by a log a few feet away. “Be right back.”
I watch her as she walks over to her high school best friend, her ass swinging sexily. I have got to get it together, I tell myself sternly. The last thing I need is to fuck up one of the only good things in my life right now. My friendship with Rose is one of those things.