I keep looking over my shoulder to make sure he’s still behind me. I’m expecting him to bolt at any moment, deciding that following a random stranger down a narrow path of the resort isn’t where he envisioned this night going. He agreed to continue the night quicker than I’d anticipated. In my mind, I’d already prepped myself for him saying no. I was fully anticipating my night with the stranger who intrigued me to be over. I’d figured me speaking of fate would just be mumbo jumbo to him.
To my surprise, it wasn’t over. Hopefully our night has only just begun.
“Tell me again where we’re going?” his voice is hesitant as it comes from behind me.
I step around a large boulder in my direct path. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” Looking over my shoulder, I smile, only able to see his face because of the large full moon in the sky.
His lip twitches. “And I’m the one who was accused of being a serial killer?”
Shaking my head, I turn around and keep walking. “You were acting a little creepy, the way you were just staring at them.”
“I was lost in thought,” he declares.
“Sure you were,” I laugh, making a sharp left toward my final destination. I have to swat tree limbs out of my way, careful not to take one straight to the face.
Holden is silent as he follows me the rest of the way. Finally, we step through a clearing, the moon illuminating the landscape in front of us.
Our arms brush up against one another as he stops next to me.
“Wow,” he breathes. Glancing up, I find his eyes tracking over the body of water in front of us.
“Pretty isn’t it?” I watch him carefully, remembering how I felt when I first stumbled upon the tucked away cove.
“It is,” he says, the moon reflecting off his hazel eyes.
I’d been on a run, desperate to feel the uneven ground underneath my feet as I worked out the stress of my looming future. My mom had raved all morning about how nice the gym is here at the resort, but it’s not what I need. All through high school, I’d run cross-country. I’d been offered numerous scholarships to different colleges to run on their teams, but I’d declined them all. After graduating high school, I wanted to run because my limbs craved the strain of my muscles after a long jog, not because I was competing.
This trip was no different. There was a barely noticeable path through the trees and tall brush to this private cove, but somehow I’d found it. When I’d stepped through the clearing, I hadn’t thought twice about pulling my clothes off and running into the water.
I itch to walk into the water again, to fight the Texas heat with the refreshing, cool water. My feet stay planted; however, my gaze is trained on Holden.
Turning his body toward mine, he takes a step closer to me. He stands closer to me than he ever has. I’m not short by any means, I’ve always been one of the tallest in my friend group, yet it still seems like he towers over me.
“What are we doing out here, Maisie?” his voice breaks the moment his eyes stay trained on my lips.
If I turned my head up, parted my lips as a silent invitation, would he kiss me?
It takes everything in me to fight the urge. I don’t know him, our introductions were not more than an hour ago, yet it seems like I do know him. Looking into his eyes, it seems like I’ve known him forever.
It’s a dangerous feeling.
Taking a step backward, I slide out of each one of my shoes. My fingers skirt down my midriff until landing on the button of my shorts. I maintain eye contact as I pull the button from the loop and pull the zipper down. Shimmying out of the shorts, I kick them off to the side. “I was thinking we’d go for a swim,” I finally answer.
My stomach clenches when he isn’t shy about his eyes raking over every inch of my exposed skin. Suddenly, I feel the effects of the champagne. My head feels light, and there’s a warmth to my skin I wasn’t feeling before. It could also have nothing to do with the alcohol and everything to do with the way this guarded stranger stares me down as if he wants to ravish every inch of skin I’ve bared to him.
His fingers raise, slowly undoing the buttons of his neatly pressed shirt. “You do know we were just at a pool, don’t you?”
Backing up, the sand and pebbles crunch underneath my feet as I head toward the water. I leave him standing on the cove’s beach, a silent invitation to follow me in.
My arms outstretch wide as my feet collide with the water. “Why would we swim in a pool when we have this?”
“Probably because fate prefers lakes it seems.” The shirt slides off his broad shoulders. Part of me wishes I hadn’t retreated to the water so I could see him up close. Even from my vantage point, I can see the defined outlines of his muscles.
I laugh, not an ounce bothered by him making fun of my comment about fate earlier. It isn’t like he’s being mean, it’s more like he’s flirting, which begins a dangerous game between the two of us.
The lake water laps around my calves when he looks down at his legs. “I didn’t come dressed to swim at all,” he notes.
He’s right, the khaki shorts are meant for eighteen holes on the golf course, not for a murky late night swim.
Smirking, I fall into the water and kick off the bottom to go deeper. “Then don’t come dressed, Holden.”
Not waiting on an answer, I swim away from him, trusting—hoping—that he will follow me in.
He doesn’t make me wait long. I feel him behind me before I see him. Turning around, I find him walking toward me.
Holden stops in front of me. He’s still able to stand in the water, unlike me. I have to tread water to stay afloat.
“This is out of character for me,” he says, his tone seems melancholy. I want to know why. His hand comes out of the water, cupping the water and letting it drip out from beneath his fingers.
“Is that such a bad thing?” I ask, preparing myself for whatever his answer may be.
To be honest, it’s out of character for me as well. I’m not normally this forward, or one to trust a stranger enough to lead him to the wilderness. But with him—it feels different.
I want this night with him. I want to know what can happen underneath the stars, in this lake, as we’re tucked away from everyone else.
“I’ll answer that later,” he answers.
“What do you want to do now?” I’m confident enough to ask. It seems like in the privacy of this cove, and maybe with the effects of the alcohol kicking in, we’ve become bolder. My tongue darts out to wet my lips, his pinned gaze on them making them feel dry.
His long arm reaches into the water, connecting with my hip. He pulls me close to him slowly, watching me carefully as if I would dare shy away from his touch.
Not when I want it this bad.
“Things I have no business wanting,” he responds to my earlier question.
My legs wrap around his middle, needing something to keep me from sinking deeper into the water. “Tell me anyway,” I say.
Shaking his head, he looks over my shoulder anxiously. Even though his face appears unsure, his grip on my hips is sure as ever. “I don’t even know your last name,” he states, not looking me in the eye.
I shrug. “I don’t care to know yours.”
His eyes flick to mine quickly. “You don’t?”
I shake my head. “No. You’re Holden, the mysterious stranger I met on a random summer night. That’s all I care to know.”
His frown makes it seem as if he doesn’t believe me. “So we don’t have to talk about tomorrow?”
My head falls back with laughter. “Can we please not talk about tomorrow?” Getting serious, I make sure I have his eye contact before continuing on. “I only want to worry about right now. About you, me, and the stars.” I let my arms fall to my sides after gesturing to our surroundings.
It’s incredibly serene, the calmness of the lake, the slight swish of the trees as they blow in the wind.
Holden’s hand is steady as it travels up my spine. His fingers brush underneath my hair as he finds my neck. His fingertips dig into my skin as he angles my head to look at him. “Then I don’t have to worry about regretting this tomorrow.”
“Regretting what?”
His other hand molds my body against his even more. “This,” he growls before his lips crash against mine.