I could hear Cadence behind me, trying to catch up, but I was faster. I ran down the path, not stopping until the trees opened up to the vast lake. I slowed my pace and turned around, falling into a backward jog. Cadence burst through the trees, her face livid. She stopped running and planted her feet in a wide stance, her jaw set tight and fists clenched at her hips. She looked murderous, but it just might have been the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

I grinned, and then turned to step onto the dock. Once I reached the end, I laid down, placed the sketchpad on my chest, and extended my arms to rest my hands under my head. Then I closed my eyes… and waited.

It took her a few minutes, but I eventually heard the wood dock creak when she stepped onto it. I opened one eye to peer at her.

“You really are a jerk, Fitz. You know that, right?”

“Maybe. But you’re selfish for wanting to keep this place all to yourself,” I retorted with a wink.

“I am not selfish!”

I sat up and shrugged, flipping through the sketchbook as I did so. It was full of various colored pencil drawings. There were people and animals, but most of the sketches were of flowers. More often than not, a sunset was always the backdrop. Overall, I was impressed by what I saw. The girl had some serious talent.

“Calm down, sweetheart. I’m only teasing you.” She scowled but didn’t scold me for using the pet name. I couldn’t help chuckling at her expression. I reached out and patted the dock. “Come sit down next to me. There’s a great sunset tonight. We can watch it together, and you can tell me about why you include a sunset in so many of your drawings.”

She eyed me warily before looking out over the water. She seemed to soften a bit as she stared out at the orange, pink, and purple sky. When she looked back at me, she smirked.

“If this is some lame attempt to get in my pants, it’s not going to work.”

It wasn’t a lame attempt at anything. Sure, I absolutely wanted to get into her pants–any hot-blooded male who laid eyes on her would want the same–but I wanted to get into her mind more, to get to know the person behind her beautiful shell; however, I didn’t say any of those things to her, but put my hands up in surrender.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep my charm at bay. Perhaps I should place a bag over my head too,” I added. “That way you won’t have to worry about succumbing to my good looks.”

“Good looks, huh? You’re not just a jerk, you’re an arrogant jerk!”

I saw the corner of her mouth twitch. She was fighting a smile.

“Are you going to stand there pretending to be all mad at me? Or are you going to sit down?”

She pursed those gorgeous lips of hers and seemed to consider her options. When she eventually lowered herself to sit next to me, I grinned with satisfaction.

“Don’t think you’ve won this round, mister. I’m only sitting because it would be a shame to miss such a beautiful sunset,” she stated somewhat petulantly. She looked out over the lake again. “The colors are so vibrant tonight. It’s hard not to appreciate it.”

“Right. You’re sticking around for the vibrant colors. It has nothing to do with my charming good looks at all,” I joked. She swatted at my arm playfully. The light slap was almost flirtatious, and I took it as a good sign. Feeling more confident with the situation, I leaned back on one elbow and placed her sketchpad on the dock. I opened it up to the drawing she had been working on in the cafeteria. “So, you like to draw sunsets and flowers?”

She glanced down at the drawing I was studying.

“Sometimes. The colors of the sunsets are hard to ignore. Plus, I kind of have a thing for dahlia’s.”

“Is that why you named your dog that and why you have a tattoo of one on your shoulder?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

She subconsciously reached around to touch the ink on her shoulder.

“Sort of. I mean, I’ve always loved the flowers. I’ve been coming to this lake for as long as I can remember just to sketch them.” She pointed out past the shoreline. “They grow wild along the edge of the woods that surround the water. After I turned eighteen, I had a tattoo artist ink one of my drawings onto my shoulder.”

“I like it,” I told her. Impulsively, I reached up to trace the lines of the design with my finger. She glanced back at the finger that touched her but didn’t jerk away like I thought she might. Another good sign. “So, what about your dog’s name?”

Cadence laughed. It was a beautiful, lyrical sound I wanted to hear a lot more of.

“Now that’s a different story. My father named her Dalilah, but then she became obsessed with eating dahlia flowers when she was a puppy. I would bring her here when I was drawing. While I drew, she would make herself sick off the flowers. Her name just sort of morphed into Dahlia over time. What about you? Do you have any pets?”

“I used to when I was a kid. My mom…” The words died on my lips as a stab of grief hit me. It was like the sentence got stuck in my throat, and I was unable to continue. I hadn’t talked about my mother in so long. The last thing I wanted to do was dredge up a painful past. I didn’t need to go back to that dark period of my life. Choosing not to respond, I just continued to flip through the sketchpad instead.

“What about your mom, Fitz?” she asked after a time.

She stared down at me and our gazes locked. I thought I might drown in the green sea of her eyes. There was something building between us, a slow burn I could feel in my bones. I didn’t know if it was friendship or something more. I only knew it was there, and I didn’t want to ruin it. But for some reason, I spilled the story anyway.

“I had a dog, but I was forced to give him up after my mother died.”

“Oh, no! That’s when you would have needed your furry companion the most! Who on earth made you give him up?”

I tossed her a rueful smile. Her astonished innocence, the disbelieving way she perceived giving up a pet as such an atrocity made me feel a little jealous. She came from a normal family, not one fucked up and broken like mine.

“My father.” I shrugged and tried to act indifferent. “After my mom died, I had to go live with him. He had remarried. Wife number two–or maybe it was number three? I can’t remember because number two didn’t last long. Anyway, she claimed she was allergic to dogs. I was told they gave him away to a good family but later found out otherwise. The real truth was my father had him put down.”

Her eyes widened in horror.

Yeah, believe it, sweetheart.

“What was your dog’s name?” she asked softly.

“Boomer. He was a Siberian Husky with one gray eye and one blue. That was why I picked him out of the litter. My mom had blue eyes and I have gray.”

If she knew the rest of the story about how I found out Boomer had been put down, she’d be traumatized. I couldn’t tell her that my father had caught me crying over the loss of my mother a year after she died. I was just a kid, but he told me I had to get over it. He said she was never coming back and crying was for wimps. That was when he told me Boomer had been euthanized. He said the dog made me soft, and it was time for me to start acting like a man.

To this day, I hadn’t forgiven him for that. He could have just let me believe that my childhood pet had been sent to a good home, but no. Cruelty was his specialty.

“That’s so sad. I can’t even imagine losing Dahlia. I’m sorry that happened to you, Fitz.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. It was a long time ago,” I tried to shrug off. I looked out across the water. Only faint lines of purple and dark pink could be seen, the sun having completely disappeared behind the vast hills. “I’m talking too much. We ended up missing most of the sunset.”

She glanced in the direction of the sunset but didn’t seem to see it. She appeared lost in thought. Eventually, she turned to me with pensive eyes.

“I feel like I misjudged you. I thought you were just some spoiled rich kid. I’m sorry about that. It may be none of my business, but I am curious. Why did your mom die?”

I returned her stare for a moment, hesitating with my response. Our conversation had turned very deep, very fast. I didn’t want to spend any more of the night talking about my past. It was a total downer. Besides, it was what it was. I couldn’t change it.

“Breast cancer,” was my only reply, then I jumped to my feet. I reached for her and pulled her up to stand next to me. “Come on. We’ve had enough sad talk for one night. Let’s go for a swim.”

“A swim? But I don’t have my bathing suit!”

“So what? Go in your clothes… unless you’re up for skinny dipping,” I teased with a wink.

“I will not go skinning dipping!”

I grinned and tore off my t-shirt.

“That’s what I figured.”

I stepped to the edge of the dock, poised to jump in. At the last minute, I turned and grabbed her forearm. There was no time for Cadence to react. Pulling her to me, I hurled us off the dock and into the water.

“Fitz!” she squealed after we resurfaced. “I can’t believe you did that! Do you know how freaking uncomfortable it is to wear wet jean shorts?”

She looked downright pissed as she yanked herself free from my grasp. She swam away, then stopped after reaching shallower water. Once she had her footing, she turned back to look at me. Her expression was bold, almost daring. Then, to my astonishment, she produced a pair of sopping wet jean shorts from below the surface and tossed them onto the dock. I cocked up a brow.

“Skinny dipping after all, huh?”

“Don’t get any bright ideas, slick. I’m still wearing my underwear.”

Cadence. In only a wet tank top and panties.

I nearly groaned in frustration as a visual of wet panties clinging to her body came to mind. My cock jerked to life; however, a half-naked Cadence didn’t mean she’d be up for sex on the beach. Somehow, I knew if I even attempted to make a move, she’d put a knee straight to my balls.

I dove under the water and swam in her direction. When I resurfaced, she was only a couple of feet away.

“You surprised me when you lost the shorts,” I said as I moved to close the gap between us.

“I think I surprised myself, too,” she admitted with a nervous laugh. “My momma would wring my neck if she knew I was in the lake in my underwear–with a boy no less!”

I reached up and touched her wet hair, allowing the blond strands to slide through my fingers. The soft wet locks fell limp on her shoulder and I tilted her head up to look me in the eyes.

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” I whispered.

Our bodies were close, nearly touching.

What am I doing? I shouldn’t touch her. Not here. Not like this. Not at all.

I didn’t know what was happening between me and Cadence, but it was bound to end badly. She and I could never be a thing. I understood my reality. As it was, my father already had me by the balls. If he found out I was messing around with the daughter of the camp owners, he’d be sure to crush them in a vice.

“Fitz?” she asked, my name barely a breath from her lips.

“Cadence,” I answered back.

“I need to focus on school. I can’t get wrapped up in a guy. Plus, well…I’m not that kind of girl.”

“I know you’re not, sweetheart.” My voice was gravelly as I eyed her heart-shaped mouth. Just like I had in the cafeteria, I reached up to trace the outline of her lips. Since she’d been shy of me, I didn’t want to scare her off by moving too fast. “I think that’s why I’m so drawn to you. You’re different from the rest.”

I stared into her emerald greens with purpose, begging her with my eyes to believe me. I wasn’t giving her a line. In fact, I had never been more honest in my life. She wasn’t some random sorority girl who was oh-so-eager to let me get my dick wet for a night. Cadence was different.

And different was exactly what I wanted.

I had been living in a state of perpetual fury. My narcissistic and overbearing father thought he had all the control. And while he might once I got back to D.C., he didn’t control me now. Not here. Not with her.

That’s why I didn’t stop myself from leaning in. I wanted to taste her, to see if she was as sweet as she was in my dreams. She placed her hand on my bare chest but didn’t push me away. She gave me a look instead, one that tugged at the flesh of my heart. It was a small smile accompanied by the shake of her head as if she were saying, “Silly boy. It’s never going to happen.”

I wrapped my palm around the nape of her neck, coaxing her head closer.

“Fitz, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready to kiss you.” She licked her bottom lip and her forehead furrowed, not sure how to respond to my statement. “Can I kiss you, Cadence?”

Without warning, she closed her eyes and pressed her lips softly against mine. It was so unexpected, I froze. I thought I’d be the one to close the remaining gap, but as her mouth began to hesitantly move over mine, I relaxed and wrapped my arms around her.

She was soft and so very sweet, just like I had imagined. Her kiss was almost chaste at first. Unpracticed. Yet it still managed to make my heart race. My tongue traced her lower lip coaxingly, searching for an opening. She gave in, parting her lips to invite me in with an eager sweetness that shot straight to my groin. When our tongues finally met, it was as if my blood turned to molten lava. It was so good… so very good.

And I was on fire.

I pressed my mouth harder against her, demanding more as I took the lead. She met me every step of the way. Water lapped around us, a gentle rocking that somehow made the kiss more erotic. My hands rubbed over her back, wishing I could remove the barrier of her tank top and feel her soft skin. Knowing I’d be pushing my luck if I tried, I cupped her head in my hands and plunged in to devour her mouth instead.

Our tongues began to dance and lap with urgency as if we were starving and couldn’t get our fill of each other. When a beautiful moan seeped from her lips, I squeezed my eyes tight. We needed to put the brakes on before I did something I’d be sure to regret.

“Cadence,” I gasped as I tore my mouth from hers. “Maybe we should just…you’re…”

I couldn’t finish the statement, barely able to catch my breath. I didn’t know how to say she was driving me absolutely mad and I wasn’t sure if I could control my need to touch her for much longer. I didn’t want to scare her away, not after it seemed like I’d waited a century to get her here.

“I’m sorry if I was bad,” she said quietly.

I stopped panting and looked at her in shock. The moon was high in the sky, illuminating her swollen lips and cheeks flushed pink. But what was most prominent was the expression on her face. She looked embarrassed.

“Bad? What do you mean?”

“Well, I don’t have much experience with kissing outside of a game of spin the bottle when I was fifteen,” she admitted shyly. Hesitation dimmed her eyes. “I’m sure you’re used to kissing girls who’ve had more practice. If you don’t want to kiss me anymore, I would completely understand.”

Eighteen years old and never been kissed–and I mean really kissed. Teenage party games didn’t count.

Fuck…she’s so innocent. Was every guy she met a fool?

That heart-shaped mouth of hers begged to be kissed… and often. She dropped her head, almost as if she were too nervous to look me in the eye.

“Cadence, look at me. What you are in innocent and sweet, and so pretty that I can’t even see straight. You are beauty looking back at me and I’ve never wanted to kiss anyone more than I want to kiss you. I really hope you’ll let me do it again.”

Her eyes brightened.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

I leaned down and kissed her again. Summoning every ounce of willpower I could obtain, I pulled her small body tight to mine. I delved in deeper, trying to convey a message that said I wanted her. Only her. No kiss had ever felt so good. Tasted so sweet. I could kiss her for days and never tire of it.

It was wrong of me to want her, especially since I knew it could never last. If I continued to see her, we could only have the summer. The problem was, she didn’t know that. Yet at that moment, with Cadence in my arms, everything felt right. The future, no matter how bleak, didn’t seem to matter.