CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ZANE LEWIS

Harper pulls her car up to the little cleared-out area next to the lake we’ve been coming to since we were old enough to swim, and I look at Harper.

“I still can’t believe you chickened out,” I say.

“I keep telling you I didn’t. I just had something to do that night,” Harper insists.

“Well, have you ever gone skinny dipping then? Maybe at that fancy university you went to?”

“I went the very next night, actually,” she tells me, smiling.

“What?” My eyes widen and I stare at her.

“The night after you and Julia and all the others went to the lake, I decided it was stupid of me never to go skinny dipping, so I went to the lake by myself,” Harper says.

“Thus ruining the entire point of going skinny dipping,” I say, shaking my head.

Harper rolls her eyes. “The point of skinny dipping is to go swimming naked,” she says.

“It’s to do that with other people,” I tell her. “The whole point is being with people you’re not entirely sure you want to see you naked. Like a cute guy, or that girl you like, or your friends. It’s about the rush of being a little bit scared you might get caught, or laughed at.”

“It’s to be naked in the water,” Harper insists.

“Did you ever go skinny dipping with someone?”

I insisted on buying a six-pack as Harper insisted on paying for her half of the bill. The beer is still cold as we get out of the car and walk down along the grassy area leading to the shore of the lake. I think we were maybe three the first time our parents brought us here. All I know is that some of my earliest memories were at this lake.

“If you want to get technical, when we were babies and came here, I skinny dipped, by your definition,” Harper says.

It’s starting to get dark, and there are only a handful of safety lights, enough to walk back from the shore. A couple more illuminate the water, more to make sure people know it’s there than anything else.

“That doesn’t count either,” I tell her.

“Why not? You said it’s swimming naked with other people,” Harper insists. She’s got that prissy, hot-librarian look again, and it actually turns me on, just a little bit.

“You don’t get the thrill when you’re a baby because when you’re a baby you have no idea that being naked is supposed to be, like…” I don’t want to say ‘wrong’ but it’s something along those lines.

“It’s supposed to be private, you mean,” Harper says. She sits down on the edge of the grass and I join her.

I open two of the beers and hand one to her.

“Right. It needs to be something where you’re not sure you can go through with it,” I say.

“I don’t accept your definition,” Harper tells me.

I snort and take a sip of my beer. I’m not usually into anything fancy, beer-wise, but whatever the stuff is that Harper chose at the gas station, it’s pretty good, in spite of sounding fussy.

“That’s probably because you’ve never done it, right?” I look at her and hold her gaze until she blushes.

“I just haven’t wanted to,” Harper tells me in that pert voice again.

It drives me short of crazy to hear it, it makes me want to take her hair down, touch her all over, make her loosen up a bit. I’ve never had that reaction to her before in my life, and it kind of scares me, but at the same time I have to admit it thrills me too.

“Okay. Then here’s what we need to do; get naked and get in the lake,” I say.

“What?” The word comes out of Harper almost in a shriek.

“I am challenging you to a bet. I bet that you won’t skinny dip with me tonight, here, right now.”

“That’s a stupid bet,” Harper protests.

“It’s a great bet, because either I get to see a naked woman or I get fifty bucks,” I tell her.

“It’s a stupid bet because… because you don’t bet on that kind of thing. It’s a dare, not a bet,” she insists. In the pale glow of the safety lights I can see her blushing deeper and deeper red.

“Then I dare you to go skinny dipping with me tonight, or I’ll tell everyone we both still know that you flirted with me,” I say.

Harper’s quiet for a few seconds and I wonder if I’ve done something wrong.

“You really want to see me naked, huh?”

She puts down her barely touched beer, stands up and turns to face me.

“I just want to see you do something you’re not entirely comfortable doing,” I say.

“Right,” Harper counters, her voice sarcastic.

“Well, are you going to do it or not?” I say as I cross my arms over my chest.

“If I’m going to do it, you have to too,” Harper says. “I’m not going to swim naked and get caught all on my lonesome.”

“Oh, I’ll come along,” I tell her. It’s a warm night out, and I actually wouldn’t mind going for a swim, even if I didn’t have the added bonus of Harper naked in front of me.

We both start stripping down and I can’t help but start to get just a bit hard from the sight of Harper’s body, more and more of it showing as she takes everything off, right up close to me. I take off my boxers last, and hopefully before Harper can spot my erection standing at least at half-mast, I rush into the water.