BACKFIELD
Gillian
HE LOOKED LIKE ten different kinds of sin.
Wearing the brightest pair of swim trunks I’d ever seen, he walked down the grassy hill with a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade in one hand and a protein shake in the other.
That hard body of his should have come with a warning label. Something like once you touch me, you’ll never want to touch anyone else—ever again—because that was how I felt.
But I couldn’t allow what was going to happen in the weeks to come bring me down. I wanted this time alone with him too much to let anything bring me down.
Those finely sculpted abs of his came into view and I licked my lips, recalling how I traced over every inch of them last night, first with my finger, and then my tongue.
We’d stayed up way too late doing all the things he had imagined during the day, and more.
It was around one in the afternoon now and we’d just eaten breakfast or lunch or whatever you wanted to call it at a diner down the road.
We were alone, and I loved it.
No one knew we were here, and we had nothing to worry about. My father had gone up to Lake Forest for the weekend. He never even asked me if I wanted to go. Just asked me if I would be okay. Of course I told him I had things to keep me busy, and not to worry. It wasn’t like him, but maybe he was trying to let me go in his own way.
Very comfortable where I was, I watched him from behind the lenses of my new red plastic sunglasses. They had a strawberry on each corner, and Lucas had purchased them for me at the tourist shop attached to the restaurant, along with two rafts for us to float in the lagoon.
I paddled toward him when he started to stride into the water, watching as the muscles in his legs disappeared beneath the surface of the water.
“Here you go,” he said, handing me the plastic cup, letting his fingertips linger a moment before letting go.
Flipping up my sunglasses, I took a sip. “Mmmm . . . that’s so good. Such service,” I said squinting against the sun. “I could get used to this.”
He leaned on his blue plastic raft and let his tongue sneak out. “I could interpret that statement a few different ways.”
I splashed him with some water before quickly using one hand to paddle away. “I meant being waited on . . . perv.”
His enigmatic grin told me he liked when I called him that. “You could hire a houseboy once you start working.”
“You know, that isn’t a bad idea.”
“He could serve you lemonade, but I bet he couldn’t do you the way I do,” he quipped, and then plunged under, leaving his hand above water so the cup didn’t spill.
Floating away, I giggled and wiggled my toes against the sun-warmed plastic. When he came up, he shook himself the way a dog does when coming out of the water and I laughed even harder.
My skin was already warm from the sun, but suddenly I felt really hot. I sucked down the lemonade in a few huge gulps. When I looked back up, Lucas was on his raft, propelling toward me. Gone from his hand was his cup. I saw it lying in the sand.
He came close and anchored his raft to mine by throwing his leg over it. “So tell me more about this houseboy job. What exactly would he do for you?”
I flipped my sunglasses back down and closed my eyes as I imagined all the things Lucas had done to me. “Well,” I said, opening my eyes and looking over at him. “He would do the laundry, and mop, and maybe even wash my car, and then when he was done, he could strip out of his clothes and get on his knees to wait for me to decide if he should be rewarded for his efforts or not.”
Lucas snorted under his breath. “Sounds like you’re a dominatrix who’s been hiding in the closet.”
I waited a moment before going on. I could say all kinds of dirty things under this guise, but when I looked into those languid blue eyes, what came out of my mouth instead was, “No, not at all. I was just kidding. I kind of like it when the guy takes control. I think it’s hot.”
The look he flashed me told me to watch out.
I gripped the sides of my raft, but it was too late. He’d already lunged for me, and together we went under. I screamed and took in water.
Strong hands grabbed me around the waist and pulled me upward. “What was that for?” I spurted, trying not to laugh.
“Payback for earlier.”
“Payback?”
“Yes, now stop the teasing, Gillian.”
I flung my arms around his neck and kissed his mouth. “Oh, come on, you know I can’t stop, it’s way too fun.”
He nipped at my lip. “For you, maybe. Do it again and I might just have to spank you,” he practically growled when he spoke, and then he gave me a warning smack on my butt.
Arousal hummed through my veins. Need, a craving for him that felt stronger than ever, seemed to possess my soul, and I had to get it in check. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I murmured, and then swam back to my raft, where I climbed back on.
The cup I had been holding was floating away and he grabbed it, tossing it to the sand beside his before climbing back on his raft.
We floated in silence for a while. The sun warmed me, and as it did, I couldn’t stop thinking about him, how much I loved being with him. How much I—I refused to think about that. We’d both said we’d let that word go.
The fact that Lucas and I got to sleep beside each other for one more night gave me the strength to stay like this and not ask him to go inside and fuck me.
I wanted this time to just be. To take advantage of the short time we had left. Then again, there was more to us now than just sex. I wasn’t sure how that happened, but it had.
When he floated close to me again, I took hold of his raft this time. “We don’t do much of this,” I murmured.
He glanced at me over his Raybans. “Much of what?”
“This . . . nothing.”
A hand on my thigh followed the soft chuckle. “You mean when we’re alone we’ve usually got our hands all over each other.”
I smiled over at him, and then pushed away to float further out. “Yes, I guess that’s what I mean.”
He paddled in my direction. “I’m happy to oblige right now.” Pulling his raft close to mine again, he said, “If that’s what you want.”
There was no denying the tingle that zapped through my body or my instant reaction to the idea of going back inside. I smiled slowly. “I’m not saying I don’t want that too, I just mean other than meeting at the bridge, we never have time to just be.”
Lucas leaned over and kissed my mouth, then said against my lips, “I know what you mean.”
He did know, and there was nothing more to say about it.
I closed my eyes and left it that way because if I went on, I had no idea what I’d say, but I knew it wouldn’t be anything he wanted to hear.
Then again, did it really matter what I said when this thing between us would be ending so soon?