I’m learning very quickly that I enjoy making Eric laugh.

There’s this facade he presents—this stoic, serious side that I figure suits him very well in the business world. When I get to him and see him cave, I feel so proud of myself.

It reminds me of when he caved to his desire in his bedroom, when his lips were locked against mine and he was letting it all go and just taking me, wanting me.

Despite that he’s, as he said, old enough to be my dad, there’s a part of him that’s a big kid. That’s the part I enjoy…and the reason I poke at him, in hopes that he’ll let down his guard and show that playful side to me again.

Judging by his reaction every time I see that big kid he can be, he enjoys it too.

Considering my friendship with Ty, I shouldn’t be encouraging this, but I can’t help these desires Eric stirs within me. Just like I can’t help that being around him makes me want to explore these things I’d never really considered until I met him.

“I’ve always enjoyed programming,” I spit out, and he winces. “You were asking about my job. Because we were going to have one of those safe conversations between a dad and his kid’s best friend.”

“Oh, right,” he says as though he’s disappointed, as though he knows there’s a way we should be interacting and it contradicts the way he wants us to be interacting.

“Are you just going to stand there and listen to me, or are we going to keep going on this hike? I don’t want to be that guy you accuse of turning a twenty-minute hike into an hour-long hike.” I wink at him again.

“You like to wink, don’t you?”

“I’ve heard I do it well.”

“You do, but don’t get cocky about it.”

Eric turns around and starts back down the path, and I enjoy the view of his ass.

As much as I’ve been thinking about him putting his dick in my ass, I’m just as curious to play around with his.

Back to normal chatter, I remind myself.

“I wasn’t very good at a lot of shit when I was in school,” I say. “Part of it was bouncing around to different foster homes.”

He stops again and turns back to me. “You were in foster homes?”

“Yeah. Don’t be weird about it. I don’t need a pity party or anything. It is what it is, so you can keep walking.”

He doesn’t make a big deal out of it and keeps on down the trail.

“I wasn’t great at math or history or English, really,” I continue. “Going through the motions and doing what I needed to get by. I took this computer-science elective in middle school, and we had to create a simple program, and it was like solving a puzzle. I got an A on the project, and the teacher was impressed with all I’d done. Most of the time if I worked on a project, I just sort of did the bare minimum to get a decent grade. But with that, I went above and beyond, and the teacher was thrilled at how much I’d done. It was the first time I felt like anyone really acknowledged that I was great at something. So I kept at it. My adoptive parents, the Morgans, had a computer, so it was easy for me to look up information, and once they saw how passionate I was about programming, they got me a laptop for my birthday, and I just never stopped from then on, straight through high school. I even started to get freelance work for designing websites, shit like that.”

“Sounds like you really undersold yourself to me when you said you were between jobs.”

“A little, maybe. The job I’m up for is a pretty decent one, not gonna lie.”

“That’s impressive for twenty-three.”

“If we’d kept going the other day, you would have said that for a whole other reason.”

He laughs. This time, it’s clear he’s not ashamed of it, and he lets it out and keeps on walking.

Another victory.

I talk to him a bit more about the jobs I’ve had in the past before we walk down a set of steps that lead onto a sandy beach. The clear sky assures me this was the perfect day for this hike. The water is a mix of blue hues, darkening toward the horizon.

“Holy shit!” I say mid-story as I look out at the empty beach, the waves foaming as they crash against the shore. “You weren’t kidding when you said the tourists don’t really come out here.”

This is totally different than the beaches Ty and I have visited since we arrived in town. Most are jam-packed full of people in lounge chairs, sitting under their beach umbrellas, while vendors run around with trays of margaritas and piña coladas.

Eric finally turns back to me, the first time he’s been willing to look at me in a while. “I told you it’s a nice secluded beach.”

“I like the way you say secluded.”

He rolls his eyes before continuing on, me picking up my pace to walk alongside him.

I’m fascinated with how I want to be dominated by him, yet I’m the one taking on the more aggressive stance as far as flirting goes.

“Is this the moves you pulled on all your ex-girlfriends?” he asks, the sand kicking up around our shoes as we make our way along the beach.

“I didn’t necessarily like the way they said secluded, if that’s what you mean.”

He sneers. “You’re a regular charmer, aren’t you?”

“I can stop if you want me to. But I don’t think you do.”

He turns to me for a moment, like he’s considering telling me that I need to stop, that I should for both our sakes, but I’m relieved when he doesn’t say anything at all…because I know he’s acknowledging that he enjoys being teased by me as much as I enjoy teasing him.

And hell, how can I keep from flirting with him when his ass is the only thing I’ve been looking at for the past twenty-plus minutes?

As we come to the middle of the beach, he sets down the backpack he brought with him, rifles through it, and retrieves a blanket.

“You said you were with your ex-girlfriend for how many years?” he asks me as he spreads the blanket out and sets the backpack on the corner to keep the wind from catching it.

“Five. We met freshman year, and we just split a couple months ago.”

“Did you love her? Did she break your heart?”

We sit together on the blanket, and I’m pleased that I finally have a chance to look at that sexy face of his.

“Eh. Can’t say it was love so much as something to do. Don’t get me wrong, we had a lot of fun, but I knew I didn’t love her. She was like a best friend after a while, and she said pretty much the same thing about me when she broke it off. She wanted a spark. She wanted something that excited her. Not just…whatever the hell we were.”

When I’m finished talking, he pulls his backpack to him and retrieves a pair of shades, then slides them on, totally ruining my view of his eyes.

“And now you’re running around town,” he says, “getting your dick wet all over again.”

“What? No. Contrary to what you might think about me, I’m not the kind of guy who hooks up with people all over the place.”

“Really? You seem like you’ve charmed the panties off some girls in your day.”

“Nope. I’m just trying really hard to charm the panties off you.”

“And here it looked like you were trying to get me to take off your panties.”

There’s that Eric I wanted to see, throwing my own line right back at me. This is who I feel like he really is—playful, frisky, fun. This serious act is something he feels like he has to put up because it’s what’s appropriate. But there’s so much more to him.

He must sense he’s let his guard down too much, because his expression turns serious, his dark brows pulling together. He inspects my face as though he’s trying to read my intentions, none of which are good at this point.

“Well, for a guy who says he doesn’t hook up, you sure as fuck could have fooled me the other day.”

“That was totally unexpected for a lot of reasons, so not sure I can even explain what the fuck was going on in my head with that.”

“Which head?”

Again, his playfulness catches me off guard—so off guard this time that I let out a big laugh.

“Take off your sunglasses,” I tell him.

“What?”

“You’re keeping me from seeing one of your best features.”

“I think you just gave me a really good reason to keep them on.”

“Come on. Take them off. Please.”

Sure enough, he takes them off, but he eyes me apprehensively, like he knows he shouldn’t have caved…like he knows that the more he caves to me, eventually he won’t be able to deny me what I really want from him.

And maybe a wicked part of me hopes that’s what will happen.