Page 41 of If You Dare

“What are you doing?” Chloe asks. “I want to swim.”

“I amnotswimming in the ocean,” I object. “There are sharks and jellyfish and about a thousand other things that will kill me in there. Have you seen the way orcas literallytormentseals? They’re called killer whales for a reason.”

Chloe plants her hands on her hips. “First of all, wild orcas have never harmed humans. Second, we did not come all the way to the beach for you to refuse to get in the water.”

“You’ve never been in the ocean?” Wes’s rumbling voice is suddenly beside me. Too close. As half-naked as he was when I met him. But instead of a towel around his waist, he wears a pair of red swim trunks. My mouth goes dry at the sight of his sloping muscles, hard pecs, and the abs lining his stomach. A sprinkling of freckles dust his shoulders and make me long to rub sunscreen on his back too. Maybe my hands on his skin would have the same effect as his on mine.

“I’ve never been to the beach before,” I admit.

“How have you lived in Rhode Island your whole life and never been to the beach?”

I don’t ask how he knows I’ve lived in Rhode Island my whole life. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew my social security number.

“I dare you to get in the ocean!” Chloe calls, already backing into the gentle waves. She turns and dives into the water.

“Shit,” I mutter.

Wes holds his hand out to me. “I’ll help you. I’ll make sure you don’t drown.”

Panic bubbles in my stomach, but Wes Novak is holding his hand out to me and I can’t not take it.

His fingers thread through mine, sending a bolt of electricity through me.

The water is colder than I expected, making my nipples peak under my bikini top. Wes lets me take my time slowly submerging, deeper and deeper into the water.

Until I’m waist-deep, when he wraps an arm around my hips beneath the water where no one can see our connection.

He squeezes so hard, my flesh pinches between his fingers. I gasp.

His touch isn’t tentative or uncertain. Not the touch of a man testing the waters.

This is the touch of a man who knows what he wants and takes it. Who knows I want it to.

Rough. Dominant. Possessive.

The touch of a man claiming what is his.

“They like you, you know.”

I’m so flustered by his hand on me, I have no idea what he’s talking about. “Who?”

He nods back to the shore. “My family. They hated my ex.”

“Really?” I squeak. The infamous ex who broke his heart.

“Maybe my parents didn’thateher—Chloe did—but they didn’t like her either. They faked it the best they could, but you? You already kinda belong with us.”

I beam.Belong with us.Belong withhim. The days I spent alone while Mom was working one of her three jobs or grabbing a few hours of sleep in between shifts, all I longed for was a family to belong to.

Now I’ve found one. I know when I introduce them to Mom, she’ll fit right in too. An image of all of us together on Thanksgiving flashes through my head. At my birthday. At my and Wes’s wedding—

Whoa. What thehellis wrong with me? We haven’t even kissed and I’m already planning my vows. I am truly unhinged.

“Violet?” His soft but commanding voice.

I meet his eyes until his gaze drifts to my lips. Focusing on my mouth with so much concentration, it feels like the only visible part of me. The only body part that matters.

He’s going to kiss me. I’m so sure of it, the butterflies in my chest burst free from their cocoons and take flight.

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