Page 85 of Strictly Pretend

Okay, so that’s not what I was expecting. Not at all. “I thought you wanted to get me alone.”

“I do.” He gives me that half-cocked smile that sends shivers all through me. Then he walks over to the bed which has been freshened up by the staff – because of course the yurts here are fully serviced by housekeeping – and picks up the two fresh towels they’ve formed into the shape of swans. “Are you coming?” he asks.

“Do I need a bikini?”

His smirk widens. “Nope.”

“What if people see us? There are still a few of them down by the lake.”

He reaches for my chin, tipping it up until I have no choice but to look into his eyes. Not that I would have chosen to look anywhere else, but it’s strangely hot being manhandled by him. “Do you trust me?” he asks, his voice thick.

I let out a breath. “Yes,” I say honestly. It’s so strange, but right now I don’t think there’s anybody I trust more in the world than this man.

“Then come with me.”

EMMA

I should have known there was more than one big lake on this ranch. They have enough livestock to need all the water they can get, after all. Though as I pull my top off, Brooks explains that it’s a river that fills the lakes and ponds that are used to sate the thirst of the buffalo and other animals.

“You know a lot about it,” I tease, liking the way he can’t take his eyes off my chest as I unfasten my bra. “Have you been reading?”

“Nope. I sat behind Cassie’s dad on the coach and had to listen to him talking about the monitoring app he has for checking water levels.” He leans forward to kiss me again, like he can’t bear not to. He’s already in his shorts.

We’re completely alone. Brooks found this hidden glade when he came back on the ATV earlier. It’s like being in a fairyland. The water is more a pond than a lake – though a big pond at that. It’s an inky purple-blue, reflecting the colors of the sky. Trees surround us, their silhouettes black and majestic, and at the center of the water the reflection of the moon shimmers in the gentlest of breezes.

“Race you to the moon,” I murmur to him, pulling off my panties and throwing them onto the pile.

But he catches my hand and shakes his head. “If you go under I’ll never find you. We stick together.”

Quickly pulling his shorts off, he leads me into the water, and I’m transfixed by the way his skin looks in the moonlight. His muscles cast shadows on his chest, making him look like a work of art. I can’t take my eyes off him.

The water is warm as we wade in. It’s only when we’re waist deep that we start to swim together. I can tell he’s tempering his speed to swim alongside me, and it’s stupidly cute.

When we get to the center, the moon is fractured into a thousand tiny pieces around us, like little diamonds floating on the surface.

It’s not overly deep, not like the lake. The water is shoulder deep on him. Which would make it around eye height on me, if he hadn’t pulled me into his arms and made me wrap my legs around his waist.

We’re naked. He’s hard. Everything about this moment seems perfect.

“Are you sure you brought me here to talk?” I say, smiling.

“That and other things.”

I lift my head up to look at him. “Did you bring me here so nobody will hear me?”

“I brought you here so nobody will hearus,” he says. “Me. Telling you what I need to tell you.”

It feels like a hundred years ago since he walked out of the yurt, hurt about Will’s revelations. I open my mouth to tell him it doesn’t matter anymore. I feel so beyond that it’s not funny.

But then I see the seriousness in his eyes and realize it’s not about me. It’s about him. His need to tell me.

I kiss him softly. “Talk to me, big boy.”

His mouth curls against mine. “You’re very distracting, did you know that? I had a whole speech planned.”

“Can we put it on double speed?”

He lets out a breath. “I had mumps. When I was fourteen.”

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