Page 9 of Untamed Mountain Man

“No, you can watch,” I said. “Unless you want to close your eyes.”

She didn’t close her eyes. She watched as I removed everything all the way down to my underwear and socks.

When I straightened, her eyes widened at what she saw, and I knew that had everything to do with my massive erection. Yes, she made me hard. The cold water was probably about to take care of that, but at least she’d seen me in my full glory before the water temperature did me in.

I didn’t wade into the water like she’d done. Instead, I lunged in. I would have dove, but I wasn’t sure how deep it was at the bank. It was a good decision because it was pretty shallow. I might have ended up with a concussion…or worse.

I swam somewhat close to where she stood, my teeth chattering as I did so. Holy hell, this was cold. Like climbing into a bathtub full of ice cubes.

“You okay?” she asked, her voice shaking.

Her lips were trembling. Her shoulders were hunched. She was freezing her ass off.

“We can get out if you want,” I said.

She shook her head. “You have to stay for at least five minutes to get the real benefits. That’s what my friend said, anyway. I have no idea where she got that information.”

“What benefits am I looking to get?”

Besides being in a body of water naked with Macy. That was the only benefit I saw here. And we sure as hell could do that on land. But if we went back to land and she immediately put her clothes on, that would suck. I couldn’t decide whether I’d be in here, miserable, knowing she wore nothing but not able to see it, or on land, fully clothed, being able to take in her full body.

Yeah, probably the latter.

She was moving around, and it took me a second to realize she was getting closer. And closer. Was she walking toward me? Yes, she definitely was.

With any other woman, I’d have game. I’d have already found out if she wanted me to kiss her and done exactly that. But I couldn’t make that leap with this angel of a woman. The stakes were too high. If I did something to kill whatever was going on between the two of us, I’d never forgive myself.

“We could play Marco Polo,” she said.

I had no idea what she meant by that. “Marco Polo?”

“It’s a game you play in a pool. You close your eyes and find me. It’s like hide-and-seek. You call out ‘Marco’ and I have to answer ‘Polo.’”

Yeah, in any other circumstance, that would sound great. Right now, I just wanted to get the hell out of this. But she’d challenged me, and I was not one to walk away from a challenge that proved how tough I was.

“It’ll pass the time,” she said. “I can be ‘it’ first if you want.”

“What does ‘it’ mean in this case?”

“If I’m ‘it,’ I’m the one who says ‘Marco’ and you swim around saying ‘Polo.’ Being able to swim around will help keep you warm. You’ve really never played this game?”

I shook my head. “Never heard of it. But I’ll stand here while you swim around and keep warm.”

That was my stab at chivalry. As chivalrous as someone could be while freezing his balls off.

“Should I close my eyes?” I asked.

Macy nodded. “And keep them closed until you find me.”

I couldn’t help but notice she hadn’t gone underwater at all yet. The bottom half of her hair was wet, while the top half was still dry. She had beautiful long, dark hair that looked like it would feel silky beneath my fingers. It was weird, considering she was buck naked, that the part of her I was thinking about touching was her hair. But I had to start somewhere.

I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of water sloshing behind me. Crap, I should have gotten more details about the rules. Was I supposed to wait until I heard nothing? I could tell she was behind me and to my left. Was I supposed to pretend I couldn’t?

“Marco!” I called out.

Silence. Had I done it wrong? Seconds ticked by. Just before I was considering yelling out again, I heard it. That beautiful voice saying, “Polo.”

Was this game supposed to be hard? I knew exactly where she was. All I had to do was turn, and there she’d be.

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