Page 58 of Reckless Hearts

“It’s good, right?” Colt asks from where he’s spreading a large blanket in the shade of an old oak tree.

“More than good.” I can’t help but smile at him.

He really outdid himself with this one.

If he keeps up, I really am going to fall for him.

Who wouldn’t?

Maverick helps him lay everything out, popping open the cooler and holding out a bottle of water to me.

I swipe it from his hand, cracking the top and drinking over half of it in one go.

It goes down easy, cooling my dry throat.

Both boys are frozen in place as they watch me.

Colt holds a tray halfway in the air, like someone hit pause on the world as he went to put it down.

Maverick’s own water is hovering where he stopped midway to taking a sip.

The weight of their attention is hot against my skin, a smothering intensity that makes it hard to breathe, like being submerged into a bath.

Colt clears his throat, and the world spins again, all of us jolted back to the present.

My chest rises and falls as I get myself together and take my seat on the blanket, legs crossed ahead of me, elbows supporting my back.

The shade provides just enough shelter to cut through the blistering heat, providing bliss on a summer day.

Something drops on my stomach, and I peel my eyes open to find a container filled with fruit, the plastic sides wet with condensation.

“Thought you might be hungry.”

Colt’s charming the socks off me right now, and I don’t know what to do about it.

I fall back on the safety of our usual teasing. “Is this how you seduce all the ladies?”

His brows shoot up. “I’m insulted that you think I have to seduce them.”

An exasperated breath huffs out of me. “Oh, sorry… I’ve yet to witness this magic of yours.”

“You’ll know when I seduce you.”

When.

Sparks start at my toes and race upward until they buzz in my entire body.

He goes back to pulling stuff out of the cooler like he didn’t just rock the foundation I’m sitting on.

It’s Maverick who pulls me out of it.

He’s standing at the end of the blanket, only a few feet from me, when he lifts his shirt to wipe sweat off his face, revealing stacks of carved muscle.

Deeply tanned skin from days spent in the sun shines with the sheen of sweat.

Mouth watering, all I can think about is how he’d feel beneath my tongue as I ran it along the hollows between his abs.

I crisscross my knees in an attempt to ease the ache building between my thighs.

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