Page 61 of The Ex Project
“Get in the water, Landry! Are you too chicken?” Wren goads, and I shoot her a withering glare.
“I’m notchicken. It’s not as easy for guys to get into cold water, okay?” I say, gesturing with both hands at my crotch. “There’s some … shrinkage that happens.”
“Oooh … sexy.” Wren laughs, getting closer to me but not rising out of the water.
“It would help motivate me if you took your swimsuit off,” I suggest, a cheeky grin forming on my lips.
“Hmm …” Wren makes an exaggerated thinking expression. “Maybe this will motivate you!”
Her hands come out of the water, but before she can splash me, Ruby is next to me, shaking the water off her as she climbs out of the pool. I flinch at the freezing cold water, and it’s enough to make me lose my footing on the slippery rocks and fall forward. When I come up for air, Wren is howling, her laugh echoing off the cliffs around us. The sound of it is melodious, and even though I’m recovering from the shock, I would do it all over again if it meant I could hear her laugh. Despite the cold, warmth blooms in my chest and a smile takes over my face. It takes over my whole body.
“That’s one way to do it.” She laughs.
“Yeah, but I splashed you, didn’t I?” I say, noting the droplets covering her face. “You’ve got a little something …” I wave my finger in a circular motion towards her. She makes a questioning expression.
“Where?”
“All over,” I say, and she swims over to me so she’s within arm’s reach of me.
“Can you show me?” Her tone is joking, verging on suggestive, so I reach out for her, hooking my hand on the small of her waist. I tug her towards me, our smooth, wet skin making delicious contact.
“Here,” I murmur now, dipping my head so I kiss her cheeks, her nose, her forehead. Anywhere with water droplets. Wren closes her eyes as I trail my mouth across her face, a lowhum reverberating from her chest. When I’ve got all the drops off her face, I pull away from her, keeping a hand around the base of her neck. It feels like a lifetime passes between us, as I stare into Wren’s eyes, and she stares back into mine.
I lean my forehead on hers and close my eyes, soaking her in. Soaking this in. I never want this moment to end. For the first time in ten years, there’s a very real chance I could have Wren back. And if that happens, I won’t let anything come between us again.
When I reopen my eyes, I see that Wren has closed hers, too. I hope the contact of our foreheads together means we’re sharing the same thoughts. Wren’s eyelids flick open, and we pull apart. There’s a light behind her chocolate brown eyes, making them burn almost amber in the sunlight.
“Race you up the cliffs?” she challenges me, and I think competing is Wren’s love language.
“What are the stakes?”
“Hmm.” Wren thinks for a moment. “If I win, I give you a blow job.”
“That’s a little backwards, don’t you think?”
Wren taps her temple with one finger.
“I’m playing the long game, Landry. Winning this will also earn me points in the orgasm competition.”
“Okay, fine. I’d be stupid to say no,” I concede. “Then oral sex it is, both ways.”
“If we tie, do we sixty-nine?”
“Seems fair to me.”
As we’ve been talking, Wren has been slowly inching towards the edge of the pool, readying herself to jump out and start the race. But I’ve thought ahead. I’m a strong swimmer,and if I can get a few powerful strokes in and get to the opposite edge of the pool, I’ll pop up right at the base of the cliff. With any luck, Wren will still be scrambling over jagged rocks that will slow her down.
We eye each other up for a beat before we both spring to action—Wren hauling herself out of the water and me swimming in the opposite direction. My move has thrown her off. It wasn’t what she was expecting, so it takes her a moment to recalibrate.
I’m already a few strides ahead of her as I haul myself out of the pool and have started climbing the cliff well before she reaches it. My arms and legs have a significantly more amount of power than hers, so it takes me half the time to reach the top, the highest safe ledge to jump from. Wren looks up to where I’m standing above her, a defeated look washing over her face.
I could jump now. Jumping now would guarantee my win. But Wren has had so many losses lately, and I can’t do that to her. I can’t beat her at her own game this time. She won’t want me to let her win, either, so in the thirty seconds it takes her to reach me, I come up with a different plan. One she won’t be expecting.
“You aren’t going to let me win, are you?” she says, placing her hands on her hips and stopping to catch her breath. Just as predicted. “You should know better. I’d sooner push you in ahead of me than win by default.”
“No, Miller.” I pick up both her hands in mine. “We’re going in together.”
“You really want to sixty-nine, don’t you? You could have said so.”
