Page 77 of Cocky Prince
I stand and Adam’s shirt drapes to just above my knees.
I do the girl thing and maneuver out of the tank top with the T-shirt still on, and pull off my shorts. “Good?”
In answer, Adam picks me up and jumps overboard. “Cannonball!”
I’m gasping, choking and laughing, and slapping his chest. “Damn you!”
He grins and swims away, diving under the dark sea-glass-colored water. He pops up a few feet from me.
Mira’s laughing, so I splash her, and she splashes me back. And Mira isn’t nice about it, either. A damned torrent of lake water goes up my nose and into my mouth and eyes.
I dip under the water to get away. When I pop back up, Nessa is facing Zach, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, and she’s kicking water with her tiny feet at Mira and grinning like a loon.
Tyler shakes his head at Nessa. “Now you’ve done it.”
Mira’s expression is all determination. I know that look, so I do what any sane person would, and back up.
Mira directs her hurricane hands at Nessa and Zach and all hell breaks loose. I’m watching it go down, congratulating myself on getting out of the fray, when something snakes under my T-shirt and grabs my ass. “Ahh!”
Adam emerges and whips his hair to the side, a huge grin on his face.
I wrap my arms around his shoulders, because Mira was right: the water is freezing. “You scared the crap out of me.” He holds me up and I kiss his cheek, which is slightly chilled and a little stubbly, but I love him…
Oh my God. My smile falters.
“What’s wrong?” he says.
I cut him a quick grin and blink. “Nothing.” I run my fingers through his hair, close my eyes, and kiss his temple, my lips resting there a second too long, but he doesn’t pull away. If anything, he holds me tighter.
This was coming. I knew this was coming, but I thought we’d break up before something like this happened, or that my first impression of Adam would turn out to be true. But I can’t even see that man anymore. All I see is the one in front of me. Laughing with me, holding me, and loving me in a way no one else has. It’s hot and intense, and so gentle at the same time. And I never want it to end.
I need to ask Adam about Blue. Because I love him.
Not talking about work and what’s worrying me is beginning to feel like a lie. The last thing I want to do is lie to Adam.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Adam
We dropoff our friends and swing by my place for a change of clothes.
Hayden glances around the living room. “Explain to me again why we never stay at your swank lakeside house? My place looks like a dump compared to this.”
I glance at the box-beamed ceilings and large view of the lake. “It’s nice, but it doesn’t do it for me anymore. Your place isyou. I want to be where you are.”
She stares, and a slow smile spreads over her features. It melts me, that smile. “Okay,” she says quietly.
We head to Hayden’s in the XKR, and for a moment, I have déjà vu. I dreamt of this—driving through the mountains, unable to take my eyes off Hayden’s incredible legs, an intense feeling of wanting something so deeply and knowing I could have it. That she wanted me too. It was the morning I accidentally fell asleep in Hayden’s bed. And here we are almost two weeks later.
I grab her hand and squeeze it, peering over. She’s looking out the window, biting the corner of her lip. “Hey,” I say. “Everything okay?”
She shakes her head.
This wasn’t how things went in my dream. In my dream, she was happy, not worried. “What’s up? You didn’t have fun today?” I had one of the best days I can remember, but it’s no good if she’s not happy.
She glances over, that worried expression still on her face. “I had a great time. There’s just something I need to talk to you about.”
My mind races.She doesn’t want this. She’s having second thoughts about us.But I tell my subconscious to simmer the fuck down. “You can talk to me about anything.”
