Page 80 of Too Safe

I’m laughing so hard my stomach’s starting to cramp when I look over and find him staring at me, standing stock still.

His jaw ticks incessantly, his fury so intense I swear he’s vibrating with rage. The sight of him sends me into another fit of giggles.

I’ve officially lost it. I don’t have a care in the whole damn world. After weeks of upheaval because of this man, I finally feel vindicated. And all it took was twenty dollars’ worth of cereal and a stupid prank to level the playing field.

I swipe the tears out of my eyes, then drop back and starfish my arms and legs, floating on my back as I smile up into the sun.

“You can swim?”

Caught off guard by the question, I find my composure and turn toward him, then propel my body backward on instinct when a roguish glint twinkles in his eyes.

He doesn’t bother waiting for an answer. Nor does he repeat himself. Instead, he lowers onto the end of the dock and slowly, methodically, unlaces his shoes.

His socks go next. Then he stands and does that ridiculous thing guys do where he grips the back of his T-shirt at the neck and whips it off in one fluid motion.

I’m transfixed. By the way his hands make quick work of folding his T-shirt. How his arm flexes when he fishes his cell phone out of his pocket and places it in his shoe.

Then his eyes find mine. Bottomless onyx lagoons. Infinite black holes with the power to consume entire galaxies.

He straightens and smirks. Finally, he lifts his hands over his head and dives in.

I was so distracted watching him I don’t have time to swim away.

He breaches the surface inches in front of me, his bare chest so close it brushes against my breasts with each inhale.

I hold my breath, expecting him to pull back the second he realizes that we’re practically sharing oxygen.

But instead of pulling away, he reaches out under the water and drags mecloser.

An ironclad grip encases my hips, squeezing so hard it’s almost painful. The crackle of a firework zaps through me, each one of his fingertips a sparkler ablaze.

If I wasn’t submerged in water, I swear this man would be burning me up from the inside.

I want to burn with him.

The thought doesn’t even fully register before he’s lowering his face toward mine, droplets of water cascading off his hair and sprinkling my face.

A single drop lands on my lower lip.

Without my permission, my tongue darts out to sweep it away.

His eyes track the movement, going molten.

And in that moment, I know I’m not the only one under a spell.

I bite my bottom lip, and he growls in warning.

One hand leaves my waist, and the next thing I know, he’s gripping my chin and plucking my lip free from between my teeth.

We’re both treading. Panting. Our bodies boldly brushing against each other again as he watches me with a fire that tells me he wants to set me ablaze as badly as I want to burn for him.

Shaking his head and thumbing my bottom lip, he positions himself close enough to whisper in my ear. It takes every ounce of restraint I possess not to wrap my legs around him.

“You. Are. Infuriating,” he snarls. “Everything you do is designed specifically to piss me off. I do not have the strength to fight you day in and day out. Stoptestingme, Josephine.”

Arching out of his grasp, I narrow my eyes and defiantly bite my lip again.

“And if I don’t? What then, Cap? You’ll lock me up and never let me go?”

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