Stacy Kestwick - Wet

“West Montgomery, at your service.” He grinned and formally offered his hand.

I shook his hand, feeling a spark straight down to my toes. God, I’d like to have him at my service. “Sadie Mullins,” I responded, the manners ingrained in me .

“Well, Sadie Mullins, if you’re done picturing me naked, we can go. Your place or mine, either works for me.”

I rolled my eyes at his audacity. I mean, yeah, I had been, but he couldn’t know that for sure. “Are you always this cocky?”

“Only around beautiful women who stare at my package. Or touch it. Or suck—”

“Okay, okay, I get the point.”

“Not yet, you don’t. But maybe one day. If you’re nice to me.”

I stared at him for a beat, crossing my arms in front of me. “Does all this bullshit actually work for you?”

“Usually.”

“It won’t work on me.”

“It will. Eventually. I tend to grow on a person.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“Are you capable of driving me home without molesting me?”

“Me? You’re the one with the history of launching yourself at me. You’ve already mentally screwed me too, I can tell. You have the look.”

“The look?”

He leaned closer and whispered in my ear. “I have this effect on women. Not my fault.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, letting his fingers drift down my neck as he straightened up.

“Maybe I’m immune to your charm.”

Taking my hand and pulling me toward his truck, he looked at me, his eyes burning into mine. “We’ll see.”

We reached the side of his truck, a surprisingly beat up old Ford pickup. After climbing into the seat, I turned to shut the door only to find him leaning into the cab across me, buckling my seat belt. He patted my thigh. “Safety first.”

“What happened to keeping your hands to yourself?” I shot back.

“You know you liked it.” He grinned as he closed my door and jogged around to the driver side. “But to apologize, I’ll let you pick the radio station.”

He cranked the truck, and I leaned over to change the dial, adjusting it to my favorite local rock station. I glanced up to see if it was okay with him and caught him sneaking a peek down my shirt. “Hey!” I smacked his arm.

“Now who can’t keep their hands to themselves?”

Ignoring his comment, I told him which street and cottage number to head to, eight blocks over, knowing he would think I was just a tourist by its location. He nodded. “One of the Hawthorne’s houses, huh? You have good taste. Of course, since you’re into me, we already knew that.”

I sighed. “You’re impossible.”

“Would you prefer it if I were a possibility?”

Maybe. I didn’t answer, and we spent the rest of the ride in silence, me staring out the passenger window and him sending me questioning glances. I could feel the weight of them, but I stubbornly refused to turn and acknowledge him. When he pulled up outside my cottage, I started to reach for the door handle, but he grabbed my arm and stopped me.

“Wait.” He jumped out and ran around the truck again, opening my door for me. He just stood there and studied me, as if I were a puzzle he wanted to figure out. “You okay? The guy you were seeing earlier, he didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No. He didn’t hurt me. I promise,” I assured him, when he continued to look at me with concern. He also didn’t get me off, and now I’m still horny, and you’re standing here next to me looking completely edible but completely off limits. I sighed and moved around him, heading up the steps to the front door. All the houses were built on stilts to keep the living premises higher above the water line. At the door, I paused and turned back. He was still standing by the truck, watching me, a look on his face I couldn’t decipher. “Thanks for the ride. That was sweet of you.”

He grunted. “Trust me, Sadie, I’m not sweet.” He climbed back into his truck and roared off down the street, the darkness taking him away from me.

I moved through the cottage, getting ready for bed on autopilot. Shoes kicked to the corner, clothes tossed over a chair, makeup removed. Sleep eluded me, and I lay in bed for a long time, tossing and turning. Unable to get the image of West out of my head when I closed my eyes. I pictured my hands running through his close-cropped brown hair, staring into his blue-gray eyes, his mouth descending to mine. I imagined the play of his muscles as he moved over me, settling between my thighs, his fingers tracing a path down my body to my core, wet and waiting for him. I fantasized about what happened next.

Groaning with frustration, I squeezed my eyes shut, banishing him from my mind. I knew what I needed before I would be able to sleep. Grabbing my phone, I queued up my S playlist. Ed Sheeran, Sia, Seal, Shaggy, Sean Paul. Then I lay back on my pillows and my hand drifted down under my panties. Sometimes, when you wanted something done right, you just had to do it yourself.

I signaled to Kendra, the other lifeguard at the Water’s Edge resort, that I was taking my ten-minute break and headed over to the tiki-hut poolside bar to grab a bottle of water. It was early yet on Wednesday morning, and only a handful of kids splashed about in the pool with their mothers hovering mere inches away, so Kendra and I were feeling pretty redundant. “Take twenty,” she called out, sounding bored.

I plopped down on a barstool, and Theo handed me a sweaty bottle. “Slow morning, huh?” he commiserated.

I had met Theo when I started earlier in the week, and we’d hit it off right away. Theo was adorable, with his big puppy dog eyes and a curly mop of black hair that desperately needed a trim. We’d bonded during break time, making fun of the girls who spent all week doing nothing but laying by the pool getting a tan, rotisserie chicken style, hoping to catch the eye of the cute guys wandering around, but too lazy to actually get up and flirt.

I nodded my agreement and sipped from the cold bottle, looking down the path to the beach. Not much going on down there either. Most of the younger crowd was either still asleep or hung over from the night before. Only the families with small children and the retirees were out this early.

Theo leaned his elbows on the bar. “Up to anything exciting this week?”

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Not really. I still don’t know many people around here other than Rue, and she travels for work a lot.” Rue helped companies manage their online presence, mostly through social media, but she sometimes helped design websites too. This week, she was in Chicago, consulting with a new gourmet popcorn company.

Really, it was sad. I’d been here for five-and-a-half months and barely knew anybody. Of course, I had spent the winter wallowing in self pity and doughnuts, until my dwindling savings account forced me to reevaluate my hermit-like tendencies and seek actual employment. True, I had been a wedding photographer in Nashville, but capturing a bunch of lovesick fools promising each other forever wasn’t real high on my to do list these days, and it took awhile to build up a client base with photography. With my lifeguarding background, and Rue’s connections to the manager at the Edge, she’d managed to hook me up with a job. It was enough to keep me busy and put some money back in my pocket while I figured out my next move.

“Want to hit the gym with me tomorrow morning?” Theo offered. “I had a client cancel his training session, so I have an opening. No charge, and it’ll get you out of the house for awhile.”

“You’re a trainer?” I was surprised. Theo’s logoed t-shirt was snug enough on his frame for me to recognize he worked out, but I didn’t realize he took it so seriously.

He looked wounded. “Yes. Is that so hard to believe?”

“No. Well, maybe.” I squinted at him. “You’re just so nice.”

“You can be nice and still get good results. But I can do mean too, if that’s how you like it.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“What time?” I asked, giggling at his face.

“Seven.”

“Seven?”

“I’ll even take you to breakfast afterwards, my treat.”

“Can we get Krispy Kreme?” I brightened.

He looked confused, like the two couldn’t possibly go together. “Doughnuts? After a workout?”

“What’s the point of burning all those calories if you can’t indulge a little?”

“We’ll get doughnuts if you don’t wimp out during the session,” he countered.

“Deal.”

* * *

The next morning, I dressed carefully for my workout. Compression leggings to show off my legs, a new shockingly bright pink sports tank, and my hair pulled back in a perky ponytail. You could always count on cute guys being at the gym, Theo included. It wouldn’t hurt to look my best. I even swiped on some waterproof mascara before walking out the door.