Taming Chloe Summers (Grover Beach Team #7) (23 page)

He glances toward the path we took down here and then back at me. “Sure.” A smirk pulls at one corner of his mouth. “If you promise not to run away tonight.”

A couple of seconds pass quietly between us. Then, seeing the stern look in his eyes, I tell him solemnly, “I won’t run away tonight. Promise.” But I’ll run away tomorrow.

A breath of relief pushes out of his nose.

“You look happy,” I taunt him.

In spite of my teasing, his features stay serious. “I
am
happy.”

Some small part of me is, too. “All right, then, let’s go back now.” Turning on the spot, I start off.

“Wait.” Justin holds out a hand, stopping me. “Before you go, there’s something else I intended to tell you today.”

“Yeah?” Curiosity makes me turn back to him.

He nods, and the severity fades from his look. “You’re officially free.”

My face scrunches in confusion. “Free of what?”

“I sent your report in yesterday, and Cybil confirmed that the authorities accepted your accomplishment of the community service hours. Nothing will stop you from going to London in the fall.”

Wow. I’ve been waiting for this news for so long, now it’s almost a shock to hear it. “You mean you actually found some nice things to say about me?” I joke.

He cracks a smile. “Yeah, one or two.” When he comes closer, he strokes the back of my hand with one finger. “Or perhaps enough to fill two pages.”

At his soft caress, a rush of repressed memories swamps me. A prickling sensation travels up my arm and makes the small hair at the back of my neck stand on end.
London, London, London,
I chant inwardly to remind myself why I have to withstand the temptation. Then I clear my throat with a small cough. “And nothing I do from here on out can change the outcome?”

He skims his fingers up my arm. “No.”

There it is again. His touch. It’s driving me crazy. But I warned him not to touch me, and he should have listened. Maybe it’s time to make good on my promise and stop this tempting game he’s playing. I place my palm over his heart, lifting my gaze to his, and whisper, “Nothing…at all?”

Justin stares at me in wonder. It only takes a fraction of a second, though, for him to grasp what’s coming next.

In protest, he opens his mouth, his eyes shocked, but I don’t give him a chance to say something. Instead, I crack the tiniest smirk and push at his chest with all my strength. He stumbles backward, his next step missing the edge of the dock by inches. And he falls.

Only, I didn’t reckon on his fast reflexes. Before I can pull my hand away, he grabs my wrist and sweeps me off the dock along with him. Shit!

In the blink of an eye, I’m dragged against his chest, caught in an iron cage. As we crash into the lake together, water floods my mouth, my nose, and my ears. Even with my eyes wide open, I’m losing orientation fast. But the lake isn’t very deep this close to the shore. A gentle tremor travels through Justin’s body when he touches the ground, and he brings us to the surface again. My hands on his shoulders, I sputter, curse, and laugh, all while gasping for air.

He runs a hand through his seeping hair to brush it out of his face. “You okay, tiger?”

I nod, finally able to breathe again.

Keeping me in a one-armed embrace, he pushes with the other hand and swims us to the part of the lake where he can stand again, head and shoulders out of the water. There he puts me on my feet, but he doesn’t yet release me. His hand on my back, I wonder when it found its way underneath my top.

The water is unexpectedly warm tonight, heated by the high temperatures of the day. It’s not at all uncomfortable to be in here. Nor is it uncomfortable to stand flush against Justin, his face so close that I can discern the tiny drops of water hanging from his lashes and sparkling in the moonlight. He’s never looked more gorgeous. And I realize I’ve lost my inner battle.

“You know what I think?” he says then, so softly that it’s in harmony with the gently lapping water around us. His abs twitch against my stomach. There’s no way for me to escape.

My throat feels raspy all of a sudden. “That you should’ve stayed at the bonfire with the kids?”

“No.” He starts to stroke my skin. Just small circles.

I draw in a breath that’s a mix of shock and pleasure, lowering my gaze for a short moment. When I look up, I find him still studying my face. “Then what?” I whisper.

The sound of stirred water envelopes us as his hands lift out of the lake and shape to my cheeks, his fingers sliding into my wet hair. With his thumbs, he brushes a few drops away from underneath my eyes. “That it was a shitty first kiss.” His gaze focuses on my mouth, his voice lowering another notch. “I think we can do better.” And then he leans in to prove it.

As if of their own accord, my eyes flutter shut. An instant later, his lips press, feathery soft, to mine. For the length of a breath, they linger there, almost motionless. Then they start moving, and I move mine.

The first touch of the tips of our tongues makes me shiver in the water. Justin tastes just as good as in my memory, and then some. My body is on high alert, every part of me aware of him. How long have I been waiting for this? Days… Or was it years?

Time no longer has any meaning. My palms wander up his chest and around his neck, where my fingers dig into his soaked shirt. His muscles are hard underneath, twitching when he moves his arms down and around me. The boy I once knew has grown into a man, and he strives to establish it with each sensual stroke of his tongue against mine.

Thrills of pleasure wash through me when he sucks the drops of water off my bottom lip. I tilt my head back a little, surrendering all of me to him. Sliding the tip of his tongue across my lip once more, he then kisses a trail down my chin, my jaw, and my neck. As his tongue swirls in hypnotizing circles on my skin, I feel like I’m drowning. But he doesn’t let go of me, keeping me safe in his arms.

Nuzzling the spot behind my ear, he bites my earlobe. A breath whizzes through my teeth. My nails claw harder into the back of his neck. “Just for the summer,” he murmurs. A drop of water escapes from one of his wet strands and rolls down his brow, followed by another. “Give us this time at camp, and let’s see where it takes us.”

A painful sting constricts my chest. With all my heart, I wish I could give in, but it’s impossible. I don’t have a whole summer left. “What we’re doing now is already making it more difficult, Justin.” Squeezing my eyes tighter than before, I lean my cheek against his, feeling the gentle rub of his stubble. “A relationship, or even just a summer fling, doesn’t fit into my plans.”

“They usually don’t. But there’s an easy solution.” His lips brushing across my cheekbone, he captures my bottom lip between his teeth and gives it a tender nibble. “Make a new plan.”

I press my lips together in a soulful smile. It sounds so easy when he says it. But I’m not the right girl for a long-distance relationship. So unless he decides to do a semester abroad in England, I don’t see how it would ever work. And he’s just not the kind of guy you find packing and enrolling in a British university at the last minute. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that.”

“It’s never too late.” He leans his forehead against mine, gazing into my eyes. “It took four years to get you back into my arms. Who would’ve thought that?”

Not me. I bite my lip, offering him a small, teasing smile. “Do you ever actually give up?”

“No.” Mischief flits across his gaze. “Do you?”

Never
. The only problem is that my year abroad ranks at the top of the list of things that I want. Even if Justin has unexpectedly become an item on that same list, I can’t let him get between Guildhall and me. Also Lesley, Kirstin, and I have planned an epic second half of summer in England. We’ve been looking forward to it for so long. Heck, we’re going to have the best time of our lives starting next week!

But then Justin tilts his head and kisses me again, deep and with swirling passion. And my willpower starts to collapse…

Moments later, a noise from the shore causes us to snap apart.

“What was that?” I whisper.

“I don’t know.”

Staring at the dark line of bushes, we strain to make out anyone there, but the sound must have come from farther away. The next instant, we hear the voices of some kids, and they’re coming closer fast.

Damn. I really don’t want anyone to find Justin and me going for a romantic dip in the moonlight. Nervously, I turn back to him. It’s too late to get out of the lake unnoticed.

Obviously, it takes more than a couple of kids walking in on us to throw him off balance. His gaze cool, he presses a finger to his lips. Then he nods toward the dock and points at the water with his index finger.

“Dive under?” I mouth, narrowing my eyes at him.

He nods again and carefully pulls me downward. After taking a deep breath, I dive with him. It’s only a few feet straight ahead. Easy enough to find, even in the dark lake. When light turns to shadow, I know we’ve reached the shelter of the dock and gently break through the surface. Justin comes up right beside me.

Over our heads, the wooden boards already vibrate with footsteps. They stop right above us, and the voices of three boys drift down. One of them I recognize as Brian—aka Romeo. The others are unfamiliar to me.

This part of the lake is much shallower than where we were standing before; the water here only reaches my belly button. Soaked to the bone, I’m starting to get cold. “What are we going to do now?” I hiss.

Justin scans around us. Hopefully he comes up with a plan to get us out of the water fast. Two seconds later, he leans in close, pressing me against one of the four poles that hold the platform. “Don’t make a sound,” he whispers then plants a quick, hard kiss on my mouth. Next, he sinks underwater again, but only for a few moments. At his return, two heavy stones are in his hands.

“Shh,” he warns me again. Then he wades through the water toward the edge of our dock shelter. Carefully lifting his right arm, he throws the first stone at the shore, hitting a tall tree right in the trunk. The clack instantly cuts into the conversation of the boys above.

One of them whispers, “Did you hear that?”

“It came from the trees,” Brian replies.

“Probably just a bird,” the third one suggests.

That’s when Justin throws the second stone, and the first boy argues with a worried voice, “Or maybe it’s Andrews coming to look for us. He said we shouldn’t leave the party tonight.”

“Yeah. Let’s go back before he finds us,” Romeo whispers, and all three hurtle back toward the shore, causing the dock to rumble under their feet. We give them two minutes before we finally wade out of the water.

“Impressive,” I say while I wring out my skirt. “They submit to you in fear.”

“The line between fear and
respect
is quite thin.” He pulls his drenched polo shirt over his head and squeezes the water out of it, too. His pecs and biceps jump at the effort.

Holy cow! An astounding urge to cop a feel overcomes me, and I swallow. Forcing myself to turn away, I start off around the lake. “But obviously you walk that line with great success. You’ll make a great teacher one day.”

“I hope so.” With a proud smile, he catches up with me, his polo stuffed halfway into the back pocket of his water-laden shorts, which leave a wet trail as we walk. At the parting of the path toward the two different campsites, I steer toward the boys’ place while he goes to turn left. Of course, a true gentleman would walk me home.

“Where are you going?” he demands, taking the time to take off his soaked shoes and socks, probably because they’ve made this funny squeaking sound the whole way.

“Going to get my sandals. They’re still under that table.” Or so I hope. Since my urgent departure has been delayed for another day, there’s no chance I’m going to leave them behind.

His black Adidas hooked on two fingers, Justin follows me barefoot. Now I’m the only one producing squelching sounds with my ballerina flats. It’s getting quite annoying after a few minutes, so I take them off as well.

“Again, no nail polish?” he asks with some wonder, staring at my naked toes far longer than he should.

“I thought you liked that?” I tease.

When his gaze lifts, there’s a tiny smirk on his lips. “I do.”

As we reach the campsite, the party still going, he steers me toward his and Greyson’s cabin, which blocks the orange light of the bonfire. “Let me just grab a dry shirt, then we can get your shoes, and I’ll walk you back. Or we can stay at the bonfire for a while longer, if you want.”

It can’t be much later than eleven, and spending a few more hours with Justin actually sounds nice, so I accompany him to his cabin. However, when I walk across the porch and open the door, I notice he didn’t come up with me. As I turn around, I find him still at the bottom of the stairs. “What’s wrong?”

He answers with a counter question and narrowed eyes. “What are you doing?”

I shake my head, confused. “You said you wanted to change.”

His eyes gleam in the light of the fire that finds his face through the gaps between the cabins. “Just to be clear,” he drawls, spreading his arms to place each hand on the railing on either side of the stairs. “I don’t give a fuck about how it will complicate your situation”—planting one foot on the bottom stair, he fixes me with a lustful glare—“but I swear, if you cross that threshold now, I’m going to have you.” Deliberately slowly, he starts to climb one step after another, sliding his hands along the rails, as if the choice he just gave me was only words, and there’s no way he would let me leave. “Every. Way. I want.”