He swam a little closer, and now I could make out the color of his eyes. A bright greenish-blue that, when paired with his dark hair, tan skin, and the appealing angles of his face, could make a girl weak in the knees even from ten yards back.
That sly smile of his went higher. “Long enough to know that your hair color is natural.”
Despite the cold water, my face heated instantly.
“It’s all right,” he said immediately, lifting his hands above the water. “We were brought into the world na**d and it’s a damn shame somewhere along man’s way he felt the need to cover up.” Those eyes of his sparkled. “Because bodies like yours make clothing a real tragedy.”
I knew in some sick, twisted way, he was trying to make me feel better, but I felt worse. My own boyfriend hadn’t seen me naked. Heck, he hadn’t even seen me na**d from the waist up, and this smiling stranger had gotten the whole shebang. Not only that, I was uncomfortable with the way he looked at me and the way I felt when he looked at me. Some part of me, and if I was a betting girl I’d put it all on that wild streak, liked the way he looked at me.
Liked it way too much.
I cleared my throat and tried to break eye contact. Tried unsuccessfully. “This is private property, you know.”
“No, I didn’t know,” he said, looking around. “Besides, I adhere more to the land owns us, we don’t own the land kind of philosophy.”
“Most trespassers would I suppose,” I said, wondering why, in all of the many lakes, streams, and swimming holes in the county, this guy who appealed to me on a primal level had to choose this one.
“As much fun as this flirty banter is, my balls are about to fall off if I don’t get out of this cold ass water,” he said, swimming towards me.
I told myself he was only trying to get closer to the shore, not to me, but his eyes told a different story.
“So who’s getting out first? Me . . . or you?” His smile curved even higher over that last part.
My eyes went narrower still.
“I guess I am,” he answered for me when my lips stayed sealed. I’d already given him the full show once; he wasn’t getting it again.
Taking a few more long strokes, his feet hit the bottom and he started walking out of the water.
“Same time tomorrow?” he called back at me as his shoulders broke the surface. I’d seen wider ones, but I’d never seen more defined ones. This was so not helping this strange feeling I had coiling up inside of me. That face, those shoulders, that back, and that . . . butt.
I hadn’t been the only one skinny dipping this afternoon.
Look away, look away right now, I told myself.
I didn’t listen.
“My name’s Cole,” he said as he continued towards the shore.
“Don’t care,” I lied, not able to peel my eyes away from that long, tanned, muscled, dripping wet body.
“Last name’s Carson.”
“Care even less.” Did I sound as unconvincing to him as I did to my own ears?
“What’s your name?” he asked, pausing at knee level and glancing back at me.
“My first name’s Keep and my last name’s Walking.”
What was I doing? I never talked like this to people. I’d come in second place as the senior class sweetheart. Second place sweethearts didn’t sass back to naked, hot strangers while they were na**d themselves.
Suddenly, he turned around. All the way around.
My face went blank before I felt heat rush up my neck. It was the first time I’d seen a man’s . . . package, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the first thing I zeroed in on. I’d be lying again if I said I looked away quickly. Instead my eyes lingered until I felt heat wind up my body, tightening around an area south of my navel.
Stretching his arms above his head, he cleared his throat. “I like that flustered look on your face,” he said, and even though I wasn’t looking at his face, I heard the smile in his voice. “See anything you like?”
“No,” I snapped.
“Really? Because that flushed expression says otherwise,” he said, his voice all tease. “I’ve got the whole afternoon open. I’d be happy to give you an in-depth, hands-on tutorial to Cole Carson.”
I managed to close my eyes, and when I reopened them, I was finally able to look away from what I was fixed on earlier. “You have fun with your own hands,” I said, cocking a brow.
Before turning around, he studied my face and that half smile of his moved into something a bit more genuine. “You gonna be all right out here if I go? Not going to drown?”
“Not today,” I replied, my eyes automatically dropping with his back to me again.
I didn’t look away until he disappeared into the trees.
I COULDN’T STOP thinking about Cole. His eyes, that cocky grin, and his backside.
And his frontside, too.
I was positively distracted and sufficiently flustered. That could have explained why three of my orders had gone out wrong tonight. One of the few perks to growing up in the same town with the same people? They let you off the hook easy when you delivered a savory crepe instead of the sweet crepe of the day they’d ordered. If ever there was a time to stiff a server, it would be when they brought you a smoked salmon and cream cheese crepe when you were expecting a crepe stuffed with bananas, chocolate sauce, and walnuts, but no one left me less than a fifteen percent tip all night.
Since it was a Friday night, the cafe had been hopping and I hadn’t had a chance to pour myself a cup of coffee from the time I arrived until fifteen minutes before closing.