Page 80 of Drop Dead
“Sometimes. Did you know I got hired by the CBC after that internship?”
That was impressive, but she wasn’t surprised and was pleased to find the memory of losing out to him no longer triggered a cortisol response. “I don’t remember you working there.”
He gave her a little grin. “Keeping track?”
“Whatever.” She flicked water at him. “CBC?”
“The job was in Victoria, and I told Ma I was going to accept. She collapsed with a heart problem, and I had to take her to the hospital. My sisters were focused on school, so I couldn’t leave them to deal with it.”
“That’s horrible.”
“My sister Amy thinks Ma faked it to keep me home.”
“Wes, seriously?”
He dipped down in the water. “Who knows? It’s hard to tell whatshe wants because she always seems disappointed no matter what I do.”
He leaned over to get another beer as Nadine tried to figure out the best thing to say. When Wes floated a can in her direction, she picked it out of the water before she spoke. “You’re not a disappointment.”
He blinked at her, then gave a wry smile. “Thanks,” he said. “Enough with questions for tonight, don’t you think?”
“Sure.” They’d gone to some touchy places. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to go deeper with him.
***
Nadine’s quick reply made Wes suspect she was feeling as vulnerable as he was. She looked around the grotto as though casting for a new topic. “Is there something behind the waterfall?”
“Like a hidden Hugh Hefner room? I don’t know. I didn’t go all the way under.”
Nadine put her drink down and swam over. “Given the rest of this house, I have high hopes,” she said. She passed close enough for him to feel the water swirl around his stomach, then dipped under and disappeared.
He couldn’t let her explore alone. What if she found something super interesting? Wes put down his own can and walked through the waterfall, pausing to again appreciate its pressure.
Then he came out and immediately bumped into soft, cool skin. The space beyond the waterfall was tiny and lit by a small line of fairy lights along the edge of the pool. All this was environmental detail that Wes only dimly noted because he was too busy trying to understand that Nadine was in front of him and so close, they were touching. Her back was pressed against the wall. She had nowhere to go, and he should take a huge step back past the waterfall and then get the hell out of this pool.
She blinked, her pretty eyes starry with wet lashes, and he didn’t move.
***
Nadine wasn’t sure if what she was about to do was a bad idea or a good one.
No, it was a bad idea. Very bad. Anything she did at the moment that was not muttering an excuse and swimming away would result in something she was probably going to regret, if not in the next few hours, then tomorrow morning.
She couldn’t bring herself to care.
Who knew being long-term enemies with someone made you think about them endlessly? They might no longer dislike each other, but Nadine wasn’t sure where they’d moved to on the relationship spectrum or how she fully felt about it. All she knew was that she’d been thinking about touching Wes—and Wes touching her—more than she liked to admit.
It was almost an out-of-body experience when his hand came up to grip her waist. “Nadine.” He only said her name, but it was as if he was asking permission.
In answer, she ran her hand along his arm, feeling the muscles clench as she moved up to his shoulder, down his back, and finally to that snake on his ribs. His wet skin was slick under her fingers. “I’ve never made out in a pool before,” she said.
He threw his head back and laughed. “Me neither.”
That broke whatever spell she was under, and Nadine suddenly wanted more of him. All of him. Forget about tomorrow. She stepped closer, and Wes twitched slightly before his eyelids fluttered. He leaned forward, and finally those lips were on hers, fitting as if he’d been made for her. His mouth was warm, and Nadine flattened her hand against his chest, thrilling at the feel of skin and the tight beat of his heart under lean muscle.
Wes made a sound between a sigh and groan that turned her knees to butter, then backed her against the fake stone wall of the grotto. One arm braced by her head to lean in again, but he slowed down to giveher a small smile that was far too sweet and way too hot for Nadine to deal with. She pulled him in closer and gasped.
Kissing Wes was to learn him in a new way that instantly ignited every place he touched her. Gone was the buttoned-up Wes, he of the shined shoes and straight collars. This Wes was softer but rougher than she expected, and the mix drove her wild. She couldn’t anticipate what he’d do next, but it didn’t matter, because he was a mind reader, sensing what she craved almost before she realized what she wanted herself.
