Page 62 of That Summer Feeling

“Hmm.”

“Oh, I’m an expert-level queer now. And you pickedMason. Different brother. Different rules.”

“The biggest shithead in the world,” I said.

She grinned. “Exactly. When I told all my brothers I was bringing someone to lake night, they were mad because it’s our family thing. But I said that Holly would totally get it, and they didn’t know what to say to that, so they let me do it.”

“DidHolly get it?”

“Not in the least. She put her hand on my arm and said, ‘Do you think Andrew likes me?’ right in the middle of his introductory speech about memories.”

“Why the hell was she thinking of that then?” I asked.

“Exactly.” Stevie smiled. “When we came to the event hall to drink, she kept finding weird ways to be next to him. Andrew missed every single cue she sent him. And she sent hima lot. He just kept being like, ‘Do you want me to give you some space?’ ”

I knew the brothers so well I could perfectly picture the moment unfolding. “Frank got pissed, didn’t he?” I asked.

“Frank was so offended I brought her, I thought he might never forgive me,” Stevie said. “He kept saying, ‘She’s ruining lake night!’ to her face. Holly was resolute, though. She was willing to do anything to get to Andrew.”

“You Magnussons really cast a spell.”

Stevie grinned. “Faulty magic, if you ask me. Never seems to land on the right Magnusson at the right time.”

“I think it’s worked out pretty okay in the end.”

She brushed her thumb across my cheek. “Even when we did a few lake nights without Andrew, no one was allowed to bring anyone new. But I knew you’d be different. I felt a lot better about my chances this time.” She pulled my chin down toward her and kissed me.

When Stevie put her mouth on mine, I didn’t see stars. I didn’t even have thoughts running through my head. I was all feeling and movement. Pulsing heart. Urgent tongue. Heavy breathing.

Stevie twisted her hand through my hair, and I turned so I was no longer sideways in her lap. I straddled her legs instead, giving in to the pressure between us. She arched up against the weight of me, closing every gap she could find. Her hands found their way under my T-shirt. The damp remnants of lake water had made my skin sticky, letting each print of her fingertip scrape against me, nerve endings waking up to the feel of her.

“Areyoutired?” she asked me.

“Not at all. If someone asked me to, I’m pretty certain I could lift up a car right now,” I told her.

“Good,” she whispered in my ear. “Because I want my mouth on every part of you.”

No one had ever spoken like that to me. I didn’t know I wanted it. Didn’t know I needed it. Every joke I’d made to her without meaning to hadn’t been a joke at all. I’d held myselfback in more ways than one. Stevie knew where I was vulnerable. She saw me, as she always had.

“I want that too,” I told her.

“Whatever shall we do?” she teased.

Before she could make the first move, I dropped my hand down her body until I found the hem of her bikini bottoms. I slid past the tuft of hair until I could feel the slick heat of her. She gasped in a good way. “That’s one option,” she said, shuddering.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing,” I teased, even though it was true. But I knew whatIwould like. And I knew how gentle Stevie could be when no one was watching. If anything, I knew more than I ever had. “Can I keep going?”

“Yes.” She bucked her hips into my hand as I started drawing circles against her. My blood boiled to the surface of my skin watching her breath quicken. “I think you knowexactlywhat you’re doing,” she said, exhaling. She moved to touch me too.

“Not yet.” Watching her rock against me, looking at me the way she did, needing more of me, I wanted her to lose herself first.

She started moving faster. So did I. When she let out moans at the accelerated speed, it made me dizzy with want. I couldn’t believe I was the one making that happen. She tried again to reach for me, but I wouldn’t let her touch me yet.

I had never been so lit up by someone else’s pleasure. Seeing her fall apart, it vibrated through me the same way my own orgasm would have. If she so much as breathed too hard on me, I would be right there with her. So I breathedalongside her, pressing my nose to her face, climbing into the moment with her. More than physical closeness, there was an emotional string between us that tightened, knotting the two of us into place together.

When she came back to herself, her eyes had a steady focus that exceeded all the other times I’d watched her look at me before. Her desire had no filter over it anymore. She did not fight it, or hide it, or deflect with humor. She stood from the chair with her arms wrapped around my back, lifting me up with her.

“Oh, Garland,” she said. Once upright, she hooked her hands under my knees, then she knelt down and laid me on the rug. “You beat me at my own game. And you know I don’t like to lose.”