Page 3 of The Burbs and the Bees
“Thanks,” I say again and gulp air. “Maybe this wasn’t so bad.”
Water clings to his lashes as he blinks at me—like I’m insane. “Not so bad?”
“You did seem a little hot under the collar a bit ago. An icy swim was just the thing you needed to cool you down.” I’m not sure why I’m trying to get a smile out of him.
“What I’m hearing is that I should be thanking you.”
“Yup, and now your day will be all uphill from here.” I force my frozen lips into a smirk. “I probably should have said upstream. With us being in the water and all.”
This time he does laugh but takes in a mouth full of seawater while he does it. He coughs, clears his throat. “We need to stop talking and use our energy to swim again, okay?”
He scans my face a second time. Despite the frigid water, a measure of warmth races through me. His visual assessment, combined with the genuine worry marring his features, hits like a shot of determination and prompts me to shut up and swim faster.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s do this.”
We head toward the boat, which has turned toward us, and even though he’s bigger and stronger and could get to the fishing vessel a whole lot faster than I can, he stays by my side, and for that I’m grateful.
A big wave splashes over my head, and it’s my turn to cough. But the slap to the face is a good reminder that I can’t let anything distract me. I blink to clear my blurry vision, and by the time I can see again, the boat has reached us.
“You two okay?” the captain of the vessel asks as he hauls us onboard. I reach the deck and nod, my teeth clanging too hard to talk.
My swim mate peels his shirt off, and for a second, I think I might have actually died in the ocean because ohmigod… His body is like a damn Plinko game. I could drop a quarter between his pectorals, and it’d hit all the hills and valleys as it made its way to the V leading to damp pants that hug his hard thighs.
“Take your clothes off,” he commands in a shaky voice as he continues to strip.
My gaze flies to his. Yeah, I might have been checking him out and got caught in the act, but I’m not about to get naked with him. Not with the captain watching, anyway.
Really, Alyson?
I plant a hand on my hip, but the effort of moving costs more than the effect I was going for. “Excuse me?”
“Clothes.” His icy fingers fumble with the button on his jeans. “Off.”
“Do what he says, lady,” the captain pipes in.
“Her name is Alyson, and I’m Jayden Andrews. My friends call me Jay,” the man says. A crewman comes up from below deck with blankets. “Listen, you need to get out of those clothes and get warmed up,” Jay adds in a softer tone.
“O…kay. Right. I…I wasn’t thinking. My brain is frozen.” I glance around. I’m not a prude, but getting undressed in front of these three men… I don’t know. It’s all weird. Then again, after the day I’ve had… “Can you turn around?”
“Lordy, girl,” the fishermen c
arrying the blankets says in a crusty voice. “Ain’t no time for modesty when hypothermia is nipping at your heels.”
“Fine,” I say. “Just don’t look.”
“Ain’t nobody looking,” the fisherman says.
I reach for the hem of my soaked Lululemon shirt to peel it over my head, not an easy task when my body is shaking and my damn clothes are glued to my wet skin. I mumble curses under my breath and writhe and move like a contortionist on crack. I expect a round of laughter at the circus sideshow I’m performing, but instead, Jay steps up to me, and I become acutely aware that he’s only sporting a pair of black boxers.
“Here,” he says, his fingers brushing my stomach, creating new goose bumps as they linger a moment too long. A hard shiver that may have nothing to do with our dip in the water races through me as he helps me remove the stretchy cotton from my body. He gets it off—and sadly, I nearly get off, too, as his big, calloused hands touch me in the softest ways. Dressed in my lacy bra, hard nipples poking out, I work on my skirt as he wrings out my top.
“What were you doing so close to the rocks?” His tone holds a measure of accusation.
“I… I was—”
“Can’t you read?” he asks before I can answer him. I try to push the words past my numb lips, but he continues with, “You could have gotten your entire family killed.”
“I… They…weren’t my family,” I inform him as I gratefully accept the blanket from the fisherman and wrap it around my near nakedness. “I…can’t stop shaking.”
