Heart?

Why in the fuck was I thinking about my heart and her cutting into shit?

And I was still hard.

Her hand slid down to my forearm. When she reached my wrist, she squeezed gently. “You know, you don’t have to make up for how lousy he was.”

“I know.” My voice was rougher, abrasive.

Her slight smile grew. “But you’ll make an excellent cop. You’re a good guy. Most of the time,” she teased.

I wasn’t having good-guy thoughts right then. Nope. Not at all. I couldn’t help it. I had to touch her. I needed to, and my control thinned and then snapped. So I did.

Andrea

I saw the change in him immediately. Those baby blues darkened to azure, and I stilled, barely breathing. Part of me wanted to dive underwater, but that was such a small part. The rest didn’t want to move.

My heart skipped as Tanner moved, but it wasn’t closer to me. He pushed away from the ledge. But before I could feel a second of disappointment, he shifted so that he was behind me, his forearms resting on either side of mine on the pool ledge.

I sucked in air as I tensed, keeping the front of my body against the slippery side of the pool. What in the world was he doing? My imagination fed me a ton of naughty images as the clouds darkened over us again.

His breath was warm on my shoulder as he spoke. “Can I tell you something?”

Closing my eyes, I nodded. “Sure.”

“I’m glad you didn’t want to go hiking. I like having you all to myself.” He moved one hand off the ledge and it landed on the bare skin of my side, underwater. I jerked back and came into contact with his large body. I didn’t move. Not even when his chest rose sharply against my back. “Are you?”

All thoughts scattered when his hand slid to my hip. The small stretch of material did nothing to block the feel of the rough callouses on his palm.

“Andy?”

My breath stuttered. “Yeah…yes.”

“That makes me happy to hear.” His hand drifted off my hip, over my belly, stopping just above my navel. I didn’t even have a chance to think about sucking in my stomach. My mind was blown by the touch and my arms shook. “Are you okay with this?” he asked as he flattened his hand.

I could barely get the words out. “Okay with what?”

“With this.” He leaned into me. His entire front pressed against my back as he used his hand against my stomach to hold me in place. Against my lower back, I could feel the hard length of him, and my blood trilled through my veins. “You feel me and you’re okay with that?”

Lust blurred my thoughts, mingling with confusion. While my body was a hundred percent on board—hell, it was on a train that had already left the station—I didn’t understand why he wanted this—wanted me now. But I wasn’t sure if that mattered—if the past really had any place in the here and now. And when had I ever really stopped to think about anything? Obviously not often.

He skimmed his hand up my side, and the answering shivers radiated throughout my body. “Andy?”

Normally, I hated it when he called me that, but right then, he could pretty much have called me anything, and I’d have been okay with it, especially with his hand so close to my breast. “I feel you,” I whispered. “I’m…okay with that.”

He made a deep, raw sound, and I thought I felt his lips brush my shoulder. “Thank. God.” His hand stopped just below the swell of my breast. “Because if you’d said no, I think I might have cried.”

My lips twitched. “Seems a bit extreme.”

“You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to touch you. Actually, I don’t even think I had any idea,” he mused. Then his hand was over my breast. “No idea.”

I arched my back as a moan escaped me. “Oh God…”

His hips pressed against me, and I thought for a moment I’d slip right under the water. A tempest of sensations rose swiftly, like the summer storm brewing over our heads. His hand closed over my breast, gently kneading. “What I’d give to see them,” he said, his thumb swiping over the crest of my covered breast. “But that’ll have to wait.”

I didn’t want to wait.

But I didn’t have to.

With incredibly nimble fingers, he slipped them under the cup of my bikini top. Heat exploded as the tips of my breasts tightened to the point of pain and my body sparked alive. My nipples had never been that sensitive before. Normally, I could do without them being touched, but now?

My hips rocked back against his as a jolt of pleasure moved from my breast and then straight down my belly. “Tanner.”

“Fuck. I like it when you say my name like that.” His mouth touched a spot below my ear as he caught my nipple between his fingers.

I cried out, stunned at the fierceness of the sensation pounding through me. My chest ached, felt swollen with need. His lips moved over my neck, trailing hot and wet kisses to my shoulder as he continued to touch me.

My chin fell and I opened my eyes. In a pleasured haze, I stared at his hand. He’d tugged the cups of my top down and my breasts were exposed, above water but blocked by the side of the pool. In reality, Syd and Kyler could return at any moment, but I didn’t want to tell him to stop.

“I couldn’t wait. Fucking beautiful,” he said, kissing my neck, and I knew the moment he’d lifted his head and stared over my shoulder. “Jesus. They are perfect.”

Sometimes I was insecure about the size of my breasts. Syd hadn’t understood why, and time and time again, she’d told me that she wished she had what I did, but with bigger breasts came bigger problems. They weren’t perky like smaller ones. Bluish veins were visible on the sides. The skin puckered and did weird shit sometimes. But the way he touched me was reverent, and with the combination of his fingers and the water teasing the tips, my insecurities were quickly floating away.

Tanner murmured something against my neck and then his hand left my breast, gliding down my stomach. When the tips of his fingers reached the band on my bottoms, I held my breath, and those tiny kisses picked back up along my neck, scorching me.

He waited. “What do you want?”

Oh God. That was all I could think. Over and over. Oh God. Then I wasn’t thinking as his hand moved over my bottoms, between my thighs. His fingers played over the material, causing me to jerk against the arm he used to hold himself afloat.

“What do you want, Andrea?” he asked again, voice husky.

“Please,” I whispered, and I wasn’t even sure what I was asking for, but my body moved, seeking relief from the torment he was creating.

He cursed again and then his hand was slipping under the thin material of the bikini bottom. As he kissed my jaw, he touched me—really touched me. He cupped me with his longer fingers. “You’re so warm,” he said. “So hot.”

Oh my God, he was doing it…right here, in this pool, and in broad daylight. This was really happening. Hadn’t I just told him yesterday he had no chance of getting laid? Boy, I really hadn’t put up much of a fight, but I wanted him—had wanted him for so very long, and I didn’t want to think about all the nothing that came after this.

I’d never been more turned on in my life.

I didn’t have a chance to say any of that. His thumb pressed down on the bundle of nerves, and I cried out his name, trembling as startling pleasure rose violently. He didn’t even get a finger in me, didn’t even try. He worked with pressure as his other finger skimmed my center.

“Andrea.” His voice was raw, primitive in my ear. My hips moved against his hand almost frantically, and I whimpered, so close to release. “That’s it. Let go.”

I did.

I let go. Every muscle in my body tightened and then the release whipped through me so quickly I was left breathless and dizzy, spinning me into the kind of freedom a bottle could never give me. My arms turned to mush, and I would’ve slipped right under the water if it hadn’t been for Tanner pushing his body against mine, wedging me against the side of the pool.