“I was serious!” She breathed heavily as she spoke. “I’m not going to give up!”
I shrugged and walked around to the passenger side to grab my neoprene suit. Throwing it onto the hood of my truck, I tugged off my shirt and balled it up.
Her mouth dropped open. She stared at my chest—openly stared, looking as if she might drool at any second.
I arched an eyebrow at her.
Her mouth snapped shut, her cheeks went red and she looked away. “Look, I need this. I’m not seeing anyone. I don’t have a date to bring to her wedding and she insists I have a plus one.”
I continued to change, unbuttoning my jeans as if she weren’t there.
She swallowed and flung her gaze to the sky. “You know how Cadence is. She’s all about rubbing my nose in how much better she is and how much our parents love her.”
She blinked as my jeans hit the sand and I stepped out of them. The wind blew her tawny hair into her face and she didn’t push it back.
“And—” The word came out as a squeak. She swallowed again, harder this time.
I hooked my thumbs inside my boxers, pulling the elastic away from my hips, and let them drop to the sand. The wind was cool—thank God—because it was keeping my cock from standing completely at attention.
She went on, her voice moving up an octave. “And how they always take her side. She’s only doing this to shame me.” Her hazel eyes, behind the tresses covering them, were locked below my waist.
I put my boxers and pants on the hood, trying not to grin, and stepped into my suit. When the zipper was all the way up, I folded my clothes, tucking the boxers between the shirt and pants.
“Are you seeing someone?” she asked.
Her question made my muscles lock up. Even my breath caught in my lungs. “No, I’m not seeing anyone.” Funny how that question hadn’t crossed her mind until now.
“So it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if you went with me.” Her tone changed to excited, as if I’d just agreed to go with her.
Pretty sure that wasn’t the case.
Without another word, I placed my clothing on the passenger seat.
She followed, her voice full and bright. “I know a place where you can rent a suit.”
I gritted my teeth and almost threw back a retort. I had suits. Plural. I didn’t need to rent them. But how would Laney know that? She didn’t know one thing about me. Didn’t know I had grown up just fine without her. That I’d found my skills in the stock market. That I’d learned I had an uncanny knack for knowing what to invest in. I’d made my first million by nineteen. My first billion by twenty-five. Hell, she didn’t know that she was currently standing on my private beach. If she looked up the mountain, she’d see my mansion hovering on the side of the cliff-face.
She didn’t know a goddamned thing about me.
“Where are you going?” Her voice rose to an almost shrill tone as I began to walk toward the water.
She hadn’t even noticed I was done talking. She was interrupting my morning routine and I mentally switched her off, gearing up for the icy water. Preparing for the sting and pain while also feeling elated by the rush I knew was coming. Nothing made me feel as alive as a swim in the icy ocean right after a long, hot, tiring run.
I glanced over my shoulder.
Laney was pulling her shirt off, her black bra coming into view. She tossed the shirt on the hood of my truck and whisked her yoga pants down and off, tossing them up there too.
Instantly, my cock was at attention.
Her gaze roved the beach, catching mine before her chin lifted to a battle position and she began to chase after me. There was no fear in her eyes.
I would have admired her bravery if I wasn’t so busy internally cursing her stupidity. This girl was nuts. Correction; this woman was nuts. Those weren’t the curves of a girl. Laney had grown up, and damn was she tempting.
The cold water crashed over my feet and pulled at my legs as I waded into the water. When it was waist deep, I tented my arms over my head and dove in. With my eyes closed, I embraced the blazing pain of the cold water and allowed the waves to take my body. Rolling onto my back, I broke the surface and floated before righting myself and treading water, looking for her.
She stood at the edge of the waves, staring down at the water with grim determination. There was no way she’d come in. She wasn’t that crazy.
Her gaze met mine across the distance and she took a step forward.
With an arched eyebrow, I silently dared her to follow me in. She wouldn’t. She knew that even in a protective neoprene suit the water was too damn cold. She was in a bra and panties. No way she’d come all the way out here like that. And if she made the attempt she’d be running back in two seconds.
Her jaw clenched and her cheek rippled as she stepped into the water. A wave crashed over her shin and she winced. And took another step.
Either she’d lost her damn mind…or she was serious.
Was getting me to agree really worth this? I didn’t want to be concerned for her health or the pain she’d experience swimming out this deep. But I was.
I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t going to play her game. There was no way she’d make it out to me. And if she somehow, by some miracle, did manage to swim out here in the icy water, then there was no way she’d last. She’d swim back to shore, get in her car, crank her heater, and drive off to take a hot shower. And that would be just fine with me.
Still, with every forward motion she made, I grew more uneasy.
Guilty prodded at me. Not that I had a reason to feel guilty. She was doing this of her own free will. Her goal was to rope me into doing something absolutely disgusting. Had she not even realized she was trying to make me into a monster?
If I did her this favor, I would be proving her parents right. I’d be proving I was a monster.
Unfit to be loved or accepted.
3
Laney
The cold sea water blazed like an inferno on my skin.
I pushed on anyway, dog-paddling my way out to Cole only because I couldn’t get my arms far enough away from my body to do a breaststroke. I’d learned how to swim from the lessons Mom’d demanded I take in the third grade, but I wasn’t much of a swimmer.
The cold screamed through me and I wondered if this was how Rose had felt in the water after the Titanic sank. Only the guy out here in the freezing water with me wasn’t my Jack Dawson. I wondered if he would even want to save me.
The icy sensation ached so much I’d have sworn my bones were fracturing. Violent shivers stole my ability to keep moving and I sank for a second before popping up and sucking in a deep breath. Salty water stung my eyes and I silently reminded myself to keep my eyes closed if I went underwater. This whole swimming thing was harder than I remembered. And swimming in a pool was worlds different than swimming in the ocean.
Maybe I’d made a mistake.
Maybe I shouldn’t have followed him out into the water like this. I could see him a ways ahead, floating on his back and staring up at the sky. He seemed so relaxed, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was only looking relaxed on purpose.
At this point, it wasn’t even about getting him to go along with the fake boyfriend idea for my sister’s wedding. That would be ideal, sure, but I’d put so dang much effort into this that quitting now seemed crazy. I’d come so far. He was weakening. Which was why I’d chased after him to this beach like a crazy person. I’d seen a crack in his armor. I’d win him over yet.
My jaw clattered loudly before a wave crashed over my head. I spit out the saltwater, drooling and not giving a damn. My eyes stung painfully and I let the tears flow. That would clean the salt out, right? And help the pain? It had to. Something had to go my way.
I glanced behind me. The shore looked so far away. What if there were sharks out here?
Sudden panic filled me and I thrashed my arms a bit.
I’d definitely made a mistake!
“Cole!” The scream ripp
ed out of me as the water around my foot swirled like something was inches from brushing against me.
Another wave pushed me under and I squeezed my eyes closed so tightly I could feel my pulse in my eyelids. Panic throbbed through me. It took every shred of my self-control not to inhale for another scream.
Surely the water was too shallow for sharks. Surely I was being stupid. But the sensation of the water around my legs continued to shift like something was circling. Fear tore through me.
Kicking fiercely, I popped up out of the water and sucked in a deep breath. The muscle in my thigh twisted up tight and pain stabbed through my leg.
But it wasn’t a shark bite, it was a leg cramp!
I couldn’t kick that leg without pain, and I opened my mouth to cry out to Cole again. Nothing came out because my mouth filled with saltwater as another wave hit me square in the face and took me under.
I was such an idiot!
I should have known better. How could I be so stupid? It was one thing to jog after him—people rarely died from jogging. Swimming out to him though, in ice-cold water? Drowning was a whole other story. Hell, I was more likely to die of a shark bite than I was to die of jogging.
The pain increased as I struggled to fight to the surface. Every motion blazed white-hot as my chest screamed for air. The painful, tiny pinpricks of cold dancing across my flesh began to dull, and numbness set in. I was too cold, too hurt, had gone too long without a breath.
I was going to die.
At least if I drowned I’d get a free pass to not go to my sister’s wedding.
Something warm wound around my ribs and under my arms.
I struck out at the attacker. Air bubbles rushed around me and suddenly my head was above water.
Had dolphins saved me? No, couldn’t have been.
I choked, gagging, and tried to paw the salty water out of my eyes.
Hands urged me onto my back and I followed the silent instructions. Floating, Cole’s wet hands, the back of them interspersed with dark hairs, swept past me on either side.
Cole had saved me.
I’d have preferred dolphins.
Craning my neck, I saw that he was also on his back, his arms scooping through the water as his hips pressed up into my back. His feet were tucked under my backside, like his body was some kind of makeshift chair.
With a shiver, I realized it wasn’t just his hips pressing into my back. Something else was too. Something more…private.
Closing my eyes, I tried to relax. I took a full breath, opened my salt-encrusted eyelids and focused on the sky. I began to use my arms too, following his rhythm as he swam us to shore. My clumsy motions were a sure sign of how numb I was, and I could barely feel my arms. All I could think about was how good it would feel to take a scalding hot shower. Or to sit right up on the vents in my car as the heat ran full blast.
My body shifted as he pushed his hips up harder to keep ahold of me. The sensation of his most intimate part pressing to my spine made my cheeks heat up as warmth lit in my belly. He really had grown up.
Suddenly, his legs dropped away and I went under the water before my feet hit sand. I stood up and turned to face him, but he picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder like a giant bag of dog food, and carried me out of the water.
“Hey! Put me down!” I tried to shout, but the words came out garbled. Weakly, I pummeled his back with my fists.
I didn’t really want him to put me down. My body craved his warmth, even though it wasn’t enough to stop the chattering of my jaw or the deep trembling of my body.
He didn’t say a word, but as he reached dry sand, he lowered me off his shoulder and dumped me on my feet on the ground. Brushing one hand against the other, he walked away without even looking back.
My legs folded under me and I landed in a graceless heap on the warm, dry sand. With the sun beating down on me, the cold began to dissipate and the numbness turned into tingling sensations.
I followed his trek to his truck and knew he was going to be gone before I could even stand up and start toward him. There was no way my legs would start working quickly enough to catch up to him. He was going to get away this time.
He stopped in front of his truck and unzipped his suit, peeling it from his skin. Letting it hang around his waist, he took a towel out of the passenger side of his truck and proceeded to dry off. The muscles of his back rippled as he rubbed the towel over his short hair.
I struggled not to stare. How had he gotten so fit? There was no gym here in Winchester Bay. Did he maybe go to Lakeside? That was a heck of a drive. And if he’d joined a gym where I lived in Reedsport, why had I never bumped into him in town?
He pulled on a clean shirt that he’d taken from a bag inside the truck. My eyes stayed glued to his honed chest as he unzipped the suit farther and pulled it down. I managed to look away before I could get a flash of that part of him I’d felt pressed against me in the water. I silently congratulated myself on my restraint, because earlier, I’d noticed that his backside was fit. It took a lot of self-control not to stare.
Ugh, I was such a hypocrite. If a guy behaved this way about a woman, I’d be up in arms.
The knot in my leg still throbbed painfully and even as the numbness left my muscles, pain began to replace it. My legs stung painfully as the sun heated me up.
I scanned the beach, suddenly aware I was lying in the sand in my bra and panties, where anyone could see me. What was I thinking, stripping down and chasing him into the water like that? Glancing down the beach as far as I could see, relief filled me that we were alone. Not even another set of footprints marred the perfect sand–just ours. Weird.
Come to think of it, I didn’t recognize this stretch of beach. Was it even public? Were we trespassing right now?
I blinked, remembering Cole’s reputation in high school as kind of a badass.
Glancing back to the truck, Cole stood there, dressed and watching me closely.
I gulped, hating the painful scratching of my throat where the salty water had irritated the soft tissue.
He continued to stare at me as he lifted his hands to the hood of his truck.
My heart sank like a stone in my chest as he laid his hands on my clothes. With a single, slow motion, his eyes still locked on mine, he shoved them toward the edge.
I shook my head. Don’t you dare do that. Don’t you dare.
He arched an eyebrow at me in a clear challenge.
I struggled up to a sitting position to shout for him to stop. But my throat wouldn’t cooperate enough to utter a word.
Instead, I watched him ever so slowly shove my clothing and shoes all the way to the edge of his hood, letting them tumble onto the sand. He flashed me a satisfied grin.
I wanted more than anything to jump up, run over there, and rail on him. Of course, that just wasn’t going to happen. Not with this leg cramp.
He studied me for a moment, then casually walked around the truck and opened the driver’s side door. A moment later, the truck roared to life. As I stared in stunned amazement, he steered the truck in a turn on the sand and drove toward the road, leaving my clothes in a heap on the sand.
What a jerk!
And here I’d thought Cole had grown up. Clearly, he was more childish than he’d been as a teenager.
His actions hit me like a challenge, and I decided I wasn’t going to give up. I just needed to find a new tactic.
Absentmindedly rubbing my aching leg, I mulled over my options, kind of ashamed that I was having the most fun I’d had in a long time pursuing him—except the almost drowning part. He wasn’t even talking to me now, so I needed a new strategy. Something big. Something serious. Something he couldn’t ignore. I needed to hit him where it hurt if I had any chance of breaking him down and getting him to do what I wanted.
What did the boy I’d had a crush on in high school hate more than anything else?
A smile tugged at the corners of my lips.
A public scene.
> 4
Cole
I’d finally managed to get my awakened libido under control by the time the waitress at Bo’s Diner sat my coffee on the table.
I picked up the menu, flicking it open like it had committed a mortal sin. A shadow fell over the table, and a familiar sweet scent mingled with salt air filled the space. I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth together in an effort not to look up.
Laney’s voice was accusing when she said, “So, you missed another doctor’s appointment.”
Every conversation in the little restaurant stopped.
I could feel every set of eyes shift to us, and I struggled against the urge to rub my hand over the back of my prickling neck.
She’d taken drama in high school, so I knew whatever was coming was going to be good. A public scene was clever. And evil.
I wrapped my fingers around my water glass, adjusting them on the slick condensation before lifting it to my lips and taking a sip. I’d decided to celebrate my victory with some breakfast. My victory of ditching her without even having to continue the conversation about why she thought I should fall in line with her ridiculous plan.
Now, everyone in the diner was holding their breath, just waiting for me to do something other than stare straight ahead like she wasn’t there. She was fighting dirty now, and while I absolutely didn’t appreciate it, I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of pride that she was so determined. She really thought this would work. I didn’t agree, but the Laney I knew would never have fought so hard for something like this back in the day. Hell, she’d never fought this hard for us. Back when there was an us. Or there could have been an us…
“The doctor said we’re having a boy.”
Fuck.
There were a few gasps, and the faint sound of shifting chairs. A single fork clattered onto a ceramic plate. The tension in the air was so thick, I hoped Laney would choke on it.
She didn’t.
She knew I wouldn’t be able to let this go. And she was right. With every passing second, the prickling sensation on the back of my neck grew stronger. I could handle freezing water; I couldn’t handle total strangers focusing in on my private life. Real or made-up.
Faking for Her Page 2
