by Amy Andrews
“Have I been…” He slid his eyes sideways to Finn—still engrossed in Bluey—and back again. “Lacking in that department? You have any complaints?”
“Oh, no. None whatsoever.”
He grinned. “Damn straight.”
“So…” She shot him some more flirty eyes because damn she was happy. “Eggs?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “I’m happy to stick with toast and make it myself. You just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“And you’re going to what? Watch?”
He nodded, this time his eyes going all flirty. “I like to watch.”
Jane laughed but returned to fixing her and Finn’s breakfast. They worked companionably side by side, and damn if that didn’t make her happier. It felt good being in the kitchen like this with him after a night in his bed. So…domesticated.
Much more than a vacation fling, that was for sure, which was dangerous thinking, but Jane didn’t seem to be able to stop.
They ate breakfast together around the central bench with Bluey off. Finn hadn’t even complained as he chatted away happily on myriad topics, leaping from one to the next, mostly engaging Cole and not really requiring any of her input. Which was kinda nice, actually. Jane had never realized how exhausting it was being talked at all the time, all day, every day, until she’d had a little break from it, thanks to Cole.
Also, and completely selfishly, it gave her a chance to observe Cole further. To confirm she wasn’t fooling herself about how good he was with Finn. To just…admire the hell out of him. And maybe even pretend—just for a second—that this was her life instead of the real world, where she was a single mom juggling a small boy, a business, and an ex with a laissez-faire attitude towards responsibility.
Oh, and now also a freaking Houdini chameleon!
“So, what are we cooking for Mummy today?” Cole asked as he licked toast crumbs from his fingers.
“Actually.” Jane tuned back into their conversation at the mention of her name, grateful to be relieved of several pornographic images dancing in her head of Cole making a great show of licking his fingers last night. “I was going to suggest we go on a real picnic today. To the lake.”
Finn gasped in delight. “Really, Mommy?”
Jane nodded. “Yep. The last of the tiles will be up in the next couple of hours, so I should be done by lunch, and since Benji can’t drop off the replacement pieces of wood until later this afternoon, I’ll be free for a while.”
“Can we swim?”
“Of course.”
“What about jump off the end of the pier?”
Jane had taken Finn out to the lake the day after Tad had taken off as a distraction, and he’d loved jumping off the end of the pier into her arms. The sturdy wooden structure sat on the waterline, and Finn had been wearing his float suit.
“Of course.” Cole hadn’t said anything, and Jane switched her attention to him. He was looking at her intensely. “You don’t have to come.” Maybe the man would appreciate a couple of hours alone? Some down time? “If you want your space or there’s…” She glanced at his cane. “Issues with your leg. The shore’s a little rocky. It’s probably not the most stable surface.”
At the beginning, he would’ve gotten grumpy indeed at Jane calling his abilities into question, but now he just smiled and shook his head. “And miss out on seeing you in a bikini?”
Jane laughed, a flush of relief making it much giddier than was probably warranted. “What makes you think I have a bikini?”
“A hunch. Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Will you wear it?”
Jane’s breath hitched. She’d jump in the damn lake naked if he wanted. “Yes.”
“Then the lake it is.”
Jane couldn’t remember a time in recent memory she’d been so carefree. There weren’t a lot of people at the lake in the middle of the week, despite it being summer break. Later in the afternoon, there’d be more, but for now it was pretty much them and some teenagers who’d been goofing around in the water when they’d first arrived and were now goofing around farther down the shoreline, listening to music and talking smack.
The sun was hot in the middle of the day, so they swam for a while first, cooling off, taking turns diving off the end of the pier, then scrambling back up and do it again. Finn’s cries of “Catch me, Cole!” echoed around the lake and got stuck in her throat, making it hard to breathe. The way Cole caught him every single time without fail wormed into her heart.
God…this was bad, but Jane was too damn carefree to worry at the moment. She was in a bubble, and she knew it.
After an hour, they found a nice shady tree not far from the pier and ate the food that Cole and Finn had thrown together. It wasn’t gourmet—sandwiches and fruit and cookies they’d cooked that morning all washed down with iced tea—but it tasted like manna from heaven to Jane as she lounged back against the picnic blanket and listened drowsily to Cole explaining why the sky was blue to Finn, among a dozen other things.
She decided she could listen to Cole talk all damn day. She’d gotten used to his accent, to the lazy way he pronounced things, to the phrases that were purely Aussie, to the deepness and inflections of his tone. His voice was so easy on the ear.
Hell if she wouldn’t happily listen to him reading the dictionary.
Occasionally, Cole would look over Finn’s head and stare at her, buzzing electricity to all the cells in her body. She’d put her shorts back on after the lake but had left her shirt off, and the way his gaze ate up her bikini-clad breasts made her nipples hard and the sensitive flesh between her legs heavy. It made her feel like she was packing a pair of double Ds instead of barely a B cup, and she’d deliberately reclined onto her elbows because she knew it would arch her back a little and thrust out her chest.
His nostrils had flared at the move, and she had little doubt that, had they been alone, she’d have been flat on her back. Or he’d be flat on his. He hadn’t put his shirt back on, either, so all that bare male flesh was a delicious, utterly distracting temptation.
Like right now, when Jane realized Cole and Finn were both looking at her expectantly and she had to hit the rewind button in her head to catch up with his question. “Can we go back in the water, Mommy?”
“Not yet.” Jane sat, giving herself a mental shake as she reached for her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. She was pretty sure she heard Cole mutter “Damn” under his breath as he continued to stare at her, which she ignored as she addressed Finn. “We need to wait a bit longer for our food to go down.”
“How long?”
Jane knew from experience Finn would bug her every minute until he got back in the water, so distraction was in order. “Let’s go to the playground for a while,” she suggested. They could see the area with several pieces of play equipment under shade sails from where they were sitting.
“Oh, yes!” Finn sprang to his feet, pumping the air with his fist. “C’mon, Cole, let’s go.”
Finn bent down to pick up Cole’s cane and thrust it at him, and that cramp in Jane’s chest got a little bigger.
“Okay, okay.”
He laughed as he pushed to his feet with the aid of the cane on one side and Finn tugging on the other. Cole rolled his eyes as he grinned at her so big it stole her breath.
“C’mon, Mommy,” Finn threw over his shoulder, and Jane laughed, too. She actually envied her son a little. To be able to form such fast relationships without a care in the world was the purview of the young. She had to be a lot more guarded.
Jane followed them to the playground, preoccupied by the notion as Finn explored the equipment. They hadn’t been there long when another family joined them—a very pregnant woman who was holding the hand of a man of about a similar age and two little girls who had to be twins.
Finn, who was mid slip down the slippery
slide, waved and called out, “Jazzy! Franny!”
“Oh god,” Cole muttered under his breath. “It’s Roo and Moo.”
“Who?”
“From the rugby clinic.” He looked around at the deep layer of bark on the ground forming the regulation soft fall. “At least there’s no grass.”
Jane frowned, about to question him again, but let it go as the couple approached and introductions were performed. They chatted happily as they watched the kids play together. Shannon and Caleb lived and worked on the family corn farm and were expecting their third child next month. Shannon absently rubbed her belly as she and Jane talked baby stuff and Caleb peppered Cole with questions about his career.
“So, what are you going to do now?” he asked.
“I’m waiting to hear back about a sportscasting role on one of the TV networks back home.”
The bubble burst a little as reality intruded. Cole had a whole other life in Australia. One he was going back to. Which she knew—of course—but the thought was weirdly unsettling, which made her feel uncomfortable and aware of how hot the day was, and the lake beckoned.
“Finn.” She gestured for him to come over during a break in the conversation. “Time for that swim.”
“Oh, Mom, do I have to?”
Okay. That she hadn’t expected. She gave a half laugh and briefly rolled her eyes at Shannon. “I thought you wanted to swim?”
“I want to play with the twins.”
“We can keep an eye on him if you guys want to take a dip,” Shannon said.
“Oh, no.” Jane shook her head. “I couldn’t impose like that.”
“It’s not a problem,” Caleb said. “Honestly, you’d be doing us a favor. Our two would just be fighting now if it weren’t for Finn. They’re at that not-good-at-sharing-with-each-other age.”
Jane balanced on a precipice—a cooling dip and some alone time with Cole versus leaving her kid with people she didn’t really know. But she’d done it with Cole, hadn’t she? And Shannon and Caleb seemed like good, sensible people. They certainly didn’t look like they wanted to add an extra kid into the mix, so she didn’t think they’d try and snatch Finn.
Plus, they could see the playground from the pier.
She looked longingly at the lake, then at Cole, who was staring at her with an expression that she imagined the wolf was wearing when he looked at Little Red Riding Hood.
Her insides contracted at the possibilities.
“Okay, sure,” she said, dragging her eyes from Cole. “That’d be wonderful. We won’t be long.”
“Take as long as you need.” Shannon waved her hand dismissively. “We’ll bring him down to the lake when the kids are done playing if you want.”
With that decided, Jane called out a goodbye to Finn, who barely looked up, and she and Cole were walking down to the shoreline. She had the strongest urge to slide her hand into his as they walked side by side, but she quashed it, folding her fingers into her palm.
They weren’t Caleb and Shannon. They weren’t a couple. They weren’t together.
As soon as their feet hit the pebbly beach, Cole stripped off his shirt, tossed it on the sand along with his cane, and said, “Last one in is a rotten egg.”
Jane laughed at his less-than-speedy hobble, knowing she could probably take him if she wanted but preferring to watch his magnificent form as she undressed. He was dive-bombing into the lake as she ambled onto the pier, the boards warm on the soles of her feet.
“C’mon,” Cole called, treading water a dozen feet out from the end of the pier, grinning at her, his curly hair even springy when slicked back. He reminded her of Finn and his exuberance.
Walking to the end, excruciatingly aware of his eyes on her and maybe, just maybe putting a little extra swing in her hips, Jane executed a perfect dive with minimal splash. Cool water caressed her skin as she swam underwater for long moments. It was pure bliss—almost erotic—against her already sensitized flesh.
When she popped up not far from Cole, there was nothing she wanted more than to swim right into his arms and kiss him. But she was conscious of the eyes around them—the teenagers down the beach, Shannon and Caleb at the playground, and Finn.
So she splashed him instead, then took off, swimming back toward the pier. She heard his whoop and was conscious of him following her, and hell if she didn’t let herself be caught as he latched on to her ankle and dragged her backward.
“Gotcha,” he said as she faced him, and they smiled at each other, Jane’s heart flipping over as she splashed him a second time and was off again.
They messed around like that for a while, splashing and catching each other and tussling in the water. Hands grabbing, fingers sliding over cool, wet skin but not lingering—functional, impersonal touches only. But neither of them was wearing very much, and her body reacted constantly to every single brush of his skin on hers until she was in such a heightened state of alert she was surprised the lake wasn’t simmering all around her.
“We’d better go back,” she said reluctantly after about twenty minutes. Shannon said to take as long as they wanted, but Jane didn’t want to impose too long, and, frankly, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep her hands to herself.
She struck out for the pier, conscious of him following behind at a more sedate pace. When she reached it, she folded her arms on top of the boards to anchor herself in place and rested her chin on the warmed wood. The sun beat down on her exposed arms and shoulders, and she shut her eyes for a moment, reveling in the lick of heat on her shoulders and the coolness of water below her breasts.
Opening them again, Jane took in the scene on the shore. Down a way to the left, the teenagers were still messing around, and, off to the right, she could see the playground. Caleb was pushing one of the girls on the swing while Finn was on the seesaw with the other. His boyish laughter drifted toward her on the light breeze.
And then that all faded to black as a bulky forearm, roped with muscles, encircled her folded arms on the pier and a big hand slid around her middle, pulling her against a large, solid frame. She was boxed in—the pier to her front, Cole’s chest and abs and thighs to her back.
Cool lips nuzzled her ear. “I’ve been dying to do this all afternoon.”
Jane savored his warmth and his hardness for a beat or two as his nose slowly trekked down the side of her throat, his breath puffing warm air on her wet skin. A rash of goose bumps spread down her arms and neck and chest. Her nipples hardened.
His hot tongue lapped along the same path his nose had taken. “Cole.” It was meant to be a warning, but it didn’t sound convincing.
“Shh,” he murmured. “It’s okay.”
Oh God. It was more than okay. But…it wasn’t. “People can see.” Her protest was, again, not convincing, her voice strained as she fought the urge to drop her head to the side and let him have at it.
“What?” He removed his lips, pressing his temple to hers. “As far as anyone knows, we’re just talking.”
Jane gave a half laugh. It was true—the bulk of the pier hid everything going on below her shoulders, and she supposed at a distance it did probably look like they were just having a conversation. But they both knew there was nothing two-people-just-talking about this. Jane was excruciatingly conscious of his hand on her waist and the directions in which it could wander. Not to mention the clear evidence of his arousal pressing into her ass cheeks.
“So let’s talk, then.” Because she really didn’t want to move out of his arms just yet, but if she didn’t distract them, things were going to turn hot and heavy pretty damn fast.
He chuckled. “Oh yeah, what about?”
She grappled for something that wasn’t inane like the weather or the temperature of the water. Something they could have a conversation about. “The job you’re up for…the sportscaster. You done it before?”
&
nbsp; “Nope.”
“Think you’ll be any good at it?” She couldn’t see how he wouldn’t be. She’d pay to listen to his voice. Surely there’d be heaps of others. Mostly women.
“I don’t know,” he said, his lips brushing her neck with every word. “Why don’t I show you what I’ve got and you give me a little appraisal?”
Before she could agree to his suggestion, his hand moved from her waist to her shoulder, his lips pressing to just behind her ear. “Cole Hauser takes full advantage of his surroundings to make his play,” he murmured, his voice going all TV on her. “He sees the goal, and he’s not afraid to go for it.” His fingers traced from her shoulder to her nape, sweeping her hair aside to locate the halter necktie of her bikini. “Oops, he’s come to an obstacle.”
Jane’s eyes grew wide as he tugged on the bow and it came undone. “Cole.”
“Yaaaasss,” he hissed like sportscasters often did when someone scored. “Success.” Hot air tickled her ear. “Hauser is as determined as ever.”
The string around her neck started to loosen and slide.
“What’s his next move going to be?” Cole continued, his hand disappearing. Her belly muscles jumped as it landed on her waist before gliding upward. “Hauser is obviously determined to use the whole field.” His fingers peeled down first one triangle of fabric and then the other, baring her breasts. “He’s a man on a mission.”
Jane swallowed, her nipples hard as pennies, thankful for the presence of the pier obscuring her nudity. His hand cupped one breast and then another, and Jane moaned, her head falling back onto his shoulder.
“Heads up, honey.” That wasn’t his sports commentator voice—it was far too low and dirty for that. “We’re supposed to be talking. We don’t want everybody to know I’m playing with your titties, now do we?”
Jane whimpered at his very deliberate phrasing. She wasn’t generally turned on by juvenile vulgarity, but titties in that accent of his was really working for her right now. She struggled to right her head, grinding her chin against the boards as he tweaked her nipples, biting down on her lip to stop from crying out as he taunted each taut peak.
