She didn’t ask where they were going or how long she’d be gone. As long as she was with Mick, she didn’t care. She pulled on her one-piece swimsuit and tied a blue wrap with red sea horses around her hips.
“Aren’t you getting tired of me yet?” she asked him as they walked toward his yellow and white boat.
His brows lowered and he looked at her as if the thought hadn’t entered his head. “No. Not yet.”
Mick gave her a tour of the lake and some of the truly spectacular cabins that could not be seen from the road. He handed Maddie a Diet Coke from the cooler and pulled out a bottle of water for himself.
Set in the cloudless August sky, the relentless sun warmed Maddie’s skin. At first it felt nice, but after an hour, trickles of sweat slid between her breasts and down the back of her neck. Maddie hated to sweat. It was one of the reasons she didn’t exercise. That and she didn’t believe in “no pain, no gain.” She was a believer in “no pain is a good thing.”
Mick dropped anchor in Angel Cove and shucked his white T-shirt. “Before the Allegrezza boys developed this area, we used to come here to swim every summer. My mom would bring us here and later Meg or I would drive.” He stood in the middle of the boat and looked out at the sandy shoreline, now dotted with big homes and docks filled with boats and Jet Skis. “I remember lots of bikinis and baby oil. Sand in my shorts and my nose peeling like crazy.” He kicked off his flip-flops and moved to the back. “Those were some good times.”
Maddie dropped the wrap from her hips and followed him. They stood side by side on the swimming platform. “Sand in your shorts doesn’t sound like a good time.”
He laughed. “No, but Vicky Baley used to come up out of the water in a string bikini that kind of slid around, and she had this amazing rack that—”
Maddie shoved him and as he teetered, he grabbed her wrist and they both went into the lake. He surfaced with a loud, “Whaaaa, that’s cold,” while Maddie surfaced, trying to catch her breath. The icy water stole the air from her lungs and Maddie grabbed on to the ladder at the back of the boat.
Mick’s quiet laughter skimmed along the rippled surface as he swam toward her.
She pushed her wet hair from her eyes. “What’s so funny?”
“You, getting all jealous over Vicky Baley.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“Uh-huh.” He grabbed the edge of the swimming platform and said, “Her rack isn’t as good as yours.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Droplets of water fell from a strand of hair touching his forehead and ran down his cheek. “You have no reason to be jealous of anyone. Your body is beautiful.”
“You don’t have to say that. My breasts aren’t—”
He placed a finger on her lips. “Don’t do that. Don’t dismiss what I feel as if I’m just saying something to get into your pants. I’m not. I’ve already been in your pants and you’re amazing.” He placed his free hand behind her head and gave her a kiss that was all hot mouths and cool lips, drips of water and smooth gliding tongues.
When he kissed her like that, she felt amazing.
“I missed you last night,” he said as he pulled back. “I wish I didn’t have to work late tonight, but I do.”
She licked the taste of him from her lips and swallowed. “I understand.”
“I know you do. I think that’s why I like you so much.” He smiled at her. A simple little curve of his mouth that felt anything but simple. It pinched her chest and stole her breath and she knew she was in trouble. Big bad trouble, with a way of saying things that made her feel like she was drowning in his beautiful eyes. She dunked herself under and came up with her head tilted back and her hair out of her face. “We both work inconvenient hours,” she said and climbed up the ladder. She stood on the back of the boat and squeezed water from her hair. “But it works for us because we’re nocturnal and can sleep late.”
“And because you want me.” He climbed out of the water.
She looked at him out of the corners of her eyes. At his hard chest muscles and the line of wet, dark hair trailing down his abdomen and belly and disappearing beneath the waistband of his swimming trunks. “True.”
“And Lord knows I want you too.” He pulled up the anchor and put it in a side compartment. Then he moved to the captain’s chair and looked over at her while she tied her sarong around her hips.
“What?”
He shook his head and started the motor, a deep throaty churning of the prop. The boat rocked from side to side and Maddie took the companion seat. For several more seconds, Mick gazed at her before he finally looked away and pushed the throttle forward.
Maddie held her hair with one hand as they shot across the lake. Conversation was impossible, but she wouldn’t have known what to say. Mick’s behavior was a little odd. She’d thought she knew how to read most of his expressions. She knew how he looked when he was angry, when he was teasing and charming, and she certainly knew how he looked when he wanted sex. He was oddly quiet, as if he were thinking about something, and didn’t say much until they stood on her deck twenty minutes later.
“If I didn’t have to go to work tonight, I’d stay here and play with you,” he said.
“You can come back later.”
He sat in an Adirondack chair facing her and pulled the sarong from her hips. It fluttered to her feet. “Or you could come over tonight when I get off work.” He placed his hands on the backs of her thighs and brought her between his knees.
“To Mort’s?”
He shook his head and nibbled the side of her leg. “Throw some stuff in a bag and come over to my house. I know you like to fall asleep and have me gone in the morning, but I think we’ve moved beyond pretending this is nothing more than sex. Don’t you?”
Did she? It couldn’t be more. It could never be more. She closed her eyes and ran her fingers through his hair. “Yes.”
He softly bit the outside of her thigh. “I should probably pick you up so you don’t have to drive at night.”
This was bad. Wrong, but it felt so good. So right. “I can drive.”
“I know you can, but I’ll pick you up.”
From somewhere behind Maddie, a little voice asked, “What are you doing?”
Mick lifted his head and froze. “Travis.” He dropped his hands and stood. “Hey, buddy. What’s up?”
“Nothin’. What were you doing?”
Maddie turned to see Mick’s nephew standing on the top stair of the deck.
“I was just helping Maddie with her swimming suit.”
“With your mouth?”
Maddie laughed behind her hand.
“Well, ah…” Mick paused and looked at Maddie. It was the first time she’d ever seen him flustered. “Maddie had a thread,” he continued and pointed vaguely at her thigh, “and I had to bite it off for her.”
“Oh.”
“What are you doing here?” Mick asked.
“Mom dropped me off to play with Pete.”
Mick looked toward the neighbors’ deck. “Is your mother still at the Allegrezzas’?”
Trevor shook his head. “She left.” He looked from his uncle to Maddie. “You got more dead mice?”
“Not today. But I did get a cat and she’ll be old enough in a few months to kill them for me.”
“You have a cat?”
“Yeah. Her name is Snowball. She has different colored eyes and an overbite.”
Mick looked at her. “Seriously.”
“I’ll show you two boys.”
“What’s an overbite?” Travis asked as the three of them moved into the house.
Mick was home half an hour before his sister knocked on the door. She didn’t wait for him to answer.
“Travis told me he saw you kissing Maddie Dupree’s butt,” she said as she walked into the kitchen, where she found Mick fixing a sandwich before work.
He looked up. “Hello, Meg.”