Dalton shot up from the water like a majestic merman, tossing his head back in a spray of water.
“You look pink,” I said. “Is it boiling hot?”
“Jump in and find out!”
I sat near the edge and took off my shoes and socks, then dipped a few toes in cautiously.
He dipped down for a mouthful of water, then spat it at me in an arc.
I stepped back. “Don’t drink that filth. Isn’t warm water basically party town for bacteria? Like a petri dish?”
Dalton wiped water from his grinning face. “I wasn’t so great at science, but this isn’t agar.”
“Agar!” I stepped back closer to kick water at his face. “Sounds like you know plenty about science.”
“I’m not as dumb as I look.”
“Who said you look dumb?”
He fixed me with a serious gaze, his dark green eyes never looking more enticing than now, surrounded by wild grasses and flowers in a natural hot spring.
“Take off your clothes and get in here with me,” he commanded.
“Pass.” Something flitted at the edge of my vision, and I turned around expecting to see Old Man Weston with a shotgun.
Only it wasn’t him. Or any human.
A deer stepped quietly out of the trees and walked around me, to the river of water running away from the pool. With her big eyes watching me warily, she lowered her head and took a tentative drink. And then, just as calmly as she’d arrived, she gave a flick of her tail and disappeared back into the woods.
“That was a sign,” Dalton said. “From the universe, straight to Peaches Monroe. Now take off your clothes and get in here with me before I climb out of here like an angry sea monster and drag you in.”
I pulled the gray sweatshirt off over my head.
“Nice T-shirt. Is that Disco Duck?”
“Don’t watch,” I said, but of course that only made him watch me more intently.
There was certainly no changing room out here. If this was my hot spring, a cute little cabana would be the first thing I’d add.
I could feel the heat of his gaze on me.
“Dalton! Stop watching.”
He whistled. “Take it off!”
I undid my brown cords and shimmied them down, still facing him rather than offering a side or back view.
“Careful,” I said. “You should avert your eyes or you’ll be blinded by the sun reflecting off all my pale flesh.”
He waded to the near side of the rocky pool and rested his elbows on the edge, his chin in his hands.
“I could watch you undress all day. All those curves are so much fun to ogle. Hey, there’s a great word. Ogle. I’m ogling you like an ogre.”
I pulled off my T-shirt and stood for a moment in my underwear, debating leaving my bra and panties on.
He held up his hands with his thumbs and fingers forming a square between us.
“I’m framing you,” he said. “For future reference.”
Bathed in his generous praise, I found the courage to unfasten my boulder-holder and drop it to the ground along with my panties.
Ladies, you’ll never feel as na**d as when you’re trespassing on private property and standing in front of a handsome guy, without so much as a g-string along your crack.
I hurried around to one side of the steaming pool, where it had some stone steps leading down. The water was surprisingly hot, about as warm as a freshly-drawn bath (assuming your hot water tank is bigger than the one in my house and you don’t have to supplement with the boiling tea kettle).
Once I was all the way in, I found that I could stand at one side with the water just above my waist. At the deeper side, the rocky bottom could just barely be grazed by my toes while I held my head about the water.
“How can this be?” I asked. “How is this pond so perfect?”
“How are you so perfect?” He drew me in for a kiss, his lips warm and wet from the water.
I pulled away, distracted by the mysterious stones all around us—not too rough and not too smooth. The pond was kidney-shaped, and big enough to fit ten people comfortably. There was even a stone bench along one side.
“Is this real?” I asked.
He dipped down and drank some water. “Tastes real.”
“But the hot spring didn’t just form in this perfect shape, did it? Someone must have moved around the rocks and improved upon nature.”
Dalton seemed annoyed by my questions. “If it’s good, isn’t that enough for you? Does it matter how real it is?”
I looked down at my peaches, which looked really good floating in the warm, pristine water.
“But why is the water so clear? Shouldn’t it be a little muddy?”
Dalton sighed. “This spring has likely been here thousands of years. Millennia, even. All the mud washed away long ago, before Beaverdale even existed. Maybe there was a time dinosaurs came here to take a little skinny dip.”
“Millennia.” I would have shivered, if I wasn’t so warm.
“Enjoy it while you can. These hot springs open up and can disappear after earthquakes. They’re not forever.”
“Nothing is forever,” I said.
He pulled me back into his arms, locking his hands together against my lower back.
“Stardust is forever,” he said. “The form changes, that’s all.”
I gazed up into his gentle green eyes. “Don’t talk like that. You make me feel serious, and I don’t like being serious.”
He took a gasp of breath and submerged, his dark hair disappearing under the water. Strong hands grabbed my legs and pulled them apart, and an instant later, his mouth was on me, deep below the water line. As his tongue darted between my twin pillows of flesh, a plume of bubbles rose from below, tickling as they fought their way up and between my br**sts.
He rose for a quick breath and disappeared again. Tongue and fingers and bubbles. Tongue. Fingers. Bubbles.
When he came up for air again, he was surprised to find me gasping as well.
“That feels crazy good,” I said, then I took a deep breath and went down myself. I’ve always been comfortable in water, though I would never have done something like this in a real hot tub, not with all the chlorine in the water.
This natural spring, though, was heaven. My eyes didn’t sting at all when I opened them to get my bearings.
I found the sea cucumber, no problem, but sucking it while holding my breath was a challenge. I could do the task, somewhat, but suspected by the degree of bonership that I wasn’t doing a great job.