Victoria.
Liz didn’t want to talk to her friend right now. She was in paradise, and she couldn’t even tell her about it. Even if Victoria would keep her secret, she didn’t feel comfortable risking it. What if they were found out? She would rather tell no one and know that she wasn’t to blame.
She ignored the call with a sigh and curled up on her side. A couple minutes later her phone beeped again with a voice mail. Liz pressed it to her ear.
“Hey, bitch! Answer your f**king phone. I hopped on a plane to London yesterday and I’m f**king tanked. Do you remember that hot-ass TA I was f**king at the end of the semester? He’s doing some kind of study-abroad teaching thing.”
Liz cringed. This sounded like trouble.
“He invited me to stay at his place, so we’re basically living at the pub and in his sweet suite that the university actually f**king paid for. I’m living a dream right now. I should have f**king invited you beforehand, and now I feel like an ass. There are about five million gorgeous Brits with accents here.”
Victoria was living the dream? Liz looked around the lake house and shook her head. She was on cloud nine.
“You should totally hop the pond and all that. Either way, I’m coming back to Chapel Hill instead of Jersey. We’re going to get your nerdy ass out of the office. Anyway, call me back, bitch. Love your face!”
Liz couldn’t help but laugh. Victoria was utterly ridiculous in the best possible way. Only she would hop the pond, as she said, to sleep with a TA for a couple weeks.
She stared out across the expansive lake. The temperatures hadn’t yet heated the air to an uncomfortable degree, and a slight breeze was rolling in off of the lake. It was peaceful. She felt comfortable here even without Brady.
Her phone buzzed again and she saw Brady’s name flash on her screen.
On my way to you.
Liz smiled and jotted back a text. Good.
It’ll be good when I’m with you. Can’t wait to see which suit you picked.
Her grin grew at the comment, and as she was about to respond another text flashed on her screen from Brady.
I’m hoping for nothing.
Chapter 14
HOLDING ON
Liz felt the hammock rock side to side gently, pulling her out of her catnap. Hands traced the sides of her body, and lips captured her own in a searing kiss. She groaned against Brady’s mouth, her body waking immediately. Their tongues explored each other and she wound her hands up into his thick, dark hair. She threaded her fingers through the short strands, tugging lightly. His strong hands held her face in place, and his thumb stroked her cheek. She hadn’t felt this alive since the last time he had touched her.
“Mornin’,” Brady said with a grin before pressing his lips to hers once more.
“Mmm, good morning,” she said, unable to control the giddy smile on her face.
“You chose the gold.” He fingered the strap.
“I almost opted for nothing.”
“We can fix that.”
“Please do,” she murmured softly.
His hands slid under her knees and shoulders and lifted her off of the hammock with ease. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
“I’ve been waiting all week to get my hands on you,” he growled against her neck.
“No more waiting.” She let the words tumble out of her mouth. No hesitation and no forethought. He made her feel so confident. It was like everything she had ever been embarrassed to say to guys, she said to Brady. He certainly seemed to like that she spoke her mind.
Brady walked them over to a chaise on the deck, setting her down and taking a seat next to her. She finally got a chance to look at him. She nearly melted where she lay. How had she gotten so lucky?
Her body responded to the pure sexuality that radiated off of the man before her. He was dressed down again today in a white cotton button-down rolled up to his elbows, and khakis with a thick brown belt at his waist. His dark hair was short and spiked a bit in the front. His brown eyes seemed to bore into her, as if he knew the deepest, darkest secrets of her soul. Then again, he was her deepest, darkest secret.
Whatever business he had been involved in before he arrived clearly hadn’t required him to be clean cut, because stubble grew in across his strong jawline. She reached up and rubbed her hands against the scruffiness.
“Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to shave this morning,” he said, gripping her hips in his hands and sliding her down flat on the chaise.
“I like it like this,” Liz told him.
“I like you like this,” he said, staring into her open blue eyes.
“How?” she asked softly. “Lying down in a bathing suit?”
“Here. With me. Lying down in nothing.” He tugged on the string around her neck and let the straps loosen.
The top didn’t do a very good job of holding her in when it was tied, and Brady just sat and watched as the top released her br**sts. He reached around with one hand and undid the back tie before unceremoniously tossing it over his shoulder and onto the wooden floor of the deck. She lay before him, completely topless in the morning light.
Despite the secluded nature of the lake house, Liz wondered briefly whether anyone could see her. She had never been topless in a public place before, not even on a beach in Europe, when she had gone with her high school friends after graduation. But the way he looked at her washed all of her worries away.
Brady smiled as he bent forward and took one of her ni**les into his mouth. Her head arched back as his tongue swirled around the peak. His hand covered her other breast and massaged it demandingly. He moved to the other breast and sucked, pulled, and dragged the nipple between his teeth until she squirmed.
Her hand fumbled out in front of her to try to reach his belt. She needed to get him out of those clothes. He chuckled and pulled back but continued to circle his thumb around her now-sensitive nipple. “You’ll get your chance.”
I hope very soon, she thought.
She was ready for her chance right now. At the very least she wanted to feel him through his shorts…get a glimpse of what she would be having.
He took her hand in his, moved it away from his belt, and then pressed it against his growing dick. Her mind spun as she felt the heat from within and the full length of him pulsing in her palm. Her fingers wrapped around him, gripping him through his shorts, and then slowly pulled up to the tip. He dragged in a deep breath as she repeated the motion.
God, I want you out of those shorts, she thought.
While she was distracted with her own teasing motions, Brady reached down and yanked on the ties holding together the bikini bottoms. Her hand stilled as he traced the edge of the bathing suit with his fingertip, raising goose bumps on her exposed flesh. His fingers moved around the outside of the bathing suit down, so close to her most sensitive skin, and then back up the other side. He hadn’t even done anything, and she felt ready to combust.