off the bank and down into the water.
The hot and cold burst through her, her body still warm from his touch on the inside, the water freezing her skin.
“Zack!”
He looked down at her, smiling. She sputtered and clung to his shoulders, his arms still wrapped tightly around her. His skin was slick now, so sexy, and it took everything in her arsenal of willpower to keep from sliding her palms down from their perch on his shoulders and flattening them against his amazing, perfect pecs.
She wanted to. She wanted to press her lips to the hollow of his throat, lick the water drops that were clinging to his neck.
She wiggled against him and managed to extricate herself from his grasp. Fleeing temptation.
She walked up to the shallow part of the pool, her pink sarong limp and heavy now, clinging to her curves like a second skin. She untied it and looped it over a tree branch. There was no point in it now.
She felt exposed in her black one-piece. It was pretty modest by some suit standards, but anything that tight tended to make her feel a bit exposed.
“Well, that’s one way to get me in the water. Brute force,” she sniffed, walking back to the water and sinking into the depths quickly, desperate for the covering it would provide.
“Brute?” Zack swam to where she was, treading water, his eyes glinting with amusement.
“Uh … yeah. You took advantage of me.”
He paddled closer, his face a whisper from hers. “I didn’t take advantage of you. If I had, you’d have known it, that’s for sure.”
Strangely, with her body half submerged in water, her throat suddenly felt bone-dry. “I feel um … taken advantage … You … picked me up and threw me in and I’m … wet.”
His expression changed, his eyes darkening. “Interesting.”
“Oh, pffft.” She dunked her head, letting the cold water envelop her, pull the stinging heat from her cheeks. She paddled toward the waterfall, away from Zack. Away from certain mortification and temptation.
She surfaced again and looked back at Zack, still treading water where she’d left him.
Nice, Clara. Next time just tell him straight up that you’re hot for him and would like to jump him, if that’s all right with him.
She pulled a face for her own benefit and climbed up one of the mossy rocks that sat beneath the slow flowing falls, water trickling down, mist hovering above the surface of the cool, plant-covered stones.
She pulled her knees to her chest and looked up, squinting at the sunlight pouring through the thick canopy of trees.
“You’re like a jungle fairy.”
She looked down into the water and saw Zack, his hair wet and glistening.
“You’re startling me,” she said. More with his statement than with his presence, but she didn’t intend to elaborate.
He planted his palms flat on the rocks and hoisted himself up, the muscles in his shoulders rolling and shifting with the motion. He sat next to her, the heat from his body a welcome respite from the cold. But that was about all it was a respite from. Because mostly he just made her feel edgy.
And happy. He made her so happy that it hurt. Just being with him made everything seem right. Like a missing part of herself was finally in place. Like some of her insecurities and inadequacies didn’t matter so much.
And that was just stupid. Not to mention scary. Because it was an illusion. He would never be with her in the way she wanted, and watching him marry another woman, give someone else everything she longed for, that would turn her happiness into the bitterest pain.
The kind she wasn’t sure she could withstand.
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
She turned sharply to look at him, her heart in her throat. “What?”
“Just stating a fact.”
“It’s not one you typically state. About me, I mean.”
He put his hand out and brushed a water drop from her cheek with his thumb, the motion sending an electric shock through her body, heat pooling in her stomach and radiating from there to her limbs.
“Well, I thought it needed to be said.”
It was so tantalizingly close to what she wanted. But to him it was simply an empty compliment, or maybe he even meant it. But not in the way she would. He didn’t mean she was beautiful in the same way she found him beautiful. The way that made her body warm and her heart flutter.
“Thanks for that. You aren’t so bad, either.” She tried to sound casual. Light. Like a friend. Like she was supposed to sound.
He smiled and lifted his arm, curling his fist in, showing off his very, very impressive biceps.
“You’re shameless,” she said, somehow managing to laugh around her stubborn heart, still lodged firmly in her throat.
“Sorry.”
“About as sorry as you are for dumping me in the water?”
“Yeah. About.” He leaned in, his arm curving around her waist and everything slowed down for a moment. He tightened his hold on her, his face so close.
And then they were falling.
She shrieked just before they hit the water. And surfaced with a loud curse, unreasonable anger mingling with disappointment. “Zack! You jackass!”
She moved to him and planted her hands on his shoulders, attempting to dunk him beneath the water. He put his hands on her waist and held her still in front of him, her movements impotent against his strength.
“You can touch bottom here, can’t you?” she asked, her feet hovering above the sandy floor of the pool while Zack seemed firmly rooted.
“Maybe.”
His hands slipped down, resting on her hips, the heat from his touch cutting through the icy chill in the water. He kept one hand there, the other sliding around to her back, his fingers drifting upward, skimming the line of her spine.
She shivered, but she wasn’t cold. And he didn’t let go.
His eyes were locked with hers, the head there matching the heat he was spreading over her skin. Her hands were still on his shoulders. And since he’d just moved his hands, it seemed … somehow it seemed right to move hers.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she slid her hands down, palms skimming his chest hair, the firm muscles beneath, as she rested them against his chest. She could hardly breathe. Her chest, her stomach, every last muscle, was too tightly wound.
His fingers flexed, the blunt tips digging into her flesh. His hands were rough, strong, everything she’d ever imagined and so much more.
Zack loosened his hold, a muscle in his jaw jerking. She pulled away from him, the water freezing where his hands had been.
“We should go,” Zack said, his words abrupt.
“I … We haven’t been here very long.” She felt muddled, as though the mist from the waterfall had wrapped itself around her, making everything seem fuzzy.
And she was glad. Because she had a feeling that when the reality of what had just happened, of how stupid she’d been, hit, it was going to hit hard.
“Yes, but I have some things to take care of before tonight. We have dinner reservations at the restaurant down in the main part of the resort.”
He reversed direction and swam to shore, walking out of the pool, his muscular legs fighting against the water pressure, his swim trunks conforming to his body. A hard pang hit her in the stomach when she looked and saw the outline of his erection. Had she really gotten