Texas Tough (The Tylers of Texas 2)

She laughed, pulling his arm toward the back gate to the patio. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

He gave her a wicked glance as she locked the gate behind them. “Sorry, I didn’t bring a bathing suit.”

“What a coincidence. Neither did I.” Lauren tried to

sound playful and confident, but her voice quivered. She’d laid everything on the line, coming back to Texas and Sky—and she’d just handed him an open invitation to break her heart.

He was like a wild mustang, proud but wary of being penned. Even if she could rope him, could she keep him? Or would his natural urge to be free draw him away?

He undressed without a trace of self-consciousness, tossing his boots and clothes onto one of the poolside chairs. His splendid body gleamed like a blade as he cut the water in a clean dive.

Seconds later his head broke the surface. He was grinning, water drops streaming like liquid diamonds off his ebony hair. “Not bad,” he said. “I hope you’re coming in.”

Lauren had stripped down to her underclothes. His expression changed subtly as she undid the front clasp of her bra. Letting it fall away, she slid her panties off her hips to drop around her ankles. He lay back in the water, watching her.

“Don’t move an inch,” he said. “Let me look at you.”

Lauren felt the heat rise in her body, flooding her face with color. She was aware of the way a lock of her long hair curled to frame one small, firm breast. In an era when half the girls she knew were getting breast implants, she’d become overly aware of her modest size, but that seemed to be where Sky’s gaze was fixed.

Shying away, she made a leaping dive into the pool and came up a few feet from him, where the bottom was shallow enough to touch with her toes. She held out her arms. “Come here,” she said.

Kicking into the shallows, he gathered her close. The feel of his cool, bare skin against hers was heaven. They kissed hungrily, Lauren nibbling his lower lip and thrusting with her tongue. Their bodies pressed, legs tangling deliciously as his sex rose and hardened against her. She wiggled closer, her blood racing.

“Lauren.” There was an edge to his voice. He disentangled himself and pushed her away from him, his hands resting on her shoulders.

She stared at him. “What—?”

“Listen to me, beautiful lady. Tempting as it might be, I’m not going to make love to you tonight.”

To demand to know why not would be crass. She studied him, waiting for an explanation.

“For one thing, sex underwater doesn’t work anywhere near as well as it seems to in the movies.”

He must have tried it, of course. But this was about something else. “What’s the real reason?” she asked, feeling wounded.

“Because I don’t want to take this any further in your family home. And because, before we get any more involved, you need to get your feet on the ground.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“Look at yourself. You run away. You come back. You talk about moving out and getting a place in Blanco, but it’s not a very practical idea, and there’s no guarantee you’ll do it. If I didn’t care about you, it wouldn’t matter. But I do care—and what we’re doing here is only complicating things.”

The water, which had felt refreshing at first, was becoming chilly. Lauren suppressed a shiver. “Are you trying to break up with me? Because that’s the way it sounds.”

He shook his head. “All I’m saying is let’s put things on ice till you get settled. I’ve got work to do and you’ve got a life to put in order. If this is something more than a summer fling, we’ll find out. If not . . .” He shrugged his gleaming shoulders. “If not, at least we’ll know.” He traced a fingertip down Lauren’s cheek. “Friends?”

Lauren checked the urge to fly at him and leave knuckle bruises on his manly chest. Sky had gotten through to her. He was right, of course. But it still hurt like crazy. She blinked away a tear and forced herself to speak the word.

“Friends.”

His hand released her shoulder. “Then what do you say we get dressed and you drive me home?”

No, it was too abrupt, she thought. She needed time to let go of him, to adjust to this new reality with Sky at a distance. “There’s chocolate cake and cold milk in the kitchen.” She seized on the first thing that came to mind. “Are you hungry?”

“Lauren, it’s after midnight—” he began, then seemed to sense what she needed. “But I never turn down good chocolate cake.”

“Great.” She pulled herself up the ladder. A laundry basket of clean towels stood next to the pool. After wrapping one around her body, Lauren snatched up her clothes. “I’ll leave the kitchen door open. Come in when you’re ready.”

Feeling like a sixteen-year-old at the end of a bad prom date, Lauren fled into the house.