Kincade turned to face me, his arms spread wide. “Be my guest.”
Really? I poured more lotion into my palm and rubbed my hands together eagerly. Then I didn’t know where to start. His sculpted biceps? His hard pecs? His perfect abs and the valley between them? At long last, I decided to start high and then go low. I spread sunblock over his clavicles and shoulders, and then moved down to his pecs, circling the little brown buds there. “Can nipples get sunburned?”
“Let’s not find out,” he said with a wink.
I rubbed the lotion into his nipples, fascinated by the way they responded to my touch. I wasn’t used to stroking men like this, and it was a fascinating experience. And a huge turn-on. Kincade grabbed my hands and rubbed them against his. Then he spread the sunblock he’d gathered from me on his face while I did his abs.
Good God, his abs. I wanted to run my fingers over them forever.
“Are you two going to do that for the entire morning or just most of it?” Brock growled.
Kincade raised an eyebrow as he looked down at me. “I’m good either way. Which do you prefer?”
“Funny,” Jessie said. “But it’s my turn.” He’d finished his sandwich and came over. I repeated the process with him. The muscles on his chest and stomach were just as much fun to rub, but I didn’t take quite as much time since I knew Brock was growing impatient. He’d brought sunblock, too, and he was already putting it on himself—much to my disappointment.
I didn’t know what it was about him, but it always felt like two steps forward, one step back.
When I’d finished anointing Jessie with sunblock, he offered to do the same for me. “Thanks, but I need to change into my bathing suit first.”
Jessie nodded, but Kincade scoffed. “Your bathing suit? Sweetheart, this kind of place was made for skinny dipping.”
I laughed, certain he was kidding.
He wasn’t.
“But… but… what if someone sees?”
“So?” Kincade said. “If they do, let them enjoy the view. But there’s no one around.” That was true. We hadn’t seen anyone since we left the cabin this morning. “And trust me, anyone else who made that hike would strip off their clothes and plunge, au naturel, into this pool as well.”
I still wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t joking. It was a little hard to tell with Kincade. I looked over at Jessie. “Are you going au naturel, too?”
A faint redness filled his cheeks. “It does seem like the kind of place for it—unless it bothers you.”
Oh, I was pretty sure it would bother me, but not in the way he meant. More in a hot and bothered sense. “I can handle it,” I said, and then cringed at the way that had come out.
Before Kincade could say something crude about my choice of wording, Brock fixed him with a stern look. “Can it.”
Kincade closed his mouth, looking disappointed.
Brock stared at me, still seeming grumpy. “Before you ask, yes, I’m going to strip down.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “It sounds like fun.”
“It can be very freeing to be naked outside,” Jessie said.
“Very freeing,” Kincade said, thrusting his hips forward. “It’s nice to let everything hang loose.”
I rolled my eyes at them. “Well, while you guys are busy getting naked, I’m going behind that tree to change.”
“You do that,” Brock said.
Jeesh, what was his problem today? I was more perplexed than angry—and I wondered if there was anything I could do about it. Maybe I could tease a smile out of him or something. I thought for a moment and then spoke up. “Thanks for letting me use your sunglasses,” I said. “Would you like them back?”
“If you don’t need them anymore,” he said gruffly.
“I don’t,” I said sweetly as I held them out to him. He walked over to me, and I drew the sunglasses back… and then hooked the arm of them through the V-neck on my shirt, letting them dangle between my breasts. “Help yourself.”
Brock raised an eyebrow as he met my gaze. Then he looked down to where his sunglasses hung on my shirt, lowering the hemline and showing a great deal of cleavage. Without hesitating, he reached for them, his fingers brushing against my breasts. His hand lingered longer than it needed to, and my skin tingled wherever he touched. Finally, with his fingers brushing my sensitive skin one more time, he pulled the sunglasses free. “Thanks.”
“It’s really heroic, the way he doesn’t back down from a challenge, isn’t it?” Kincade said to Jessie. Brock gave them the finger, but he had a faint grin on his face while he did it. I smiled, too, glad I’d been able to do a little something about his sour mood. And man, his fingers on my chest had felt good. Really good.