Charlie just sighs.
“You’re all ridiculous,” she says.
“Just the others,” I tell her, and she laughs. “I’m the reasonable one.”
She splashes, and then her toe pokes my ribcage.
“Hey,” I say, grabbing her foot.
“Is that why you chastise anyone who says damn?” she teases. “Is that why you gave Eli shit for looking at his phone at the dinner table last week?”
I straighten up, pull her toward me through the water.
“I’m not hearing anything unreasonable yet,” I say.
“Is reasonableness the reason you practically tripped over your own feet making sure I wouldn’t go backpacking with Caleb without you?” she teases, wringing water from her hair as I slide an arm around her waist, her flesh warm against mine in the cold water.
“I like camping,” I say.
Besides, backpacking tents are tiny. It’s not that I don’t trust either Charlie or Caleb — I do, completely — but that doesn’t mean I have to love the idea of them sleeping six inches from each other.
“Sure,” she says, laughing. “For the record, I wasn’t going to go without you.”
She puts one hand below the water and flicks droplets up at me, her other arm around my neck, her nipples barely peeking above the surface, pink and pebbled and hard as rocks.
They’re not the only thing.
“Hey,” I say, making a face, and she does it again. “Quit it,” I say.
“Make me,” she says, and it’s barely out of her mouth before I’ve grabbed her wrist, my fingers encircling her bones, her upturned face luminous and beautiful and still laughing.
“What now?” I ask, letting my voice go low. I draw her in, my erection bumping against her stomach, and she just barely raises one eyebrow.
“Well,” she says, looking up at me through wet eyelashes, a devious look on her face. “I seem to be wet, naked, trapped, and at your mercy.”
“So I should dry you off, put your clothes on, and let you go?” I tease, lowering my face.
“Shut up,” she says, and I find her mouth with mine. Her skin is cold, but her lips are warm as she opens them beneath mine, deepening the kiss instantly.
I swear I can feel every day, every hour since the last time we were together like this in the ache that shoots through my body. Moments like this, the rest of my life falls away and there’s nothing but her.
Charlie breaks the kiss. She’s breathing hard, the flat of my hand against her lower back, her hips underwater and moving against my erection, throbbing despite the cold.
“You brought me here because you wanted to fuck outside,” I murmur into her hair, and Charlie laughs into my neck, her arms around me.
“The possibility occurred to me,” she says.
“Did it?” I tease, reaching one, thumbing one of her bright pink nipples. It’s stiff as cardboard, and I pinch harder than usual, wait to hear her gasp. She does. “Did it occur to you that getting naked and wet and giving me your fuck-me face might—”
She grabs my cock, and my words cut off with a groan.
“It’s been a week and I’m horny as fuck,” she whispers, stroking me hard. “My vibrator’s practically begging me for a break.”
I kiss her again, push her backward, the water now around our thighs.
“You never send me those pictures,” I say into her mouth, rolling her nipple between my fingers.
“I’m shy,” she says.
“Too shy to tell me what you think about when you’re wearing out the batteries in your vibrator?” I ask. “Make a wish, Charlie, maybe it’ll come true.”
Now she’s got both her hands in my hair, the water to our ankles. Charlie slips and grabs onto my shoulder, glancing behind herself at the rocks along the bottom. I take her hand, still steady on my feet, guide her back to the big flat rocks along the bank, stop her when she reaches it, her back to me.
“Well, this afternoon I was thinking about the time you came over and we took one of my dining room table chairs into my bedroom, where I’ve got the full-length mirror,” she says.
I pull her tight against me, bury my face in her neck. She gasps, but I’ve already got my hand between her legs where she’s still warm, fingers sliding through slippery folds until I’ve found her clit.
“And you rode me while we both watched?” I say, my cock jumping against her back, a tremor moving through Charlie’s body.
“I like seeing us together,” she says, her cold hands sliding around my neck, her back arching. Fuck, I’d love to have a mirror right now, so I could see her body as she’s like this, stretched out against me while I pleasure her, her ribcage rising and falling with quickened breath.
“I like watching your eyelids flutter and knowing it’s because of me,” I say, massaging her harder, her clit sliding between two slippery fingers, a noise escaping her throat. “I like finding everything that makes you gasp and moan and whisper my name that way you do.”