Obsession

“I’m going to need a bed.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged.”

“Maybe a jacuzzi.”

Landon shakes his head.

“Come on, I was about to get into it with you before Mom and Marvin showed up.”

“I wish we could have.”

“What we did was way better.”

“Tilly?”

“Yeah?”

“You look great from down here by the way.”

“Shut up and hold me steady.”

“I’m not the one wobbling about.”

“I guess you’re just not as strong as you thought you were.”

“Maybe you’re just having more of an affect than I thought you would.”

“You can put me down if you like.”

“You won’t tell anyone I had to?”

“It’ll be our secret.”

“Good, because my arms are fucking killing me.”

Landon half lowers half drops me to the water. To be fair, he has been holding me up in the air for a while, much longer than I expected. I’m impressed, even though I’m not going to tell him so. We tread water a little, spinning slowly in a neat little circle.

“What else do you need?”

“Not much. A bed and a jacuzzi is a good start. Somewhere to art.”

We both smile at that.

“A studio?”

“A space. I’m not a professional yet remember.”

“You will be soon though, right?”

“That’s the two year plan. Although who knows what will happen? If someone told me i’d be skinny dipping with my stepbrother in a lake in the middle of nowhere after knowing him for five days, I would have told them they were mad.”

“Where else are you going to go skinny dipping if not in a lake in the middle of nowhere?”

I have to splash water at him for that.

“What do you do when this is all over?”

“The same thing I always do. Play football.”

“And chase girls?”

“I’m hoping I won’t need to do that.”

I get water splashed back at me for that.

“You’ve got to look after me.”

“You don’t seem all that difficult to please.”

“Artists are complicated people.”

“Don’t sell yourself too short now.”

“Just a warning, you know, for when the honeymoon period is over and you start getting bored of me.”

“You seem to have a clear picture of a future that hasn’t even happened yet.”

“I’m thinking about that jacuzzi.”

“Finally.”

Landon begins to swim towards me.

“I just don’t want to be used up and tossed away like an old football, that’s all.”

I allow him to gather me up in his arms again, so I can press myself against his chest and lose myself in his body warmth. I feel stupid for saying it straight like that, without even hiding it in a mask of subtext, but I feel like we’re at the point where I need it to be said.

“Don’t worry, Tilly. I wouldn’t do that to family.”

“When are you going to stop being a smart-ass?”

“When I know you don’t enjoy me doing it anymore.”

“You know, that cockiness is going to get you into trouble one day.”

“I think it already has.”

Landon notices me shivering a little now that we’ve stopped swimming around.

“Come on, let’s get back to the car. It might take us a while to find somewhere selling condoms, and the last thing we want is for your mom and my dad to get concerned about our whereabouts.”

“They’re probably just as happy about the time alone as we are. They are newlyweds after all.”

“That’s gross, Tilly.”

“I’m just saying.”

Wrapped around his back, Landon carries me out of the water and back up towards the car. It isn’t raining any more, but the sun is disappearing quickly across the horizon and tonight feels like it’s going to get cold.

“Do you think they know?”

“About us? No way.”

In the car, Landon starts the engine and turns on the heater. We huddle together in front of it trying to get dry.

“Mom was acting weird this morning, she might have heard us last night.”

Landon shakes his head.

“No-one heard us last night. I think you’re just being paranoid. She didn’t seem weird when I got up.”

“Maybe we should hold off tonight, I don’t know whether I can be that quiet again.”

“I don’t know whether I can hold off.”

“I knew it.”

“Knew what.”

“You wouldn’t be able to resist me.”

“What can I say? You’re an attractive girl, you’re smart too, well balanced. You even like jacuzzis.”

“May

be we would make a good couple.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Because I seem to be immune to your bullshit.”

“Now you’re just being nice.”

It takes so long for the heater to get us dry, we give up in the end and pull clothes back on over wet legs and arms.

“Next time we’ll have to bring a towel.”

“What will your mom say when she finds out we’ve been swimming?”

“She’s not going to find out, it was raining when we left remember?”

“Good thinking, Tilly.”

“Not just a pretty face.”

“No, I hear you’re training to be an artist too.”

“Shut up and get us back home.”

“Bored of me already?”

“I’m hungry. If we’re going to fuck again tonight, I’m going to need some more energy.”

“See?”

“What?”

“You really can’t resist me.”

“Then we are just as bad as each other.”

Landon pulls the car around and guides it back onto the road.

“I knew we wouldn’t be able to stop once we started.”

“You or me?”

Landon doesn’t answer that one. He just gives me one of his panty melting looks instead that tells me the question is rhetorical.

“Think we can get away with it tomorrow as well?”

“Maybe your dad will be well enough to go for a long walk, while we finally sit in that jacuzzi.”

“You wouldn’t prefer doing it on a bed instead?”

“There’s plenty of time for that, Landon. I don’t want to spoil you with comfort too soon.”

“I might get bored.”

“Or complacent.”

“Exactly.”

“Where are we going to buy condoms?”

“Tilly, you’re insatiable.”

“I’m just planning ahead. As much as I like the idea of fucking you without them, until I’m on birth control or you get a vasectomy, it’s a risk I’m not prepared to take.”