Just Getting Started (Fair Lakes 2)

“You okay over there?” he asks, glancing my way with a knowing smirk.

“I’m fine,” I reply, sitting up straight and pretending to ignore the fact that I want to lay him out on the blanket and lick him from head to toe.

“Sure you are,” he singsongs, drawing out the words and being all annoying.

When I clean off my fingers, I reach for the fork and stab a piece of tomato, running it through the cottage cheese. “Here.”

“No way. That looks nasty.”

I gasp. “What? You can’t be serious!”

“Tomatoes? The only thing that belongs on cottage cheese is applesauce, Gabs.”

I can’t help but stare over at him, shocked. “Did you just say applesauce? What the hell did that cottage cheese do to you?”

He shakes his head. “You can’t knock it until you try it. The applesauce is sweet and mixes perfectly with the cheese.”

“Like us as roommates? My sweetness mixes with your slight bitterness?” I ask, laughing at my own joke. Chase just stares at me, though, with those all-seeing eyes.

He finally cracks a smile. “Oh, sweet Gabrielle, I definitely can’t wait to taste your… sweetness.”

My heart hammers in my chest and blood swooshes in my ears. His innuendo was received loud and clear, and considering my body is already humming from the slightest touch, I think it’s safe to say it’s approaching volcanic temperatures.

I don’t know what possesses me, it must be the hormones, but I actually drop the fork and reach for a piece of fruit. Mimicking his actions from earlier, I take the fruit between my thumb and finger and hold it toward his mouth. Chase’s eyes lock on mine as he slowly lowers his head. My pulse pounds as his mouth wraps around the watermelon, and he sucks. Hard. My panties practically erupt into flames as his tongue slides against my finger, making lazy circles like he’s licking a popsicle, and then finally bites into the juicy fruit.

“Best fruit ever,” he says as he reaches over and closes my jaw.

Clearing my throat, I quickly shovel a few pieces of watermelon into my mouth so I don’t say or do anything that might further blur the “friends” line, not that I can see that line right now anyway. We’re so far over the friends’ line, it’s practically in another state.

When the food is gone, Chase gets the empty containers packed back up and opens a few of the wet naps. We both clean up our hands and turn to face the falling sun. The temperature is slowly dropping, but it’s still a perfect evening. The goose bumps that pepper my skin aren’t really from the weather anyway. I’m certain they’re from the man sitting beside me and the fact that our arms have brushed against each other no less than three times in the last thirty seconds.

“You may not believe this, but I wasn’t always the wild and carefree man you know and love,” he says, bumping his shoulder into mine.

“Love might be a stretch. I’d love to maim you, if that’s what you mean,” I sass, making him laugh.

“No, that’s not what I mean, Gabs. I was actually the responsible one growing up. My brother, Colton, was the wild child.”

I glance at him, surprised to find him staring off at the sunset. His profile shows a gorgeous man lost in thought, with the weight of the world (or maybe his past) on his shoulders.

“Believe it or not, I was a tad of a bookworm in school. I loved science and enrolled in chemistry my junior year of high school. My lab partner, Melissa, was kinda that sexy nerd type. Cute plastic glasses and bangs. Always carried around extra notebooks. Total hottie,” he adds, glancing my way and wearing his trademark smirk. “She couldn’t resist my charms either, Gabs.”

“So she wanted to dip you in mayonnaise and throw you in the tiger cage at the zoo too?” I quip, hiding my smile behind mock surprise.

“Don’t make this story about your weird sexual fantasies involving me, Gabs. We can get to the mayo foreplay later. Anyway, back to my story. So Melissa and I dated. We were together the rest of our high school careers. In fact, we enrolled in college together. We both got in to State, since our grades were so damn awesome on the account of us both being crazy smart, and we were making plans. Freshmen were required to stay in the dorms, but we were only a building apart. It wasn’t bad,” he says, turning back and watching the boats on the water.

“Something tells me it ended up being bad,” I deduce from the way he left it hanging.

“You would be right, smart Gabby. About halfway through our freshman year, she started to pull back. I mean, we had everything mapped out. The apartment we were going to get sophomore year so we could get out of the dorms and live together. I was saving for the ring I was going to slip on her finger. We just knew we were going to defy the odds, you know? First-love relationships never work out. It’s too hard to go to college and date seriously. Don’t marry the first girl to see you naked. I had heard it all, but I knew we had what it would take to make it work.”