Best Fake Fiance (Loveless Brothers 2)

She goes to do it again but this time I catch her wrist before she can get me. We’ve both got water dripping from everywhere, breathing hard, laughing. The water’s deep here, just above her nipples, which are rock-hard and bobbing right below the surface.

“You haven’t even been in,” she says, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “If you’re gonna toss me in, you have to at least go under yourself.”

“Says who?”

“What, it’s not too cold to throw me in, but it’s too cold to go in yourself?” she teases. “Don’t make me sling you over my shoulder and toss you in.”

Charlie’s strong, but I’ve got at least eight inches and sixty pounds on her.

“I would love to see that,” I say, sincerely as I can.

“You’re such a dick sometimes,” she laughs.

Then she puts both hands on my chest and shoves. Even though the rocks underneath my feet are a little slippery, I don’t budge.

“Seriously?” I deadpan. “Is this your plan?”

Charlie makes a face and shoves harder.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Shut up,” she says, still shoving.

“I don’t think it’s working,” I say, as she lifts one of my arms, putting her shoulder to my sternum and shoving again. “You know, maybe if you asked nicely—”

Suddenly my knee goes out and I fall backward, my body plunging into the deep water before I can even take a breath, the cold enveloping me instantly.

I come up a second later, gasping for air, shaking the water out of my eyes and hair, breathless.

“Cheater,” I say, the cold shaking the air from my lungs. “Shit, that’s really cold.”

Charlie laughs triumphantly, coming into the deeper water, just her shoulders in the air, bobbing near me.

“Told you,” she says, and kicks her legs up, floating, her body pale ripples under the clear water, knees and breasts surfacing and sinking, hair floating around her head like a dark halo.

I float, too. I forget about everything that’s not this moment in time: a landowner with a shotgun, if Rusty’s in bed yet, the hearing that’s scheduled for next week, my hurt that Charlie thought yesterday was Wednesday.

“See?” she says, her voice dreamy now. “Not bad, right?”

“Did I say it would be bad?”

“You weren’t thrilled when you saw the No Trespassing sign,” she teases.

I push off, float, look up at the trees above us.

“Well, I’ve tried to reform from my younger days,” I say dryly. “You just keep dragging me down. I was a law-abiding citizen until I fell for your charms.”

“Daniel Loveless, you lied to a damn judge without a single bit of help from me,” Charlie says lazily, arms spread out on top of the water. She kicks. Her nipples crest, sink.

“That was an act of desperation,” I say.

“That was an act of dumbness.”

“Either way, I like the consequences,” I tell her.

She’s quiet a moment, floating, thinking.

“Was it an accident?” she finally asks.

I’m still floating, looking up at the trees, and I find the bottom and stand and look at her.

“How?”

“Did you just say my name because we’d been texting? If you’d been texting someone else, would you have said her name?” Charlie asks.

She’s half treading water, half balanced on the bottom, arms waving just below the surface, her deep, serious eyes locked onto mine.

I don’t have an answer. I’ve honestly never thought about what would have happened if I’d said someone else’s name. I don’t know whose name I would have said, because it’s not like there are other women I think about.

“I said your name because you were on my mind,” I say slowly, truthfully. “You’re on my mind a lot, Charlie. You always have been.”

She looks away, ripples moving under the surface.

“Sorry,” she says.

“Don’t be,” I say, moving toward her, slowly. “But I promise you’re always the very first person I text with tattoos of beloved children’s characters performing sex acts.”

That gets a smile, a laugh.

“I’m flattered,” she teases.

“Except the time someone had a tattoo of the Giving Tree mooning Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes,” I say, thoughtfully. “That time I texted Levi. But he never texted back. Probably because he still has a damn flip phone. I don’t even know if he can get pictures.”

“Does he seriously?” Charlie breathes.

“Yes,” I mutter. “He claims he doesn’t want to be beholden to modern technology or the tyranny of the screen.”

“Nerd,” Charlie says under her breath. “I should get drinks with June, now that she’s back in town. Maybe I should tell her that her brother’s best friend has a thing for her.”

“Don’t do that to poor Levi,” I say, still staring up at the stars beyond the tree cover.

“What, give him a head start?”

“He’s gotta muddle through it himself,” I say. “The man is stubborn as anything, and if he finds out you tried to make something easier for him, he’ll never speak to her again out of sheer pigheadedness.”