She sat on the board and drew her legs onto it, then knelt as Trey guided the board deeper into the lake.
“Hang on.” He grasped the board, then hopped onto it.
She hung on to the sides as it rocked, then he stood up and the board stabilized. Slowly, she stood up in front of him.
“Pick up the sail,” he instructed.
Cautiously, she leaned down and grasped the boom, then lifted it slowly, keeping her weight carefully balanced on the board. Trey grasped the boom, too, his muscular arms around her, his hands right beside hers.
“Like this. Remember?”
He shifted the boom until the wind filled the sail, and then the board began to move . . . slowly, at first, then picking up speed. A tangle of memories wafted through her brain. Of Trey on the board behind her just like this. Of his body pressed against hers. His closeness sent her off balance. . . . Not physically. Physically, he kept her stable and skimming across the water quite nicely. Her emotions, however, somersaulted through her in wild disarray.
She’d wanted him so much that last summer. It had been building all year, and when he’d taken her on the board . . . when his body had been so close . . . his breath brushing across her nape . . . she’d almost died from yearning. But he belonged with Jake. And for the first time, she admitted to herself that Jake and Trey were one of the reasons she’d switched schools all those years ago.
And now, here she was in the exact same situation again. As she leaned into Trey’s body, she realized she wanted him to want her.
Well, he did want her. The bulge against the back of her bathing suit told her that. . . . But she wanted to be . . . special. That one person he’d want to spend a lifetime with. Which was crazy, especially since she realized she felt exactly the same way about Jake.
How could she want both men to want her as his one and only?
Especially since her whole mission was to bring the two of them together.
Obviously, she had these feelings because the two had been paying attention to her. Treating her special. But that was because they were her friends, not because they planned to forge a lifetime partnership.
Now that she’d finally opened herself to these men, it only made her realize how badly she wanted a lifetime companion . . . someone who would love her forever . . . stay with her forever . . . and that was causing her to jump at anyone who showed her any attention. How pathetic was that?
She had to keep things in perspective.
Trey’s fingers slid over hers as he guided her to shift the boom and the board began to turn. She shifted her weight on her feet to balance as t
he board tipped into the turn, then straightened out under Trey’s guidance.
“You know, I loved it when we used to come out here and windsurf together. Especially when I was teaching you.” His lips nuzzled her neck, sending tingles down her spine. “In fact, you caused me some serious thinking.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because . . . you used to do this”—he pressed his groin, and the large bulge in his trunks, against her back— “to me. Which caused me quite a bit of confusion, since I thought I was only attracted to men. Yet, all I had to do was get close to you to get this reaction from my body.”
“You mean you were . . . attracted to me back then?” He had told her he and Jake had wondered about making love to her, but she hadn’t thought it had been an actual physical attraction.
He chuckled. “That’s an understatement.”
“I hope I didn’t . . . I mean, you and Jake . . . it didn’t cause any problems, did it?”
Oh God, could she be the reason they broke up?
“Not exactly problems. In fact, after a day of windsurfing with you, Jake and I would have the best sex ever. I talked to him about it, though. Discussed my confusion. He was very understanding.”
“He didn’t get mad . . . or hurt?”
“I don’t think so. It’s not like I acted on that attraction. And you had the same affect on him.”
As their board approached a clump of other windsurfers crossing in front of them, he guided the boom around so they changed direction again. “He’d been with women before. He knew he was attracted to both sexes. He also knew I’d never been attracted to a woman before. He was quite willing to talk to me about it.”
“That must have been hard.”
“I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it. I still wanted to make it work with Jake, even though deep inside I think we both realized then that what we had wouldn’t last forever.”