Fingers dance up my spine, and I jerk, releasing a flood of bubbles. Jay grabs my wrist and tows me up until we break the surface. He’s laughing so hard he can barely breathe.
“Jerk.” I shove his head underwater briefly. “You scared me, you dork.”
“Success!” He raises a wet fist, grinning. The bracelet gleams in his hand.
The crinkle at the corners of his eyes, the width of his smile—they’re heartbreakingly familiar, warming every inch of me.
This is the Jay I remember. Less polished, more reckless.
“You absolute idiot.” I shake my head, moving closer, my hair trailing through the lake behind me.
“I know, I’m the worst,” he says, softer now. His leg brushes mine as we tread water.
I extend my wrist so he can quickly clasp the bracelet into place. “Thanks,” I murmur, but more words weigh on my heart, hover on my tongue.
The boat has drifted away a bit, and I’m not mad about the semi-privacy. It gives me the chance I need to say what’s on my mind.
“You should have called me.” I keep treading water, letting each slow sweep of my arms narrow the distance between us. “Sometime in the last eight years, you should have called.”
“I know.” His breath is warm on my upturned face. “I’m sorry.”
“I missed you, dummy.”
“I thought of you every day, Daisy.” His hand brushes my waist as we float together in the chilly lake, legs sliding against each other beneath the water. “Every damn day.”
Droplets glitter in his lashes, on his shoulders, and across his collarbones. I always thought he was cute, but he’s goddamn glorious now.
Jay runs his tongue over his lips, clearing the drops of lake water, and I inhale sharply. Just a small hitch of breath, but he notices. A seductive heat pools in his eyes.
I shouldn’t encourage this.
I want to.
“You look so different.” I let myself drift against the length of his body and shiver at the heat that unfurls low in my gut. How does he keep doing this to me?
“And you.” His gaze drops to my wet halter top, which clings to every curve of my breasts. My nipples go tight.
A burst of laughter from the boat startles me, briefly pulling us apart. Clearly Nick and Cody have moved past worrying about us and are engrossed in each other again.
With a tight sigh, Jay pulls his focus back up to my face. He’s trying so hard to be good…which makes me very much want to be bad. If Nick can find a boy to have fun with, no second thoughts, no doubts, then why can’t I? Even if that boy is Jay Gatsby, he’s also a beautiful stranger, and the combination of those two things is messing with my head, making me want to take risks.
To be wild.
“You can look,” I murmur, moving my arms through the water to propel myself a little nearer again. “And you can…touch, if you want.”
His eyes widen.
But he doesn’t hesitate, as if he’s been waiting years for permission.
I feel his palm at my waist first, sliding up to my ribs. Pausing under my arm, his thumb stroking the side of my breast. And then shifting over, until his hand is entirely covering my breast. Strong fingers splayed, the thumb stroking over my nipple again and again. He knows what he’s doing. Fuck.
Jay bends toward me, angling his head a little. His breath whispers into my parted mouth. My entire self is waking up, coming online, and the power source is the steady glow of Jay’s eyes on mine. Eyes like sun-warmed earth, like pinecones in a spice-scented evergreen forest. I want to crawl into those eyes and curl up, safe.
I need to keep treading water, but I also need to touch him. I need to feel his new skin, this grown-up body of his.
Tentative, I reach through the water until my palm presses flat against his chest. He huffs out a breath, soft against my lips, almost kissing me but not quite. Not yet.
Alarms are ringing in the back of my mind—questions that need answers, warnings that I’m moving too fast with him, that I don’t fully understand who he is now, or why he’s here. I ignore them for a few more seconds while my fingers slide over the contours of his pectorals. They are, in a word, magnificent. Someone’s been working out.
What else has he been doing?
What am I doing? This isn’t just some hot boy I met at a party. This is Jay.
Cody shouts from the boat. “Can we go? The sun’s getting very intense.”
“Sure, man,” Jay answers, eyes never leaving me. “One second.”
He’s staring hungrily at my mouth. He’s going to kiss me. And if I don’t find a way to break this delicious tension soon, I’m going to let him.
“You sell insurance,” I blurt out.
He blinks, startled, eyes meeting mine again. The moment effectively broken. “What?”
“You were trying to sell Jordan some kind of insurance.”
Caution creeps into his eyes. “She told you about it?”
“No, I–I overheard a little of your conversation. And then I got distracted by something else. She wouldn’t tell me the rest. But I think you should know that if you swindle her somehow, this”—I gesture between us—“will be over. Like that.” I snap my fingers. I feel more in control again, less overwhelmed. The heat’s still there, but it’s receding. I made the right call to reroute things before they could go too far.
