I smiled at him and then moved to the back of the boat where I’d been told to climb in from, and then did just that.
Though much less gracefully than Justice had done only moments before.
“No,” I said once I climbed into the back of the boat and made myself comfortable. “I’ve never been on a tube. I’ve also never done anything but gaze at the lake from afar.”
Justice’s eyes came to me when he came up with a life vest that wouldn’t even fit around my thigh.
“You have kids?” I teased, gesturing toward the vest.
He shook his head and tossed it back into the hole he was pulling his shit out of. “No. Sometimes my dad’s buddies’ grandkids come. We have all sizes in here just in case.”
I understood that.
Still, seeing him with a tiny little life vest made my heart go all kinds of crazy.
Not that I would be admitting what that did to me.
“You’ve been to the lake, but never went into the water?” he asked curiously, pushing but not.
I sighed. “I’ve been to the lake…I just didn’t like stepping on all those rocks and shit as I went out into it. And, when I finally got far enough out that my knees were covered, I felt a fish brush up against my calf, and I got out of the water.”
Honest to God, I was kind of nervous about this excursion. But Justice and his family were so excited that I couldn’t help but give in even when I really didn’t want to go do anything.
Which was also why, twenty minutes later, I was looking in trepidation at the tube that Justice wanted me to get on with him.
“Are you sure that the tube can hold both of us?” I looked at the tube worriedly.
He showed me the handholds, then told me to just jump on, so I did.
The tube swung and spun around until I ended up being fifteen feet from the boat by the time it came to a lazy stop.
I watched with my lip caught between my teeth as he tugged the white t-shirt he was wearing off over his head, then tossed it to the seats behind him.
“Don’t scare her, Pop,” Justice said as he gave his father a pointed look.
Loki made a cross motion with his finger over his heart.
“I won’t,” he lied.
I knew he was lying, too.
I could see the evil in his gaze.
“I will seriously lose my shit if you hurt her,” Justice said just before jumping into the water.
When he came back up, he flipped his head to the side, making his hair sling water with his movements.
It was the single most-sexiest thing I’d ever seen him do.
And then he got onto the tube, using his muscled arms to heft himself into position after swimming to me.
I stood corrected.
Seeing him all wet and hot and mine as he got on that tube made me feel things I wasn’t sure I should be feeling with his mother and father ten feet away.
“Ready?” he asked as he shook the tube as he got into position.
“Yes,” I replied hesitantly. “I guess.”
He grinned at me, and my heart started to speed up.
“Your grin is downright dangerous,” I informed him.
Then I let out a startled squeak when the tube jerked sharply to the left, almost upending me in the process.
“Hold on, Princess,” he teased. “You don’t want to get off the ride before it even starts.”
His hold on my ass had me wiggling all over again.
“You’re awful,” I told him, jerking my gaze forward when we started to pick up speed. “I can’t breathe.”
The life vest I had on was a size too small, and I was fairly sure that I was hyperventilating due to Justice’s smile.
“It’ll be okay, Royal,” he told me. “Ready?”
“For what?” I asked, just as a shriek followed that up.
Moments later, I was holding on for dear life as the tube slung us this direction and that. Up and down over waves, around and around we went.
At one point I started laughing so hard I was crying, and then the tube went airborne.
That was all I needed.
Seconds after that, I went flying into the air and hit the water with a solid thump.
I came back up gasping, thankful that I had my too-small life vest on now.
And not once did I think about what was swimming in the water underneath of me.
***
Justice
She was beautiful.
So beautiful, in fact, that every time I saw her smile my heart chose to thump hard in my chest.
“I like her,” my mom said as I drove the boat.
This time it was with Royal and my father riding.
I took it easy at first, knowing that my dad would help her stay on, but she was getting good, and it proved unnecessary.
“I do, too,” I admitted. “A lot.”