I couldn’t tell if he was talking to me, Brock, or God himself. “Do what?”
Jessie splashed Kincade like he had last night in the hot tub. “We can’t ask her for that. Not after last night.”
“But… please, please, it can’t hurt to ask.” Kincade was practically begging.
“Ask me what?”
Jessie shook his head. “She’ll think we’re pigs.”
“No, she won’t,” Kincade said.
“I kind of already think you are,” I said firmly. “Now tell me what you’re talking about right this instant or I’ll put more clothes on.”
Brock chuckled in my ear, his thumb stroking my bare stomach.
Jessie looked sheepish. “It’s this thing we got to do once or twice, back in our swim team days.”
“Back when we had fans,” Kincade said, his eyes shining as he remembered what he apparently thought of as his glory days.
“I still don’t know what you mean.” But from the expression on both their faces, it seemed like it was something hot as hell.
Jessie looked embarrassed. “There was this one girl we were all kind of… dating. Together.”
I nodded at him to go on. I already knew they’d shared women before.
Kincade took up the story. “She could swim really well, too. And sometimes we’d all be in the pool, and she’d be wearing a string bikini like yours, and—”
“With her permission,” Jessie cut in.
“And with her permission, we’d all take a string and pull,” Kincade concluded.
That thought made my pulse pound between my legs. To be clothed one moment and completely naked the next.
“Please, Maddie.” It was a bit of a rush to see a normally smug man like Kincade beg. “It’s so fucking hot.”
“So… it would be like you’d be unwrapping a present?” I inquired.
“Yes,” Kincade said at the same time Jessie said, “No.”
Brock snorted. “You two used to be a lot better at this.”
“At what?” I asked.
“At convincing a beautiful woman to do naughty things.”
“It’s not like unwrapping a present,” Jessie said. “It’s your body, it’s not a reward for us to earn.”
“That’s not how I meant it,” Kincade protested. “A present isn’t something you demand—it’s something that someone chooses to give you. And Maddie can choose this if she wants.”
That actually made sense. “Okay.”
Kincade’s eyes lit up like it was his birthday. “Seriously?”
“Yes. I owe you guys for letting me stay with you.”
“No,” Brock said sharply, and I could see Jessie was ready to protest, too. “Only do it if you want to, not because you think you owe us.”
It touched me that Brock said that, especially since I could feel how hard he’d grown. Huge and hard. “You’re right,” I said. “But I do want to. I don’t know why I said that I owed you.”
Jessie somehow understood. “Sometimes it’s easier to pretend that you have to do something rather than to admit you want something.”
“Exactly.”
Kincade’s eyes were wide. “This shit is complicated,” he said with apparent seriousness.
I laughed. “You know what’s complicated? Three men and four strings.”
“Not complicated at all,” Brock said. “I get the two in the back. They get the ones on either side.”
“Why do you get two?” Kincade wanted to know.
“Because I’m the best swimmer.”
“We haven’t had a real race in years,” Kincade objected. “Things could’ve changed.”
“Fine,” Brock barked. “Let’s have a race right now. Maybe two out of three? And we’ll all just ignore the nearly nude young woman who just offered to let us remove the rest of her clothes.”
Kincade grinned. “Fair point.” He moved to my side, and my heart rate tripled.
Jessie moved to my other side. “Are you sure you want this?”
“Yes.”
“On three,” Brock said. Kincade took hold of the end of the string that held the bikinis bottoms up on one side. Jessie did the same on the other.
“Are you ready?” Brock asked me. He moved his hands to my waist, only holding me lightly.
I nodded.
“Wait,” Kincade said hastily, catching my eye. “Can you tread water?”
It dawned on me that when Brock got ready to pull the string at my back and then one at my neck, no one would be supporting me anymore. “For a little while.” Anticipation made me giddy, and I giggled. “Shouldn’t one of you have thought to ask that well before this?”
“Yes,” Brock growled. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“I will.” To prove it to them, I moved my arms and legs back and forth. Brock waited a moment to see if I had it before letting me go. I sank down an inch or two, but kept my head above water.
Behind me, Brock lifted my hair up out of the way, pushing it over my shoulder. There was a light kiss on the back of my neck and then I felt a slight movement as he took hold of both strings.
“Ready?” he asked.
God, was I. They’d gotten me so worked. “Yes,” I said, panting slightly from the exertion and the excitement. “I hope you like your present.”