Interesting.
Caleb, it seemed, was full of surprises.
Not more than twenty minutes later, we were pulling right up to the beach. No fees. No lines. No nothing. But a long stretch of pristine sand, and gently crashing waves.
“Wow.”
“Yeah,” Caleb agreed, looking a little awestruck himself before becoming his animated self, rushing out, grabbing all the things we might need from the back and piling it all into the boat before demanding I get out and help him back up to the boat launch.
A tense half hour or so later, we were in the boat on the water, both our eyes scanning the shoreline just in case.
“Okay. I’m gonna drop the anchor and we are going to strip to our bathing suits, and jump in.”
More excited than I anticipated, I had no objections as Caleb got to it.
Toddy stretched out on a bench and soaked up the sun.
“Okay. We’re ready,” Caleb said, reaching for his shirt.
I was not.
Ready, that is.
For him without his shirt again.
And the way my mind raced right back to that rooftop with the feel of him beneath me.
But then my gaze moved instead to his back, seeing a tattoo there that was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“Come on, Catie with a C and ie, we are burning daylight,” he told me.
I don’t think I’d ever been quite as self-conscious as I was right then as I pulled off my tee and stood there in a tiny slip of a bikini that was leaving next to nothing to the imagination.
Caleb’s gaze went from the discarded tee to me.
Was I imagining it, or did his gaze heat?
Did it roam all over me?
It had to. Because each inch he looked at warmed, flushed, starting a chain reaction that didn’t stop until the need was thrumming through my system once again.
But then my hand was seized in Caleb’s surprisingly large and calloused one.
How had I missed that before?
I guess I’d been so distracted by the spectacle he put out first that I hadn’t looked closer.
“Ready?” he asked as he pulled me to the edge of the boat, his gaze sliding over to me, his childlike excitement so contagious that, for a moment, I forgot all about the desire.
“Yes,” I said, beaming at him.
“One, two,” he started, then pulled me with him as he jumped before three.
The water was the cool I’d been craving for weeks, making goosebumps pebble up on my skin as I surfaced laughing and looking at Caleb who was smiling back at me.
“This was a really good idea,” I told him.
“I know, right? I’m full of them. Don’t let mySexiest Man Alivegood looks fool you. I actually have something other than rocks knocking around up here,” he said, tapping his forehead before going back under the water and swimming away from me.