“Ava, everything okay?” Luke’s brother Jackson asked, snickering.
“Bitch told me I have a fat ass.” I turned around and bent over. “It may be fat, but it’s a nice fat ass, right?”
“Everything okay in here?”
I looked back as Luke walked in the garage.
They all said everything was good, all except me.
“Do you think my ass is fat?” I asked.
His eyes locked onto mine. There was something different in them, something that heated my body in the center and spread into every cell.
“Answering a question like that can get a man in trouble,” he said, his nostrils flaring a bit.
“Trouble is my middle—”
“Ava’s had too much to drink,” Liam interrupted, coming in behind Luke.
After that incident, the crowd thinned. My parents stayed to help Jade and Ryan clean up. I did, too. Then Mom and Logan left before Dad and I got in the pool to cool off from the drunken cleaning in ninety-degree heat.
Luke’s brothers, Riley and Jackson, were in the pool with their girlfriends. Lauren, his sister, was walking in the house with Jade.
I was on an inflatable floating tube, and Luke was standing by the edge of the pool. He was shirtless, his arms crossed over his expansive chest, wearing black board shorts hanging low on his hips, exposing the small trail of hair leading beneath his waistband. He was so beautiful it was almost painful to look at him. I swore he could have made my eyes bleed. His jet black hair was cut short on the sides, his full lips completely kissable, and his deep, dark blue eyes were cast down.
He looked up as if he could sense me looking at him, his face unreadable. I wondered what he was thinking. God, I wished I knew what he was thinking.
He squatted down and put his hand in the water as if to test the temperature. When he looked up at me again, he lifted his hand and curled his finger, beckoning me.
I pointed to myself because I was unsure he was truly referring to me.
The side of his lips curled up, and he looked around then back at me with his eyebrow raised and nodded.
I let out a very slow breath that was held as I looked around. We were alone. Everyone had left. Totally alone.
I paddled toward him, my eyes not leaving his, his never leaving mine, as I reminded myself to breathe. Just breathe.
It seemed like it took forever to get to him, but if it truly did, it was okay with me. He was looking at me, and it was so very different than it had ever been.
As I swam closer, I expected him to stand, but he didn’t.
“Water’s too cold for you, Ava.”
“I’m not cold,” I said, my voice sounding different, sexier.
“No?” He shook his head back and forth as he said it.
“As a matter of fact, I’m kinda hot,” I told him, sounding much more confident than I felt.
“I think you should come up out of that water,” he said, reaching out his hand for me.
I took it, and he pulled me up. Before he had a chance to pull it away, though, I took his hand and placed it against the base of my neck.
“Do you think I feel cold?”
His body tensed, and he shook his head.
I kept his hand in place and looked around. “No one else is here.” I looked back at him and watched his eyes dart between my lips and my eyes. “So, tell me; do you think my ass is fat?”