Fuck.
Her body is gorgeous. I’ve seen her in a bikini on cam. Up close, it’s intimate, though obviously, she doesn’t think so. Shyness is not in her nature.
A second-long thought of what it would feel like dragging my tongue along her beautiful legs runs through my head as I start walking toward her.
“Let’s go, Archer!” she shouts. “Come on! Don’t be uptight.”
Uptight.
I snort but pull my shirt over my head.
Fuck it.
Her sudden bursts of enthusiasm are so contagious that once you see a glimpse of her genuine self, you can’t stay away.
I strip down to my boxer briefs, aware of my naked body and the fact that it’s the worst underwear to get wet in.
But Kat is not looking at me. With a squeal, she runs into the water and dives in, cutting a wave.
In a minute, I follow, the warm water caressing my skin.
Kat’s head appears above water twenty or so feet away, and she dives in again, her feet blinking above water and disappearing.
The girl can swim—I noticed that on cameras on the Eastside. She is like a dolphin, and I can’t stop watching. She is a hint of fire and storm. She is many things that take me by surprise.
She dives in and breaks the surface numerous times, seemingly not paying attention to me anymore.
But I take in every inch of her. Every movement. Every second spent together. She puts me on high alert, but it’s not just her agenda on this island.
There’s something else.
My unexplainable hunger for her spontaneousness. Her ability to switch from calculation to recklessness. Her being so… alive. While the rest of us simmer in day-to-day mediocrity.
She might’ve called herself an adrenalin junkie, butsheis a shot of adrenalin. And despite all the rationalizations that became my second nature, my body craves her on the most primitive animalistic level.
My boxer briefs are wet, and I’m getting a hard-on.
And just like that, I decide to play two games.
I’ll be her boss by day.
But outside work, I’ll claim this wild thing for myself.
16
KAT
Archer might be a genius scientist,but I’m sure as hell he possesses some voodoo magic.
How else do you explain that I feel like jumping out of my skin when he is around?
I’ve never ridden so fast on a bike. And on a dirt road at that.
And that cologne, so smooth and masculine yet the most powerful potent scent that makes him smell like hot dirty sex.
Jesus, I need a break from him. Because all I think about when he is close is being even closer.
I dive underwater again and again to subdue the giddiness and tremors from being around Archer. I read his file so many times before coming to Zion that the initial fascination should’ve been dulled.