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It was cute, all these inked giants playing like kids, grinning from ear to ear. I wondered if Blake had come to Summer Shit with the Beasts, it they’d had fun together the summer before he was killed.

Wolf tied a rope from my inner tube to his, then helped me onto mine.

“Why are our tubes tied together?” I asked.

He leaned in as I lay back on the warm wet rubber. His body was pressed to mine, his skin cool and damp, his breath intoxicating. “Maybe I just want you all to myself, sunshine.”

I smiled and he got on his inner tube, then pushed off the shallow bottom near the riverbank.

I instantly felt lighter, buoyed by the water as we floated downstream amid everybody else on their tubes.

The water was cool and delicious on my feet, my ass wet where it dipped into the hole of the tube, the end of my ponytail soaked in the first minute.

It hadn’t rained in a while and this stretch of the river was lazy and meandering, with just enough white water to keep things fun. Some of the guys had rigged a makeshift cooler on afew of the inner tubes, and they threw beers back and forth as we drifted downstream, my tube tied to Wolf’s.

I caught sight of Otis across the water, talking to a pretty blonde while they floated downstream, and felt a wave of jealousy before I managed to get a grip. Wolf had gotten me off with his mouth the night before and I’d been five seconds from begging Jace to fuck me in the bathroom.

I didnothave a right to be jealous.

I didn’t see Jace. He was either way ahead of the pack, way behind, or he’d opted out, and I couldn’t help wondering where he’d gone after our altercation in the bathroom. It made me sad to think of him alone somewhere, sulking or pissed or whatever, but then I remembered the way he’d acted in the bathroom and my heart hardened toward him all over again.

Jace Kane didn’t deserve my sympathy, and he wouldn’t want it either.

We’d been floating for about fifteen minutes when Wolf started paddling away from the group. The rope tugged between us as he pulled me along with him.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“I want to show you something.” He was paddling toward a tributary that split from the river.

I laughed. “You want toshow me something?”

I putshow me somethingin air quotes and he flashed me a wicked grin. “You got a problem with that, sunshine?”

I returned his smile. “No.”

“Good.”

We picked up the current on the tributary and Wolf stopped paddling as we started drifting again. There were tons of tributaries like it along Blackwell Creek, smaller rivers and creeks that cut through the rolling meadows, farmland, and mountains around Blackwell Falls, fed by the river which was fed by the falls behind my mom’s house.

I’d only ever seen the smaller rivers in passing, driving over bridges or hiking alongside them with Cassie and Sarai or Ruth. It was different floating along the surface. I felt like a leaf in the wind, like I was part of nature instead of just an observer.

The noise of the rest of the group faded as they drifted down the main river, nothing but an occasional shout or burst of laughter echoing through the trees until even that was gone.

Then there was just the sound of the water and the birds, the occasional rustle of squirrels or rabbits in the woods.

It was so peaceful, the sun filtering through the trees, the water carrying us gently downstream. I looked at Wolf, wondering if he felt it too, and met his gaze.

He didn’t say anything, but right then, I felt something move between us, something that was more than the heat of his mouth on my skin, his fingers inside me. It scared me more than any of the physical stuff we’d done, and I looked away fast, swallowing the lump that had risen in my throat.

Wanting to fuck Wolf was one thing. Having feelings for him — for any of the Beasts — was a recipe for disaster.

The current gradually slowed and our inner tubes bobbed to a stop in a small pool of water collecting near a sandy riverbank.

Wolf got out of his inner tube and set it on the bank, then reached out a hand.

“Come on, sunshine. We’re here."

Chapter 52