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I don’t let it stop me. I keep going until it’s mid-thigh, when I circle her around.

“Don’t you dare!” Her eyes throw daggers, but she can’t get a grip on my arms.

I toss her forward like a sack of potatoes into the water. A short shriek breaks the quiet before she crashes through the surface, going all the way under.

She’s up just as fast, gasping and screaming. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Now we’re even.” Turning my back, I walk out of the frigid water to where the sun beats down with a vengeance.

It actually feels pretty good standing in the scorching heat after that ice bath. My limbs are loose from the running and the laughing and the adrenaline, but as I watch her wading toward me, water running down her beautiful body, hair clinging to her cheeks and neck, I start to feel a different kind of adrenaline.

The beige tank she’s wearing is transparent, and I can see her thin lace bra under it and the dark circles of her areolas crowned by her hardened nipples.

Heat races below my belt, and I have to turn toward the pine trees while I push down the sudden wood in my pants.

“Oh, what? Now you’re going to act like nothing happened?” Noel’s voice is mad, but playful.

She jogs up behind me and wraps both her arms tightly around mine, soaking my backside with her frigid, wet body.

“How does that feel, Mr. Bruised Rib? Huh? How does it?” Her voice is so adorably taunting, like she’s going to fight me or something.

I kind of can’t take it anymore. Turning around, I swoop her up by the waist, putting her face directly level with mine. She gasps as our eyes meet. Her hands are on my shoulders, and all the pent-up heat, the nagging chemistry, her hard nipples pressing against my chest, all of it swirls into a fusion of lust and need.

“I want to kiss you.” My voice cracks roughly. I barely recognize it.

She nods, and I stretch up as she meets me halfway. Our lips brush, and it’s like two flints striking. Sparks swirl between us as I push her mouth open with mine.

I lower her to her feet so I can cup her face in my hands, and our tongues slide and curl together. She tastes like cold, fresh water, and she feels like diving off the top of a cliff into a bottomless ocean.

Her small body fits perfectly in my arms, and I pull her closer to me, wrapping my arms around her. She exhales a high noise, and my lips move to the top of her cheek, to her temple, to her brow. I don’t want to stop kissing her, holding her. I’ve never felt this way—desperate and hungry and so satisfied.

She slides her hands up to my neck, and she drops her forehead to my bare chest. I lower my nose to the top of her head and breathe.

“Taron.” Her soft voice sounds as bewildered as I feel.

How is this happening to us? Has this ever happened to anyone before? Is it possible? It feels so specific.

Her head lifts, and her golden-brown eyes are warm. “What are you doing?”

The question makes me grin. “Something I’ve wanted to do for two days.”

She blinks down as her cheeks flush. “I wondered why I didn’t do it when you caught me in the kitchen.” Her nose wrinkles, and she squints up at me. “Isn’t that what ladies do when they’re saved by handsome princes?”

“I’m not a prince.”

“But you are handsome.” A tease is in her eye.

Sliding my thumb along the top of her cheek, I lean down to kiss her lips once more. “If you ever need saving, I want to save you.”

Somehow I’m certain Noel LaGrange can take care of herself no matter what. Still, everybody slips off a kitchen counter sometimes.

“And I’ll save you back.”

I pull her to my chest, wanting to kiss her again. “It’s a deal.”

6

Noel