Page 43 of Filthy Little Pretties

She smiles and keeps herself facing the buoy while we face her. “You mean swimming semi-nude wasn’t enough?”

“Well, that wasn’t my idea. Although remind me to thank Ethan.” He smirks, leaning closer to her.

She giggles and dips her lips under the water and back up.

“I had the groundskeepers set up the dock.”

Donovan looks out behind me over at the shore, but I shake my head and motion to behind Liam, feeling my body move inches closer to hers.

“That way, Cherry.”

She cranes her neck, straightening her arms to push up and away, seeing the deck in the distance decked out with chairs, blankets and a fire pit.

“I love it. It looks amazing, but what if we’re too tired to swim back? Who’s giving me a ride?”

Liam tilts his head to stare at her like he’s lost in his own thoughts. The way he looks at her, like he’s hanging on her every word, makes me want to hold him under, but I can’t blame him, because I am too. She dips her head backward into the water, making it sleek and barely exposing the tops of her breasts. My eyes dart up from her chest, locking with Liam’s irritated glare, but I smile back, cocky and undeterred.

Neither of us want to share something we don’t have claim over. We’re fucking pricks.

“Well? Hello…how do we get back without drowning?”

“It’s on a pulley, Van. Grey and I did it last summer. We’ll pull us back in.”

“Sweet. Race you. That is, unless you were hoping to get another shot at looking at my boobs.”

She pushes off, shouting, “Pervs,” and makes swift strokes over the water as we look at each other laughing. This girl is one of a kind. I should’ve known that if I was beginning to like her, he would be too. The three of us never could do anything without the other.

“She was talking to you, dick,” I laugh, diving in.

“No way. That was all about you.”

We shove off, quickly trying to catch her, but by the time we do, she’s holding the small ladder and climbing onto the dock, each hip rocking up as she climbs, exposing her bare ass and slender frame. She wrings out her wet hair and grabs a towel, wrapping it around her chest and making her way over to an Adirondack.

I lift myself onto the wooden deck and walk next to where she’s snuggled up in the chair. Grabbing another towel, I dry my face first and run it over my chest.

“I didn’t notice that the other day,” Donovan muses, running two fingers down the side of my torso. “Is it Latin?”

“It is. If you can decipher it, I’ll give you a prize.”

“Look at who’s being mysterious now?”

“You can dish it out but can’t take it, huh?”

Liam squats down by the firepit and brings it to life. The fire begins to instantly warm the space around us. But he squirts the can of lighter fluid on it, anyway, making the fire roar. Cheers erupt from the shore, and Liam holds his arms up and yells back, “Fire, motherfuckers!”

Donovan laughs and reaches out, wiggling her fingers. I twist my head around and spot a flannel blanket, so I swipe it up and toss it to her. I secure the towel around my waist and sit down in the seat across the fire from her. I like to look at her, watch her reactions. Being in this spot makes it easy.

Liam stretches his arms out wide, then drops them down and looks to the sky. “Beer me.”

I reach into the cooler next to me and hand him a beer, pulling one out for me too.

“What about me?”

Donovan looks at me expectantly from over the fire, and I smirk. “No more rule following?”

“I’m topless on a deck with two guys…I feel like a beer is mandatory.”

I hand it to Liam, and he passes it to her, twisting the top open first. Silence surrounds us as we sit, Liam standing, looking at the stars and taking swigs of our beers and just being us.