Page 51 of Falling for Her

I pause to watch them walk to the edge of the water together. She shrieks when the cold touches her feet, making Asa laugh loudly. She runs away from the lake, making everything bounce, and my cock, which is already hard, is somehow harder. It’s like she’s moving in slow motion. Fuck, maybe I’m having a stroke.

I shake my head to stop myself from ogling her openly and work to get things set up. They come back as I finish putting up the umbrella. Finley applies sunscreen to Asa.

He grabs the soccer ball. “Dad, can we kick the ball around?”

“In a sec.” I open the chairs.

Finley starts unbuttoning her shirt, and I grab my sunglasses and put them on. She shrugs it off her shoulders, revealing a white bikini top with light-blue flowers printed on it. She shimmies her hips side to side as she takes off the shorts. The matching bottoms are tied at each hip in bows with long strings. My mouth literally waters when she bends over to pick up the sunscreen. She stretches a leg out as she sprays it, then does the other one, her movements making me stay frozen. She turns around, and I see that her bottoms aren’t a thong. Thank Christ. I would have had to go dive into the water and stay there the rest of the day.

“Can I sit on any chair?” she asks me. I nod my head, not sure I can say anything without drool coming out of my mouth. I watch her like I’ve never watched another human being before as she sits down. But then she quickly gets up to put on sunscreen. I think my mouth hangs open when I watch her rub the cream into her legs.

“Dad,” Asa calls, and my head whips to him as if he caught me staring at her. “Come on.” He motions with his hand.

I take off my shirt and toss it to the side. I’m about to start running to him when she stops me.

“Are you not going to put sunscreen on?” She leans back in her chair. “The sun is hot today.” She bends to grab the sunscreen she tossed on top of the bag. “Do you want me to do your back?” I do not fucking want you putting your hands on me, one side of my head screams. I’ve got something else for you to do, the other side screams. “Or are you some sort of acrobat that can rub his own back?” She laughs, shaking the sunscreen.

I don’t say a fucking thing, not a thing, as she stands and walks around me to spray my back. I stand there, eyes closed behind my sunglasses, counting sheep and thinking about all my training to stay professional. When she’s finished spraying my back, I quickly turn around, only for her hand to land on my chest. My chest is rising and falling as I look down at her hand resting, palm down, on my pec.

Her eyes also fly to her hand. “Um,” she says nervously, “I was going to rub the sunscreen in.” It takes her a quick minute before she gets her bearings and pulls her hand from me. My chest still feels the heat of her touch. She hands me the sunscreen. “You can do your front.” She avoids looking at me as she returns to her chair.

I try to swallow, but my mouth is so dry you would think I was in the desert for the last ten days without water in the blistering heat. I spray my chest absentmindedly, not even bothering to rub it in, before tossing the sunscreen back on top of the bag and rushing to get away from her.

I’m thankful I have my glasses on, so I can stare at her while I play soccer with my son. She leans back on the chair, and she is fucking perfect in every single way.

“I’m going into the water,” Asa announces when I miss the ball ten times because I’m not paying attention. “You coming?”

I look at him, then at Finley. “Oh yeah, I’m coming.” I hope the lake is full of ice water because it’s the only thing that will cool me down right now.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

FINLEY

The sun is slowly creeping over the horizon, warming my face, and I hear birds chirping. I smile, not sure I’ve ever stopped for a minute when I was back home to listen to the birds. I mean, I don’t think I was ever up this early back home. I would sleep in until about eight or nine in the morning, depending on what I did the night before.

“Morning,” Lincoln says. He pauses as he closes the side door behind him. “Why are you just standing there?”

“I was taking in the sound of the birds before I had my coffee in the tree house.” I hold up my cup topped with a generous amount of frothy milk.

He chuckles. “I won’t tell on you if you do.” He sits down, stretching out his legs.

“Sleep good?” I ask, not moving from my spot because I don’t want to intrude on his private time while he enjoys his coffee.

“Just as good as the couch,” he deadpans. I snort. “Are you going to come join me, or stand there debating about going to the tree house?”

“I didn’t want to intrude,” I tell him the truth, “so I was waiting for you to invite me.”

“Finley, do you want to sit down and have your coffee here?” He leans back in his chair, his feet crossing at the ankles.

It’s really a shame that he’s smoking hot. It would be a lot easier to be pissy to him if I hadn’t pictured him naked most of yesterday. It was fine until he came out of the water, and his shorts just clung to him, as if he was wearing nothing. I had to put my hand up to my forehead to block out the sun so I could see everything. Then he bent to pick up the Frisbee. With the way his muscles showed off every single time he tossed it to Asa, I had to get up and step into the ice-cold water. There, I spent most of the time watching him, along with some of the moms. As time went by, I got really annoyed and had no idea why.

“How did you sleep?” he asks.

“You know what they say about fresh air?” I take a sip of my coffee. “It’s true. I was wiped out. I started giving myself a pedicure, then gave up and just went to bed. I fell asleep, and I don’t even think my head was on the pillow.” He laughs. “I swear, I think it was like seven thirty, if not earlier.”

“Asa hit the hay as soon as he got out of the shower. He didn’t even bother coming downstairs. He just went straight to bed.”

“Are you working today?”