We carried on until finally we cleared the trees, where the stillness reined in our silliness.
“This is perfect,” he said, pulling me in front of him to rest his head on my shoulder.
A dragonfly bounced along the water, sending tiny ripples through the blue, inviting water. We had the place all to ourselves. Suddenly seized by inspiration, I smiled. Brazen hussy reporting for duty.
I turned within his arms, blinking innocently up at him. “Stay,” I instructed with my index finger in the center of his chest. Curiosity shone in his eyes. He looked like he wanted to ask what I was doing, but he didn’t, letting me run the show.
I kicked off my flips, sending them sailing under a nearby tree. My thin white tank was next, sliding over my head. Leo’s eyes narrowed as he took in my barely there bikini, red and white polka dots that tried, almost unsuccessfully, to cover my sudden inspiration. Slipping out of my shorts to expose another part of barely there, I was delighted when his face changed from expectation to deep satisfaction.
I turned away toward the water, peered over my shoulder with a secret smile, and saw Leo standing stock-still, answering my smile broadly. His hands fisted at his sides as he watched me tug at the string on my bikini top, exposing myself to God, country, and dragonflies. I let the tiny triangles slide down my heated skin into the gravel and dirt, and his breath caught. He took a tiny step forward before catching himself. He was letting me do this at my pace, and looked like he was enjoying every single second of it.
I took a step toward the water. I heard him take a step behind me. When my toes hit the water, I almost jumped out of my skin. I’d figured it would be warmish given the time of year, but this was downright nippy—and visibly nipply.
I moved deeper into the water, the coolness slipping up over my shins, my knees, halfway up my thigh—then I stopped and took another look back at Leo. It was like a game of Red Light, Green Light. For every step I took into the water, he stepped further down the rocks. When I stopped, he stopped. When I turned this last time, letting him sneak a peek at what the trees were already familiar with, he stopped so short he had to pinwheel his arms to keep from falling. Jesus, if tits could do this to a grown man, what would happen when I . . .
I took hold of the strings on either hip and tugged.
I’d seen Leo move quickly before, but he was about to break the land and sea record for getting naked and into the water. Jeans and boxers were gone together in a tangle as he hopped on one foot while he toed off his boots simultaneously.
He winced when he hit the water, but didn’t lose momentum. His shirt was still on, as if he’d forgotten he was wearing it. Ripping it off, he threw it behind him, landing on a rock with a wet thwap.
“You shouldn’t tease a guy, Roxie,” he warned, pulling me to him so quickly that the water splashed up between us, wetting his face and eyelashes.
Now pressed together, very wet and very naked, he gave me a very specific once-over. The kind that you give someone you want to devour. I’d volunteer for a devouring. As he smoothed his wet palm over my hair, my eyes closed at the light touch. I leaned into his warmth, unable to stop the smile that took over my face. My eyes flittered open, blinking against the sunlight, and I sighed in contentment.
He was just leaning in to kiss me when something buzzy flew past my ear. My body went stiff. So did his, and not in the good way. Though that particular part was still bobbing against my leg.
“Just ignore it, Rox, it’ll go away,” he coaxed, trying to shoo it away.
“No. Bee. Bad,” I stuttered through clenched teeth, trying to flee but unable to escape his hold, his arm banded across my bottom, his hand over a cheek for good measure. I tried to breathe. “It’s like some kind of call goes out across the forest: ‘Hey, Roxie’s here; she’s naked in the pond and trying to get it on with Almanzo—let’s get her!’ ”
“You really have a thing for Almanzo, don’t you?”
“You have no idea. Remember the episode when Nellie Oleson made him cinnamon chicken, his favorite dish? But Nellie didn’t know how to make it so she made Laura do it? Only Laura hated Nellie, so she switched out the cinnamon for cayenne pepper?” I babbled, burying my head in Leo’s chest while trying to get us as low in the water as I could.
“Cinnamon? What?” he asked, confused, almost losing his footing as I scrambled against his stomach, hunching down.
“You said ignore it, I’m trying to ignore it. Is it gone yet?”
I’ll never know what his answer was going to be, because just then I was buzzed in stereo by Bee Number One and his asshole cousin, Bee Number Two.
“Good-bye!” I chirped, and went under. His hands splashed after me as I wriggled down to the bottom, where not even an asshole bee could follow. I swam a few feet, surfaced, saw Leo waving his hands over his head trying to shoo the motherfuckers away, then submerged again, this time with lungs full.
This went on awhile, me popping up in different spots, Leo trying to communicate with me in the 2.2 seconds I was above water before diving deep again, determined to wait it out. He waded this way and that, trying to find me, only to see me shoot up like a dolphin to catch another breath. The poor guy was playing Whac-a-Mole with a lunatic with exceptional breath control, and I caught little snatches of words between inhales.
“Roxie they’re—”
“—gone, you can—”
“For God’s sake Rox, can you—”