I bend, sitting on the edge of the pool and slipping my legs in the water. The cool water prickles at my skin, and before I can change my mind, I slide all the way in.

I squeak at the cold sting of the water against my bare skin and hold my arms up. They and my head are the only things that didn’t go underwater, and I suck in a hissing breath.

“You should have just jumped all the way in.”

I look up to see that Torres has now turned. He’s still leaning against the pool’s edge, but he has his arms stretched out beside him. I marvel for a moment at just how big he is. His arms, especially, are long and undoubtedly strong.

“Everyone always says that,” I say, trying not to shiver. “But I still prefer to ease myself in, rather than plunge all at once.”

“And this list of yours? That’s not plunging in all at once?”

“I suppose some things might be, but the bigger things, those I’m easing myself into.”

“Like?”

Like sex. Possibly with you.

I grit my teeth, and slowly lower my arms into the water, wrapping them around myself both to cover my breasts and recover a little bit of warmth.

“Like tonight I had my first real drink of alcohol. That was the first step. Later, I’ll actually get drunk. Even do a keg stand.”

He laughs and drops his hands into the water. He begins moving toward me, and the goose bumps already dotting my skin seem to tighten and multiply.

“You’re going to do a keg stand? Now, that is not something I ever thought you would have on your list.”

Too embarrassed to admit that I’d Googled college bucket list in an attempt to learn what normal people my age do, I shrug and say, “It seems like fun.” Actually, it seems like a disaster waiting to happen, but what do I know?

He laughs, still moving toward me, and comes to a stop about three feet away.

It’s just far enough that I don’t feel crowded, but still close enough to speed my heartbeat to a frantic pace.

“You just keep surprising me, girl genius.”

“That’s a good thing?”

“Very.”

His eyes are dark, pupils expanded wide in the night, and the look he gives me isn’t one I can classify. It’s sexual, for sure, but most of the looks he gives me are at least partly sexual. And yet they’re all so different. Before meeting him, I hadn’t imagined how varied the reactions of attraction could be. It’s fascinating, and without realizing it, I’ve moved a foot closer to him. Close enough now that I could reach out and touch him, if I were willing to unwrap my arms from my chest.

“I’m not always surprising,” I say, feeling an irrational need to quash his attraction to me, to make him somehow less potent. “Generally, I’m quite boring.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I don’t think you could ever be boring.”

And suddenly my eyes are watering, and I need to swallow and swallow again. I hadn’t realized until he’d said it just how badly I’ve always needed to hear those words. Confidence is a camouflage that does nothing to fill the gaps it covers.

Before he can see my reaction, and before I can think too far ahead, I lift my arms to touch his shoulders and pull myself up enough to press my mouth to his.

To kiss my stranger.

Chapter 10

Mateo

Her lips are so tentative at first that I barely react, wondering if there’s a chance that this is her first kiss. And if it is, the last thing I want to do is scare her off.

But then I realize that the brush of her lips was soft and short, not because she was hesitating, but because she’s so much shorter than me that she had to pull up on my shoulders, lifting her toes off the pool bottom, to reach me. Her grip shifts and this time her arms go around my shoulders, holding on to me to keep her up, and the change brings her so close that her bare chest brushes mine.

Fuck.

She gasps, and the second kiss she’d been about to give me is forgotten as she closes her eyes and dips her head. She arches her back, as if she wants to draw her chest away from mine, but her arms stay tight around my shoulders, and her tits drag against my skin, wet and hot and . . . fuck. That slow glide of skin is enough to snap the last of my resolve.

I wind my arms around her waist, pulling her tight against me, and the soft curve of her stomach presses against my rock-hard cock, and it’s a fucking miracle that I don’t come right then and there.

She feels so damn good in my arms. Soft and warm and smooth, and I know I’m not going to be able to keep my promise to Dylan. I told her that I would take things slow with Nell. That I wouldn’t let things go too far.

But all I want now is to go further, be closer.

But I force myself to ask, “Can I kiss you? Is it okay to be kissed by me now?”

Her eyes are wide and dark, and in the scant few seconds that she pauses, my heart feels like it’s twisted all the way around in my chest. Then she nods, and I crush my mouth to hers, feeling dizzy with just how much I want her.

She opens to me immediately, pushing her tongue against mine in a way that soothes my earlier fear that she hadn’t done this before. One of her hands slides from my shoulder to my neck, and it presses her chest flush against mine. Her nipples are beads of heat against my skin, and her breasts are full and heavy, and I can’t wait to feel them, to hold them, to taste them.

But for the moment I’m too busy being undone by the thorough exploration of her tongue in my mouth. She tastes sweet, like the drink I’d given her earlier, and her movements are confident. In control.

Oh no. My girl might be a genius, but she could not learn that from books. But what I really want to see is Nell out of control. I want to know what it’s like to have this proud, intelligent miracle of a girl yield under my hands.

I slip a hand up from her waist, coasting over the outside of her breast and up to her neck. She has to drop her arm from my shoulder to make room for me, but I’ve got a tight hold on her waist so she won’t fall. I spread my palm over the side of her neck, reaching up to grip her jaw and chin with my fingers and thumb.

And then it’s my turn. I slant her head back, switching the angle of our kiss, and then I devour that pretty mouth that’s been plaguing me all night. Her fingernails tighten against my neck, urging me on, and I search her mouth furiously, as if I might find the origin of her sweet taste that drives me crazy.

I suck her bottom lip into my mouth, and she whimpers. I glory in that sound, determined to coax even more from her.