“I like you Thomas,” she whispered.
His smile at such close range hit her brain like an electrical charge.
“Good,” he murmured.
She glanced up and saw him studying her through long, spiked wet eyelashes. “So . . . do I have to get bitten by a fish or have my hand caught in a trap—” He emphasized his words by sliding his fingers suggestively down the crack of her ass. “—in order to finish what we started earlier, Sophie?”
“You might be able to talk me into it without acquiring any major injuries,” she replied breathlessly. He pressed closer and she felt her belly brush against his taut abdomen and the delicious fullness of his cock beneath his swim trunks. She hated to be so single-minded, but she’d never seen a more beautifully shaped, succulent penis in her life. The heaviness of it when he grew erect excited her beyond measure.
“I should probably shower first. I’ve been bathing in sweat and lake water,” he mumbled, his eyes fixed on her mouth as the dense column of his cock whisked lightly against her hip, teasing and thrilling her.
“We’ll shower afterwards,” Sophie said, repeating what he’d told her last night.
His eyes flashed as he met her gaze. He placed his hand at the back of her head and gave her a quick, blistering kiss that made her toes curl in the cool water. He spoke near her lips.
“You were lonely when you were young. Weren’t you, Sophie?”
Sophie’s mouth fell open in surprise. The man made a habit of turning topics on a dime. He’d just been laughing and teasing her. Where had this sudden intensity come from?
“I guess I was,” she said shakily after a moment, recognizing fully for the first time that what she said was true. Coming to the lake house without a companion had been the height of misery for her because she felt like a tag-along, a third wheel to her parents’ passionate involvement with each other. When her parents weren’t totally into the presence of each other, they were mostly focused on themselves . . . on their careers.
Thomas nodded his head slowly as his hands coasted over her hips and ass in a light caress that made her shiver.
“Lonely adults are sad,” he murmured. “But a lonely child . . . It’s worse.”
She met his stare and nodded, her throat suddenly too thick with emotion to speak. His smile was apologetic, as though he regretted his maudlin change of topic. He caught her hand and urged her toward the dock.
“Let’s go inside.” His hoarse whisper and hot eyes made her hasten. She swam rapidly as anticipation built in her. When they’d clambered up onto the dock, however, something drew her attention away from the sight of Thomas’s tanned, muscular body streaming with water, the shape and size of his erection made obvious by clinging, wet fabric.
Thomas noticed her glance toward the house. His chin swung over his shoulder. Before she could call out a flustered greeting to their visitor, however, Thomas’s expression
became cold and hard. He turned his back to her, as if blocking the sight of her from the male walking down the yard.
“Stay here,” he instructed firmly before he strode off the dock.
“Thomas?” she muttered in rising confusion when she took in his aggressive demeanor and clenched fists.
“What do you want?” Thomas shouted as he ate up the distance between himself and the approaching man on long legs.
Sophie saw the man stop in his tracks halfway down the yard as he watched Thomas rush him.
“Sophie?” the man called out.
“I asked you, what the hell do you want?”
Sophie ran up the dock when she heard the fury in Thomas’s voice.
“Stop. Thomas, stop it!” What was wrong with him? Her heart swelled in her chest, making breathing difficult, as she watched Thomas practically plow down the alarmed and increasingly angry-looking visitor. He stopped when he was toe-to-toe, just short of pushing over the tall, wiry, gray-haired man wearing his typical khaki shorts and golf shirt.
“Thomas, stop! He’s my neighbor, Sherman Dolan,” Sophie yelled as she ran up on the pair.
Sherman’s eyes rolled slightly in the sockets as if he started to glance over at Sophie but thought better of it and remained pinned to the threatening man in front of him.
“Are you all right, Sophie? I spoke to Daisy. She said she’d stopped by earlier and she was worried that something might be wrong over here. Who is this man?”
She’d never seen her jocular, easygoing neighbor look so anxious. Sherman’s nose pinched tight and he glared with a mixture of outrage and fear up at a very formidable-looking Thomas. What was it that Thomas did in the military? Sophie tried to recall dazedly. He looked absolutely deadly in that moment.
“Thomas,” she said softly. “Please.”