Never Ever (4 page)

Chapter Ten:

Taylor

I was off my game. Way fucking off. I had spent the whole night wrapped around Liv like a damn pansy. I never did that. I had almost outted our little affair not once, but twice this morning. And then, 20 minutes into our hike I had been demoted to the back of the line. Apparently, my mind wasn’t a steel trap after all. Baily did not play around. The only positive thing going for me right now was that the back of the line gave me an amazing view of Livi’s ass in her teeny tiny cut off shorts. After what seemed like 100 miles, the thick woods gave way to the large open sandy lake entrance I remembered from my childhood. It was deserted, we were the only ones here, and the water looked so welcoming. Everyone started peeling off their sweaty clothes so they could get in the water and cool off. I watched Livi shimmy out of her shorts and pull off her tank top. Red bikini today. I walked up next to her, “Come swim with me.”

She put her hand to her face to shield her eyes from the sun as she studied the lake. “Uh…no. I’ll
wade
out into the water with you, knee deep. But I don’t swim in lakes.”

I made a face, “What? Why not?”

She didn’t take her eyes off the water when she answered me. “Crocodiles, alligators, and/or piranhas.”

I had to chuckle, “You’re joking right?”

Kate laughed as she walked by us. “Oh, she’s serious. Liv watches way too many campy horror movies. I’m surprised she slept on the porch by herself last night. I was sure I’d feel her crawling into bed with Allie and me at some point. You know, murderers in hockey masks and all that.”

Livi groaned, “Dammit Kate, Jason hadn’t even crossed my mind. Now it’s going to be all I can think about tonight.”

Kate rolled her eyes as she walked away. I leaned down, placed my hand on Livi’s hip and put my mouth right next to her ear, “Don’t be silly Sugar, I’ll be all you can think about tonight. And I’ll keep you safe.” I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder, and headed into the water. I ignored her screams and threats. I didn’t put her down until I was waste deep, which meant she was about chest deep. The sandy bottom continued out to where we were standing.

Livi punched me in the arm and switched positions with me so that she was closer to shore than I was. “Ass.”

“There is nothing in this lake to be scared of. I’ve been coming here my whole life. And don’t even tell me that this cold water doesn’t feel amazing after that hike.” I circled around her, blocking her from shore.

She switched positions with me again.

I put my hands on my hips, “Why do you keep doing that? Are you going to try and make a break for the beach?”

“No. I want you further out than I am. That way if something attacks, it’ll get you first.” She didn’t seem like she was joking.

“Aren’t you just sweet as pie?” I sank down in the water up to my shoulders. “You want to know the very best thing about lake water?”

“Flesh eating bacteria?”

I gave her an annoyed look and reached for her legs. I wrapped her ankles around my hips. “No one can see what you are doing.” I watched her, carefully, looking for signs that she was uncomfortable or that I was taking it too far in front of her friends. But, because life had always been kind to me, she just smiled. She wrapped her legs tighter around me and then leaned back on the water. I was instantly hard. In my mind I pictured carrying her back to shore, spreading out a blanket and eating her for lunch. We stayed like that, connected, talking about nothing and everything until Cole came over and shoved my head under the water. “Come on Tay, let’s play some football.” Liv untangled her legs from mine, stole the ball cap off my head and headed back to shore. I jumped on Cole’s back, dunking him. I absentmindedly played ball with him and Baily, but my eyes kept searching out Livi. I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I really was smitten…Nah, I was just acting like a pussy because I hadn’t been in hers yet. Once this weekend was over, I’d be back to my normal awesome self. She had spread out a towel and was sitting next to Kate. They talked for a while but then she put my cap on and laid down. Seeing her laid out like that, her body glistening in the sun, it was like the beginning of the little fantasy I’d had earlier. I fought the urge to go lay next to her as long as I could…which was all of maybe 10 minutes. I made my way back to shore than then sat next to her, dripping water on her chest. “Are you sleeping?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to make a habit of stealing my clothes?” I couldn’t deny that I loved seeing her wear my old faded ball cap. Just like I loved seeing her in my tank top yesterday. I needed to lock these sappy emotions down.

“Maybe.”

I shook my hair, splattering her with more water droplets. “Wake up. Talk to me.”

“No.” She moved my cap so I could see her face, “Someone kept me up all night.” She sounded irritated, but she wore a smile.

I crossed my arms over my bent knees and contemplated out at the lake. “Explain to me why chicks have this innate need to cuddle?”

Livi scoffed, “You’re joking right? You were the one who wanted to spoon.”

I peered down at her, grinning. “Yeah, well, tonight I wanna fork.”

She laughed, like a good real perfect laugh. “You’re crazy.”

I looked back at the water, watching our friends swim and play football. No one was around us, no one could hear anything we were saying. But did they know? Could they tell that I wanted her? That just looking at her, hearing her laugh caused my heart to race and my dick to twitch. I laid down next to her on the sand, it was hot and scratchy on my back. “Don’t act like you’ll turn me down, Sugar. We both know you won’t.”

She smirked without opening her eyes, “And you’re cocky too.”

“Livi, look at me.” I waited until she turned her face towards mine. “I want you. For the rest of the weekend I want to own you. I want to make you feel so good that no other man will ever measure up.”

She chuckled, “Those are some lofty aspirations, kid.” But her eyes gave her away. Those beautiful green eyes grew dark. She could deny it all she wanted, but I was turning her on.

Chapter Eleven:

Livi

We were all gathered on the back porch, sipping on ice cold beer and listening to a whole lot of Jack Johnson. It was a movie perfect setting. The guys made us lunch and then set us up on the porch to relax while they cleaned the kitchen. Hiring these guys was the best idea Baily ever had. None of us had moved for an hour. Across the room Kate, Allie, and Baily were playing cards. Cole was inside doing something on his lap top. And Tay was sitting next to me, studying. He looked hot as hell in his glasses, no shirt, pencil at his lips. He was right, I wouldn’t deny him. I should, but I wouldn’t. It’d been too long since I felt wanted. Patrick and I were having problems long before I caught him cheating with his mediocre looking, very young assistant. He didn’t cheat because he fell in love with someone else, or because he fell out of love with me. We just sort of drifted apart. And neither one of us seemed to care enough to fix it. When I found him in bed with his assistant, I was pissed. I screamed and threw things and made a big deal about it. But later that night after I’d kicked him out, I realized, I didn’t
really
care all that much. That’s when I knew things were over. I didn’t tell anyone because it didn’t really affect me all that much. I was used to doing all the day to day stuff by myself, Patrick worked a lot. But I knew it was time to tell my friends. Maybe I’d tell them on Sunday, that way it wouldn’t mess up the weekend.

“Penny for your thoughts, Sugar?” Taylor reached over and stroked my thigh with the eraser end of his pencil. It made my breath hitch in my chest. Just one touch from him and my blood was pumping.

Before I could answer Cole came out the back door and let out an obnoxious yawn. “Alright ladies, what’s the game plan for tonight? Want to go out to dinner, want to eat in? You tell us, we work for you.”

Baily answered for all of us. I don’t want to call her bossy...maybe more like take charge. “I was thinking we could go into town early and walk around, maybe do some shopping. Then head to dinner. Are there any bars in town?”

“There’s one. It’s really small and Friday nights aren’t really all that bumping here. But if you guys wait till tomorrow night to hit the bar they usually have live music.” Cole swatted at a fly that landed on the table.

Kate flicked the dead fly off, “That sounds good to me. We can just do some touristy stuff tonight and then tomorrow we’ll all go out to the bar.”

Baily stood, “Okay I’m going to go shower the lake water off. You guys don’t need to come into town with us if you don’t want to. We’ll just wait till we get home to start drinking.”

Allie scoffed, “Speak for yourself, woman.”

I stood up and followed Baily inside. She threw me a bottle of water from the fridge. “Each of these inside bedrooms has a shower. The owner left instructions that we can all shower at the same time and the hot water will still work.”

I un screwed the cap off my water, “Okay, I’ll use the one in the guy’s room.”

“Hey, Liv?”

I spun around dramatically making her smile. “Yeeeessss?”

“Are you…I mean, you and…Is everything okay?”

I took a deep breath and held it. I could just come clean right now. I
should
just come clean and tell Baily everything. She obviously knew something was up. The more time I spent around Taylor the more relaxed I became. We flirted and touched, I was sure it looked completely inappropriate. But for some reason, I just couldn’t do it. I let out that breath. “Yeah, everything is fine.”

She just stared at me, not blinking. She knew I was keeping something from her. Before she could call me on it though Kate walked in. “I’m going to shower too. The guys said they are just going to stay here if we’re sure we don’t need them.”

Baily answered Kate without taking her eyes off me, “Yeah, we’re good. I’ll drive. Allie can get as crazy as she wants.”

Allie came skipping into the house, “Did I hear my name?”

“Yes, you lush. I was telling Kate that I would drive us tonight.”

Allie immediately started singing
Addicted to Love
and making herself a cocktail with a lot of flourish and finesse. I used the entertaining distraction to my advantage. I grabbed my stuff and headed into the bathroom off the guys room. I shut and locked the door. The last thing I needed was Taylor coming in here. Baily was already suspicious, I didn’t need to add fuel to the fire. After I was done I towel dried my hair and got dressed. When I opened the door Taylor was laying on the bottom bunk.

I looked bummed, “You locked the door.”

I nodded, “I was in the shower.”

He sat up and put his feet on the floor, “I wanted to be in the shower with you.”

“I know, that’s why I locked the door.”

He held his hand out towards me, silently asking me to come to him. My head told me to just leave the room. We could hang out tonight after everyone was asleep. It was safer that way. “Taylor I need to get dressed. I don’t want everyone to be waiting on me. Baily gets super pissy about stuff like that.”

He gestured for me with his outstretched hand, “Come here, just for a second.”

I reluctantly crossed the room. Weak. I was a weak weak woman. He grabbed both of my hands and pulled me between his legs. He looked up at me with such desire, my stomach dropped. He pulled me down for a kiss. It was so slow and deep, his tongue making lazy passes over mine. It made me want to lose myself in him, to just climb onto the bed and say the hell with everything else. Which is why I pulled away.

“What’s wrong Sugar, you look stressed.”

I shrugged, “Baily asked me what was going on. She knows something’s up. I don’t want to tell them about Patrick and me until Sunday. You and I…I think it’s becoming obvious Taylor. You’re going to have to back off. No more touching or sexual innuendos. I don’t want my friends to think I’m being unfaithful even for a couple of days. It’ll stress them out. They’ll worry about me, and I want them to just relax and have fun.”

“Livi…I…No.”

“What do you mean
no
? You promised me that you would back off if I asked you to. This is me asking.”

“I like you. I like touching you and even more importantly, you like it when I touch you. Don’t try and deny it. I can see what I do to you.” He moved my hand to his dick, making me grab it. He felt hard, and long. “And this is what you do to me.”

I pulled my hand away, “Taylor, how many times do I have to explain this to you? I’m not a kid anymore. I’m an adult. With responsibilities and friends who value marriage. Friends who will be very disappointed in me if they think I’m being unfaithful.”

He scrubbed his hands down his face, exasperated. “Who cares what they think? It’s just for a couple of days. You can tell them on Sunday.”

I put my hands on my hips, “I care. Look, I’m not telling you we have to stop. I’m just telling you to watch yourself around Allie and Baily.” I should just tell him to stop. That was the grown up mature thing to do. No, the grown up mature thing to do would have been to tell my friends months ago that I was getting divorced.

“Livi. Dammit.” He was at war with himself on this one. I could tell by the different looks flittering across his face. Finally, he grabbed my hands in his again. “Fine. I promise, I’ll be more careful.”

“Thank you.” I leaned down and gave him a quick peck before I walked out of the room. The only problem was, I didn’t want to walk out of the room. I wanted to climb onto his lap and grind against him. It’s a good thing we were going into town without them tonight. I needed some space. I needed to put some distance between myself and Tay. This fling had barely started and it was already too intense.