What did he just say? Did he call meSuperman?
I swallowed. “Right.”
Reid took off his backpack and took out an oversized towel, big enough for at least two or three people, and spread it out along a flat surface. Then he gestured around us. “Welcome to Valentine Falls.”
“Is that really the name of it?”
“Nah. This is where my mom and dad would bring us on weekends in the summer sometimes. No one ever comes up here, so we thought it was a cool little hidden spot just for us.”
Reid peeled off his shoes and socks, and then lifted his shirt up over his head, letting it fall down on top of the backpack. His lean body was creamy perfection, not a blemish or marking anywhere, and I could still feel the way his taut abs felt beneath my fingertips. I didn’t try to hide the way I watched him undress—that had always been my favorite part. Watching him slowly reveal himself or letting me do the honors. It didn’t escape my notice that after the compliment I’d given him about his red shirt yesterday that he’d chosen to wear a pair of red swim trunks. It made me want to pay him another compliment now, but held my tongue as I toed off my shoes and socks and then stripped out of my shirt.
Reid’s eyes trailed down my body, and I stood there unmoving, letting him look at me. It was almost shy the way he looked at me, like he wasn’t sure he should but couldn’t help himself. I wondered if he remembered me this way, remembered the way my body felt to him, and if it made him want to touch me again.
He backed into the water. “You coming in?”
“I’d love to, but I wish you had told me to bring swim trunks.”
Reid stopped moving, and his forehead wrinkled. “I did. Didn’t I? Shit.” Then he visibly flushed. “You don’t really need them, I suppose…”
Smirking, I enjoyed the way he tried to avert his eyes as I reached for the button of my shorts, but I caught him peeking as I lowered the zipper and then let the material fall to my feet.
Reid shook his head, a mixture of disappointment and relief on his face when my swim shorts came into view.
“That’s not right and you know it,” he said.
“I can take them off if you’d prefer?”
“No, don’t do that.” He quickly turned away to wade deeper into the water, but not fast enough that I didn’t see the way his shorts bulged in the front.
Damn.The thought of me naked had turned him on. And that had me feeling empowered, to know that the attraction Reid had held for me seemed to be making a reappearance. It was almost enough to have me kicking the swim trunks off too, but that might be pushing it for a first date. Wait, was it a date? It sure as hell felt like one to me.
I dipped my toe into the water, and was surprised to find it wasn’t freezing cold.
“I thought the water would be unbearable,” I said, stepping into the shallow depths. “This isn’t too bad, especially in this heat.”
Reid swam out past his hips before turning around. “Now you see why we came up here.”
“Mhmm. I’m surprised you wanted to share this place with an outsider.”
“Well, you’re not exactly a stranger, are you? And I knew you’d appreciate somewhere a bit hidden. Not so run over with tourists trying to take selfies and not actually seeing the beauty here at all.”
“You’ve got me pegged, all right,” I said, wincing as the water hit the edge of my shorts. “Okay, now it’s cold.”
“It’s less painful if you dive under and get it over with.”
“I don’t see you in such a hurry to go under.”
I barely got the words out before Reid ducked below the surface and emerged a few seconds later. Water dripped off him, his skin deliciously wet and glistening, and as he ran his hand through his hair, he grinned at me. “Your turn.”
Not one to back away from a challenge, I dove underwater, swam over to where he was standing, and knocked him off his feet. He was sputtering out a laugh when I stood up, and then he slapped the surface, sending a spray toward my face. Before I could retaliate, he swam out toward the waterfall, and I trailed after him.
It was too loud to hear each other under the falls, so I closed my eyes and let the water beat down over me, washing away all the months of heartbreak and sadness, of anxiety and fear. All the things that had tortured me in my waking hours and again while I slept. The nightmare of Reid forgetting who I was, the reality that I would never be a part of his life when he woke up…I let all that suffering pour out of me. I didn’t need to be afraid anymore—my gut told me that. The minute Reid had come over to apologize and open himself up to understanding us was the minute I knew all hope wasn’t lost. And the more time we spent together, the more I could see the change in him. The way he looked at me had gone from disoriented to curiosity to interest. His body responded to mine even in the smallest ways, the briefest of touches; the electric current that had always run through us had come back stronger than before. But this time, I didn’t have any expectations. I was simply happy to just be with him. Justbe.
When I opened my eyes, Reid was watching me through the curtain of water, and my dick instantly reacted. I stepped out of the falls and pushed my hair back off my face to see his eyes dilate, and was that…hunger?
“You’re”—he slowly shook his head—“really something else. I’m not sure what the right word is.”
There was no way he couldn’t hear the way my heart faltered for a few beats, but I tried to brush off what he was trying to tell me, because otherwise, I wasn’t sure I could keep my hands away from him. “Persistent? Ginger? Bonkers?”