Chapter 2 THE MEETING

ADRIANNA

CHAPTER TWO

THE MEETING

Landon parked his Jeep next to a giant truck, which I vaguely recalled belonging to the eldest Dune sibling, Jensen.

Landon waved us off when we tried to help. "Go on and check out the lake. I've got this."

"Thanks, Landon," I said.

Heidi kissed his cheek, grabbed my hand, and dashed down the hill to the dock below. Ransom Canyon was a town of only about a thousand people, but the lake filled up all summer. And it was busiest on Fourth of July and Memorial Day. As in...today. Boats were everywhere with parties happening all up and down the lake. Maybe it wouldn't be such a loss after all.

We skipped to a stop when we got to the end of the dock, and Heidi laughed before peeling her shorts off.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Taking a swim. Come with me, lover."

"Uh, no. I do not have a swimsuit on."

"That's no fun." She handed me her floppy hat, tied up her blonde hair, and then cannonballed into the water, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

I laughed as she splashed water up on me and took a step back. "You're crazy!"

"Oh my God, get in! The water is amazing!"

"No chance in hell. I have to change first."

Heidi pouted as she treaded water. "You're missing out. Emery would do it."

"Don't care. You can't goad me into this."

"Aw, I just want you to have some fun. Since you finally ditched Mr. Boring."

"He was not boring."

Heidi rolled her eyes and ducked underwater. "He was so boring," she said when she came up for air. "My girl is fire and passion and tattoos and top-shelf whiskey."

"You must be thinking of someone else," I teased.

"Come on. Show me those tattoos!"

"Later! When I have a freaking swimsuit on. Unless you are just dying to see my thong."

Heidi raised an eyebrow. "I bet everyone here would die to see your thong."

"You're incorrigible."

"Would you rather talk about Trevor?"

I shook my head. "Let's go back to my thong."

"Did someone say thong?" a voice called from behind me on the deck.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and then exhaled slowly. Exactly what I didn't want to deal with. I turned and came face-to-face with Jackson fucking Wright.

He looked...fucking gorgeous. His almost-black hair was sharp on the sides but longer in the front. He had haunted dark eyes and a smile like a razor blade. His cheekbones were hollow and jawline chiseled out of marble. And he was fucking shirtless.

His swim trunks rode low on his hips, revealing the carefully maintained six-pack and the sexy V. I didn't know how he managed it with the amount of alcohol in his system, but he was cut as fuck. Bulging biceps and ripped pecs with a half-sleeve bleeding into his chest. Ink that I had touched every inch of.

I shook myself out of my reverie. Fuck.

"Shocking that you showed up right when we were talking about my underwear," I muttered.

"Good to see you, too, babe," Jackson said with a grin.

"Wish I could say the same."

Patrick trailed behind him with a dopey smile on his face, carrying a six-pack of beer. They both looked loaded. But Jackson always held his alcohol better than everyone else. Probably because his tolerance was through the roof, considering he drank all the time.

"What's up, Adrianna?" Patrick said.

"Y'all coming in?" Heidi called from the water.

"Hell yes!" Patrick dropped the beer at the edge of the dock, then ran and jumped into the water, next to Heidi.

She giggled and splashed him back when he surfaced.

"Jackson, man, we need something to float our beer!"

"Oh, you're drunk already and still drinking," I snarled. "How shocking!"

Austin set his dark eyes on me, and he smiled wickedly. "Heard you broke up with that tool you were seeing."

"Not that it's any of your fucking business."

"Just trying to figure out why you're still acting like this."

"Like what?" I demanded even though I knew it was a bad idea.

"Like you've got a stick up your ass."

I narrowed my eyes and clenched my hands into fists.

"And not even the way that you like it either, babe."

He winked, and I flushed scarlet.

"Why are you such a dick?"

He held his arms wide. "Just your average Prince Charming."

I snorted. "There's nothing about you that's charming."

"Nothing about me that's average either."

Then, he looked at me in a way that made my shorts and thong melt off. That seductive, eye-fucking, take-me-right-now, all-consuming look of desire that had set me on fire and pushed me into his bed the first time. The same smile that said he was bad, bad news, and I was happy to be on the front page.

"Fuck off, Jackson." I turned to leave, smoke pouring out of my ears.

But Jackson latched on to my wrist as I tried to break away. "Come with me."

"What part of fuck off did you not understand?"

"Swimming."

"What?" I asked, realizing a half-second too late what was about to happen.

He tugged me toward the edge of the dock. I stumbled into him, completely losing my footing. Then, vertigo hit. I felt weightless, suspended in midair for a split second, with Jackson's chest pressed against mine. His smile was magnetic. His lips so fucking inviting. He looked...younger, happier, freer than I'd ever seen him.

Then, we crashed into the water. I came up soaking wet in my fucking street clothes, sputtering for breath. Jackson popped to the surface right after me. His hands slid down my sides and twirled me back around to face him. He yanked me tight against his body, and all cognitive thought fled my mind as I felt the press of every inch of him against me.

My body went into hyperdrive, as I imagined all the ways he could touch and lick and caress and pleasure my body. All the ways that mouth could make me come. All the ways his dick could lay claim to my body. And I didn't pull away.

I leaned in, letting my body take over for once and entirely ignoring my mind. His lips were so close.

So inviting.

So easy to forget.

"Fuck, I love getting you wet, Anna," he breathed seductively.

And then reality crashed back into place.