Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“Just one.” He cleared his throat. “Tank. A blue-tongued skink.”
Tank! That was his name. I remembered him. Real social and friendly. One of my favorite species of lizards.
“Excellent name for a skink.” I finished my work by wrapping gauze and a bandage around his arm, then some surgical tape. “All done.”
“Thank you.” He smiled faintly. “Feel free to restock your kit with whatever you need from my medic bag in the golf cart.”
I waved that off and put some distance between us, because I couldn’t help but feel like he was still trying to place me.
“What’re we doing with the beast?” I asked, standing up.
“We’ll drop him off at a friend’s son’s clinic,” he replied. “It’s just a couple minutes away.”
Copy that, not-gonna-call-you-Sir.
3
Lane Sawyer
I could stay here. Right here. Forever.
I closed my eyes and soaked up the sun beaming down on me. The water was amazing. The powdery sand felt soft between my fingers. And with my ears submerged, I heard a different world.
The water around Ty’s little island was shallow, so even when I was floating about twenty feet away from the boardwalk, the white bottom was right below me.
This was heaven.
I wasn’t tempted to join the others in the slightest. Last time I’d checked, they were in the water too—or most of them. Just chilling around the dock, talking kink, talking relationships, drinking beer, going through the bags of potato chips they’d brought out.
We’d been informed that none of Ty’s immediate neighbors were here yet. Very few people on this street were apparently permanent residents, and they didn’t start showing up until mid-January. They were snowbirds who went home over the holidays to be with their families before they returned down here. Most of them older. “So no need to worry about bathing suits this time of day,” Ty had added. “Around sunset, we’ll get some traffic. The wily oldsters enjoy takin’ their post-supper walk here before they go to bed.”
I’d still opted for my boardshorts. Only Reese had stripped off completely.
He wasn’t bad to look at, that was for sure.
Ty wore boxer briefs, and that was bad enough. Revealing enough…to expose the tattoo of a snake that slithered around his thigh, along with the tail of possibly a cougar or something like that.
I bet there was a story behind it.
I released a long breath.
Distance was safe. I wasn’t going to ask him for that story. I wasn’t gonna ask him anything. Corey was already mentioned often enough, and I was a little surprised Ty hadn’t made the connection yet.
Could I go the whole week without him figuring me out?
One way or another, I had to get him out of my head. Mack was his flirty self and seemed to have zeroed in on Ty, the only single Top around, and… Maybe I’d end up sleeping on the boat on my own. Macklin could have his fun. I sure as hell wouldn’t be around for any kind of play with Ty. Not that I thought he was interested. He was a little bit reserved here and there.
Other times, utterly charming, especially when he was joking with Colt and the other Tops. Ty’s smirky grin was in a league of its own. Disarming and infectious, showing a hint of something predatory and calculating. The latter due to his eyes, obviously. Because even when he flashed a carefree grin, his gaze was gathering information. Or that was the impression I got, and I hoped I was just being paranoid because of my past with his daughter.
“Lane!”
Not yet, Mack.
“Lane, you have a dog coming your way!”
Oh. I sat up in the water and squinted. Sure enough, Ty’s little Terra was swimming toward me. She was another one who loved the water. She’d jumped right in as soon as her daddy had opened the gate to the boardwalk.
“Hey, girl.” I held out my arms and welcomed her in a hug, wincing when she planted her front paws on my chest. No matter how trimmed a dog’s nails were, they hurt like a motherfucker in the water. “What’cha doin’ out here, huh? You out on an adventure?”
She huffed and licked my cheek, so I took that as confirmation.
The girl was loving life; that much was clear. And to me, that just made a pet owner ten times sexier. A happy pet meant that a human being cared.
“Lane!” That was one of the Tenley twins, presumably Reese since the other one didn’t talk much. “Come over here—we wanna talk to you.”
Yikes. My stomach clenched.
“That sounds ominous,” I muttered to Terra. “You’ll protect me, won’t you?”
She licked my cheek again and couldn’t stand still, much to the agony of my scratched-up thighs. But I’d rather take two hours of physical torture than two minutes of stomach-twisting worry. I hated the worry. It was like an extra limb that I couldn’t surgically remove. And it fucking sucked because I wasn’t what I would call a worrier or uncertain by any means. Despite that my energy ran low a little quicker than others’, I was social and outgoing. Meeting new people was fun. I wasn’t insecure or modest. And yet, as soon as someone told me something—like we have to talk or I need to ask you something—my stomach tightened with worry, and my brain started running possible scenarios of everything that could go wrong.