He’d have to figure out how he could get her there.

He brought out the drinks and laid them on the table, then pulled up the chair next to her. There was a slight breeze blowing the tips of her hair across her bare shoulders. He wanted to press his lips to her skin, to start there, then explore her neck, her collarbone, and work his way down her back. He remembered from their photo shoot just how soft her skin was, and he wanted to put his hands on her again. He wanted to kiss her, get her naked, and slide inside of her.

He was getting hard, so it was probably time to stop thinking about all the things he wanted to do with her.

Or maybe it was time to step up the game, and see if she wanted to play.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

She was taking a sip of wine, so she swallowed then set the glass down. “Not at the moment. I’m enjoying the wine, the view, and being outside.”

“Okay. You let me know.”

“I’ll do that.”

That’s when the idea came to him. “Let’s go sit closer to the pool.”

“Sure.”

He picked up her glass and his beer, and she followed him to the pool’s edge. Since he had on board shorts, he kicked off his shoes, then laid their drinks down. He held her hand while she slipped out of her sandals and sat. He grabbed a spot next to her, handed her drink to her, and dipped his legs in the water.

“The water feels so good,” she said as she took another drink of wine.

“It does, doesn’t it?” It was a perfect night. Hot, a slight breeze, the kind of night that made you want to—

Then Katrina shocked the shit out of him by untying her sundress and lifting it over her head. She wore matching navy blue and white polka-dotted cotton bra and bikini underwear.

She turned to him and smiled. “You knew I wouldn’t be able to resist, didn’t you?”

“I was kind of hoping.”

She slid into the water feetfirst, letting it swallow her up. When she came up, her hair was wet. She hadn’t worn makeup, but then again, she didn’t need to. She swept her hair away from her face and looked up at him. Water glistened off the curves of her breasts, a hard gust of wind sweeping through and causing her nipples to harden against the cotton of her now-soaked bra.

He’d never seen anything sexier.

“Coming?” she asked.

He damn near had.

FOURTEEN

KATRINA HAD NO IDEA WHAT POSSESSED HER TO strip off her sundress and dive into the pool in her underwear.

Inability to resist the lure of the water, she supposed. She’d always loved to swim and had wanted a pool of her own for as long as she could remember.

An outdoor pool all to herself, not the indoor pool like she had at her apartment. And now she stood in this amazingly cool water with the sun beating down on her and no one else was around.

Except Grant, who drew his shirt off, giving her only a brief glance of his very attractive, tanned torso before he slid into the water and disappeared under it. He came up, shaking his head back and forth, and sprayed her with droplets, making her laugh.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her near naked, anyway. A lot of men had seen her near naked. She wasn’t shy about her body. At least as far as her job, anyway.

Grant reached for her, but she pushed off the side of the pool and swam to the other end, not realizing until she got there that he’d been right on her the entire time.

Since they were at the deep end, she pulled her arms up to the edge of the pool.

“You’re a fast swimmer,” she said. “Want to do some laps?”

“Not particularly, but I’ll be happy to watch you do them.”

She shook her head, smiled at him, then pushed off the side. She swam, dipping her head in the water and enjoying the movement of her body through the pool. It was so freeing, feeling weightless in the water. She could have done this for hours, but it was selfish of her to use Grant’s pool this way, so she finally came up for air.

Grant was leaning against the side of the shallow end, his elbows resting on the tile. He was watching her, his gaze so intense it was overwhelming, and also more than a little exciting.

She didn’t want to be excited. She wanted to be not in the least interested in him. The problem was, she was interested. A lot interested. She found him extremely hot and utterly charming. Two lethal combinations.

She needed to distract herself with something else. Like this great pool.

She looked around at the woods surrounding the yard. All this privacy. The peace it afforded. “If I had a pool like this—outside—I’d swim every morning.”

“It’s a little cold in the winter.”

She laughed, and swam over to him. “Okay, every morning, weather permitting. Besides, it’s heated, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I can usually swim well into late October.”

“Perfect. And with the attached hot tub, you have year-round opportunities to enjoy it.”

“This is true. Though those mad dashes from the hot tub back to the house in January can be an adventure.”

“Oh, but the amazing feeling of being surrounded by all that heat when it’s so cold outside? I once did a photo shoot in Iceland, and took a hot tub outside. It was breathtaking.”

“Yeah, and the frigid cold shrinks your balls to the size of peas.”

She laughed. “Well, I wouldn’t know about that part. But cold is good for your skin.”

“Whatever you say. I’m not a fan.”