Chapter Text
Luna swung around the kitchen doorway, a beach towel dangling from her hand and her hair whipping around her shoulders. With a contemplative hum, she plucked a few grapes from the spread of fruit on the counter. Voices filtered into the Lake House’s kitchen from the sliding screen door, and Luna headed that way.
Her roommates and most of SFO lounged on the deck chairs. After three days of having the Lake House to themselves, the rest of her family was due to arrive sometime this afternoon, so they were savoring the last few hours.
Luna popped a grape into her mouth and caught Donnelly’s eyes. He winked at her and asked, “Swimming?”
Though the deck was hot under her bare feet, she paused by his deck chair and held out a grape for him. He plucked it from her fingers with his mouth, and suddenly something that wasn’t supposed to be erotic was.
Luna hugged her beach towel to her chest and slowly looked him over. He’d braced one arm behind his head, biceps bulging, and a plain black baseball cap shielded his eyes from the sun. His tattoos seemed darker in the sun and a fine sheen of sweat made his bare, muscled chest gleam. He’d crossed his legs at the ankles.
She cleared her throat and shimmied her shoulders. “Yup.” She hadn’t meant for the action to be attractive, hadn’t been trying to entice him, but his eyes trailed up and down her bikini-clad figure, drinking her in like she’d just stripped before him.
A flush ascended her cheeks and she gripped her towel a bit tighter, suddenly shy.
Donnelly planted his feet on both sides of the lounge chair and stood up. Prowling was the only way she could think of to describe how he came towards her.
“What are you doing?” She giggled.
“Coming with, obviously.”
He stepped right into her space and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into him and carefully walking her backwards and down the two steps to the grass. She dropped her towel with another giggle and curled an arm around his neck, letting him lead.
“Don’t drown, kiddos!” Oscar yelled from behind them, but Luna barely heard him. Barely heard the laughs that followed, either.
She felt hyper focused on all the places his skin touched her. On how seen she felt under his gaze, his blue eyes tracing her face.
She stumbled over a root and he clutched her waist tighter. Each of his fingers felt like a brand, a little pinprick of fire.
“Wanna get wet, Hale?”
“Who says I’m not already?” she teased.
His eyes darkened to a deeper blue and he slid his hands over her hips, over the ties of her bikini, sending her pulse scattering. He playfully brushed his nose against hers. “Those are fightin’ words,” he whispered.
Luna hummed with a smile, then yelped when he gripped her thighs and hauled her over his shoulder in one fluid motion. He slapped her ass and she squealed, “Donnelly!”
She grabbed at his waist and he braced one arm across the backs of her thighs. She twisted on his shoulder and tried to grab his other arm to pull herself up, but she gave up with a laugh and asked, “What are you doing?”
The grass under his feet turned to the wood of the dock, and he maneuvered her so her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck. She was more than a little breathless at the action, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of his lips on hers.
Donnelly seemed to kiss her with everything he had, and she did her best to return it in kind. It was a slow, drugging sort of kiss that she felt throughout her entire body, and she was lost in it. So lost, she wasn’t sure what he meant when he pulled back and asked, “You ready?”
She just hummed, nodded, and leaned in for more.
She only remembered when he jumped in the lake.