Naked Truth [On -going ]

Naked Truth - Chapter IV

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"Is that invitation still good?" he asks.

I turn around and there he is, standing only a few feet away, by the fence, turning my skin to absolute gooseflesh.

"Hi" he says.

I have no idea how to answer him or what to say. I just stare at him, my mouth hanging open like I'm the biggest dork ever. I realize I'm doing this and that only makes it worse, makes my mouth flutter, like I want to say something.

Miraculously, the word "hi" manages to squeak it's way out.

Jace shifts his weight from side to side in a nervous sort of dance.

"Are your parents home?"

I shake my head and look away as he peels off his T-shirt.

"Do you expect them 'em soon? I mean, I don't want them to get mad that I'm in your pool or anything."

"They won't be back for a while." I blurt, feeling my heart load up with panic.

I take a deep breath to calm myself down, trying to piece together waht's really going on here. I mean, there's a good chance that Aria won't even care. Maybe she won't even find out. And even if she does, I can just say Jace looked like he was gonna pass out from the heat. I guess he sort of does.

"Cool." he twiddles with the strap of his belt for several moments. "I probably shouldn't get these shorts wet." his hand's on the zipper of his long khaki shorts.

I grab the raft for security and begin paddling in a circle. But before I know it, I'm facing him again.

A pair of plaid boxers, the cotton kind, I think.

A bare chest with that woven stripe of hair right below the navel.

"Just what the doctor ordered." he says, making his way in.

I let out a dorky giggle and begin making waves with the raft.

Jace pushes his feet off the wall of the pool. The blades of his shoulders slice through the skin of the water as he swims across.

"This feels incredible." he says.

He takes a gulp of water and squirts out between his teeth. It hits my cheek and I laugh, a bit too hard, making a weird hiccup noise. I consider squirting him back, but that would definitely wash my lipstick off completely.

He disappears under the water and swims around me like a shark. The tiny bits of dirt at the bottom make a spiraling funnel around my ankles. He grabs my calf and yanks me under with him. I feel myself laughing beneath the surface, my mouth and nostrils filling up with water. And then our legs touch and I feel those tiny, prickly hairs that I have studied so intently rub against the skin of my knee and up my thigh and . . . I freak.

I break the surface of the water and try to catch my breath. I wonder if the touching was a mistake.

Jace comes up and looks at me, and now I'm the one being studied. I grab the raft, squishy from loss of air.

"Scarlett?" he places his hands on the raft, a thumb-length from mine. It suddenly dawns on me that this is the first time he's said my name. And it sounds so different coming from him, sort of sweet and exotic at the same time.