Click to Subscribe - By L. M. Augustine Page 0,39

really what am I going to say? There is no argument here, so I clamp it immediately shut. My heart has started up again, and my breathing comes in rapid fire. Cat looks into my eyes. My jaw tightens. “Holy shit, West. You’re scared of seeing me in my bra, aren’t you?” she exclaims like she’s just won some prize.

“No!” I say, shaking my head and blushing madly. She’s totally right, though. “It’s not…” I murmur. “No. No.”

Wow. I don’t remember being this un-smooth.

“Well,” Cat says, still smiling, “sorry to disappoint, but this is just a bathing suit.”

I blush even harder. “A bathing suit?”

“A bathing suit.”

I glance at my feet. “Oh…”

Cat sighs. “Can I take off my shirt now so we can swim or are you still too terrified to see me without it on?”

“Yeah… okay. Fine. You’re way too amused by this,” I add, forcing a smile.

She throws up her hands. “Guilty as charged.”

After a second, she turns back around. She drops her gaze to her shirt again, grabs the collar, and starts to pull it over her head. The fabric makes a slight swishing sound as it slides over her body, revealing a slice of lightly tanned stomach. I try to look away—I try, I really do—but for some reason, I can’t. My eyes won’t let me. So I watch as her shirt comes off, as it brushes against her body, slides across her shoulders and over her head, and suddenly she’s wearing nothing but a bathing-suit-bra and jeans.

I hold my breath.

Her pants come off next. (I feel dirty just saying that.) After she places her shirt by her towel on the beach chair, she turns back to the water. She doesn’t look at me as, ever so slowly, she presses her chin to her collarbone and reaches for her jean zipper. My skin crawls as the zipper slides slowly down, and I feel my face heating by the second. But I can’t look away. I don’t want to look away. I stare at her, the hot sun on my back, as she slides her jeans down her legs and off her body and places them in a neat pile next to her shirt.

Just like that, she’s wearing nothing but her swimsuit. I stare, my eyes wide, unable to look away. I swear to you, two-piece bikinis will be the death of me.

Cat smiles shyly, glancing at her feet and blushing. I’m still staring at her and not even hiding my incredulity. Cat just did that. Took off her clothes in front of me.

Holy shit.

Then, an alarming thought strikes me: why can’t I look away? Does that mean…?

I don’t let myself answer the question.

“Now you,” Cat says, glancing back up at me.

That snaps me back into reality. “Wait, what?” I say. “What do you mean?” My stomach sinks, and all of a sudden, I’m back on edge.

She rolls her eyes. “I mean, now it’s your turn to take off your shirt.”

A knot tightens in my stomach. “But—” I start to say, my mind racing to find an excuse, to think of anything to stop this.

“But? We’re swimming, West. No one wears clothes when they’re swimming.”

I raise my eyebrow at that. Wait, does she mean…

“No one wears shirts, I mean. Jeez, you perv,” she says. Then, Cat’s lips break into a smile and so do mine. Relief washes over me.

“Whatever,” I mumble. “It’s cold. I don’t want to take off my shirt…”

For an instant, nothing happens. Cat just stares at me blankly, and no matter how hard I try I can’t read her expression.

Then, without warning, she breaks into a fit of full-on, amused, in-my-face laughter. “It’s cold? Dude, you’re sweating all over. There is no way in hell you’re too cold right now.” My face flushes harder as I glance back down at my shirt. She’s right. I am sweating all over. I hadn’t even realized, and now I need a new excuse. “I think you’re just scared of my hotness,” Cat adds.

“That’s so not it. Actually, that’s probably the last possible reason. I just… I don’t want to this time, I guess.”

“Like I’m going to believe that.”

“It’s true!”

“Wimp,” she says.

“Jerk.”

“Freak.”

“Bully.”

Cat shakes her head, suppressing a smile. A few birds fly overhead, and I can hear more splashes somewhere across the lake from people playing, laughing and shouting and being normal, like I wish I could be. “What? Do you need me to take your shirt off for you?” Cat says, still way too amused.

Okay. I think my