The Ex Factor - Erin McCarthy Page 0,15

she appreciated the dunking.

Though he should know paybacks were a bitch.

Chance watched Jolene burst through the surface of the water and waited for her to rip him a new asshole. Which he most likely deserved. He probably shouldn’t have tossed her into the water. But hell, she’d tried to throw him in without warning and would have, if she’d had more arm strength and better footing.

Mostly though he’d done it because she had been looking up at him with such guileless longing, her breast on full display in a bra that had no business claiming to contain anything, that he’d needed one of them to cool down. Maybe she wasn’t intending to give off a fuck-me-now-please vibe but that’s how he was reading that wide-eyed breathless expression that had been on her face. It did a number on him and his junk.

But then because fair was fair, and he genuinely didn’t want to spend days on end fighting with her, he stood up and dived into the pond next to her. She shrieked as his entrance splashed her all over again. The water was colder than he was expecting but the shock was good for his system. It smacked the stupid right out of him. Along with his erection. When he broke the surface, he shook his head to get rid of the excess water and wiped his eyes.

“Refreshing. I needed that.”

Jolene had slicked her hair back and was treading water a foot away from him. That sundress was stuck to her bra like a second skin. “You’re an idiot,” she said, but she sounded more amused than angry.

That too was refreshing. He grinned at her. “The devil made me do it.”

“You can’t blame the devil for everything.”

“I suppose not.” Chance bobbed up and down in the pond before flipping on to his back to float. The canopy of trees overhead was so green and verdant it hid the strength of the sun, except for a few rays that filtered through here and there. It was one of his favorite things about Tennessee. The greenest green he’d ever done seen. Like being smothered in leaves.

Jolene must have been thinking the same thing because she said in a soft voice, “We couldn’t see the forest for the trees. And everything was lost between him and me.”

And just like that, he heard the melody. “I like it.” Raising himself upright, he swam to the bank without hesitation. He needed his guitar. As he pulled himself out of the pond, water dripped everywhere, his jeans felt heavy and uncomfortable from the soaking. The clearing where they’d been sitting was open to the sun, the grass baking in the light, so he decided to take his pants off to let them dry. He didn’t want to be distracted by denim sticking to his skin.

It took some effort to get the jeans off. There was tugging and swearing but he finally had them down and kicked off. He spread them out in the sun and sat on the grass and reached for his guitar. He glanced out to the pond at Jolene, intending to ask her if she had any other lyrics in mind. But that question froze on his lips when he saw her walking out of the water.

Lord help him, she was one sexy ass woman. Her dress was stuck to her everywhere. It was also transparent. He could see her red bra and her red panties. Her narrow waist, her strong thighs. Her hair was in damp ringlets and water trailed in drops down between her breasts. It was like every fantasy he’d had as a teen boy come to life. Growing up around music because of his father and grandfather, he had seen all manner of women in fringe and cowboy boots, with big hair and big breasts and even bigger attitudes. They were the stars of his dirty dreams. But he’d never expected to be with a woman like that. He was just a songwriter, and he had known as an adult that he wasn’t cut out for the spotlight. The cameras, the expectations, made him crazy.

But then he’d met Jolene. And all common sense had flown out the window. He had spent three months fighting his attraction while they had written together, but in the end he’d convinced himself he could deal with all the bullshit of dating her, because she was the most beautiful and complete woman he’d ever met. Actually, that was a lie. He hadn’t thought