I won’t jump in too fast and knock him off, leaving him stranded up here solo. I step carefully to the edge and dip a toe in the water. “Brrr.”
“It’s not that cold.” His eyes flick over my chest then dart away. There’s the faintest hint of a blush beneath his stubble, and I realize my headlights are blazing.
I start to fold my arms over my chest, then stop. “It doesn’t mean anything,” I say, parroting my own words from the backseat of my car. “Just a basic, biological reaction.”
His eyes lock with mine and he nods. “Of course.”
But it’s not just the cold, and we both know it. It’s the proximity of Dean’s body as I brush past him and clamber into the tube. There’s a handle on the edge of it, so I grab that with one hand and the rail at the mouth of the tube with the other. I’m conscious of my breasts aimed at his face like beacons, conscious of the warmth of his thighs as he slips in beside me.
Our knees knock together and the bottom drops out of my stomach. Dean turns and looks at me. “Ready?” he asks.
I nod because odds are good my voice will come out as a squeak if I answer. “Mmhm.”
“Let’s do this.” He lets go and the tube starts to move. It’s slow at first, a gentle glide. Then we start to sway, gliding back and forth up the edges of the slide.
The lights dim, and I give a startled yelp as we hit some kind of dip. I can’t help it, I grab Dean’s arm. “We do this in the dark?”
“Guess so.”
I suck in a breath as we swoop through another turn. Gravity pushes me so I’m almost in his lap. I squirm against him, knowing I should move, but not sure how to.
We hit another bump, and water splashes up like a curtain, slicking my thighs and arms and breasts with a breath-stealing blast of mist. I clutch Dean harder, and I swear I hear him groan.
“The dark must be part of the experience,” he says as the next turn pushes him my direction. I bite my lip to keep from moaning as his shoulder sinks into my breast.
“Sorry,” he murmurs, and it comes out a little hoarse. “The lack of light, it’s probably to make it more exciting.”
Like someone envisioned all this accidental groping and the need to hide my flushed face? “Mmhm,” I manage again, but it comes out sounding a bit like a moan.
“Probably so the drop-off is a surprise,” he adds.
“The drop-off?” I barely get the words out when the floor falls out from under us.
I shriek as we plummet through blackness, Dean’s arm flexing under my fingers as he fights to hold us in the tube. I scream again, laughing this time as Dean clutches me against him and gives a shout of his own.
“Holy shit.” He’s laughing and sputtering and holding me tight as we land with a splash. Our tube swoops up one wall, then veers left and climbs the other side. We’re moving so fast I swear we’re about to do a full circle. I’m dizzy and laughing and more turned on than I have any right to be in a freakin’ waterslide.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, you?”
“Perfect.”
Perfection doesn’t begin to describe this body tangled with mine in the dark. I know this is meant to be a family-friendly attraction, but it feels decadent and dirty in the damp, dim heat.
“I think there’s another drop-off coming,” he says. “I noticed it from below.”
“Okay, I’ve got a good grip.” I know I should be holding tighter to the handles than to Gabe’s arm, but I can’t seem to let go.
He shifts his weight, probably trying to stabilize us, but I lean into him like a cat arching against the stroke of a palm. I’m horny and pathetic, but I can’t control myself.
“Here it comes.”
The floor drops again, and I fall into him shrieking. I’m making sounds somewhere between laughter and terror, conscious of every place where our bodies touch as we sail through another turn. My belly rolls as we hit the next curve. It’s like riding a roller coaster, only hot and wet and practically naked and ohmygod my hand just brushed his abs.
“Sorry,” I murmur.
“S’okay,” he croaks out. “Just don’t move any lower.”
“Right, no, of course.”
There’s a faint glow up ahead, and the sound changes just a bit. A rhythmic sputter instead of the gentle swoosh and