Down for Her by Melissa Chambers (best e books to read txt) 📗

he’s not new at dating girls. He had a slew of them on him the other night at the beach, and plenty were all over him on Sunday night at his house party, too. “What’s this?”

He lets out a slow breath and then pulls me into his arms. “Just ignore me, okay?”

I make a face. “It’s kind of hard to.” I smile at him, but I’m still pretty confused and not at all confident of what’s happening here. He pulls me toward the door. “Let’s go. I’ve got an idea for tonight.”

18

Kylie

We drive about twenty minutes to a neighboring beach town, where Brett pulls into a parking lot in front of an outdoor marketplace. Vendors and food trucks with everything from oysters to ice cream line the place, with a live band in one corner and kids running through sprinklers in another. “This is pretty cool,” I say as we walk into the fold, Brett taking my hand and smiling at me. It feels like we’ve stepped into another world.

“What do you like to eat? They’ve got pretty much everything,” he says.

“What do you get when you come here?”

He points. “I like these soft pretzels.”

“Brett, I’m getting you something better than a soft pretzel.”

“All right,” he says, and we keep walking. “But it’s what I want,” he mumbles under his breath, loud enough for me to hear.

I stop him. “Seriously? You want a soft pretzel?”

“They butter them and they’re all doughy.”

A woman behind the counter pulls a pan out of the oven and places them in paper sleeves. Brett looks at me like a puppy dog wanting a treat, and it’s too cute to resist.

“They do look pretty good,” I say, walking over to the lady, and I order two. “What do you want to drink?” I ask him.

“Sweet tea,” he says.

“Of course you do,” I say. “You’re a Southerner.”

“You don’t like sweet tea?” he asks.

I face the woman. “Can I do half and half?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the lady says and pours our drinks. She hands us everything and we eat while we walk around.

“This is amazing,” I say, holding up the pretzel.

“I told you,” he says through a mouthful, trying not to smile.

We stand and watch the band while we finish the pretzels. He takes my paper and tosses it away with his, and then he pulls me toward a dock that’s lined with boats. “Come on,” he says. “I’ll show you Robert’s boat.”

Robert’s boat is the very last one of a strip of them. Brett steps onto it and then holds out his hand for me to take. I look around like we’re being hunted by police. “Are we allowed to get on it?”

“Yeah. He’s out of town.”

“Still,” I say.

“Would it make you feel better if I texted him and asked?”

I consider him.

“Seriously, he tells me all the time I can use the boat whenever I want.”

“You’ve done this before?”

“A bunch of times.”

I look him up and down. “With girls?”

He closes his eyes, caught. “Maybe once with a girl, but usually with Tori.”

“She’s not a girl?”

“Tori and other people. Cohen and Logan have been on here with me, too. Come on. Just get on.”

I take his hand and step onto the deck of the boat. We walk around to the other side and peer out into the open water. “Wow. This is awesome,” I say.

“Mmm-hmm,” he says, gripping the railing. He pulls his keys out of his pocket and goes for the door to the cabin. “Want to go inside?”

“You have a key?”

“You really doubt me a lot, don’t you?” Brett opens the door to the cabin, and we step into a tight living space with leather built-in sofas on either side, a small kitchen area with a booth for dining across from it, and a bed on the other side of the kitchen tucked compactly into the nose of the boat.

“Wow,” I say. “This is super nice.”

“Yep.”

I point to the bed. “You and that girl you brought here that time…”

He holds up a hand. “I swear I have not had sex on this or any other boat, come to think of it.”

I roll my eyes at him and walk the perimeter of the small area. “This is really cool.”

He opens the refrigerator, which is full of drinks. “Want anything?”

I hold up my tea. “I’m okay with this, thanks,” I say, feeling like Robert is going to step onto this boat any second and fire me.

He sits on the couch and props his feet up on the table. I sit next to him, and he stretches and puts his arm on the couch behind me, holding back a grin.

“I see your game,” I say.

“I don’t have a game,” he says, trying to appear innocent and failing miserably.

I smile at him, shaking my head. “I’m not gonna be the next in your line of a hundred and fifty-seven girls.” I sound like I’m confident in this statement, but with how cute he’s looking right now and how devastatingly attracted I am to him, I hope I can follow through with that statement.

“I’m serious,” he says. “I didn’t bring you here for that. I just think it’s a cool place to come, and I know Robert’s out of town this weekend and won’t be here. It seemed like an opportunity. We can go?” he says, looking at me with a question on his face.

“We can stay, but only because I love boats, and that’s one thing my family didn’t do often growing up.”

“Did your dad hate the lake, too?” he asks.

“Yeah, he’s not really a fan of the water. What about you? Did you grow up on boats?”

“No, but Robert has taken me out on this one a few times.”

“And he gave you a key to it?”

“Yeah. He has me come check on it from time to time. He’ll have me fill the fridge with drinks, that kind of thing. I think it’s his veiled way of making me try to relax. Sometimes I’ll sit up top and just