Free Chance of a Lifetime (Anderson Brothers) by Marissa Clarke Page A

scrap of paper, but only managed to rip a corner off of it.
    “Lose it.”
    Crap, crap, crap. She slumped to the floor and buried her face in her hands to hide what was surely the mother of all blushes based on the hot flush crawling over her skin.
    “Lose what?”
    He could not be that dense.
    “Oh… that.” He sat down beside her, turned her hand over, and placed the list in her palm.
    “I was fifteen,” she said again as if it made a difference.
    “I’m sorry, Gen. I didn’t mean to upset you. You handed it to me.”
    “I didn’t know you could read braille.”
    He tipped her chin toward him with his fingertips and wiped away an escaped tear. “You don’t know a lot of things about me.”
    She sniffed. It was wet and gross and embarrassing. A double whammy on top of the read-aloud. He kissed her forehead, and she felt like she had when she was ten and had fallen and skinned her knee. He’d kissed her forehead then, too.
    She pushed the clock function on her phone. “Ten fifty-four,” it announced.
    “Let’s go,” he said, brushing her hair out of her face. “Time for us to sneak onto some private property and skinny-dip.”
    She sniffled again, and didn’t even try to hold back her grin. The prospect of getting naked with him certainly didn’t make her feel like a ten-year-old. Not even a little bit.

Chapter Ten
    G en giggled as Chance led her by the hand. “Have you done this before?”
    “Skinny-dip? Yes, many times. Not at this location, though,” he whispered. “We’re almost there. We just need to climb this chain-link fence, and we’re in.”
    “Where are we?” She laid her hands flat against the cold fence and hung on while it strained and rattled as he climbed over ahead of her.
    “It’s a private residential lake on Long Island,” he whispered, guiding her hands to the top of the short fence, no taller than four feet. “Can you climb this on your own?”
    “Of course I can.” As she shoved her foot in one of the wire diamonds, the gravel crunched on the drive behind them and she squeaked.
    “It’s okay. That’s just Jacob leaving to wait at the end of the street so we aren’t spotted.”
    She powered up to the top of the fence and straddled it, loving the feel of his warm hands steadying her by the waist as she swung her leg over. “I think it’s because you don’t want him to see me naked.”
    “That, too.”
    He pulled her free of the fence and held her against him until she was steady. “Pond is about fifty feet straight ahead,” he whispered in her ear, sending shocks of energy through her entire body. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
    She crept along behind him with her fingers though his belt loops, fighting back giggles. “Are you kidding? I’ve waited ten years to do this. Are you going to chicken out on me?”
    “Never!”
    “Shhhhhh.”
    He chuckled and stopped, causing her to bump into him full-body from behind with an oof.
    “What the heck?” she whispered. “It’s like the blind leading the blind here.”
    “I’m going to show you precisely how well I can see if you mash your breasts against me again.” He headed off once more with her in tow.
    “Well, then, warn me before you stop.” A rustling came from somewhere on the right. “What was that?” she whispered, moving her grip to the belt loops nearest the front of his pants to get closer to him.
    “Stopping,” he said, straightening from his tiptoe crouch.
    Still holding him tight, she buried her face in the back of his shirt. “There’s something in the bushes or weeds to our right, and I’m scared it’s going to jump out at us.”
    He cleared his throat. “Honey, there’s something in my pants, and if you don’t turn loose of where you’re holding me, it might jump out at us, too.”
    “Oh.” She giggled and released him. “Sorry. I’m kind of excited.”
    “Clearly, so am I.”
    “Are we near the water?”
    He took her hand and she noticed he was