Free One Week of Summer by Amber Rides Page A

should go home.”
    “Running away is your vice? Because I think I can persuade you to stay.”
    I took a breath. “Why does it matter if I looked around inside your bathroom?”
    He leaned back, his face serious once more. “Why are you afraid of drowning?”
    My mouth opened.  Then closed.  I couldn’t form the words that would answer that particular question.  Even if I wanted to.
    Point taken, I thought.
    But what I said was, “I always root for the bad guy.”
    His mouth tipped up. “You do?”
    I nodded. “Every time.”
    “Why?”
    I wasn’t sure I could explain it properly.  I was the victim of years of torment.  I should be rooting for the underdog.  But I never did.
    I forced a smile. “Because. There has to be a reason.”
    “For the bad guy to act the way he does?”
    “Mm hmm.”
    I stiffened as I waited for him to ask for a more complete explanation, but Teekay just grinned.
    “Do you want to see something?”
    “Like what?”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Well. Let’s just say it’s impressively huge.”
    My face reddened. “I’m already impressed enough.”
    Teekay laughed. “I’m talking about my yard.”
    “Your yard?”
    “Yep. I’m offering to take you for a walk.”
    “A walk?” I repeated, feeling like a parrot.
    “You know. One foot in front of the other,” he teased. “Why? What did you think I meant?”
    “Nothing,” I said, my face hot. “A walk sounds fine.”
    “Good.”
    Teekay laughed again, then stood up and put out his hand to pull me up.  I let him help me to my feet, and he guided me past the pool and out behind it to the treed area at the back of the yard.  His feet were bare, so I didn’t bother pointing out that that mine were too. 
    When we hit the edge of the trees, we stepped onto a glossy brick path that led through the foliage.  We followed that until we couldn’t see the house anymore, and if it hadn’t been for the walkway itself, it might’ve seemed like we were actually in the woods.
    Finally, Teekay paused.              
    “You know what I think? This could work in my favor,” he said.
    “What could?”
    He made a swift, unexpected move, and he was no longer standing beside me.  He was pressed into me, and my back was against a wide tree trunk.  He held my hands at my sides and pushed one of his legs between mine.
    “Your little vice,” he murmured. “Rooting for the bad guys. Because every single time I fuck up, you’ll be looking for an excuse on my behalf.”
    I tried to wiggle away, but he held me in place firmly.  And the more I moved, the more apparent it became that he liked it.  A lot.
    I stopped moving and he chuckled. “And you know what’s good about you looking for excuses?”
    “What?” I whispered.
    “It means I don’t have to look for them myself.” As he spoke, his fingers released my wrists and moved between me and the tree, up my back, playing across my shoulder blades, then down to my waist, and back up once again. “Which means…I can do any bad thing I want, and you’ll still be rooting for me to come out on top.”
    His hands dipped to the hem of my dress and then under it to clasp my thighs.  He gripped me tightly and he ground against me, his erection sliding across my underwear.  At the same time, his teeth sought my throat.  He didn’t kiss me – I hadn’t asked him to – but he did help himself to a little nibble.  In response, my breathing quickened and my hips came up.
    “For example, Maggie…Why do you think I took you for this walk ?”
    It was impossibly hard for me to focus on what he was saying.
    “I don’t know,” I replied.
    “It was so I could get you completely alone, completely defenseless, and do this .”
    And he drew one of my knees to his hip, then the other, and lifted me straight up off the ground.   His hands were fully under my dress now, holding my rear end possessively and he moved in a slow, circular motion against me.
    My back scraped the