Free Slow Burn by Heather Graham Page B

coolness of the breeze whenever a stray cloud wandered over the sun and the pines that ringed the rock pit began to bow and sway. She pretended to be oblivious to anything but her lazy sunning. Her head was down, her back exposed, and she had an arm stretched carelessly over her eyes.
    Not really.
    She was watching.
    Watching—and seething.
    Terry-Sue was having the time of her life.
    She was a cute girl with a cap of rich dark auburn hair. She was short, petite—with a chest that didn’t quit. In fact, Spencer thought, just a little bit maliciously, that Terry-Sue was just one gigantic set of boobs. It wasn’t that her bikini was any more daring than anyone else’s, but…
    It was just that she spilled out of the damned thing. All over. And she had her chest just about shoved beneath David’s nose every other second.
    A giggle, shrill, very feminine, crossed the air and seemed to rip right along Spencer’s spine. “David!” Terry-Sue called out in laughing protest. He’d lifted her up, her hands on his shoulders, and he was about to dunk her again. He was laughing good-humoredly. None of the guys looked as good as David. One day they might. One day. But David had matured first. His shoulders were broad, he was deeply tanned—he even had hair on his chest. His stomach was rippled, hard and flat. They were all very nearly adults, but physically, David Delgado was there, and his appeal was both sensual and sexual. Spencer had always liked him; she’d thought he’d always liked her. She’d even helped him a few times with English grammar, a subject that came to her naturally.
    And since they all had to take Spanish in school, she’d sweetly asked for help back. And gotten it. If anyone was going to get any closer to David, it should be her. He didn’t spend all his time with their group; he had dated other girls, she knew. She had even spent a few nights staring at the ceiling, wondering what he did with other girls—no, women. David would go after women. He was almost two years older than she was, but girls matured faster, or so she had always been told.
    Like Terry-Sue. She was definitely mature. She was so damned mature it looked like she might just topple forward with maturity at any second.
    â€œThey’re just fooling around, you know,” Spencer heard someone say. She moved her arm, startled. No one should have been able to realize that she’d been watching the horseplay in the water, but someone had. Reva. Still a little shy around them, and just a shade too darn intuitive.
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about,” Spencer said flatly. She stretched and sat up, yawning. She wasn’t about to admit to Reva that she had been watching her brother. “Hand me a Coke, will you, please, Reva?” she asked, determinded to coolly dismiss the subject.
    Reva, on her knees on the blanket, reached into the cooler for a Coke. She might be shy, but she wasn’t about to be so easily dismissed. “He really likes you, Spencer. He always has.”
    â€œSure, we’re friends. We like each other,” Spencer said. She stood up restlessly. “Never mind the Coke. I’ll just cool off in the water.”
    She could swim well, and she knew it. She could dive like an expert, as well—she should be able to, her mother had insisted on enough lessons. Now she was determined to use a little of what she knew how to do. Through training—and instinct. There was a small overhang that jutted out high over the water. A dive from there was dangerous, because there were jagged outcrops of rock surrounding very deep water. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea, since there were so many wrecks in the water.
    But it was the only place where she could get any height. She strode up to the overhang with a lazy, long-legged stride. She wasn’t stupid, and not only did she not want to die, she didn’t want to wind