Silva and the Stars

5 | let it go

"This was not what I had in mind by 'swim'."

Rachel only grins across at me, hiking the tyre over her shoulder. "How come?"

"Well, for starters, I didn't think we'd be lugging these tyres around," I tell her as I follow her up the slope. My gaze lands on her very delectable ass. She's wearing little red bikini bottoms that look insanely hot on her brown skin.

The string on the bikini she's wearing is playing mind games with me, at any minute I think the haphazard bow is going to undo itself, and that her breasts will spill free.

Or maybe that's my wishful imagination.

I clench my jaw and look to the right. There's a freaking waterfall there. I hope that we're not jumping off that. I thought I had seen the last of rushing water after I did the white-water rafting, I should have known that Rachel would keep me on my toes.

"I can't believe this is your idea of stress-relieving," I tell her as my bare feet sink into the dirt. I look down to avoid tripping on any gnarly roots. "This is my idea of stress-inducing."

Rachel looks at me over her shoulder, throwing another uncharacteristically carefree grin in my direction. "Well, thank you for doing this with me."

That shuts me up.

She's fricking beautiful. The most stunning human I've ever seen. Her sun-kissed skin, her thick black hair falling in a messy cascade down her shoulder, and her pert, toned, lithe body almost completely on display for my gaze to devour.

Something tightens in my gut, and my abdomen clenches involuntarily. She doesn't know what she does to me.

To any person placed in front of her right now. To bear witness to her unbridled joy.

"It's no big deal," I reply gruffly.

"Good," Rachel replies, setting down her tyre. "Because we're here."

Here turns out to be the edge of the cliff-face, there are trees surrounding us, and a long, startling drop to the water below. Further down the stream, the waterfall is gushing geysers of water. The water is moving quickly here but not as quickly as downstream.

"Are we going to use the tyres to build a car?" I ask hopefully.

Rachel laughs. "Nah, we're going to use them to drift downstream."

I eye the water dubiously; I feel like we also have different definitions of 'drift', given the white foaming water further downstream. But I don't want to say anything and rain on her parade more than I already have.

"Why don't you go first?" she says. "That way, I can help if you get stuck on anything."

"Hmm," I reply, my eyes are still judging how long the drop is. She doesn't seriously want us to jump off the side of this cliff, does she?

"Jon." Rachel is in front of me. And my attention immediately zeroes in on her; her lips look so soft, her hazel eyes guileless, framed by thick lashes that make the kindness in her gaze evident.

She touches my forearm and I swear my knees buckle the slightest bit. I try not to lower my gaze to her full breasts, in my peripheral I can see her nipples poking through the thin red fabric.

Is she turned on or cold? I wonder.

Most definitely cold, I decide. There's no way she can be turned on by how chicken shit I am being now.

"You don't have to do this," she tells me. Gone is the hint of challenge that she usually wrestles me with.

But she doesn't realise that right now, I'd do anything to impress her.