Ever After Awaits (Layla) novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Layla POV

The noise of the guys on the shoreline is faint behind me, replaced by the soft lapping of water against the sides of the floating dock in the middle of the lake that I’m currently sitting on. Sunlight glitters across the lake’s surface, sparkling and warm, reflecting off the tiny ripples like scattered diamonds. My legs are dangling from the side into the cool water as I’m leaning back on my hands, my head tipped back, and my eyes closed as I breathe the moment in.

After we finished our hot dogs, I lazed around the fire pit for a while as the guys entertained themselves- and me–with games like frisbee, beach volleyball, and football. I told myself I was just relaxing, letting the food settle. But mostly? I was watching.

Watching them run and dive and shove each other like overgrown boys with too much energy and not enough shame. Watching their bodies glisten with sweat in the afternoon sun, their skins tanned and stretched over muscle, their laughter cracking through the air like fireworks. Every time one of them shouted or grinned or pulled off some ridiculous move to show off, my chest squeezed a little tighter, and my thighs pressed a little closer together.

They made me laugh until I snorted, teased each other with the kind of ease only forged through years of knowing each other (even though AJ hasn’t been in their inner circle for that long), and made it so, so hard not to stare. Not to want. Not to need.

I knew if I stuck around much longer, I’d do something reckless. Like tackle someone mid–volleyball and kiss the living daylights out of them. Or jump one–or maybe even all–of their bones before the sun even got the chance to dip closer to the horizon.

So I made a strategic retreat out to this dock. Far enough from temptation to keep my hands to myself… But not quite far enough to quiet the heat that’s pooling low in my belly. But even out here, with the breeze that’s cooling my flushed skin and the lake gently lapping around my calves, I can still feel it–that low, persistent hum under my skin that wasn’t there before last night.

Something’s changed inside me. Something deep and slow and electric.

Having sex wasn’t just a line I crossed–it was a door that was flung open. And now there’s this quiet ache in me, this want I can’t switch off. Not just for more of that same physical closeness, but for the safety of strong hands on my skin, the weight of their warm bodies around mine, and the feeling of being claimed and cared for in the same breath.

I don’t want to rush it. I’m not that girl. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t craving something to take the edge off. A kiss that lingers. A touch that teases. Anything to soothe the wild new pulse that’s coursing through my veins that only they can seem to calm.

And it’s not just Cade I’m thinking about. It’s all of them. Each one with his own rhythm, and his own way of pulling me closer to something I never realized I needed.

But right now, in this moment, it’s Cade that my attention is centered around as I watch him swim toward

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Chapter 138: Layla POV

me with a lazy breaststroke that feels more like a tease than an effort. His hair is pushed back, and droplets are clinging to his jaw and collarbones, catching the sunlight like glitter. He looks like he belongs. on the cover of a summer romance novel–ridiculous and beautiful and entirely too smug.

“Need a hand, gorgeous?” he calls out as he comes closer, grinning up at me from the water.

I squint down at him. “With what? To sit still?”

He smirks as he comes to a stop right next to my right foot. “With not being bored out of your mind as you wait for me to rescue you from your own thoughts.”

I shake my head at him amusedly, and before I can respond, he plants both his hands on the dock next to me and hoists himself up in one fluid motion, water streaming off him in rivulets. And what do I do? I watch enthralled as his swim trunks cling to his hips and upper thighs in a way that should be illegal, and the muscles in his arms flex as he swings his legs up and settles beside me.

“Show–off,” I mutter and try to find something other than his Adonis–like body to look at.

“I’d call that a graceful entrance,” he says, leaning into me with that familiar spark in his eye. “Terrible reception, though.”

“Bite me,” I huff out, but my lips are having trouble not tilting up at his playfulness.

His smile deepens, and his eyes drag over my face like a slow caress. “You say that like you don’t know exactly what it does to me, Sunshine.”

Heat flickers to life low in my belly–sharp, distracting, and entirely too tempting–at his words. It coils there, fueled by the teasing edge in his voice and by the way his gaze lingers a little too long. I swallow hard and look away, pretending to focus on the shimmer of sunlight on the water instead of the burn that’s beneath my skin.

I can’t act on it. Not now. Not yet. But by all things holy, he makes it hard.

We settle into a comfortable sprawl after that, with our legs trailing in the water, and our bodies sun- warmed and relaxed. After a few minutes of contented silence, Cade reaches into a little floating cooler tethered to the dock that I hadn’t noticed before now, and pulls out a travel–size bottle of sunscreen, twirling it between his fingers like a magician about to perform a trick for his captivated audience.

“You’re gonna turn into toast,” he says as he scoots back so he can sit behind me with his legs draped on either side of mine. “Pretty, golden, lightly sunburned toast.”

I sigh and shift slightly so we’re both more comfortable. “Fine. But don’t get weird.”

He gasps. “Layla Kincaid. I’m offended. I am the picture of restraint.”

Before I can give a retort, though, his hands land warm and confident on my upper back, rubbing in the

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Chapter 138: Layla POV

sunscreen with slow, deliberate movements. His thumbs circle just beneath my shoulder blades a few

times, then his hands slowly slide outward along my ribs.

I can feel his smile, even if I can’t see it. “Still doing okay?” he murmurs.

I hum in the back of my throat as my muscles ripple beneath his agile fingers. “Better now.”

His fingers pause for a second at my words, then press more gently into my sides as he leans in and places a soft, chaste kiss on my left shoulder.

It’s not teasing. And it’s not hurried. It’s just sweetly decadent.

And in that moment, it’s perfect. He’s perfect. We’re perfect.

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11:24 am PPPD

Ever After Awaits