One of the perks of working at the waterpark all summer was that I could usually get a pretty decent tan. For whatever reason this summer had been particularly rainy. People kept talking about hitting a new rainfall record. Today was no exception. Dark clouds were drifting in off the coast and a storm advisory was already in effect. The park wasn't going to close until the guys tracking the weather saw some lightning so I was still stuck on top of my platform for one of the tube slides. If nothing else, it gave me plenty of time to read and I hadn't had to deal with any obnoxious kids yet that morning. The young kids were usually fine, just excited to be here. The older tweens were the ones I wish I could just shove down the slide sometimes. I hadn't had anyone show up for the ride yet and it was two hours into my shift.
A squeal followed by some laughter carried across the park and I turned in my chair to see who was making the scene. Riley was still at his platform, a few rides over and at about the same height as mine. He had company. Marissa, one of the older girls back from college to help out over the summer, was with him and she was shrieking as he lifted her, acting like he'd drop her down the water slide.
Rolling my eyes, I turned back around, not wanting to see him groping her. He had been talking to Mark about her the other week, announcing that he'd score with her before summer was over. It didn't matter that she was two years older than him, she was a done deal. When I heard him make the declaration, I promptly smacked him on the back of his head and called him a few choice names reserved for that kind of assholery. Based on what I just saw, he was still set on his conquest.
Did all the guys talk like that about girls? The thought made me uneasy and a little angry because I knew they probably did. Were Joshua, Noah, and Mark together right now comparing how far they'd gotten with me? Mark wouldn't have much to say since I hadn't been alone with him since this whole thing started three days ago.
Noah and I had only made out with the promise to continue it later.
But Joshua - I swallowed and tried to keep from blushing at the thought of what we'd done. His hands all over me, my mouth on his skin. The way he looked down at me, on my knees in front of him, while he whispered wonderfully naughty words of encouragement -
Nope. Stop it.
I pushed it from my mind, forcing myself to focus back on my book. Abby and Derek's affair was just starting to heat up again after being forced apart for months due to supernatural disasters. Along the way, she had been rescued by a dark and mysterious stranger who agreed to help her get back to Derek. The sexual tension between Abby and the nameless stranger was scintillating but so was the reunion of her and Derek. I had initially started to read it to get some ideas on what I'd eventually like to try with Noah. Except I kept picturing myself doing them with Mark.
"Regan? You up there?"
I jumped at the sound of Mark's voice from below my tower.
"Oh my God! Mark, is that you?" a girl called out to him.
I stiffened in my chair at the sound, gripping the armrest so hard it creaked. She sounded like she knew him, like really knew him. Queue my throwing up over the railing in 3,2 –
"Oh, hey Rachel." To Mark's credit he didn't sound that happy to be running into her. There was still a friendly tone to his voice though.
Rachel Harpe. Tall, blonde, and built like a freaking Barbie doll. She was one of the reasons all the boys loved coming to the water park. She always lifeguarded the lazy river and wave pools which caused some serious overcrowding sometimes. And it wasn't just the horny teenage boys causing the congestion. A lot of the dads stuck at the park with their kids tended to gravitate to that area, too. It was kind of gross.
She giggled. I couldn't help it, I had to turn around and see what was going on. Perfect timing. She had just thrown her arms around him in a hug, smashing her balloon tits into him until they were pushing their way out of her swimsuit. Now I really was going to throw up. To imagine that they knew each other in the way that I was pretty sure they knew each other instantly caused my stomach to roll.
He pulled free of her grasp, not hugging her back, and stepped away to put some distance between them.
"You can't come to a waterpark in your clothes, silly." She reached out as if she was going to try and strip him, her fingers reaching for the hem of his t-shirt. "You should be showing off what I know you have under there."
He dodged her attempts to undress him. "I didn't come here to swim, Rachel."
"Oh?" That comment got her interest real fast.
"I'm here to see someone." Now his deep voice was laced with impatience.
"You're seeing me right now," she purred and flipped her hair over her shoulder.
Anger was quickly taking over my urge to puke on her head.
"Yeah, well, I didn't come here for you either." Mark was now pissed and tried to step around her. She blocked his path and he jerked away from her, trying his damndest not to touch her in any way.
"I can change your mind about that."
"Hey, Rachel!" I called down, having had quite enough of her shit. "Put all your hot air to good use and go give one of the daddies at the wave pool some mouth-to-mouth."
She flipped me off which gave Mark just enough time to get around her and start running up the steps, two at a time. I gave her a wave and blew her a kiss before turning back around. Mark was thudding his way nearer to the top and even though I saved him from Rachel, I wasn't sure if being alone with him on top of this tower was where I should be.
Mark was my friend, I shouldn't be worried. Yet he could also be very moody and harsh with his words. He intimidated me and I often wasn't sure how to act around him. Assuming he was here to officially "throw his hat in the ring" as Joshua explained it, I was having a hard time imagining he was going to be subtle or gentle about it.
Thunder rolled in the distance. Grabbing my small duffle from under my chair, I threw my book inside and yanked my park-issued hoodie off the back of my chair. With any luck, the storm would get here soon and I'd have an excuse to get out of dodge. I had just finished zipping up my bag when he made it to the top, breathing hard but smiling.
"Hey," he breathed.
"Hey," I answered.
Damn him for looking so good right now. His dark bronze skin was stark against the light blue t-shirt, his biceps tight as he adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and then crossed his arms over his impressive chest. Mark was in remarkable shape. I thought about running my hands all over him, feeling exactly how in shape he was. My teeth dug into my bottom lip.
"You know why I'm here?" He cut my thoughts short.
"Yes."
"Good. Then I won't waste my time asking since I know you agreed to what Joshua proposed. Noah knows, too." He kept going before I had a chance to respond. "But we do need to go over some things."
In two steps, he was in front of me and holding my hands. His grip was gentler than expected. He spared a glance over toward Riley's platform and swore under his breath. Reluctantly, he put some distance between us.
"Look at me."
My eyes met his. He smirked.
"Good girl."
"Mark-"
"No, don't talk. Just listen."
I snapped my mouth shut, unsure why I was so willing to let him order me around. And why I liked it so much.
"I want you. Want you at my beck and call, want you begging me to make you come, want you on your knees with my cock down your throat."
Oh, God. His words were so dirty, so explicit. I loved it. My breathing turned shallow and my legs weak at the thoughts his demands created. I suddenly wanted all those things, too. Right now.
He continued. "I'm not soft. I'm not going to be nice and romantic and shower you with pretty words. But I will show you pleasure like you've never experienced and will grow to crave."
The urge to step into his arms and beg him to start immediately was so overwhelming, that I barely cared if Riley saw us. My feet carried me towards him and he mirrored the movement. Right as we came together and he leaned down to give me a kiss I so desperately wanted, a shrill whistle came through the park speakers and I jumped back.
"What the fuck is that?" Mark snapped, annoyed by the interruption.
"The storm," I pointed towards the clouds that were closing in fast, and a flash of lightning streaked through them. "We need to get down. Can't be out here when there's lightning."
When I looked over at the slide Riley had been at, I saw him chasing Marissa down the steps as she laughed. Mark snorted as he saw them and shook his head. "I hope he's up to date on his shots."
"Ugh, gross."
"Just saying. There's a reason I always turned her down."
"You know, saying things like that and then seeing you with Rachel doesn't really help your case."
"Whatever. I'm saying I never got with her. That shouldn't bother you."
Before I had a chance to answer, the sky opened up and the rain came down with such force, I'd swear someone was throwing buckets of it at us. Marissa and Riley dashed through the rain past our tower, heading in the direction of one of the closed concessions stands.
Mark grabbed my hand and took off towards the stairs, pulling me along behind him. When we got to the bottom, he paused to take a quick look around and then tugged me with him in the opposite direction as Riley and Marissa. The water splashed up all around us off the pavement as we hurried across the walkway and through the puddles already forming. At some point during our sprint, I started laughing.
Shrieking and giggling, I allowed Mark to direct us toward one of the storage buildings behind one of the nearby slides. It was mostly used to store extra inflatables and cleaning chemicals for the water but it had a roof and we'd at least be out of the rain. Hopefully, the door was going to be unlocked because I didn't have any of the maintenance keys with me.
I saw that the door was slightly ajar. Someone may have already sought shelter in it. We barreled through the entrance, frantic and laughing and breathing hard. He kicked it shut with a loud exhale and shook out his wet hair like a dog, letting go of my hand to turn and survey our surroundings.
It was dim inside, the only light coming from a small square window on the back wall. Old water slide tubes were hanging on all the walls, some completely deflated and damaged. The wall opposite the door had a small counter and cabinets where we kept the cleaning chemicals and the stinging scent of chlorine was thick in the stuffy air of the storage building. The rain beat heavily against the metal roof and Mark wandered over to the dingy window to take a look outside.
"I think we may be here awhile."
Sighing, I walked over to the counter and swiped my hair out of my face. Most of it had come loose from my ponytail during our run. The weight of it was dragging down the back of my head, water running from it in streams. The drips were cold as they trickled down my back under my completely soaked hoodie. Dropping my duffel to the ground, I shrugged out of the hoodie and hung it on one of the drawer handles with the hope that it might dry out a little while we were stuck in here. Then I went to work on my hair tie, carefully untangling it to let my hair out of the ponytail so I could squeeze some of the water from it. I flipped the wet mess back over my shoulders and cursed quietly as it continued to keep dripping down my back.
A towel would be fantastic right about now.
When I turned intending to scout the shed for just that item, I found Mark staring at me, lips slightly parted, eyes a little wide.
"What?" I glanced down, thinking something was out of place or there was some hideous injury on me I wasn't aware of yet. There was nothing unusual going on. "What's the matter?"
He said nothing, just stepped closer.
You'd think he'd never seen me in a bathing suit before by the way he was staring at me, his green eyes traveling down my body and then up. And this bikini covered way more than the tiny red one I always wore at home around the pool. The park-issued suits, either one or two pieces for the women, were a bright but rather plain royal blue with the yellow logo above the left breast. Today I happened to have worn the two-piece which had a sports bra-like top and boy short bottoms. I considered it to be pretty conservative but it seemed to appeal to Mark in a way I didn't understand.
As he continued to gawk, I finally settled my eyes on him and bit my bottom lip at the site. His t-shirt was stuck to his skin, emphasizing the muscles in his shoulders and upper arms. His pecs were visible under the wet material and as my eyes dipped lower, every single ridge of his spectacular abs could be seen.
He grabbed his shirt and ripped it over his head, letting it fall to the ground with a wet smack. I gasped in surprise, his long legs closing the distance between us in two steps and his hands were on my waist pulling me into him before my sex-obsessed brain could register what he was doing. My palms came up and landed on his chest, his skin hot and damp beneath my hands. My fingers curled, nails digging into him a little with a sudden eagerness to touch him everywhere.
"You're excited," Mark whispered and slipped a hand between us, his thumb brushing over an incredibly sensitive nipple, the wet material of my bikini top slightly abrasive but in a fantastic way. My body arched and a whimper escaped me, which he rewarded by pinching me between his thumb and forefinger.
"Mark," I gasped, arching even more. Pain rushed through me as he pinched harder and then was quickly followed by pleasure as he released me to gently stroke my breast.
"Are you ready for this, Regan?" He whispered against my lips while backing me into the counter.
Before I could form an answer, he gripped the neck of my bathing suit top and ripped it off me. Mark's lips wrapped around my still sore nipple, teeth grazing and tugging lightly. He repeated his torture on the other nipple.
"I'm going to need you to say yes," he murmured against me. In my pleasure haze, I felt his fingers slowly begin to push down my swim bottoms.
"Yes, Mark, yes."
He grasped my ass in both his hands, lifting and placing me on the counter. My bottoms were off in seconds and he dropped to his knees in front of me. He gazed up at me with a wicked smirk as he pushed my legs apart.
"This will be the first and last time I will ever get on my knees for you."
The thunder drowned out my answer and all the cries that followed.