Wet: Part 1 Read Online Free Page B

about thirty meters out there in the water?” Tracy asked. Most of the people on the island used the metric system and Rhees found it hard to adjust. The pole Tracy pointed to looked to be about a hundred feet away—a good reference, which Rhees committed to memory. “It’s attached to a block of cement under the water.” She leaned down and whispered, “Paul takes girls out there, and they do it.” She giggled.
    “Right there? But everyone can see.” Rhees couldn’t have been more shocked.
    “Not really. You can tell . . . kind of, but it’s far enough away, you can’t really hear or see anything. But knowing Paul, and the way he is, you just know . That’s why everyone calls it Frock.”
    “Frock?”
    “Effing Rock, you know . . .” Tracy giggled again and leaned in to say the word without the codename.
    Rhees felt her face growing hotter. She had the feeling Tracy wished she could give a firsthand account of her own experience on Frock with Paul. “Sometimes he just uses the bathroom.” She giggled again. “Of course he uses the bathroom, but I mean for sex.”
    “You know what, Tracy?” Rhees was beginning to feel upset. “I really don’t want to know any of this.”
    “But, you should know . . . just in case.” Tracy eyed her, sure she would change her mind. 
    Rhees put her hands over her ears and gave Tracy a bug-eyed look to assure her it wasn’t going to happen. Hearing the constant predictions of her imminent destiny with Paul, over and over again, freaked her out. She found herself looking his direction, a lot, too much.
    Every now and then, she found him watching her too. He would smile, and she would—more from an ingrained sense of courtesy and habit—smile back, but hurry to look away as she imagined him undressing her with his eyes. She’d never had a man after her—not just for that. She’d never thought much about it before, but now, the first time she’d been so personally confronted by it, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She felt sick.
    “How’s the new place?” Paul sneaked up on Rhees as she sat on the deck, going over the questions at the end of the second chapter. She’d finally been able to get him off her mind and stop sneaking peeks at him over the top of her book.
    It took her a minute to gather her senses enough to talk. “It’s so cute. It’s perfect. I figure I’ll have to skip a few meals a week to afford it, but I really like it. Thank you.”
    “Good. I didn’t think it would do to have you staying at Strawberry Hill.” Paul sat down next to her and leaned toward her so their shoulders touched. She nervously leaned away. He stared at her a second and then he looked down. He reminded her of a shy little boy—or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. All the things people had said about him were right back in her head again.
    It hadn’t taken her long to figure out why all the girls thought of him as the most beautiful man in the world. All the stolen glances she’d cast his direction had helped, but at the moment, he looked sweet and almost vulnerable , nothing like the sex hound everyone made him out to be. She found it hard to believe all the gossip. Other than his attempts to check her out too, he’d done nothing to make her believe all the other girls . . . but what did she know?
    Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The words popped into her head. Her mom always said she didn’t like gossip, but when the same thing keeps going around about someone . . .
    You shouldn’t judge people, but that doesn’t mean you should throw discernment out the window either. That’s why we have brains, Rhees. It’s better to be safe than sorry, she’d warned.
    Paul was tall, she guessed six-foot-two or -three. She had yet to see him wear more than just his swimming trunks, so it was easy to see he was in great shape, muscular, but not the football-player or body-builder kind of muscle. He didn’t have an ounce of fat on his body, so his toned muscles