“Oh my—ow!” I stumble a few steps over something—a shoe, I think—and then laugh. “It’s dark out here!” And I’m way drunker than I thought.

“That’s the idea. No one wants to see Eric’s bare ass.” Kyle lets go of my hand and I sense him yanking his T-shirt over his head. “Come on, don’t be lame,” he taunts, the jangle of his belt and the pull of his zipper sounding. “It’s tradition.”

Taking a deep breath—what the hell! Everyone else is doing it!—I quickly strip off my clothes and follow Kyle’s lead into the lake, feeling every inch of bare skin that enters the water as we plunge farther in.

“Where is everyone?” Colin calls out from the distance.

“Over here!” Kyle answers, and I feel his voice deep within my belly as he curls an arm around my waist.

One by one, voices call out, followed by nervous giggles and squeals as people splash and dive.

“Vetter, where you at?” Kyle calls out.

There’s no response.

“Vetter?”

Still no response.

I sense the tension creeping into Kyle’s body. “Eric, come on.”

“Yeah! All good,” Eric finally answers.

Kyle’s body relaxes against mine. “Is Ash with you?”

“Oh, Freckles is here all right.” And there’s no mistaking the grin in his voice.

Ashley’s giggle follows.

“He’s grown some balls. Finally.” Kyle pulls me flush against him.

My hands skitter over his body as if unsure where to sit idle. I want to touch all of him. And maybe it’s the alcohol, but a second after I think of sliding my hand down his stomach, and farther, I do it, gripping onto him.

The responding kiss is searing. He reaches down to guide my legs around his hips, shifting so I’m sitting on his thighs, facing him. It’s a provocative position. All it would take is me shifting a few more inches forward. “We’re not doing that out here!” I warn him in a whispered kiss.

“But we’ll be doing it as soon as we’re back to my cabin.” He laughs, pulling me tighter, until I can feel him pressed against me. So close . . . an ache swells inside me, the urge to slide him into me overwhelming, even if for just a moment. Maybe we could do it out here. What would that be like? No one would know and I’m sure it wouldn’t be the first time.

I have had way too much to drink.

“Shh! Someone’s coming!” Avery hisses suddenly.

We freeze and stifle our giggles, turning to watch a beam of light bob up and down, lighting a path for a lone figure heading toward the beach.

Darian’s short blonde hair is unmistakable as she passes beneath the path light. “Is someone out there?” she calls out.

“Shit,” someone whispers.

“Shut up,” someone else warns.

Kyle cuts noiselessly through the water, moving us deeper just as the beam of light dances over the lake. Others must have done the same, because no one is outed in her search.

She shifts her flashlight to the sandy beach, and the scattered clothing.

“If she finds out we were drinking, we’ll be gone tomorrow,” Kyle whispers into my ear.

My stomach clenches with the thought. Tonight has been fun, but it’s not worth that. Why do we keep getting ourselves into these messes?

Oh, right. Because of Eric and Kyle.

“Huh. Gosh . . . I guess my camp counselors must have forgotten their clothes on the beach when they were swimming here earlier,” Darian says loudly. “I guess I’ll just bring all of it up and leave it at the pavilion, so they can come and find it tomorrow at breakfast!”

“She wouldn’t,” I whisper.

Darian bends down and begins collecting everything.

“It’s a good thing all my counselors are already asleep in their beds and getting well rested for tomorrow,” she goes on, and there’s no doubt she is fully aware that we’re all out here, watching her.

Has she figured out that we’re all naked?

My guess would be yes. “We have no clothes to get back to your cabin, Kyle,” I whisper.

“None of us do.” He sighs. “But at least it doesn’t look like she’s going to wait for us.”

True enough, the flashlight is moving back in the direction it came from. When Darian passes beneath the overhead light, we catch a glimpse of the heap of clothing in her arms. She’s left us nothing but our shoes.

Whispers and hisses erupt as we watch her disappear into the distance, heading back for her cabin.

“She’s evil!” Olivia declares with a nervous laugh. “What are we going to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Eric cuts through the water with force, not far from us, heading toward the shore. “We’re going streaking!”

I gasp. “He wouldn’t.”

“He will,” Kyle counters.

Eric’s bare feet slap against the wet sand as he exits the lake. Without a flashlight, there’s nothing to see, not until the overhead light catches him stumbling across the path, highlighting his lean body and bare white ass. Several whistles and catcalls sound, followed by laughter.

“Is he insane? If Darian catches him, he’s gone!”

“Trust me, Darian is going to hide in her cabin all night to avoid the chance of seeing a naked Eric running across the lawn.” Kyle chuckles. “He’s a nut case when he’s drunk, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I’m noticing.” I giggle, picturing him doing laps around the cabins. Someone’s going to get an eyeful.

“You’re shivering,” Kyle notes, pulling me closer to him. “Do you want to get out?”

“No!”

He begins moving us toward the beach. “Let’s get this over with.”

I take a deep breath as nervous flutters erupt in my stomach. “Are we actually doing this?” Both the boys’ and girls’ cabins are a good five-minute walk in either direction, beneath pathway lights. Five minutes, dressed and sober, that is. Drunk and naked . . . this is going to be a disaster.

“We don’t have a choice. She’s not bringing our clothes back.”

“Maybe we should wait?”

“You want to do this with Colin and Frank?”

“Good point.” I’ve been crouching for as long as possible. Now I stand. The cold air hits my bare, wet skin.

“Ready?”

“No!”

Kyle grabs my hand. “Come on!” We leave the lake and dart up the path. I hold my breath as we run beneath the impossible-to-avoid floodlight and a round of whistles and catcalls sounds out from behind us. “Oh my God!” I giggle, but I’m less bothered by the fact that five other counselors have now seen my bare ass than I expected to be. Probably because I’m drunk.

We run hand-in-hand, my free arm held across my breasts, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Getting to the boys’ cabins takes less time than I expected, my breaths ragged as we do our best to avoid all the lights, my eyes scanning the cabin doors and windows to make sure no one’s watching.

Thankfully, we make it into Kyle’s cabin without a humiliating run-in with any unsuspecting counselors.

“Holy shit.” Kyle pushes the door shut, his chest heaving with exertion. “I’m fucking cold.”