Ashlyn… will you resist?

The night air was warm, heavy with chlorine and jasmine, the kind of summer evening that made you forget clocks existed. Ashlyn stood at the edge of the pool, barefoot on the cool travertine, the fairy lights strung above her turning the water into a mirror of scattered gold coins.She’d worn the white dress on a whim—sleeved, tight, almost innocent from the front. From behind it told a different story.The party had thinned out an hour ago. Laughter still echoed faintly from the house, but the real voices had migrated indoors with the last of the tequila and the Bluetooth speaker. Out here it was just the soft slosh of the pool filter, crickets, and the low buzz of anticipation that had been building in her stomach since she caught him watching her across the patio forty minutes earlier.She didn’t turn when she heard the sliding door open, then close again. She didn’t need to. She knew the rhythm of his steps now—deliberate, not rushed, the same way he’d walked up behind her in the kitchen earlier and let his knuckles graze the small of her back for three full seconds before saying a word.“You’re gonna catch a cold out here,” he said, voice low, amused.“In August?” She tilted her head just enough that the ponytail slid across one shoulder. “Liar.”He stopped a step behind her. Close enough that she could feel the heat coming off him, close enough that the fairy lights painted faint orange halos along the edges of his forearms when he braced them on the railing to either side of her.“You’ve been teasing me all night,” he murmured. Not an accusation. More like he was stating a fact he’d only just accepted.Ashlyn smiled into the dark. “You’ve been looking.”“Hard not to.”She finally turned, slow, letting the dress pull tight across her hips as she did. The movement made the fabric ride up another half-inch; she didn’t fix it. His eyes dropped for a heartbeat, then came back to hers—polite, but not pretending.“You like the view?” she asked, voice softer now, almost sweet.He exhaled through his nose, the tiniest laugh. “I like that you know exactly what you’re doing.”She stepped forward—one small step—and the front of her thighs brushed his jeans.“Then do something about it,” she said.For a second neither of them moved.Then his hand found the back of her neck, thumb pressing lightly against the pulse there, and he kissed her the way someone kisses when they’ve been waiting too long to be polite about it. Deep, unhurried, like he was memorizing the shape of her mouth. Her hands slid up his chest, nails catching on cotton, then higher until her fingers threaded into his hair and tugged just enough to make him groan against her lips.When they broke apart she was breathing harder than she expected. So was he.She turned again, this time backing up until her spine met his chest. His arms came around her waist automatically, one hand splaying low on her stomach, the other sliding down the outside of her thigh until fingertips found bare skin below the hem.“Look at the stars,” she whispered, tilting her head back against his shoulder.He pressed his mouth to the side of her throat instead. “I’m looking.”“Liar,” she said again, but the word cracked into a small, pleased sound when his teeth grazed her pulse point.The pool lights flickered beneath them, turning her dress almost translucent where it stretched tight. Somewhere far off a dog barked once, then quiet. The world felt very small—just the two of them, the warm night, the slow drip of water, and the unspoken promise that neither of them was going back inside anytime soon.She reached back, found his wrist, and guided his hand lower.“Stay,” she said.He smiled against her skin.“Wasn’t planning on leaving.”