It gave Cort pause for thought. He had zero interest in forcing the guy into the water if he were genuinely afraid or didn’t know how to swim, but… “You said you were a lifeguard,” Cortremembered.
Cam raised one eyebrow. “Yes, I was. Swim team,too.”
Ah. So not fear, then, but a challenge. Cort’s pulse kicked up. “Thenget in the pool,badass.”
“I suppose you could make me.” Cam licked his lips once again, a slow and deliberate stroke Cort could feel in his dick. “You’re taller than me. Stronger,too.”
“I could,” Cort agreed. He stepped close enough for their chests to almost touch, and Cam’s eyes flared with heat. This teasing - the war of words, and wills, and barely-there touches was torture of the particular variety Cort liked, and he loved that Cam seemed to like it too. “I could pick you up right now, push you against the wall, and make you do whatever I wanted.Whatever the hell I wanted,Cam, and I could make you likeit.”
Cam’s breathing was erratic. “Then do it,” hedemanded.
Cort pursed his lips. He was tempted, fuck, he was so damn tempted. But something told him if he won the easy way, it wouldn’t really be a win at all. So he shook his head slowly. “Not right now. Tonight, I want you to choose to do it. Do it because I asked you. Do it because I want you to, and because you want to pleaseme.”
Cam closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, bringing his chest in line with Cort’s, then he opened his eyes and unzipped his pants, letting the expensive fabric pool on the concrete decking. His dick was already semi-hard and pushing at the red cotton of his underwear. Cort nearly groaned at thesight.
Cam’s eyes flew open. “So now what?” heasked.
The heat in Cam’s eyes was blinding, his jaw locked defiantly, but Cort had been trained to see beyond the obvious, and right now he could see the tension in the other man’s face, in the twitch of those lips he couldn’t wait tokiss.
Cam effortlessly conjured emotions in Cort - strange and awesome and totally unwelcome. Cort wanted to protect him and support himand—
Fuck. This wasn’t supposed to go down this way. He wasn’t supposed to admire or respect Cam Seaver. He was the enemy, wasn’t he? Or at the very least, a tool to be used to help Damon? Cam wasn’t the only one outside of his comfort zone, and Cort wondered if he could handle it as well as Cam seemedto.
“What do you want?” Cortwhispered.
Cam swallowed hard, like he was gathering courage, then leaned forward, pressing himself against Cort. “I… I want you to show me how you blow off steam. It’s why you brought me up here,right?”
Cort smiled. God, the man managed to surprise him at every turn. The feeling of Cam’s hot skin against his own was mind-blowing, and his body was absolutely primed to take Cam right here and now. But for some reason, his mind balked at the idea of Cam becoming just another in a line of hard, fast, nearly-anonymous fucks. He wanted to prove something to Cam, and maybe to himself, and to do it, he needed to regain just a little of hiscontrol.
So, even though his body was screaming for him to bend his head just slightly, to cup his hand around Cam’s hard jaw, he didn’t. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Cam’s waist and lifted him, ignoring the man’s shocked gasp, then carried him the few steps to the edge of thepool.
“Remember you asked for it, badass,” he told Cam, and then he jumped, sending them both crashing into the warm, clearwater.
Cort kept his hands wrapped around Cam until they hit bottom, then released him as they both bobbed to the surface a few feet apart and sucked inair.
“You. Asshole!” Cam sputtered, pissed off and gorgeous. Water droplets clung to his cheeks and spiked his hair, making him look like a startled kitten. Cort laughed harder than he had inmonths.
A large splash of water caught him full in the face, choking him. “Oh, badass is taking his revenge!” he gasped, still laughing as another burst of water hit him. “Better watchout.”
Cort coiled his muscles and lunged at Cam, ducking them both under. Cam came up coughing and spewing curses, and Cort braced himself for a frontal attack. But a second later, Cam had dived back under, catching Cort by the ankles and dragging himdown.
The sneakybastard.
They played like that for God-only-knew how long, neither of them willing to yield. They were more alike than Cort hadanticipated.
When they’d both swum apart for a second to catch their breath, Cort remembered why he’d brought Cam up here in the first place. “You wanna see something cool?” heasked.
Cam raised one eyebrow. “Is this the part where you pull off yourunderwear?”
Cort laughed again - God, when was the last time he’d laughed so much? “Dude, when I pull them off, you’ll be saying something a lot better thancool.”
Camsnorted.
“It’s another piece of random trivia for you to add to your stash. Watch,” Cort said. Then he dived under the water andscreamed,sending all the air in his lungs rushing to the surface in a cloud ofbubbles.
When he resurfaced, Cam was watching him with a pitying expression. “You blew bubbles?Wow.”
Cort grinned. “Come down with me thistime.”
