He pulls his phone from his pocket and tosses it onto the table. “You think I won’t?”
My grin wobbles. “You’re in a T-shirt still.”
“And shorts.” He snaps the hem once, eyes locked on me. “They’ll dry.”
I swallow, heat thrumming under my ribs, but I can’t resist one more push. “Pretty sure chlorine’s bad for cotton.”
He shakes his head. “Pretty sure you’re about to find out how long I can hold you underwater.”
“Promises, promises.”
That’s the last straw. He stalks closer to the edge, eyes locked on me, every line of his body promising I’m about to pay for every single duck, unicorn, and inflatable pizza slice currently bobbing around me.
“Last chance, Parnell.”
I lean back and drape one arm dramatically behind my head. “If you want me, you’re gonna have to earn it.”
His exhale is sharp, a man at the very edge of patience. He lets his eyes roam over me one last time from the edge, a filthy smile hooking at his lips, and then Logan Miller dives clean off the edge.
The splash is thunder, a wall of water crashing into me.
“Logan!” I shriek, the sound breaking into a laugh as the flamingo jerks sideways. I scramble, squealing as his big hand shoots out of the water and closes around its ridiculous pink neck.
“Don’t you—” is all I get out before the world tilts.
Water engulfs me. Chlorine burns my nose, sunlight fractures above, and then I’m sputtering back to the surface in a chaotic tangle of limbs.
He’s right there, hair plastered to his forehead, T-shirt dragging heavy off his shoulders, grinning like he’s been waiting his whole damn life to sink me.
“You—” I push at his chest, laughing, and he just stares at me. “You’re insane!”
“Maybe,” he says, voice heavy with laughter as his hand slides to the back of my neck. “But I don’t fucking care, Parnell.” Then his mouth is on mine.
Not careful or restrained, just water sliding over our skin. His hand fists in my hair, dragging me up against him, and I melt into it, tasting chlorine and him all at once.
It’s wet and messy and perfect—my gasp swallowed by the heat of his mouth, my hands clutching at his shoulders to keep afloat.
I break away only long enough to gasp against his lips. “You—you kissed me!”
His forehead drops to mine, breath ragged. “Couldn’t stop myself if I tried.”
Something inside me detonates. That voice, those words. I crash back into him, my mouth finding his again.
When he kisses me back, it’s nothing like the playful chaos of the pool anymore. It’s reverent. Desperate. The kind of kiss that makes you forget the world used to spin without it.
He groans low in his throat, hands finding my waist. My legs wrap around his hips on instinct, water buoying me as he pins me up against the pool wall. Cold tile at my back, heat everywhere else.
Chlorine stings my eyes, my laugh tangles with a moan, and all I can do is clutch at his soaked T-shirt, dragging him closer.
We break apart only when my lungs riot.
“But—” I pant, lips swollen. “You said the first time you wanted to… not to be half-crazed.”
“Yeah, well.” He kisses down my jaw. “Turns out I can’t think of a single fucking time with you that won’t make me half-crazed.”
Then he kisses me again, pushing my spine against the cool ledge of the pool. His hips press into mine, and I gasp against his mouth.
“Logan—”
