Ivy visibly relaxes, and places her hand over her heart like she just had the scare of her life. Seeing her reaction, and instinct to protect Delilah is hot as fuck. Don’t ask me why, but seeing her go into authority mode just does it for me.
I haven’t stopped my stride, so I meet my bug head on in just a few steps. I scoop her up and she wraps her cold wet arms around my neck.
“You got in trouble,” I whisper into her ear, teasing her in a sing-song voice.
“I know. I’m not supposed to run, Iby said I’ll get hurt,” she whispers back.
I nod. “She’s right. It's very dangerous. Only walking.”
She nods back in understanding, and I finally look down and examine my daughter's bathing suit thoroughly. I notice that the matching bathing suits aren’t just black, but covered in tiny, red, fire-breathing dragons. Ivy reaches us, and pops her goggles off her face, resting them on her hairline.
Red circles surround her eyes from the suction, and her lashes are clumped together from the water. I don’t think she’s ever looked more beautiful.
I give Ivy a slow, examining look from head to toe. “Nice suits, girls.”
Now that I’ve seen parts of her naked skin I never thought I would, I can't stop wondering what every inch of her looks like. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her sweet ass bent over in front of me last night.
She squirms at my perusal like I knew she would, and a sick sense of satisfaction fills me.
My eyes halt on the piercings showing through her suit. I slice my gaze to hers, then back down to the piercings, then back to her eyes again. She looks down at her chest, then back up to me, and shrugs.
She’s going to be the death of me.
The cold starts to distract me when I notice the water seeping through and soaking my shirt, but I don’t care. I missed Delilah and want to hold her for a minute longer.
“It has dragons! We're twins!” Delilah yells in my face.
“I see that. You looksocool.”
“I do,” she agrees.
“Did you have a good day with Ivy?”
“So much fun. I met new friends at the museum and had chocolate ice cream after dinner!”
“I’m so happy for you dude. You want to keep swimming?”
“Yes! Iby can we, can we?” she begs, reaching for Ivy to carry her. I give in, and let her lean over. Ivy grabs her from me and rests her on her hip naturally.
I try to ignore how natural they look together. Both with perfectly placed freckles. Both wielding matching swimwear, and goggles. Delilah on Ivy’s hip, and my daughter clinging to her.
“Yep, let’s go,” Ivy agrees, then points over her shoulder to a smaller waterslide. “I’m going to take her over there. Is that okay?”
I angle my head toward the lounge chair next to us. “Of course, I’ll sit here and watch.”
I pull the drenched T-shirt away from my abdomen, but not before noticing Ivy’s eyes lingering on my stomach. When I catch her eye, she scurries away, and sets off in the direction of the slide, and I shamelessly watch her self-proclaimed best feature sway back and forth as she marches away from me.
Sarah would like Ivy for Delilah.
The thought comes out of nowhere, and I swear I can hear Sarah’s laugh in my head again. It’s not the time or the place to have this crisis, so I sit back on the lounge chair and settle in to watch them. Delilah sits on Ivy’s lap, and they go down the slide with their arms above their heads, whooping and laughing.
They go down, over, and over, and every time Ivy hits the water's surface, I feel her burrow just a little deeper into me.
————
We left the pool when Lilah started complaining of being cold. There were no arguments from me or Ivy, considering Lilah had been swimming her little heart out for awhile. After we each returned to our suites, I took Lilah into our bathroom and gave her the quickest shower she’s ever taken. She was falling asleep as I was rinsing the chlorine out of her hair. The poor girl had the time of her life today, and it was catching up to her.
I threw some leave-in conditioner into her curls, quickly dressed her, and brushed her teeth before placing her in the king bed we’re sharing. She was snoring before her head hit the pillow. Thank god Ivy fed her before they went swimming.
