"Eloquent as always, Max." Bronson leans closer to me and mutters, "Buck's party."
My stomach rolls with unease. Toni's voice sounds in my mind. You shouldn't be going.
Stacey pats Flick's thigh. "We're all staying somewhere else."
"Yeah, you are," Max states, his gaze shifting to me for a brief moment.
Bronson grins at me a moment before I'm in his arms and being bombed into the pool. The water hits us. My dress floats up and when I surface again, all I can hear is laughter. "Oh my gawd! Bronson."
"You love it," he says, splashing me.
I crack up laughing, my hair dripping down my face. The feelings I'd felt when I'd heard about the buck's party have mellowed, replaced by his contagious playfulness. "You and me and pools are a no-no."
He shrugs. "It's our bit."
I beam at him. "Who decided this?"
"Ah, you did that day you were the last in the pool."
The next few hours are buzzing with laughter and playful insults, but at ten p.m. I decide to retire to my room. Stripping out of my damp dress, I step into the garden-style shower and spin the faucet to cold. But even cold water in this sticky humidity is perfectly warm. After washing the chlorine from my hair, I press my hands to the tiles, dip my head under the refreshing water, and think about Max.
He'd completely ignored me tonight. Of course, the exceptions being his many passive-aggressive comments.
Finished in the shower, I step out and let the thick warm air lick me dry. When I crawl into bed and lie down, I remember how Max and I share a wall—the wall behind my head.
As the soft white sheets bunch around my naked body, I grab a pillow and stuff it between my legs. My eyes close as Imount it. Rubbing into it, I imagine Max's lips on my clit, his erection pulsing inside me as he comes. His taut muscles. His hot breath.
Beginning to moan, I feel a tingle between my thighs. I fist the sheets and pull my body up, rubbing fast against the pillow.
But it's no use. I'm not getting there.
Frustrated, I give up and rearrange the pillow and sheets. At the sudden sound of the doorknob twisting, I sit up, my cheeks smouldering.
Max walks in and tilts his head. "You're a naughty little girl."
I frown at him. "I'm a silly little girl, remember?"
He grins and that darn dimple mocks me. "Cassidy."
"No!" I pull the sheets up. "Get out. You've been nothing but a jerk to me."
He closes the door behind him and presses his back to it. "I thought you knew I was a jerk?"
"I'm not playing this game anymore," I say, my voice shaking.
"Little One, you just put on a little auditory show for me."
"No." I bunch the sheets around me. "You can’t do this to me. You humiliate me every time I see you." I did just put on a show for him and now I'm angry with himandmyself.
He frowns and takes one step forward. "How could I humiliate you? No one knows about us."
"Bronson does." I watch him intently.
He pauses. "Yeah."
"It's pretty obvious he's, like, damage control for you."
"Like, is he?"
