CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The Cute Nerd Thing
IRINA
For the next three weeks, I threw myself into my training with vigour. It got me off the yacht, a place where I couldn’t even look at the lounge without thinking about his mouth on my nipples. Plus, it gave me something else to focus on that wasn’t how much I ached for Henry.
Yeah, I couldn’t deny that I wanted his face between my legs … all the damned time. I’d woken up more than once from a dream of him savouring me the way he had, like the act of giving me head was more for his pleasure than mine. And I’d immediately had to finish myself off, because I was soaked and aching, and it only took two flicks over my clit, and I was crashing into orgasm.
How had that man only been with one woman before me? No one ate pussy like that without having someseriouspractise. I was desperate to confront him about it, to demand how he’d played me like a fiddle, how he’d taken me to heights no one else had before … but that would require acknowledging that it had happened. And we weren’t doing that.
It wasn’t just the mind-blowing sex, either. Opening up to him about my family had been surprisingly cathartic.
Then there was the way he’d cared for me in the shower, like mybody was something to be worshipped, not just sexually, but inallways. The intimacy of that moment, of his hands lathering me up, learning every curve and dip and hollow …
I reached the end of the pool and stood, gasping for air, and not because I’d just pushed myself through a full-speed lap. Because I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
I was supposed to be focusing on my speed. Not on the feeling of Henry’s palms massaging body wash into my buttocks.
“That was fast!”
I glanced to my right and swallowed back a gasp to find Levi Fox in the lane beside me. He grinned back, hair dripping.
“Oh, hello! Yes, I … I’m trying to get back to competition fitness,” I managed, a little starstruck.
“Who are you planning to compete against? A fudging dolphin?” He beckoned to the woman and baby who had been here with him last time. “Honey, did I look like a beached whale in the water next to her?”
The woman sauntered over as Levi launched himself out of the pool. She grinned, handing him a towel. The baby, in a hip carrier this time, gazed down at me with bright, inquisitive little eyes. I blew a raspberry at her and she giggled.
“I’d say more like a jellyfish,” the woman teased. Levi snorted, planting a kiss on the woman’s forehead before bending down to the baby’s eye-level.
“Is Daddy a jellyfish, Lil? A big, blobby jellyfish?” He blew air into his cheeks as he tickled her side. She squawked with laughter.
“She’s so cute!” I gushed, climbing out of the pool myself and reaching immediately for my towel at the end of my lane. I was getting used to the icy temperature of the water, but it was far too cold to have to run to the bleachers to dry off afterwards.
“Where’s your gorgeous man been lately?” the woman asked. “I haven’t seen him with you the last few times you’ve been here.”
Levi raised a cheeky eyebrow at her. “I thoughtIwas the only gorgeous man!”
She shook her head, planting a palm against his bare stomach. “For me. The only gorgeous manfor me. Now, stop trying to feed that voracious ego of yours, and let me chat with …”
“Irina,” I answered, squeezing water from my hair. “But call me Ri. Henry’s at work. We were sort of … on our honeymoon last time we saw you here, but he’s back to business now.”
“I’m Amanda,” the woman reached out a hand, and I shook it. “This is Lily, and Levi’s infamy clearly preceded him.”
Levi snorted, turning to me. “Are you training for a meet?”
I shook my head. “Not anymore. I mean, at uni I had comps all the time, but since I finished, not so much. Once upon a time I had Olympic dreams, but …”
“You’re not Australian, are you?”
“Nope. Not yet, anyway.” I tightened my jaw before I could say too much more. This conversation was skimming too close to dangerous territory.
Levi rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “You know, the Master’s Games allow competitors from all over the world to enter. The Olympics aren’t the only way to keep competing in a sport you love. And you’re sure as sh-sugar fast enough to make a splash there.”
He smirked at his pun before pulling a t-shirt on over his head. Amanda rolled her eyes fondly, handing Lily over to him and leaning into me, her face suddenly serious.
“I don’t want to frighten you, but I’ve noticed a strange man watching you the last few times we’ve seen you here.” She tilted her head subtly to the deck overlooking the main pool. Heart pounding, I glanced up, scanning the onlookers for a Cockerels cap.
