I rolled my eyes, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll go over great. The two new UWF guys getting kicked out of a luxury beachfront resort for crashing their pool in the middle of the night. Great way to start our main roster tenure.”
Cal’s eyes narrowed playfully. “There’s nobody at the desk. The pool is at the very edge of the resort, blocked by hedges. And,” he lowered his voice, leaning in, “I did a perimeter check. There aren’t even security cameras pointing to it. The gate is unlocked.”
I raised an eyebrow, the rule follower in me flaring up. “That’s insanely unsafe.”
“Jesus, Si, get the fuck out of the bed, you boring ass,” Cal said, reaching out and ripping the duvet off my legs.
I pretended to be annoyed, huffing as I stood up, but the truth was, my heart was already racing. Not from annoyance, but from the energy radiating off him. He was buzzing, electric, and it was contagious.
Cal sat on the edge of his bed, tapping his phone against his knee as he waited. I watched him for a split second. Was that why he was walking around? Was he meeting someone? I glanced at his phone screen, dark now, but the image of that little blue Orbit flame flashed in my mind.
Stop it,I told myself.
I turned my back to him and rummaged through my suitcase for a pair of black compression shorts. God, this felt like such a bad idea. Why was I even agreeing to this?
I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my sweatpants and shoved them down, kicking them off before stepping into the shorts. Changing in front of other guys was nothing new; locker rooms were our office. We spent half our lives naked or half naked around each other. So why did my skin suddenly feel prickly? Why did the air in the room feel charged?
I stood there in my boxer briefs for a second longer than necessary, hyperaware of the silence behind me. I knew Cal wasn’t paying attention. He was probably checking Instagram or Orbit. But the hair on the back of my neck stood up, a phantom sensation of eyes tracing the line of my spine.
I pulled the shorts up quickly, flushing at my own stupidity. I turned around with my head down, grabbing a hotel towel.
Cal hopped up the second I turned. He tossed his phone onto the unmade bed, leaving it behind, and grabbed a room key. His smile was still lingering, soft and dangerous.
“Let’s go.”
We moved through the hotel corridors like ghosts, avoiding the night staff, slipping out a side exit that smelled of salt air and humidity. The night was cool, but the humidity of Florida clung to us instantly.
The pool was exactly where he said it was, tucked away behind a wall of hedges and palm trees, invisible from the main hotel tower.
“You sure there’s no cameras?” I asked nervously, scanning the shadows. The only light came from the pool itself, a glowing, turquoise jewel in the dark. Thesteam was rising off the surface in thick, ghostly ribbons, twisting into the night air.
“I grew up in the ghetto of North Philly,” Cal said with a smirk, kicking off his slides. “I know how to spot a lens. We’re clear.”
I winced. “You make it sound like you were a cat burglar.”
He let out a small, breathless laugh as he pulled his hoodie over his head. “Don’t worry about it.”
He was shirtless now, the moonlight catching the hard planes of his chest, the ink on his ribs looking like shadows brought to life. I opened my mouth to say something, maybe to tell him to wait, but before I could speak, Cal’s hand was on my back.
Warm. Firm.
He shoved me.
I hit the water with a loud crash, the shock of the entry instantly replaced by the enveloping warmth of the water. It was hot, bathwater hot. I sank to the bottom, the world turning into a muffled blur of blue light and bubbles, before pushing off the tiles. I broke the surface, gasping, shaking the water from my hair.
Cal surfaced a second later right next to me, water streaming down his face, his lashes clumped together, his hair slicked back. We were much closer than I realized. The water was deep enough to tread, but shallow enough that if I stretched my toes, I could just barely brush the bottom.
“What if I couldn’t swim!” I scolded, wiping my eyes, though a laugh bubbled up in my throat.
Cal’s smile was infectious, his teeth white against the darkness.
“You told me you could, smart ass.” He reached out, splashing water at my chest.
And then, the splashing stopped. The laughter died down, settling into the heavy silence of the night. The only sound was the gentle lap of water against the tiles and our own breathing.
Cal was looking at me.
Reallylooking at me.
