“Dread, let me the fuck go,” Reverie snaps, a tinge of fear sneaking into her tone. Her struggling renews tenfold, forcing me to hold on to her tighter.
“Darling, that’s precisely what I’m planning to do,” I respond just as I reach the edge of the pool on the shallow end.
“Wait!”
I grab her hips and slide her down my body, but her thrashing becomes almost uncontrollable.
“Dread, stop!”
She fists my coat in her hands tightly, and it takes a few extra moments to detach her.
“No, no?—”
I send her flying back into the shallow end of the pool. I glimpse utter terror on her face before she splashes into the water with a shrill scream. While she splashes about, I calmly shoulder off my jacket, kick off my shoes and socks, slide out my phone from my sweatpants pocket and toss it on the pile, then jump into the water after her.
She resurfaces, sputtering out water and frantically wiping her hair from her face. I can see the whites of her eyes, and the moment she sees me, she instantly turns and attempts to swim away. Her feet slip, and her clothes drag her down, making the attempt entirely pathetic.
In her thrashing, I can only grab her jacket first, but she’s a scared dog and wiggles out of it before I can get a good hold on her. Chuckling, I toss the jacket to the side and surge forward. My hand clamps on the back of her neck before I spin her back around into my chest. She thumps against me with a gasp.
Then, she lets out a frustrated screech and wedges her hands between us, pushing at my stomach with all her strength. She might as well have toothpicks for arms, because she accomplishes absolutely nothing.
“Let me out of here! Let me out, let me out.”
She’s like a fucking worm on the hook, panicking in a way I’ve never seen before.
It’s enough to cut through the dark shroud encasing my brain, and for the first time, I feel a pinch of concern.
“Calm the fuck down, Rev,” I growl, keeping my hold on her nape with one hand while circling my other arm around her waist tightly. “You’re not fucking drowning. We’re in four goddamn feet of water.”
“Let me out, Dread!” she screams, damn near bursting my eardrums. She slams a balled fist into my chest when she fails to push me away once again. Her entire body is shaking as violently as she did when she was chained to the flagpole, and terror rounds her eyes to the size of moons.
She’s acting like she's petrified of water, which is brand-new information to me.
And now, I must know why.
“Let me go!” she shouts again, but I refuse.
There might be something foreign floating around in my consciousness, but it’s not enough for me to let her go.
Her bangs are pushed back from her forehead, revealing her entire face. Droplets sluice down her ruddy cheeks and over her trembling pink lips, clinging to the gold hoops in her nostril and septum and those long brown eyelashes. Her tears mixed with the chlorinated water only enhance how beautiful she looks when she thinks she’s dying.
It’s a look I could get used to.
“I fucking hate you,” she sobs, still wiggling and pushing against me.
That little drop of concern vanishes, replaced by the need to teach her a fucking lesson.
“Give it time, baby,” I snarl in her face. “I think I can make you hate me a lot more.”
Her chest heaves too fast, and though her struggling wanes, her panic certainly doesn’t. In fact, the vibrations in her muscles only seem to increase as her frantic gaze darts around us, likely searching for an escape route.
“Breathe in, breathe out,” she mumbles to herself, her body stiff as a board.
I arch a brow, almost amused, as I watch her talk herself down. She repeats the same mantra over and over, her eyes sightlessly boring into my chest.
I’m kind enough to let her, but only because her having a panic attack would be incredibly inconvenient right now. I’ll grill her about this little phobia of hers later, when she’s not submerged in it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have fun, either.
“The only way out is under,” I say quietly, prompting her eyes to fly back to mine. They’re dilated enough to make the copper in her eyes thin.
