Definitely bad form. Very selfish of me, but that didn’t make it any less of a thrill.
Once they disappeared down the path, Leo and I turned to each other. He was wearing a pair of mesh basketball shorts and a tank top that allowed me to study the lean muscles of his biceps. He hadn’t been styling his hair the same as he did back home, and the wind tousled the loose strands as he smiled.
Damn. I really, really liked him.
And that lust wasn’t going away, either.
“Want to swim?” Leo asked.
“Definitely.”
I was already in my swimming suit, a little red pair of trunks, so I tossed my sunglasses aside and stripped off my shirt. Leo walked straight for the water and splashed in with his basketball shorts on.
After a few steps in, I stopped. The chilly water lapped my legs as I adjusted and watched Leo dunk his head under. Across the river, little blue flowers grew on the shore, and moss darkened the rocks.
He stood up and shook his head, shaking off water droplets. The river came to his waist, and the sun hit his chest and his face.
“You aren’t coming in?”
I took another step, then one more. “It’s cold,” I laughed. “I’m slow.”
Leo started back toward the shore, dragging his legs through the water to get to me. “Need some help?”
“No!” I laughed as some little fish swam by my feet. “I’m coming.”
I took a few steps forward quickly, then jumped into a horizontal dive. Plunged under the water, I kicked my feet and swam in a circle as the smack of cold melted into a refreshing buzz.
I popped back up and threw my wet hair back. “Happy?” I laughed, water dripping down my face.
Leo gave me a glance up and down. “Very happy.”
I splashed him, then fell back and practiced my backstroke for a minute. When I finished, Leo was still looking at me, so I happily held my pose under the sun, appreciating his gaze.
“Did you tell Cass what happened between us?” I asked. Leo got an alarmed look on his face, and I spoke quickly to reassure him. “I’m not mad. I understand if you did.”
He furrowed his brow. “Not everything,” he answered. “But I did tell him some of it. He’ll keep a secret. I know I can trust him.”
I nodded. I trusted Leo’s assessment quite a bit. He might have worked for some pretty obnoxious privileged types, but he wasn’t like them, and part of his talent was seeing people clearly for who they were.
“Is that okay?” Leo asked as he stepped closer, the water rippling around him.
I nodded. “It’s okay.” The only person I was really worried about keeping a secret was Leo, but he’d pulled it off so far. “Anyway, we’re innocent here on out, right?”
Leo splashed me. “Just some innocent swimming.”
He dived back under the water, and I laughed as he circled me, his legs kicking the surface. It felt great to see him truly relaxing. He was playful and fun in a way that I really needed, and the fact that I seemed to draw that out of him made me feel like he needed me, too.
Leo swam toward me, and I jumped to the side and dived in. I swam out, then pushed off from the rocky bottom and into the air. I surfaced and caught my breath, and a second later, Leo popped up behind me and splashed me again.
“Hey!” I dived around him and grabbed him from behind. I threw my arms over his shoulders and laughed as he ran through the water, pulling me along.
“Just because you’re stronger than me doesn’t mean you can get away!” I hollered.
Leo jumped backward suddenly, launching us both into the water. We spun together, and I kicked away. My cheeks hurt from laughing so much, and when I came back up for air, Leo was standing in front of me.
We both gulped in our breath and recovered under the hot sun as we stepped toward the shore. The sound of the river and the wind through the trees surrounded us, and a fresh summer scent lingered in the air.
“Just an innocent swim, huh?” I asked, tilting my eyes up.
