“Deal.” I can’t help but smile at her familiar stubbornness.
As we finish our breakfast, I tell her about what to expect tonight, and I find myself relaxing in a way I rarely do around anyone else. After we clean up, I show her where the pool towels are kept and head to my room to change into swim trunks.
When I make it back downstairs and outside, she’s already stretched out on one of the lounge chairs partially submerged on the pool’s sun shelf. She’s wearing a blue bikini that showcases every perfect curve, and it makes my mouth go dry.
“I can literally feel you staring,” she says, eyes closed, a small smirk playing on her lips.
“Yeah, well…” I adjust my dick. “...can’t help it,” I finish, walking across the smooth concrete to stand above her. “You look stunning.”
The sun dances across her skin, highlighting her dips and curves. When she opens one eye to peek up at me, a playful smile on her face, I feel like I’m seventeen again, tongue-tied around the girl I’ve never forgotten. The girl I’ve always wanted more than life itself.
The girl I left behind to chase my dreams.
“The pool is incredible,” she says, sitting up and stretching her arms above her head. The movement makes her breasts strain against the thin fabric of her bikini top, and I have to look away before I embarrass myself. “It’s not very cold. Is it heated?”
“Of course.” I walk to the edge and dip my toe in the water. “Perfect temperature year-round. Saltwater, too.”
Without warning, I dive in, letting the cool water wash over me. When I surface, pushing my hair back from my face, Lizzy is standing next to the lounge chair, watching me, eyes dancing.
“Coming in?” I call, floating onto my back.
She considers me for a moment, twisting her hair before tossing it back. “Does it feel as good as it looks?”
“Only one way to find out.”
Instead of easing in gradually like I expect, she takes a running leap and cannonballs into the pool right next to me, sending water splashing in all directions. I sputter out a laugh as she surfaces, slicking her hair back from her face with a triumphant grin.
forty-three
“Show off,”Rowan teases as he shifts to face me, crouched low beneath the surface. I know this because I’m also squatting, my feet touching the bottom.
“You know you love it,” I fire back with a flirty grin.
Rising to my feet, I raise my arms and push my hair away from my face, twisting it before letting fall against my back. The move makes my breasts rise and jiggle, instantly shifting Rowan’s gaze from my face to my chest.
My breath catches, a wave of intense heat flashing over me when I see his expression turn from playful to predatory in less than half a second.
If I wasn’t standing in a pool full of cool water, I’d probably spontaneously combust.
Shit. Is it just me, or did the water level just rise because of the wetness pooling between my legs?
The air crackles, pinging like a live wire in what little is left in the space between us. Sucking in a breath, I release it slowly as he moves in close.
“What are you doing, Sunshine?”
“Um—nothing?” I answer, trying my best at nonchalant by swiping at a rogue drop of water sliding down my cheek.
Please. Like he didn’t literally just watch you thrust your tits in his direction.
“Sure ‘bout that? That blush on your neck says otherwise.”
Uh oh. Never have been much good at nonchalant.
The grin he gifts me is smug as fuck as he rises to his feet. Water sluices down his chest, over the tribal sun tattoo, and down his washboard abs before disappearing back into the depths of the saltwater pool.
Wanting to take the heat off me, I give him a once-over. “You gonna tell me the story behind that?”
Rowan glances down at his tattoo. When he looks at me, his eyes have softened a little.
