“You’re looking for an excuse to get me face down on a bed, aren’t you?” she teases.
At that, he turns around, giving her a heated look. “I don’t need an excuse.”
Icouldhave warned him about the ball sailing toward his face, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny.
Grabbing Sabrina, I pull her out of the way as he goes down, the waves pushing us close to the side. Still chuckling, she capitalizes on the reprieve, letting me keep her above the surface while giving her arm a break.
“Here.” Lifting her up, I set her on the ledge before hoisting myself up beside her.
“Thanks.” Wringing out her hair, she looks over the pool with a smile. “For everything.”
“I didn’t really do anything,” I dismiss, tracking the couple of guys that follow our lead and climb out of the pool on the opposite side, heading over to grab their towels off of their chairs.
Covering my hand with hers, she gives it a squeeze. “You did, and you damn well know it, so take the win, okay?”
She pulls her hand away, but I swiftly recapture it, pinning it beneath mine this time on the concrete. “Maybe I just like hearing you admit it.”
“Admit what?”
“That you need me.”
It’s pushing her farther than I probably should, but every sign she’s been giving us today has been encouraging us to stop holding back.
Trapping me in that hypnotic stare of hers, she takes a deep breath. “Then you better cherish it, because it was a one time thing.” Smirking, she pushes me into the water.
Fighting through the cool rush, I come up sputtering, swiping the water off of my face with a scowl. She’s already got her feet up and out of my reach so I can’t drag her in, but I’m hauling myself out of the pool before she can fully get to her feet. Capturing her wrist, I tug her down, and the moment she lands on my lap, I palm the back of her neck.
And crush my lips against hers.
Stiffening for only a moment, she quickly melts against me, parting her lips as I kiss the absolute hell out of her. While part of it is from the instinctual drive to stake my claim on her, the other is simply my own desperation. I watched her take hit after hit and keep getting back up when she had no reason beyond spite to prove everyone wrong. I watched her slowly destroy herself, as she claimed me, only to fall unconscious for days and leave me with a raging beast, terrified we were going to lose her.
I wasn’t going to watch her walk away from me next.
Eventually, I pull away, breathing ragged. “Because when you say it, I don’t feel so bad admitting that I need you, too.”
Chapter 11
