Page 63 of Lust and Honor

“This late at night? Who works out at this hour?” I ask.

He sets his gun on a round stone table in the corner. “I’m not some government desk jockey with set hours. I train whenever I get the chance.” He turns back to me and gestures to his physique. “You think I stay this hot and fit by accident?”

I want to make fun of his ego, but my eyes betray me, trailing over his muscular body, silently admiring it. His low chuckle snaps me out of it, and I frown at him again. This time he just smirks and walks past me.

“Come on. Weren’t you here to swim?”

He doesn’t wait for an answer and dives straight into the water. He surfaces smoothly and glides across the pool with ease. After completing a lap, he comes back to where I’m standing, lifts his head, and asks again, “Why aren’t you coming in?”

I shift uncomfortably on my feet. “I didn’t want to swim. I just wanted to sit by the pool.”

His brows pull together. “Don’t tell me you can’t swim.”

He’s so sharp. I bite my lip in embarrassment and look away from him as water trickles down his stupidly attractive face. From the corner of my eye, I see him slick his wet hair back, his voice turning irritated. “So what were you thinking, coming to the pool alone? What if you’d fallen in? What the hell would you have done?”

He’s right. I shrug. “I’m careful. I always sit by the shallow end.”

“Still not a good enough reason. Accidents only need to happen once. Does Aurora know how to swim?”

I shake my head. He studies me for a moment, then nods. “I’ll teach you both.”

He extends his hand from the water, inviting me forward, but I step back without a second’s hesitation, glaring at him.

“You don’t trust me enough to put your life in my hands?”

His question catches me off guard. It makes me think. After everything he’s done for me and my daughter, after all the protection, the comfort, the life he’s given us—do I still not trust him?

To my surprise, he’s right. Trusting him feels as terrifying as diving into the deep end of this pool.

“There’s a remote on the table,” he says. “Grab it. And put the baby monitor up there too so it doesn’t get wet.”

The remote is sitting right next to his gun, a loaded gun he’s not afraid to leave within my reach. Something warm stirs inside me at the trust he’s showing. I pick up the remote and turn back to find he’s moved in the pool. I walk toward him, holding it out. As he reaches for it, that look in his eyes instantly puts me on alert, but I react too late. He yanks me forward and I crash into the water.

For a moment, I see the blurred tiled floor and everything goes muffled and silent, then my head breaks the surface, and I gulp air desperately. I glare at him, furious, into those dark eyes lit with amusement.

“Are you insane? I told you I can’t swim!”

He tightens his arm around my waist, pressing me against his chest. I push the wet hair plastered to my cheek aside, furious, “Let me go!”

The corner of his mouth quirks up, and he loosens his grip. Feeling myself sink again, I panic, clawing at his shoulders and pulling myself up. When I realize he’s not trying to hold me, his hands hanging lazily at his sides, I have no choice but to wrap my legs around his waist, climbing up him like a koala bear.

And then I feel the unmistakable bulge I know all too well. I shift slightly and glare at his smug face. “You’re such a perv!”

He just flashes me a smirk. Now I understand why he chose this particular spot in the pool. The water’s deep enough for him to stand with it covering most of his shoulders, but since I’m shorter, if I let go, I’ll completely sink.

Like a baby panda clinging to its mother’s neck, I tighten my arms around him and whine, “Alright, you’ve had your fun. Please take me to the edge.”

He acts like he didn’t hear me. His voice drops lower. “Relax. I’ve got you.”

Our faces are level, our eyes locked as if glued together, and we’re both nearly naked, wrapped around each other. My heart skips every other beat, and I look away, instinctively resting my forehead on his shoulder. One of his hands rises out of the water, still holding the remote. He presses a few buttons and tosses it carelessly out of the pool.

A soft splash draws my eyes up. From the ceiling, a ring of rainfall showers down around us, lit with blue and green lights. It looks like we’re inside a curtain of rain.

I’m almost naked in the arms of a man my body and mind are constantly at war over, whether to crave him or push him away, and yet, this moment floods my veins with a peace I’ve never known.

I feel his hand stroking my arm, right over my old scar.

“What’s this scar from?” he asks softly, his thumb still brushing over my skin while he waits for an answer.