When I come to the edge of the pool I stop. He cuts through the water, his arms knifing through the surface, his legs propelling him forward toward me. As if he senses my perusal, he reaches the edge of the water and surfaces. He folds his arms over the lip of the pool and shakes the water out of his hair. Droplets of water cascade over my ankles, my feet. He rakes his gaze up my legs, my hips, my chest, then tilts his head back. A smirk curls his lips. Jerk ass.
I shrug off my robe to let it pool around my feet and have the satisfaction of seeing the smile disappear from his face. His jaw drops. He opens and shuts his mouth, but nothing emerges. Good. I may be an innocent but this… This shows I haven’t lost that fire inside me. The fire that consumed me when I first met Declan. The fire that was banked by my brother and mother for the past few years but meeting D—which is a moniker that suits him well, considering the monster D he’s packing—has rekindled it. He looks me up and down, and his gaze widens further.
“The fuck, where’s your swimsuit?”
“I don’t have one. And the weather’s too nice to miss out on a swim, huh?” I shoot him a smile then dive in over his head. Being in Naples with nothing else to do, I spent a lot of time honing my swimming skills. It’s the one thing my family didn’t stop me from doing. Of course, I was only allowed to use the small pool in our backyard, and only when there were no men around. Still, it gave me time to hone my swimming enough that I execute that dive perfectly.
I swim to the surface then strike out toward the other end. Confession: I’ve never swum naked. And definitely not with the heated gaze of a man I’ve kissed following me as I reach the end of the pool then push back—and gasp. For he’s right in front of me.
Holy hell, he’s right here, and I slam into the unforgiving wall of his chest. The heat of his body slams into me. That familiar scent of dark chocolate laced with coffee, which has haunted my dreams, is laced with chlorine, but it’s just as potent. It sinks into my blood, heading straight for my core. My toes curl. I begin to go under, but the next moment, he grips my waist and pulls me up. I break the surface, draw in a breath, and oxygen floods my lungs. My head spins, but maybe that’s because of his nearness.
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