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“You have to beat me first.”
I took off under the water, holding my breath and racing toward the other end. There was no point in waiting for him to say go.
It didn’t take him long to break my lead and he touched the other side quickly enough to straighten up out of the water and lean against the edge on his elbows as if he’d been waiting for me for hours. When I came up on the other side, I made sure to splash him more.
Victor was in the corner, leaning against the wall. He tilted his head at us. “What’s this?”
“Racing,” Nathan said. He turned to me. “And I get all the strawberries off your smoothie when we go out next.”
Victor’s eyebrows shot up. “Betting?”
“Hell, yeah,” Gabriel said, coming up next to us. He held his arms above his head and stretched. I got a better view of his abs. His shorts slid down his hips, stopping at the curve of his butt. “What’s the winner get?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “It’s whatever you want.”
“You better watch that,” Victor warned, but he smiled and got into a racing position against the wall. “Asking for whatever we want might be more than you’re willing to give up.”
“Hey,” Nathan said, a warning tone in his voice.
This seemed to confuse Victor but he shook his head dismissively. “Are we going?”
I kicked off with my legs. The others shot off but it was Nathan that won again.
“Ha!” he said, his laugh cutting through the air. He pointed at my face. “I get shotgun next time.”
I smirked, and stuck my tongue out at him.
“Well this will suck a lot of Nathan wins every time,” Gabriel said, pouting.
“He might not,” I said, slipping him a wink. He caught it and made a devilish grin.
This time I took off again, but I didn’t swim my fastest. Instead I waited for Nathan to get close and I grabbed him around the waist, using what little power I had to push him out of his projected forward motion. He grinned at me under the water, catching me around the hips and stood up, breaking the surface.
I struggled and pushed against his arms. I laughed, breathless.
“You little cheater,” he said as Gabriel tagged the other side, winning.
“It’s not cheating if you don’t set the rules,” I said.
“I won,” Gabriel shouted at us from the other side of the pool. He pointed in my direction. “And I get your damn clip for an entire week.”
I gaped at him. “And I bothered to help you! I want it while we’re swimming.”
“After,” he said.
“And why does everyone want my stuff?” I asked, pushing against Nathan again who was still holding on to me.
They all laughed at me.
Nathan hefted me up over his head. “Get ready for it,” he said.
I held my breath as he tossed me easily across the pool. I landed with a splash, catching Victor in the face with water.
Victor raised a cool arm to his eyes to block part of it. I swam to the surface, laughing. Victor’s fire eyes smoldered and a pleasing smile played across his face.
Gabriel cannonballed into the water and popped up next to me. “Okay, I have to see you do one of those.”
I splashed at him, thinking he was joking. He came after me with a wicked grin. I scrambled to get out of the way, running against the resistance of the pool.
Victor stepped in front of me, and we collided. My hands pressed to his chest in an effort to keep myself from falling over. “Tell him I don’t have to?”
Victor laughed; his arms encircled my bare middle and nearly lifting me out of the water as he tugged me toward the wall. “No,” he said. “I want to see it, too.”
Gabriel climbed out of the water. I wriggled against Victor, who held on to me easily with a strength I wasn’t expecting. Gabriel collected me from Victor.
Gabriel carried me until we were standing at the edge of the middle of the pool where the water was the deepest. Nathan and Victor sat together at one end outside of the pool, their feet in the water.
Nathan cupped his hands together and shouted, “Make a bigger splash than Gabriel, and you get your clip back.”
I brightened at this.
“No fucking way,” Gabriel said.
“What if you win?” I asked him.
His blue eyes glowed at this. He leaned into me to whisper in my ear. “I get that clip forever.”
My heart stopped and my breath escaped. “Hmm,” I said, pretending to ponder it. “And it’s whoever does an awesome cannonball splash, right?”
He nodded, his crystal eyes still intense on me. His back was to the pool. I placed a casual hand on his chest. His eyes lit up again.
“You’re on,” I said.
And I pushed at him as hard as I could.
His face popped in surprise and he grappled for my arm. It was too slippery to hold on to and he fell back into the water in a mess.
I did a sloppy cannonball next to him, but used the move to swim to the other end of the pool under the water before Gabriel could grab on to me.
Nathan stood up on the edge of the pool, laughing. Gabriel was catching up to me. I reached out for Nathan. He snagged my hands and hauled me from the water until I was on my feet next to him.
“No fair,” Gabriel said. “She fucking cheats.”
“Yup,” Nathan said, beaming proudly as he kept a hand on my back, fingers spread over my bare skin. It warmed me and yet my insides were doing flips.
Gabriel swiped his hands at my ankles. “Get back here,” he called out to me.
I laughed, squealing and leaping out of reach. Nathan looped an arm under my knees and carried me. I threaded my arms around his neck to hang on. He started running from the pool. Gabriel flew onto the patio, giving chase.
“Hey!” A voice boomed over the sound of our laughter. “Don’t run with her like that.”
Nathan stopped cold and stiffened. He let go of my legs to let me stand but still held my waist.
We turned together to see North coming through the front gate near the side of the house. His black tank shirt and his dark blue jeans were dusty. He carried a couple of overstuffed book bags on his back.
Behind him from the gate stepped Silas, Luke and Kota, similarly dusty. As they looked at us, shyness sparked through my core. I slipped a finger to my lower lip, blushing as their eyes fell on the pink plaid mini skirt bathing suit.
“Sang baby, don’t let them do that to you,” North said. “He’s going to slip and crack your head.”
“Well look who all decided to show up,” Gabriel said behind us. He hooked his arm around my neck even as Nathan still held onto my hip. Gabriel pressed his side against mine, which in turn made me lean against Nathan. Skin on skin.
My core vibrated.
“We came to make sure you weren’t dead,” Kota said. His eyes hadn’t left my body but he smiled as he touched a forefinger to the corner of his glasses. “No one checked in but I can see why.”
My cheeks radiated again. “Sorry.”
Gabriel chopped at my head. “Shut up. You’re not sorry.”
“I’m not?”
He smirked, and tugged at my arm. “Let’s do it, Nathan.”
Nathan seized me around the stomach and Gabriel snatched up my legs. They held me so that even as I squealed and laughed and tried to break free, they hauled me up over their heads. They walked over to the pool and shifted until I was hanging above the ground. Nathan had a hold of my wrists and Gabriel had my ankles and they started swinging me like I was a hammock between them.
“One,” Nathan shouted.
I drifted precariously over the water.
“Don’t...” North bellow at them.
“Two,” Gabriel said.
There was no three. I flew, splashing into the water sprawled out on my back. I twisted under the surface and swam for the other end of the pool. I pulled my body hard against the water resistance, using an arm motion Nathan had
showed me before to get to the end. I slapped the brick with my hand. Nathan had been on my heels but he was too late.
“I win,” I said, making a face at him. It wasn’t a real race, I knew. I just wanted to say it.
“Shit,” he said, but he didn’t look at all disappointed.
The new arrivals disappeared into Nathan’s house. When they came back out, I was up in Nathan’s arms about to get flung across the pool. I only caught a glance of them all in bathing suits before I started flying. I hit the water, letting myself sink to touch bottom.
I felt the water shift. Silas came at me, wrapped his arms around my stomach and hauled me up until I was cradled in his arms.
“Hi Silas,” I said in a soft voice, oddly shy again as his big hands held me at my back, hugging me. My bare, soft stomach met with his hard muscles.
“Hi aggele mou,” he said. His black hair stuck wet to his forehead. A droplet slid down against his cheek. “Miss us?”
