“When we could be doing other things?” Dom finished for him. He nodded, and Dom leant in close to whisper, “Plenty of time for that later.”
With a put-upon sigh, Henry slung his rucksack over his shoulder. “Come on, then, let’s get this over with.”
He started to walk down the path towards the entrance, but Dom reached for his arm, suddenly not so sure he’d made the right choice. Swimming wasn’t everyone’s idea of fun. “We don’t have to go swimming if you don’t want to. I know it’s not—”
“Hey.” Henry turned to face him fully and held Dom’s hand, their gloved fingers mostly covered by their coat sleeves. “I was kidding. I’m sorry if I sounded like a whiny arse. This is a great idea.”
“You sure?” Dom wasn’t convinced.
“Who doesn’t love a water slide? And the place does look gorgeous.” Henry gave his fingers a squeeze before glancing around them, then leaning in for a quick kiss. “I just want to get you naked again, that’s all.” He adjusted his backpack and grimaced. “And seeing you in your shorts is going to be a huge fucking tease.”
Dom smiled, relief chasing away the doubts from earlier. “Think of it as foreplay,” he whispered, and Henry barked out a laugh.
“That’ll just make it worse,” he exclaimed, slapping Dom’s shoulder in mock outrage. “And there’ll be hundreds of people in there to watch. What sort of monster are you?”
“Christ, I didn’t mean it like that.” Dom huffed, flustered.
“I know, sorry.” Henry bumped shoulders with him, laughing softly. “Come on. Show me what’s so special about this bloody pool.”
Once inside, they paused to take off their coats, hats, and gloves as the heat hit them.
Henry ran a hand through his hair, trying to tame it. “I forgot how hot it is in here.”
“It’d be a bit shit if it was cold.” Dom grinned at Henry’s eye-roll. As they walked along the path circling down to the pool area, he pointed out the various restaurants and what food they served. “If you fancied it, we could try a few out this week?”
Henry side-eyed him. “You mean you’ve not brought enough food for every meal?”
“No.” It was Dom’s turn to roll his eyes. “Only the first night and brekkie.”
“Well, as you know, I had nothing, so eating out would be good.” Henry winced, and Dom didn’t think it was solely the heat making his cheeks that pink. “But maybe stick to the cheaper ones. I am a poor ex-student after all.”
“None of them are all that cheap here.” Which was why Dom tried to cook at the villa for most of his stay. What had possessed him to suggest they try afew? “To be honest, I usually cook a lot when I come here, so why don’t we do that. Maybe pick one restaurant to go to, then get the rest from the shop.”
Henry visibly relaxed at that suggestion. “Yeah, sounds good.”
They parted ways inside the changing rooms, finding cubicles across from each other to get changed into their swimming gear.
Dom was waiting for Henry by the lockers when he came out. He might’ve already seen Henry naked, but that didn’t alter the fact that Henry in a pair of low-slung swimming shorts was a lovely sight. All long limbs dusted with dark hair.
Dom felt the stirrings of desire low in his belly and conjured up all the horrible thoughts he could muster to ward it off.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all!
“Ready?” Henry bounced on the balls of his feet, his obvious excitement pulling a smile from Dom and helped drag his thoughts out of the gutter.
“Yeah, come on.”
They walked through the showers and came out into the huge area that housed the main pool, the kids area, slides, a snack bar, and various seating dotted throughout. The lighting was muted, darkness visible through the huge glass dome above. This was Dom’s favourite time to come swimming. Fewer families about, fewer people in general, and there was something magical about swimming outside at night, especially with the addition of all the Christmas lights.
“Wow.” Henry stopped just inside the entrance, mouth open as he took it all in. “I’ve seen the pictures, obviously, but it’s bigger than I was expecting.”
Dom elbowed him gently. “Better too?”
He flashed Dom a smirk. “Bigger is always better.”
“Right.” On that note, they needed to get in the water and off the topic of anything remotely sexual. “This way.”
“I thought we were going outside?” Henry pointed to the sign indicating the outdoor pool was in the other direction.
