“Thank you. I’ll see you later,” Hail said.
“Or not,” Titus quipped.
“And what does that mean?” Hail asked.
“Means you didn’t ask if I had room for you.”
“I’m pretty sure if I stayed with you tonight, I wouldn’t get any sleep.”
“I’m just talking about sleeping,” Titus said with a sly grin as he held his hands up in surrender.
“I’m not. If I’m at your house, with no other company, I might not be able to restrain myself and whatever happens I will not even regret because you will have invited it, so it would all be your fault,” Hail said, flirting shamelessly.
Alison cleared her throat and both looked at her. She focused on Titus. “I believe the exact idiom she used was, and I quote, ‘I kinda want to climb that male like a tree’.” Alison smiled at both of them, turned and walked away with her head held high.
“I cannot believe you just did that!” Hail called after her, though she was laughing. She was still laughing when she turned back to Titus, floating right across from her.
He wasn’t laughing.
Hail’s laughter died out as she found herself locked in a staring contest with him.
“Only kind of want to climb me?” Titus asked.
“Well, I was trying to restrain myself.”
“And if you weren’t restraining yourself?”
“We’d be spread out on the grass over there, witnesses be damned.”
“Don’t really want my snow white ass up in the air for my Alpha to see, but I can think of worse fates than being climbed by you,” he said, his voice a little growlier than usual.
“Probably better for you that I don’t. I might be crazy. Best if you don’t get all tangled up in this,” she said with a wry grin.
“I have an affinity for crazy. And I have plenty of room for you.”
“Are you inviting me to spend the night?”
“If you want to come over, I am. If you don’t, then no, I’m not. I don’t handle rejection well,” Titus said with a smirk.
“Ahhh, I see. I’ll remember that. And I’ll think about it. I am cursed with being so popular that I have many options for the night.”
Titus came out of the water like a killer whale, reached across the raft and pushed Hail under water, before falling back into the water.
But Hail didn’t come up.
Titus’ laughter died down as his eyes darted back and forth across the water’s surface.
Then without warning, an arm was curved around his neck as a knee was strategically pressed into his kidneys. He went over backward, arms flailing. Before he came back up, coughing, Hail was already back on her side of the raft watching him like she had no idea who’d grabbed him from behind.
“How’d you do that?!” he demanded, shaking water out of his eyes as he pinned her with a look that most would take as intimidating. But to her, it wasn’t. She saw it for exactly what it was — admiration.
Hoots, hollers and laughter from her teammates scattered around the pool area finally pierced through his surprise and he glanced over sheepishly toward them.
“Of all the females I’ve ever met, even Athena, the one I don’t want to go up against, is Hail,” Frenzy said. “Hail’s like afreaking sneaky-ass ninja. You don’t see her, you don’t hear her, but she’s there, and before you know it, people are dying.”
“Or dead,” Savage said.
“Yep,” Frenzy said. “It’s a good thing she likes you, you’d be floating face down and the water would be red.”
