AllFreeNovel
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Max leaned in, a surprising twinkle in his eye. “Thanks for getting rid of him for me.”
I choked. “I never thought of it like that before.”
Max nodded sagely. “He’s gone, baby. For good.”
It would make keeping my promise of staying far away from him much easier because if he stayed away from Max, then I would have no reason to break it.
“And you’re okay?” I asked, knowing the abuse Max suffered all his life would always be part of him.
His smile was soft, eyes genuine. “As long as I have you, I’m more than okay.”
“I don’t know what you two are whispering over there, but it’s giving me indigestion,” Win hollered. “C’mon out of the pool. I need to eat.”
Laughing under his breath, Max pulled his feet from the water and reached down to offer me a hand. I glanced toward the bleachers where his jacket and cell lay and grinned.
Alarm flashed in his eyes, and he started shaking his head. “No way. N—”
Splash!
I tugged him into the pool, and he hit headfirst, his whole body swallowed up by the frigid waves. He popped up seconds later, black hair plastered to his head, dripping into his eyes, and water clinging to his eyebrow ring. The black clothes he wore were completely drenched.
“Wesley Evan Sinclair,” he intoned. But the threat in those three names was lessened by the slight chatter of his teeth. “This water is fucking freezing,” he bitched.
I batted my eyes. “You don’t want to swim with me?”
Max scowled, arms cutting through the water as he swam close. “I don’t have any clothes with me.”
“I have some in my locker.”
Surprise flitted over his face. “You have my clothes in your locker?”
I shrugged. “In case you ever want to swim,” I said casually. “Or you know,” I said, stealing a glance at him, “in case I wanted to wear them.”
Truth was I wore more of his clothes now than I did my own.
The scowl dropped from his face, and he towed me up against him. “You can wear my clothes whenever you want, baby.”
Win made a rude sound. “See? Whipped. It’s disgusting.”
“Your time’s coming,” Max hollered.
“Like hell,” he shot back. “You two are stressful enough. I don’t need to add to it.”
Water dripped off Max’s nose, and I swiped it away. His black-diamond stare slid back to me, and a rush of gratefulness filled me up inside. For so long, I thought I could never have him. And now? He was mine. In every way. “Wanna kiss underwater?”
“Nemo, I will kiss you anytime, anywhere.”
Holding hands, we slid beneath the surface, the entire world muted, leaving only the two of us. I spent a moment admiring the way his inky hair waved around, how his shirt plastered to his chest and the weight of the water pulled his jeans low to expose his lower stomach.
He tugged my hand, and we met in the middle, lips latching, bubbles rising between us as water and my tongue slipped into his mouth. He was warm while this watery world was cold, and the waves pushed and pulled around us, but we stayed rooted together… just as I always wished.
Just as we would always remain.
