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“Poolside, ladies.” Rose sashays like she’s strutting the runway. We all plunk our butts down on the edge of the pool, in the middle so we have the best view and are less likely to get hit by cannonball spray.
“Incoming, eleven o’clock.” Lovey nudges Lacey with her elbow.
“Ah, shit. Who invited him?” Lacey grumbles.
“Hey, Lovey, Lacey, my favorite twins! How’s it going? We miss you over at Kappa Pi!” A beefy dude with dark blond hair comes wading over, a smile on his face. He’s drunk, based on the way he struggles to maintain a straight trajectory.
“Hey, Cooper. I’m sure whoever replaces us this year will keep you more than entertained.” Lacey inspects her nails.
“It’s a couple of freshmen in the engineering program. Those girls aren’t much for a party, but we might be able to do a little corrupting.”
“It is your favorite pastime,” Lacey says with a stiff smile.
He turns to me and Rose. “Hey, I’m Cooper, and you are?”
“I’m Winter, and this is Rose.”
Rose waves and takes a sip from her drink, looking anywhere but at the beefy guy.
“I haven’t seen either of you around before. You freshmen?”
“Sophomore. I’m a transfer,” Rose says, like she’s bored and he’s the reason.
“Same.” I take another sip of my overly sweet cooler. I make a mental note to drink a bunch of water and take ibuprofen before bed.
“Oh yeah?” His attention returns to me. “Transfer from where?”
Two more guys join him. There’s another round of introductions. I forget their names two seconds later. They look like dude-bros—thick, like they spend a lot of time at the gym doing bench presses and not much else. They all have gelled hair and straight teeth. If I run into them on campus, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to tell one from the other.
“Winter plays hockey for the college team,” Lovey offers.
“Really?” One of the new guys looks me over. “I play rugby.”
“Mm, that’s a rough sport.”
“I like it rough.” He winks.
“Oh my God.” Rose is in the middle of a sip, and she cough-chokes.
I pat her back, and she coughs into her elbow. “Sorry. Went down the wrong way.”
I glance to the right, where BJ is standing with Quinn and a couple of girls. One of the girls is fully focused on Quinn, but his attention is on us. The other one is touching BJ’s arm, probably asking about his tattoos. I smirk when I remember how I drove him crazy by tracing the one on his hip with my tongue earlier this afternoon. BJ’s eyes flare when they find me, and his gaze flicks back and forth between me and the guys. He abandons Quinn and the girls and heads for the pool.
He steps off the edge, barely making a splash. He wades across the pool, skirts around the dude-bros, and makes a beeline for me.
“Mission fucking accomplished,” Rose mutters, having recovered from her coughing fit.
“Hey, hey. You disappeared for a while. Where’d you go?” One side of BJ’s mouth curves up in a knowing smile. He sets his drink behind me, then settles his hands on my knees and uses his hip to nudge his way between my thighs.
The guys who were chatting us up see someone else they know and move on.
“I changed and got a refill.” I’m going for nonchalant, but fighting a grin. Mostly I find this whole thing somewhere between funny, because it’s transparent, and irritating, because it’s effective.
BJ bites his lip, hands sliding up my thighs. “When’d you get this bikini? I haven’t seen it before.”
“It’s mine,” Rose says.
“Maybe don’t give it back.” BJ doesn’t break eye contact with me.
