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“She’s going to be the death of me,” Patrick muttered. “Not to mention my reputation.”
Rick snorted. “No one’s going to blame you for giving way to her. Although if she wants anyone to think she’s submissive, she’s going about it the wrong way.”
Something in Patrick’s expression tightened as he looked across the room to where she was now seated, her back to him. “She’s not coming in here if one of us isn’t here to keep an eye on her. Or I’ll fire her ass and then she won’t be able to come here at all.”
Deciding it wasn’t prudent to inform Patrick it would be better to tell Lexie that than Rick, he just nodded. Not that the big man was even looking at him, he was already pushing off the wall and heading to join the conversation happening at the table. Where he and Lexie would probably act like the confrontation had not just happened. Eventually something was going to have to give between the two of them.
Feeling too tired to go back and pretend like the very air around them wasn’t filled with tension, Rick just slipped out the front door and headed out. As far as he was concerned, his night was over. Lexie could make do with two Sentinels.
3
Stroke, stroke, stroke, and breathe; stroke, stroke, stroke, and breathe... Rick preferred to breathe on every third stroke when he was swimming freestyle. It was how he’d been taught, and he found that twisting his head from side to side rather than always coming up on the same side meant his neck got a more symmetrical workout. He didn’t know why it mattered to him, but it did.
Sometimes he felt like he was getting old and set in his ways.
Gliding the last couple of meters into the wall, he came up for air and stretched out his shoulders. This morning he’d done a longer workout than usual. He’d needed to burn off excess energy again.
Sexually frustrated much?
He nearly groaned when he saw the lusciously curved brunette, apparently venturing out in the morning for the second day in a row, this time tucked into a bright red bikini with tiny ruffles edging the top and bottom. Ruffles were dumb, in his opinion, but on her they didn’t detract from her attractiveness. The screaming red color suited her dark hair and tanned skin perfectly.
The rest of the pool area was nearly empty. There was a young mother with her toddler on the opposite side and an older man Rick recognized as a fellow lap-swimmer, and the tempting brunette. Who was putting her stuff down on a lounge chair only two away from where he’d left his towel.
There were plenty of other lounge chairs further away, but he saw the way she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She’d deliberately chosen a location near his things.
Interest stirred, along with his cock.
Stop it.
No getting involved with the neighbors. Obviously, a reminder that bore repeating. Besides, he might be reading too much into things. Maybe she hadn’t been looking at him at all. Or maybe she’d only been looking at him and wondering if it was his towel sitting so close to her chosen spot.
Ugh. He was starting to sound like a teenage girl inside his head. Great.
Ducking back into the pool, he kept swimming. But the entire time he was also picturing the brunette and that wasn’t good either. He swam faster.
Ten laps later he glided back into the wall and came up breathing heavily. One quick look over in the brunette’s direction nearly had him groaning again. She was laid out on her stomach and she’d undone the top of her bikini, leaving the expanse of her back completely bared to the sun. Why that was so sexy, he wasn’t sure, but somehow a woman with her bikini top undone was always an erotic tease. Maybe it was just the vain hope that she might forget to redo it before sitting up.
Yeah.
Time to go home again. He was done with his workout and while he’d originally been planning to spend some time drying out in the sun as the day heated up, he knew he wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy it with her only two chairs away. Pulling himself out of the pool, he did his best not to look at her as he padded over to his chair and picked up his towel. Rubbing it roughly over his face, he took the moment to regain his balance, unsure of why her mere presence unsettled him so badly.
Slipping on his sandals, he slung his towel around his neck and headed toward the exit.
“Hey, do you have a second?”
The sound of her sultry, sleepy voice, tinged with just the faintest hint of an accent, had Rick doing a quick about turn. Yep. Sunbathing beauty was looking up at him with a smile, her head and shoulders raised just enough to make his cock twitch in hopes he was going to get to see something scandalous. Teenage fantasy type stuff, but a man never grew too old for it.
“Sure,” he said, taking a step toward her. He knew he was looming over her a bit, but the position helped him regain some of his equilibrium. Damn she looked good from this angle. The bikini bottoms were clinging to the well-rounded cheeks of her ass, which was soft and cushy looking—the kind of ass a man wanted to grab onto or spank the hell out of. Rick wanted to do both. The fact that her bikini was red only made visualizing it easier. “What can I do for you?”
Her eyes brightened, and her smile deepened, revealing a dimple on her left cheek. Rick had never thought he had a weakness for such things, but on her...
Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a white tube. “Can you get my back? I can just feel the heat coming down and I don’t want to turn over yet.”
“Sure.” The word was out of his mouth for a second time, his body eagerly taking over for his brain. Not that his brain would have been able to come up with a good excuse to get out of her simple request. But at least his brain knew it was a bad idea. He could have hesitated instead of jumping on the excuse to touch her.
“Thanks.”
That sleepy, sultry smile was doing all sorts of havoc, but he had a lot of practice at keeping his face expressionless. Still, he didn’t want her to think he was unfriendly, so he gave her a small smile back as he squirted the white cream onto his hand.
