“Oh no you don’t.” I laugh and start to swim after her faster.
Impressive as her strokes might be, she doesn’t stand a chance. I catch up to her quickly, a smile fixed on my face as I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her to me. Her breath catches at my hand grazing her side and I sense that she’s ticklish. Poor Beth.
Laughter erupts from her as she tries desperately to escape. Unfortunately for her, she can never make it more than a few inches away from me before I grab her again.
“Stop. Maverick! Please!” She screams in between howls of laughter.
“Make me an offer.”
I see the defiant pout return to her face and she sticks her tongue out at me. “No.”
“Oh Miss Hendrickson. You’re playing a very dangerous game,” I tease, making after her again. This time she manages to disappear under water, but it doesn’t take long before she’s coming up for air. When she resurfaces, she has that look of mischief in her eyes and as her hands jut out, I know for certain that she’s up to no good. She’s already half-way up my shoulders, trying to push me under.
“You play dirty,” I laugh, wiping my face and she grins.
“I play to win.”
“That you do,” I smirk, swimming slowly towards her. Slowly, she moves back in response to my forward pursuit.
“I’ve seen it for myself. You probably broke a guy’s leg today, and you almost drowned your own fiancé just now.”
She giggles, still backing away from me.
“They both deserved it.” Her eyes seem to come alive with intensity as she stares back at me, mirroring the uncontrollable wildfire spreading through my veins.
“Oh, but your fiancé is such a kind man.”
“Perhaps. But the other one was trying to ruin my kind fiancé’s plans and steal his dream.”
There’s something about the way she says that...the simplicity of her explanation and the primal decisiveness behind her instinctive response to Jared threatens to unman me.
“So you were defending me?” I ask, aware of the nervousness unfurling in my stomach as I wait for her response.
“Yes.” Her answer massages my ears as her back brushes against the pool wall and I work on closing the gap and trapping her with both my arms on either side.
She stares up at me, the silent storm that she is, and I’m beguiled.
“Why?”
“I just...reacted.” I can hear the subtle changes in her breathing as her eyes dilate.
She licks her lips and they’re instantly more inviting. I bite back a moan, but the rest of me responds.
I can feel my entire body tighten when she places her hand on my chest, as though trying to create a barrier between us, but from the heat radiating from her, I know we’ve already crossed all the lines.
“Why?” I ask her again. Daring her to say it.
“Because,” she says, and I shake my head to let her know that a one word explanation won’t do.
“You know why,” she says, trying to escape the prison of my arms, but I get even closer to her. My legs rub against hers and her hand falls to her side as my chest crashes into hers, pinning her completely to the wall.
“I don’t know why,” I whisper down at her, using a hand to sweep her hair away from her face and behind her ear to expose her neck. I lean in slowly, letting my breath play upon her skin. I can feel her heart thumping as though trying to exit her chest and gain entry into mine.
Good.
I’m affecting her the same way she’s been affecting me ever since the first day she jumped into this damn pool, not leaving much up to my imagination.
“Maverick,” my name on her lips sounds like a mating call and I gently nibble on her ear before answering with my lips just inches away from her neck.
“Yes?”
She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t need to. I can feel the rapid rise and fall of her chest and the hardening of her nipples through the thin fabric of her bra as I run my tongue along the ridge of her neck.
The moan that drips from her lips swims to my groin and clutches my manhood with a vice grip. I nip at her neck to stop myself from swearing as precum bubbles up to the head of my fully erect cock. I know she can feel my hardness pressed up against her, but she doesn’t push me away. Her submission in this moment drives me absolutely wild.
“Tell me,” I whisper, staring down at her.
Her left hand grips my right bicep and her right hand clings to my shoulder as I work my way to the back of her neck and get a fistful of her hair. Gently, I guide her head to one side so that I can kiss the other side of her neck.
“Because…” Her voice is breathy and barely a whisper, but I want her to say it. I need to hear her say it.
“Because what, Bethany?” My hand falls from her neck and I reach behind her, unhinging a hook on her bra. She doesn’t stop me and so I unhook another one and then another, until the fabric loosely dangles over her chest, ready to float away with just one tug.
My cock hardens even more at the anticipation of that very thing happening. When Beth’s fingernails sink into my shoulder, I know that she’s just as close to the edge as I am. I tighten my fingers on the pool wall behind her, but continue to pin her with my gaze.
Even in this moment when she clearly has no control, she’s still just as defiant as ever. I realize that it’s one of the things I’ve grown to love about her.
“Say it,” I challenge. Beth shakes her head and bites down on her bottom lip, not ready to give in just yet.
Gently, I use my knee to caresses her legs open. “Say it,” I demand again, not taking my eyes off hers as my hand creeps up her stomach and then higher until her breast fills my palm.
A flicker in her eyes follows a moan and when I trace my thumb over her nipple, I know there’s nothing more than a thread holding her to her control. She swears in a lust filled whine that massages the full length of me.
“Say it.” My own voice is heavily laden with the need for release.
“Maverick, please,” she begs.
“Say it,” I whisper, feeling the heat coming from her core intensify against my knee as it rubs gently against her, keeping her legs apart.
My heart just about comes to a halt when I feel her legs tighten around my waist and she pushes off the wall to wrap both her arms around my neck.
“Because you’re absolutely maddening,” she says, looking down at me with her hair falling around both our faces like a curtain. “Because you’re stubborn and talented and cruel. Because you’re an actual asshole. Because you’re mean and generous. Kind and broken.” Something in her voice says I’m not being judged for any of this, though I am fully aware that I should be. Beth tightens her arms around me as she sweeps her hair to one side. “Because you’re all of those things,” she continues, “but according to the state of New York, you’re also mine.”
The caveman in me returns, alert and in full agreement. Because as long as I’m hers, it also means that she belongs to me.
35
As the words leave my lips, I realize that I’m not afraid of them. I’ve fought the appeal of him, the allure of him for years. It wasn’t even hard back then.