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“And now it’s see-through…a design improvement.” I smirked. “You started it, I finished it.”
She shook her head, but there was a smile playing around her lips. “So arrogant. Do they give out arrogance like this in the Hellions’ locker room or what?”
“Nah, you have to be born with it.” I backed Winter up against the wall of the pool. There was no one around for now, and that was just the way I liked it. Her legs drifted up around my hips, her body welcoming my touch even as her mind protested it. She had no idea how rare the electricity between us was when we touched.
She was so inexperienced. All talk. Vicious venom from a sheltered little brat. The thought of showing her all the things she had no idea about was a turn-on. Lately, everything about her was a goddamn turn-on.
“Well, I think you got more than your fair share. Stop ruining all my clothes,” she admonished lightly.
“Wear less around me then, and I won’t have to,” I retorted.
Her eyebrows shot up, and she was speechless for a second, and then laughed. “So, at games, in class, around campus…I should just wear less?”
“My mistake. Be alone with me more often, Your Majesty…and wear less when you are.”
She rested her head back against the tiles. The water had darkened her hair to a caramel color. Her face was wet, dotted with droplets. Her gaze fell to my lips, and her chest expanded, her pupils doubling in size. What was she thinking about to have such an intense reaction? I wished I could peer inside her head and read her thoughts.
She dropped my eyes, hiding her feelings from my curious gaze.
I caged her there, my hands against the tile on either side of her. “Don’t do that. Don’t hide from me. Be the girl with the biggest balls I know.”
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded, splashing me.
“It means you’re confident. You take no prisoners…with two exceptions,” I amended.
She raised her eyebrow at me, urging me to continue.
“Your parents. You’re someone completely different around them.”
She frowned. “In what way?”
“You’re quiet, demure. You walk on eggshells. You’re scared.”
Her eyes flashed. “Scared? Of my own parents?”
“No, not of them…of the absence of them. It’s okay, take it from me — they’re either there and don’t care about you, or care about you but can’t be there… or they’ve chosen not to even meet you. It’s exhausting.”
She blinked at me, taken aback by the deepness of the conversation. The words had just bubbled up in my chest. I could see Winter’s desperate need to please her parents, especially her dad, from a mile away. When she was around them, she was different, suppressed, like someone had turned off the light inside her, and she was waiting anxiously for one of her parental figures to turn it back on. To approve of her, spend time with her. To love her.
She considered my words for a long moment. “What are you going to say to your dad if you meet him?” she wondered.
Her abrupt change of subject threw me for a second.
I shrugged. “When I meet him, I’m just going to ask him one word. One word is all I need.”
“When? You want to meet him, then. You’ve decided?” she asked, her eyes wide.
I nodded, and she smiled. There was a warmth in that smile that I hadn’t known I’d been looking for all my life, not until that moment.
“What’s the word?” she asked after a brief pause.
“You’ll hear it when we find him. You’ll come with me, won’t you? To see our game through.”
She nodded slowly. “If you want me there, I’m there. To see our game through.” Her eyes flickered over my shoulder. “Shit, it’s Leonard,” she hissed.
The manager who had fired me rounded the pool in record time as we got out and wrapped towels around ourselves.
I turned a broad smile on him. “Leonard, how great to see you!” I stuck my hand out for good measure.
