AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ciaran swam behind me, his hands cupping both shoulders, comparing them. “Yeah, it’s bad. I don’t think you should swim for several weeks, at least.”
Then, without warning, he slipped under the water. I felt him at my lower back.
His fingers traced the gashes. Every spot he touched was like fire igniting beneath my skin.
It wouldn’t take a scientist to figure out how I got the scratches.
When he resurfaced, he was still behind me, and he rephrased his question. “How’d you get the gashes?”
I felt his breath on my ear.
His feet skimmed mine. His hands tingled at my back.
“Does it matter?” I asked.
“I dare you to tell me the truth.”
I spun around to face him. “How do you think I got them?”
Ciaran’s back was pressed against the pool wall. His blue eyes reflected the pool’s sparkling water. If he put his hands right where the gashes were, he’d realize his fingers matched perfectly.
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Ciaran said. “It’s a dare. Tell me what happened last night.”
Was he trying to play me? Given the fact that I hadn’t swum away, Ciaran must have sensed that I was, well, interested in his interrogation.
I already knew for a fact that he was into guys. That knowledge alone, and my lack of fleeing the scene, pretty much spoke volumes.
Maybe he was playing a game of chicken.
All I knew was that my erection was uncomfortable in my tight swim briefs.
Ciaran’s leg hooked my ankle, pulling me closer, close enough that we were almost touching.
Without thinking, my hands drifted to his hips, and I felt a sudden spark of awareness. Ciaran’s eyes widened. Did he feel it, too?
Didn’t I tell myself to steer clear of Ciaran only a few hours ago?
I stared at his kissable mouth.
I knew what those lips were capable of. What they tasted like.
I knew how hungry he was. The air was thick with it. Ciaran would be a passionate lover one day, but it wasn’t for me to discover.
And I could not, under any circumstance, tell him the truth. It was too shameful.
In a moment of clarity, I swam back just enough to save me from making a fool of myself.
“I brought someone home last night,” I said, instead. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth, either.
Ciaran’s face hardened. I knew he was imagining me with someone else. Part of me was happy that it upset him. It meant he wanted me. That his passion for me last night wasn’t completely a lie. Sure, he’d called me someone else’s name, but he’d been drunk.
Ciaran took a deep breath. “I assess you are lying.” Then he hoisted himself out of the pool without another word.
23
CIARAN
Ifled the pool, not even grabbing a towel or looking back at Matty. I just ran up the basement stairwell, dripped water on the floors in the main house and into the backyard, and stalked into the guesthouse like a serial killer intent on finding my next victim.
