Page 6 of Scarred Crown

“You’re not afraid, are you?” Brice goads her. “If you’re too scared, you can head back home. Next time we won’t wait for you.”

“Shut up, Brice.” Jules shoves his shoulder. “You’re so hard, are you?”

He beats his chest. “Watch me.” He backs up and charges the edge of the cliff, sailing off with a loud whoop.

I guess only two of us learned our lesson about being quiet a few weeks ago. Awesome.

She tugs on her ponytail and watches Brice surface. “This doesn’t seem safe. Should all three heirs to the throne be cliff jumping unsupervised?”

“Unsupervised is the best part.” I smirk. “Come on. Are you gonna wimp out if I go first?”

She straightens and adjusts her bikini, tightening the straps. “Should have worn a different suit.”

My friends have declared Jules hot, and I’m constantly defending her over their lewd comments. Curves for days. Doesn’t feel right to have them point them out. Up to now, I’ve tried my best not to notice her assets, but she’s cupping them and moving them around like I don’t have a piece of my anatomy likely to respond. Does she think I’m dead below the waist?

In a second, I’ll be going over the cliff for a whole other reason.

“God, what if my suit comes off?” Her expression is agonized. “Alex would never let me live that down.”

I need to jump off the cliff right now. I grab her hand and tug her to the edge, hoping she’s too focused on the drop to notice the semi I’m sporting. I might not think of Jules that way, but my dick has other ideas today.

“Do we need to run to clear the rocks?”

“Nah.” I shake my head and take a deep breath. “They were just showing off.”

“Is this going to hurt?”

I laugh and squeeze her hand. “Look straight out. Feet enter the water first. Trust me?”

She gazes at me for a beat. “More than anyone else in the world.”

My chest warms even though that’s our question, the one we ask whenever we’re uncertain about something. A call and response sort of thing.

“Look out fuckers!” I holler down, and then we step off together. My stomach dips at the loss of ground beneath my feet.

Jules screams, and I chuckle at her naked terror. She’s a good swimmer, so she’ll be fine once we hit the water. I contact the water first, and then a swirl of bubbles appears in my peripheral vision. I kick and pull to break the surface. Shielding my eyes from the glare of the sun, I search for Jules, but she’s not at the surface.

Where is she?

A moment of panic seizes my chest, and I’m about to start diving blindly when she comes up, gasping for air.

“I went so deep,” she chokes out, coughing and hacking beside me.

If we were on land, I’d hit her back or something. But since we’re both treading water, there’s not much I can do as she sputters beside me.

“Shit. Sorry. I forgot to tell you what to do once you hit the water. You have to angle your body like a banana to stop yourself from going too deep.” I use my hand to show her the motion.

“Who’s the asshole now?” Alex calls from the cliff face where he and Brice are navigating the route back to the top.

She makes eye contact with Alex before turning back to me. “Still him,” Jules mutters.

I laugh and give Alex the finger. He shakes his head and starts climbing behind Brice.

“We have to go up the cliff now,” she groans.

I splash water at her. “How’d you think we were getting back up?”

“Didn’t think that far. I was too worried about dying.” She gazes up to where we jumped from. “My mother would shit herself if she knew where I was right now.”