Scoffing, I retort, “Please tell me it wasn’t his accent. That’s so cliché, Little Dempsey.”
“Please. Hell no. That’s the thing. The bastardisactually charming. I think it’s how he cheated on me so effortlessly. Unsuspecting. Manipulative. Secretive. Suave.”
“Like a damn terrorist, huh?” I add.
“Exactly. Maybe even more sleazy.”
“And this bastard is why you’re questioning your life decisions?”
“Well, I guess he merely opened my eyes to the possibility of loving someone more than I loved my life choices. It took a year for the SEAL Teams to agree to let me try out. During that time, I questioned everything.” She blows out a breath. “I don’t take myself that seriously, but I gave up an entire life for this. It’s a big deal.”
“You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t sad about it. You did give up a life for the Teams. For America. That’s why we’re here for each other. No one understands like we do. The guys will come around eventually. Especially when they know you dated Durnin.” I smile wide as I notice her neck getting red again. She doesn’t like talking about this stuff.
“If you bring that up in front of anyone, I’ll kill you.”
I wink. “It’d be a fair fight to the death, Little Dempsey. You want to have a breath-holding competition? Promise not to drown you.”
“You can’t make those jokes to normal people, you know?”
“You’re not normal people, are you?”
Aarabelle stands, shaking her head. “Nope,” she says as she takes off the shirt exposing nearly her entire body mere inches from me, in grabbing distance, and steps toward the rocky edge of the pool. And I thought Chantal’s body was perfect. Sorely mistaken doesn’t cover the comparison to the female specimen standing in front of me. Her muscles are sculpted and defined. Glutes are perfect, triceps curving in flawlessly to biceps that are tight mounds next to defined shoulders. She works for it. Another thing I know for a fact. This isn’t good genes at play where she gets to eat whatever she wants because she was born with a high metabolism. Holy fuck. The fact that I find Aarabelle’s body this appealing surprises the fuck out of me. I have to stand to cover the massive boner rising in my swim trunks.
She looks over her shoulder in time to see me readjust my dick. Damn it. “You’re a little more on the normal side aren’t you, Hart?” Aarabelle winks and walks to the shallow side of the pool. She says something to my parents, and then to Marley, and I don’t move for fear of exposing my X-rated thoughts to my damn family in the form of my cock.
A few deep breaths is all it takes to get my thoughts under control. That’s enough though. Both of my parents are staring at me. Mom in particular has an eagle-eyed view locked on my face. I play it off by bombing into the pool and swimming over to the shallow end, but when I surface, they’re still looking at me. Accusatory gleams in their eyes.
I shake my head and brush my hands through my hair. “You’re in a better mood, Pukey Lukey,” Marley says, sneering from where she and her friend are perched on the edge of the pool. I got carsick relentlessly as a child and the damn nickname stuck. “Maybe I should be Aara’s personal shopper, huh?” Her smile is wide and taunting.
I push a wave of water at them and Marley squeals, kicking water back at me. “The suit looks good on you,” my sister says to Little Dempsey. “My brother thinks so, too.”
“Come on, Marley,” Mom hisses. “Don’t stir the pot.”
Aarabelle sinks into the water and walks to stand in front of me. “On the count of three. Whoever stays down longer wins.” She looks at Marley. “Time us,” she commands.
Marley rubs her hands together, agreeing vigorously, opening an app on her Apple watch. Mav chuckles loudly and moves in for a closer look, perching next to the pool saying he’ll be second referee.
Aarabelle bites her lip, eyes flicking up to mine. She counts, pausing long between each number, and then right before she says three, she whispers, “This bikini has nothing on my lungs.”
And then she kicks my ass. Beating me by a full four seconds. Her eyes were locked with mine the entire time we were under. I saw the satisfaction in them when I had to surface, my lungs screaming for relief. Aarabelle has reached a new level of taboo. She was getting under my skin before, but now she is nothing like I thought I desired and everything I can’t have.
But fuck do I want it anyway.
