But just when I thought he was going to look at me, he looked away instead and walked off the mat.
What had happened to him? He wasn’t the leader in high school, either, but he never let anyone treat him like shit.
“Sleep well?” Aydin asked.
I blinked, realizing he was talking to me.
“Taylor thought for sure we’d have to pry you out of that room,” he mused, taking a towel and wiping the sweat off his face.
He tossed the towel on a nearby chair, his gaze falling to my hand and the knife in it.
“You may as well relax,” he told me. “You’re not leaving.”
“I’m not staying.”
He laughed, unfastening his belt. “Denial. The first phase. I remember it well,” he mused, dropping his pants to the floor and leaving him in his boxer briefs. “Dealing with the loss of freedom and choice are exactly like dealing with the loss of a friend or parent. ‘This isn’t happening. This isn’t my life now. There has to be some way out of this…’”
He stared at me, amused, and then he peeled down the rest of his clothes, leaving him completely naked.
Heat rose up my neck, but I clenched my jaw and kept my eyes dead center on that stupid smirk of his as the others stood around, remaining silent.
“You’re dirty.” He sighed, throwing back another swallow of liquor. “I warned you that we’d bathe you if you didn’t do it yourself.”
“You’re going to have to, Hot Shot,” I fired back. “I don’t listen to you.”
“Oh, what a delight.” He smiled, turning and dropping waist deep into the pool. “I was so hoping you were going to make this hard.”
I glanced at the doorway I came through, wishing I’d gone for the kitchen like I was supposed to.
“Are there more people in this house?” I asked.
He splashed water on his face, coating his chest, as well. “Why would you think that?”
“I heard movement above me in your room a few minutes ago,” I told him.
Maybe if I got them distracted, searching the house, I could get to the kitchen. I might not get out of here tonight, but I could hoard some food.
“And again, in the walls down here,” I said. “But you’re all in here.”
I didn’t pass anyone on my way downstairs, and it appeared they were all already down here when I arrived.
“You’ve never heard anything before?” I asked.
The surveillance room, probably one of many, and movement in areas of the house where there weren’t supposed to be people?
But he knew where I was going with my train of thought. “There’s no help for you here.”
He sank below the surface, submerging his body, and rose up again, swimming to the other side and then smoothing his dark hair over the top of his head as the steam billowed around his body.
Unable to stop myself, I dropped my gaze. The curves and dips of his tight stomach, the bronze skin that looked like he was loved by the sun on some Mediterranean island instead of a cold, desolate house in the middle of nowhere, and the V of his hips that disappeared down into the water would make lots of women—and men—happy to look at.
And I had no doubt he was well aware of it.
“Come here,” he said softly.
I darted my eyes to his, seeing him tread through the water to the edge closest to me, looking like a god on Earth.
Too bad for him, I worshiped no one.