Shallow (Going Under 2)

“Jessie Dewayne Boone!”

“I’m not worried about Dane or Hawke seeing what’s mine because I know you’re gonna be a good girl and grab your top before it falls. When you do, I’m throwing you over my shoulder and hauling you into that swimming pool.”

Claire kicked and squirmed as he pulled and slowly counted. “Three. Two. One.”

I turned my head, just in case Claire proved to be as stubborn as her bestie and the whole thing happened as fast as lightning. Claire apparently reached for her top before it fell so Jessie grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder just like he promised with one exception. He walked past the pool without tossing her in. “Sorry to interrupt the show, but we’ll be inside for a few minutes because there’s a little business we need to take care of.”

Claire slapped him across his back and it made a loud sound. “Jessie!”

I knew the type of business they were about to take care of. Boone was about to find out how good Claire’s little black bikini looked when it was tossed on the floor. He was one lucky bastard, but I was certain Claire’s crumpled black bikini was no comparison to how the white one in front of me now would look.

≈ ≈ ≈

It had been at least an hour and a half without any sign of Jessie or Claire, but I didn’t care because it wasn’t their company I craved.

Dane and Dallas slowly migrated from us on the pool steps to the seat in the deep end of the pool and I strongly suspected we were witnessing the beginning of something starting between the two of them. That was cool by me because I liked Dane. He was a nice guy and we would get along fine as long as he didn’t do anything to hurt my sister.

“I’m a little hungry. Wanna grab a snack?”

“Sure.”

I dare say that there’s nothing in the world that could hold a candle to the sight of water rushing down Payton Archer’s ass when she got out of the pool. I almost, key word being almost, wished I hadn’t seen how fine it looked because it had me adjusting myself in my swim trunks behind Payton’s back as I followed her to the pool house to get something to eat.

She handed me a cola and chips and I sat down on a couch in what Payton called an outdoor room. Yeah, a freakin’ outdoor room with furniture, a kickin’ stereo system and a flat screen.

She pulled out a remote and pointed it toward a receiver below the flatscreen. “What do you wanna hear?”

I wanted some great make out music, but I doubted she would go along with that. “Surprise me.”

She had a mischievous grin to appear on her face. “You know I can.”

“Go for it. I dare you.”

“Okay. Here’s a band I bet you won’t know.”

I listened for a minute and didn’t recognize the song. “You’re right. Never heard this before.”

“This is Civil Twilight and you’re gonna become very familiar with them if you hang with me for long. They’re my favorite band.”

Okay. I could become very familiar with Civil Twilight. That wasn’t a problem for me.

She pointed the remote toward the receiver to turn the volume down and then sat in the chair across from me, which was really disappointing because it would be hard to kiss her from that far away. She popped the top on her drink and then looked up at me as she opened her chips. “Tell me about your tattoo.”

Her question caught me off guard and caused me to choke a little on the cola I had turned up. It took a few seconds, but I finally managed to stop coughing so I could speak. “Sorry. Went down the wrong way. What do you want to know about it?”

“Just the general stuff like when did you get it? Why did you choose that design and what does it mean?”

How did I answer that? There was nothing general about my ink or her questions regarding it. I had never been asked to explain the particulars of it; she was the first. My own family had never even asked although I was fairly certain they probably all understood.

I wasn’t sure I trusted her enough to tell her the specifics of what drove me to mark myself in such a permanent way, so I decided generic was the way to go with my answers. “I got it the day I turned eighteen.”

“Which was when?”

Hmm. She wanted to know when my birthday was and I found myself liking that. “September 27th. I know, a painful birthday present to myself, right?”

She looked at it curiously from where she sat. “I could think of less painful gifts. What does it mean?”

I wasn’t going to tell her what it said because having her read it herself would be my chance to bring her closer to where I wanted her. I stretched with my arm over my head. “Come read it for yourself.”

She got up and came to sit next to me on the couch before she cocked her head to the side to read the swirling words. “Oh, cool. I couldn’t tell that there were words mingled in the design from a distance. I thought it was only artwork.”

She reached out to place her finger on the first word. “I was lying when I said I didn’t like it.” Her fingertip gently followed the text as she read it aloud, “Love is delicate as glass; once broken it can be fixed, but there will always be cracks.”

The soft gliding touch of her fingertip trailing along my skin sent tingles down my body and ignited flames in my gut. When she finished reading it, she left her finger against my skin and looked up at me. “These aren’t random words. They mean something very significant to you.”

Very significant was the understatement of the millennium and the moment we were sharing quickly became very serious. I suddenly found myself in a place I didn’t want to be. It was a dangerous spot because I didn’t share that part of myself with anyone.

She put her finger against the part that said ‘Love’ just below my heart and rubbed as if she might be able to wipe the ugly away. “You didn’t randomly choose this. This is here because someone hurt you.”

I had been naked with plenty of girls, but I had never allowed one of them to read my tattoo and we definitely never discussed it. I closed my eyes, trying to escape this first time conversation I had ignited by asking her to take a closer look. When she didn’t say anything more, I opened my eyes and she was still sitting on the edge of the couch looking at me.

She licked her lips as she looked at my mouth. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I can think of something else I rather do.”

I heard my heart throbbing loudly in my ears and I thought I would die if I didn’t get my lips against hers soon. I reached for the back of her neck and pulled her closer as I scooted in her direction on the sofa.