“I bet. Chris told us that your father put a ban on writing to you. I wish I could have. It would have been nice.”
“Your dad still being an asshole?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Providing I stay out of trouble, I won’t be going anywhere.”
Harvey Dean was an asshole. He was a businessman, owning some kind of shipping corporation. From what Eli remembered, he was trying to mold Aria into the perfect daughter to marry her off. Even when they were sixteen, Eli recalled business partners coming to her home to check her out.
Kind of freaked him out a little, but he’d do anything for Aria. She belonged to him. She just didn’t know it yet.
“Your mom’s on your side, right?”
“Yeah. She wants me to have a normal life, away from his crap.”
“Why doesn’t she divorce him?”
“Because she does love him. Not everything is just about money.” Aria smiled. “It’s good to have you back. Are you going to get into trouble?”
“Nah. I’ve promised to be a good boy. You know me. I don’t have time to cause trouble.”
She giggled. “You’re going to cause trouble. I can see it in your eyes.”
Getting to his feet, he grabbed her hands, and didn’t give her a chance to pull away from him.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.
“We’re going to have fun.”
When she tried to pull away from him, begging for him to stop, he didn’t. Shoving his shoulder into her stomach, he lifted her up, and carried her toward the lake.
Their friends started screaming and cheering for him to dump her in.
“Put me down, Eli. You’re going to break your back or something.”
When he pretended to drop her, she gripped his back, and held on tightly. “Please, don’t make me fall.”
He went to drop her, and finally, he lowered them both into the water, and then dropped her.
Breaking to the surface, he watched as she lifted up, and swore. Her shirt was clear enough for him to see the outline of her large nipples. They were mouth wateringly big, and he wanted to touch.
“You ass,” she said.
Grabbing her waist, he pulled her close. “Oh come on, it’s me. You know I was going to dunk you. It’s too good to miss.” He ran his thumb beneath her shirt, stroking over her flesh.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine, Waters. I’ll give you this one.”
She pulled away from him putting space between them that he didn’t like. He would deal with that soon. There wouldn’t be any space.
****
Aria had missed Eli, she really had, and seeing him after a year, it was hard for her to hold back. He was as sexy as she remembered, only now there was something different. He didn’t seem like an immature teenager anymore. The military school, even for a year, had changed him.
“He’s hot, right?” Rachel asked, swimming toward her.
Aria loved her friends, and all five of them were close. They had stuck by each other in kindergarten where a lot of other friends had changed, and broken apart. She’d witnessed it in high school, scarily so. They weren’t the popular kids like the jocks and the cheerleaders. Aria didn’t know how to describe them. Their little group didn’t take any shit, and everyone gave them a wide berth.
“Please, that man is so buff. I know Branson is going to be working out just to match those muscles,” Mary said.
Her friends were also together. Mary and Branson had a thing. Rachel and Chris had been together since they were kids. Whereas she and Eli, she didn’t know what they were. He’d been gone for a year. She was just going to have to wait and see. He’d never made her feel like a spare part in their group. In fact, he was probably her closest friend.