Page 18 of Little Do You Know

“I have legs, Landon,” I protest as he wades through shallower water to return to the beach.

He gasps dramatically. “I had no idea these were legs; I thought I was holding onto a tail.”

Landon’s words are enough to send me into a fit of laughter, loud enough to attract the other guys’ attention from their football game. I’m acutely aware that Sebastian’s staring at me—well, not me. My ass is hanging in the air for all to see because of the way I’m slung over Landon’s shoulder. Maybe this wasn’t the right swimsuit to wear today.

“Can you please put me down?” I ask, tapping his back to get his attention. It’s not exactly the most comfortable position for me to be in.

“No, I think I like carrying you. Don’t you know you can’t put a fish on dry land?”

I pinch him sharply. “Not a fish; I’m a mermaid.”

“Ouch, that hurt,” Landon complains but sets me down on the ground.

I stand up straight, my head a little dizzy from hanging upside down, to find the rest of the group staring at us. “Was she pretending to be a mermaid again?” Owen asks with a smile, and I grin back at him.

“Of course.”

Jake looks at me funny, whereas Stacey laughs, having heard this story before. This is something I did for a long time as a kid. I’m not surprised they didn’t forget. “Wait, are you guys serious?”

I shrug, feeling cold now that I’m out of the water. “Oh yeah. I used to pretend that I was a mermaid when we were younger. I still do sometimes. You should try it. Pretending is a fun game.” I direct the last part at Sebastian, who only smiles at me instead of scowling. I’m instantly suspicious because it doesn’t add up. Sebastian is pissed at me, so why is he smiling? Bash takes a step closer to me, and I can’t believe I forgot because he’s been doing this for years. I take an equal step back and look at Landon pleadingly for help. “Stop him.”

I don’t get to say anymore before I take off running in the opposite direction into the water like it can save me. Sebastian is humoring me, because he should have caught me by now. His arms wrap around my torso, pulling me to a stop as I swing my arms violently until Sebastian’s pinned them against me. “You can’t outrun me. Why even try?” He teases, lifting me as if I were made of nothing.

“You don’t have to do this,” I plead, wiggling in his grip to try to get loose to no avail. “We’re not kids anymore.”

Bash continues walking farther into the water, holding me tight for an entirely different reason than I want. I have no choice but to hold onto him, unless I want him to drop me. I watch his gaze drop to my chest, heaving from the exertion I spent running before his eyes meet mine. Honestly, the amount of times I catch him checking them out, you’d think I wear a DD instead of a B cup. “You’re right. We’re not kids anymore, little Lia,” he says, keeping his face very close to mine. I can almost see the glints of a whiskey color from this angle. They’re oddly captivating, just like his full lips that aren’t flattened into a look of distaste for once.

Why is his face getting closer? I-is he going to kiss me? My breathing hitches because I don’t think I’d hate that. It wouldn’t be wrong to do it again.

Then Sebastian smirks, dropping me into the water as I shriek, getting a mouthful of salt water. I come up, sputtering because a minuscule part of me hoped he would kiss me. I wipe my hands over my face, trying to keep the salt from getting in my eyes when I hear Bash’s roaring laughter.

He’s already walking back to the beach where our friends are, and I feel my anger implode. I literally gave him a fucking massage last night, my apology was ignored, and I rode here the entire way with his boner up my ass. Not literally, but that’s beside the point. He can’t just check me out and act like he might kiss me, only to drop me into the water!

I wade through the water, trying to catch up to him, but his legs are stupidly long. I reach him where the water hits my ankles, pushing him forward. The only reason he budges is because I’ve caught him off guard. “You are single-handedly the most confusing person—no, asshole—that I’ve ever met! Penelope says I should climb you like a tree, but I think if I did that, it wouldn’t be to fuck you. I think it’d be so I could kill you. What do you want from me?” I yell angrily.

Sebastian turns, looking baffled, and I push him again. “You have done nothing but be an asshole to me since I got back. Some of it I probably deserved, but being thrown in the fucking ocean after you stared at my chest was not called for.”

“Really? You’re calling me an asshole again. I thought we’d made so much progress, Thalia.” The sarcasm is dripping from his words, and my temper is burning red hot. That’s all he took from that? Are you kidding me?

Owen is laughing, and I look at him with a murderous look before realizing everything I just said. Oh shit. Even the part about climbing Bash like a tree. What did I just do? He’s going to find out everything. Not that there’s much to tell, but enough Owen will still be mad.

I walk away before saying anything else that could get me or Bash in trouble. Not that I care about getting him in trouble. I care about my brother.

“Whatever you just said, I don’t think I want to know,” Blake says, offering me a towel, which I gladly take. My cheeks are flaming red, and I don’t think I can do anything to stop them. I just said all of that in front of everyone.

“You mean you didn’t hear me—”

“Dude, I don’t speak French. Nobody understood you, unless someone else here speaks French,” she says, and I freeze.

“I said all that in French?” I ask, my heart stopping in my chest. Blake nods, and I grab the water from my bag to rinse the salt from my mouth. “But…”

Curiosity lights up in her amber eyes. “What did you say? I only caught the word asshole, and that’s because you were yelling.”

“You don’t want to know,” I say, glaring at Sebastian, who is laughing with Vera and Owen. When his eyes make contact with mine, I don’t back down by looking away.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Thalia

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