Page 9 of Deceitful Dreams

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Sophie comes out in a tight white sports bra and red boy shorts. I can feel the drool leaking out of my mouth the longer I watch her rub sunscreen over her skin. I swallow the excess saliva gathering, stand, and dive into the pool to hide the bulge that’s growing in my black briefs.

The harsh cold of the water is perfect for cooling down the rampant arousal burning inside my body. I feel like a goddamn pervert with the way I can’t look away, the indecent thoughts I can’t contain, the urge I couldn’t overcome as I touched her last night. I swim to the other side, leaning against the wall of the pool as I use my hand to shield my eyes from the sun.

Sophie sits on the edge I just leaped from, swinging her feet slowly in the water.

“You get used to it pretty fast. Jump in,” I tell her.

Her nose crinkles, and it’s so cute that something in my chest warms at the sight. I exhale slowly, hating how visceral my reactions are to her.

“Do you know how gross pool hair is?”

I roll my eyes. “Isn’t that what showers are for?”

Sophie waves her hand. “You’re a man. You don’t understand.”

Swimming slowly, I smirk as her eyes narrow and her red-painted finger is pointed at me. “Don’t you dare, Wyatt!”

Before she scrambles away, I grab onto her legs and toss her over my shoulder towards the center of the pool.

When she pops back up, I choke on the water. The white bra is nearly see-through. Her hard dusky pink nipples with silver rods and tiny red bejeweled ends on each side are visible for anyone to see.

“Fuck,” I cough out.

She glances down, a small blush forming on her cheeks, and she swims to the deeper side to keep her chest under the water. “Sorry. I didn’t think about it.”

I shake my head, forcing out nervous laughter. “It’s okay. Just wasn’t expecting it.”

“Maybe we should have gone out and grabbed some swimsuits,” she teases, kicking her feet so the water sprays near me.

Smiling, I grab her ankle and pull her back to me. My fingers curl over her shoulders and dunk her head under the surface. With a laugh, I swim away from her.

She pops back up, spluttering out water as she follows me. It’s a few splashes back and forth before we stop, treading water in the middle and floating on our backs to stare up at the sky. It’s probably the most carefree afternoon I’ve had in a while.

She splashes softly toward me with a smile. “Thanks for coming. I didn’t realize how lonely it could have been.”

“What happened to your dad?” I blurt out the question before I consider how rude it might be. But if Mary didn’t think about coming for her graduation, I wonder what happened to Sophie’s dad.

Her nose wrinkles, and she glances away before shrugging. “He got remarried when I was like three. He tried to kind of stay in my life till my stepmom got knocked up when I was five. Then it was all about his new family, and I was forgotten. I stopped answering the once-in-a-blue-moon phone calls when I was ten. He eventually stopped calling altogether.”

My heart aches at her confession. I want to pull her into my arms and hug her. But something else still bothers me. “I would think that would make you and your mom closer.”

Sophie flashes a sad smile, swimming away from me. “My mom…” She sighs as she settles onto one of the steps in the deep end. My eyes fall to her nipples poking out of the water again, but she seems to no longer be shy about hiding them.

“My mom was never a bad mom. She made sure I had everything I needed, but she was always too busy for me. Work, or her new boyfriends or her friends held her priority over me. And the days she wasn’t working… well let’s just say I would take the silence over the parties.”

I swim closer, dropping my arms on either side of her thighs. “That sounds like a lonely life.”

Her throat bobs as her big brown doe eyes stare down at me. “Sometimes.” Sophie sighs, her finger tracing up my forearm and to my elbow. “I got my first boyfriend at fourteen. We stayed together throughout high school. I wasn’t so lonely then.”

I hum a disgruntled agreement. “Yeah, I bet.”

She laughs softly. “I’m sure you have a long list of ex-girlfriends, looking the way you do.”

Raising an eyebrow, I roll my tongue over my bottom lip. “What way do I look?” I press my chest against her shins, my fingers brushing against her hip and running along the line of her shorts.

“Like you’re designed to be the epitome of every woman’s desire.”

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