Page 17 of Clean Point

‘Where’s Scottie?’ she asked as I swallowed another mouthful of food.

As if summoned, Scottie appeared at the kitchen door, hand outstretched and pointed right at me as water dripped from her clothes, a demonic expression on her face.

‘You!’

Elena turned to me, wooden spoon in hand. ‘What did you do?’

‘He pushed me into the pool,’ Scottie called from outside.

‘Why would you do that?’ Elena asked.

I ignored Scottie as she shouted from the door again, ‘Because he’s a child!’

‘She fell in.’ I shrugged, before forking another slice of the delicious omelette into my mouth.

‘I did not.’

‘And she had coffee.’

‘So?’ Elena still had the wooden spoon in her hands, ready to be used as a weapon if necessary.

‘We aren’t supposed to have it.’

‘He’s an asshole,’ Scottie added, before taking a single step inside.

Elena spun again, the spoon now pointed in her direction. ‘No! You stay out there until you dry off.’

‘What?’

‘I just cleaned these floors. You are not dripping pool water everywhere.’

Scottie let out a sound of annoyance but remained in the doorway. Smugness washed over me as I grinned delightedly at her, her blue eyes full of anger, a sneer on her lips. I knew then I’d started a new battle between us. Whether it was something I could finish, I wasn’t quite sure. She wasn’t anything to be afraid of, right? Elena, on the other hand …

The housekeeper turned to me. ‘You. Go get her a towel.’ I paused for a moment, a refusal playing on my lips. But one look at her stern face and the spoon she was still wielding as a weapon, and I swallowed the words. I put the fork down and stepped away from the breakfast bar. ‘There are fresh towels in the downstairs bathroom.’

Without argument, I did what she said, grumbling my way through the villa. When I returned to the kitchen, bath towel in hand, Elena was nowhere to be seen.

‘Hello? Elena?’ I shouted, looking around for her.

‘She went to clean up. Just pass the towel over,’ Scottie said, appearing in the doorway. She was still soaked, but she’d tied her blonde hair back in some sort of complicated braid. As my eyes wandered down, I noticed her white T-shirt sticking to her, showing off every curve of her body … and since the water had made it translucent, the pink lacy bra she was wearing underneath.

The image of Scottie Sinclair in pink lacy underwear plagued my brain, temporarily knocking me out of reality.

‘What?’ Scottie pulled my attention back to her. ‘Scared of what I’ll do to you if you step outside?’

I gulped, her eyes narrowing on me.

‘No, I don’t want to get wet again,’ I lied, edging toward the villa entrance, trying to avoid thinking about the pesky pink bra that was staring right at me, begging my eyes to wander south again.

‘Maybe you should be worried.’

I stretched out the towel to her. ‘I don’t know what you think you could do.’

‘A swift kick to the balls?’ she joked, placing a hand on her hip.

I pressed my lips together, taking a mental note to keep at least a leg’s length of space between us at all times. That girl looked like she had a sharp, strong knee. I gave the towel a little shake. ‘Do you want this or not?’

She leaned forward, water dripping from her arm to grab the towel, but I moved backward on my heels, taking my turn to smirk at her.

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