Page 45 of Power Play

“It’s why they invented chlorine. Because of all the pee.”

“Kit?” Tess asked me as if the universe had betrayed her.

“Yes. They might have invented chlorine because of Liam,” I said, which made the girl laugh and Liam roll his eyes. “But you still shouldn’t pee in the pool.” I cast Liam a long, disgusted –what in the world are you doing?– look, before smiling back down at Tess. “I’ll just go change,” I said, gesturing towards the pool house.

As I turned, I realized everyone – every single person and there were about thirty on that pool deck – was staring at us.

“You’re okay,” Liam said quietly in my ear, bending towards me as if to give us privacy. I couldn’t have him being nice to me on top of that body of his. So I shoved him aside, walking head up, to go change into the black bikini I’d been so excited to wear again and now knew I’d just feel like a fool.

This whole thing was a terrible mistake.

11

Liam

Iwas half expecting her to come out of that changing room wearing jeans, a tank top and a flannel shirt. It’s what she’d been wearing, outside of the cat costume, every time I’d seen her since she’d started paying me back.

I was hoping for it honestly. Because those linen pants and her ass had already done a number on me. Undeniably, Kit was beautiful. Dark hair, silver eyes. Skin so clear and fine she looked like an Irish actress. She was slight too, her body matched her name. She was a sleek animal, mysterious and tricky.

That night in Nashville she’d been wearing a tight red dress and high heels. Her hair had been long, then, silky waves down her back. I remembered playing with the ends of her hair, my thumb touching her skin. I remembered the way she smiled at me.

The tight clench of her pussy. How my whole gut had reacted to how right she felt.

Fuck. Stop thinking about that.

The door to the pool house opened and Kit came out in a black bikini that made the most of her curves.

Jesus, I thought, my brain going blank. This might have been a terrible mistake.

Her breasts were perfect little handfuls rising up out of that thin black fabric and her waist was lean, but her ass… her ass was something else.

That night in Nashville, things had happened so fast, I’d been so rushed, I didn’t get a pure look at what she had going on under that red dress. I had a lot of regrets about that night and missing out on that ass of hers was added to the list.

“Who is the girl?” Staski asked, leaning against the side of the pool where I was sitting and fighting a boner like a seventeen-year-old at a pool party.

“What girl?” I said, playing dumb. Like I wasn’t giving myself a headache watching Kit out of the corner of my eye as she put her stuff down on an empty deck chair. Tess ran up and grabbed her hand. Kit smiled at the girl, holding one of her hands while using the other hand to pull the side of her suit further down over her butt cheek.

It was a losing battle. There wasn’t enough material to cover that ass, and for that, the world should be grateful.

“Don’t be idiot,” Staski said. “The girl you are staring at.”

“No one,” I said.

“She looks like someone,” he said. I stared at him wondering if he recognized her from that night at the End Zone, but he was just eyeing her like a man eyes a beautiful woman.

“Good. Since she is no one to you, I will go say hello.”

Staski pushed off the wall, revealing his back tattoo of a bear tearing a snake in half. The guy was a sweetheart in real life but between the silver teeth and the tattoo he could terrify just about anyone.

“Staski,” I said, and the guy ignored me until I put my hand on his shoulder.

“I knew it!” he said, silver teeth flashing in his tight black beard. “Who is she?”

“She is Tess’s nanny,” I lied, but the truth was, the second I said it, I loved it for me. It solved a multitude of problems. “Don’t blow my shit up,” I said. “There’s plenty of beautiful women here for you to take back to your cave.”

“You are funny man,” he said, wagging his gold-ringed finger at me. “But I respect the nanny.”

Kit was in the water now, her black hair piled up on her head. Her glasses over her eyes. She was listening carefully to something Tess was explaining to her but I could see Bingham and Cohen playing catch with the football behind her. Cohen was orchestrating some kind of meet cute in the pool. He stretched his long body out, making the most of his muscles. Making sure he was in her direct path.

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