Page 28 of Neo

“You’ve made it abundantly clear that you think we’re some group of pampered assholes paying Lucia pennies, but I’m not sure why you think we’d do that,” he says after swallowing his last bite.

“I don’t know.” I shrug my shoulders. “Because you can?”

“You’re an interesting one, Grinch.”

“Hey, I just confided in you why I don’t care for all the Christmas hoopla and you call me a grinch?”

“It doesn’t matter much why you’re a grinch, it just matters that you are.” A slippery grin spreads across Neo’s stern jaw. “You want to go for a swim? It’s hot as balls out here.”

I still haven’t found a decent hair salon that knows how to work with my hair texture, and I’m not trying to ruin my blow out which took me over an hour and Kennedy’s very expensive Dyson blow dryer, so my answer is an emphatic, “No, you shouldn’t swim right after eating.”

“Okay, then, do you want to watch me swim?” he asks with another one of those smirks that sends a jolt of something surprising straight to my core.

“I can.”

He stands and I swallow thickly as I try my best not to ogle the well defined six pack that ripples underneath his tank top. I’m sure he gets enough of that from students on campus.

“Just come sit by the edge of the pool and put your feet in,” he tells me.

“Fine,” I mutter to myself, knowing full well this is turning into something more than just lunch.

I’m already sitting at the edge of the saltwater pool with my drink in hand when Neo unceremoniously flings off his tank, then pulls his gray sweatpantsandblack boxer briefs down. He is splendidly butt ass naked and I almost choke on my mocktail.

“What the hell are you doing?” I protest, quickly lowering my eyes as he dives perfectly into the water, causing only a momentary ripple of the water. When his disappearing body reemerges right between my dangling legs, I’m startled.

“I’m swimming.”

“Naked?” I swivel my head around to see if anyone else in the house is witnessing this spectacle.

“It’s the only way I like to swim.”

“You’re so inappropriate.”

“People all over the planet swim in the buff all the time.”

“And you’re making stuff up. That’s not true.”

I find myself completely mesmerized by how the sun bounces off his slicked back, water soaked hair.

It’s disturbing.

I love Henry Cavil and that guy who starred in The Kissing Booth. I don’t even like blondes.

“I promise you I’m not making it up.”

“This is definitely not what most people in other countries do. They make bathing suits and swimming trunks for a reason. It’s a billion dollar industry.”

Neo chuckles at me as he pushes off with his feet onto his back in a floating position. I do my best to keep my eyes on his face and not on any other obvious part of him, but it’s difficult when it’s right there in my line of vision.

Don’t let him see you watching, idiot.

“I’ve never met anyone like you, Violet.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

“Are you going to keep staring at the mountains and not at me while we talk?” he mocks.

“Are you going to keep purposely trying to embarrass me?”

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