Page 64 of Totally Opposed

“Wow, thank god he saw you.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t like it is now, with lifeguards at every edge of the pool. If he hadn’t pulled me up, it would have ended very differently for our family that day.”

“Well, no wonder you don’t like pools. Fuck, I’ve never had anything that scary happen to me. I have no idea how to help you,” he says, his grip on my hands tightening just a little.

“This helps.”

“What?”

“Having you here with me. Seeing you swim, seeing how happy it makes you. I guess it kind of makes me want to see the water as something more than the thing that almost killed me.”

He pulls me in close, and I let go of his hands so that he can wrap them around me. My fingers link behind his back, and when his chest presses against mine, my cock responds.

“Okay, now all I can think about is how much I wish we were both naked right now.” I laugh, and he smiles that cheeky grin.

“If I didn’t care about my membership here, I’d say let’s do it. But at least your mind is on something else, right?”

“Right.”

“Do you want to try to go deeper?”

“No. I mean, yes. I don’t want to, but I think I can.”

“We’ll take it slow,” he says, leaning up and kissing me. His lips are cool and have a slight chlorine taste. I’d rather have the memories of his mouth on mine brought to the surface whenever I smell chlorine than that day, so I deepen the kiss and breathe in deeply, trying to replace the bad with the absolutely freaking amazing.

He moves us deeper, my eyes closed, my mouth busy tasting him, and when we finally break our kiss, I find the water is up to my neck.

I take a deep breath. My heart rate starts to pick up a little, but I can’t let this fear beat me. I sweep my hands down his arms to his hands and hold on tight.

“Don’t let me go,” I say, and he nods.

“I won’t.”

Then I do something I haven’t done since I was a ten-year-old boy at a pool with his brothers. I let my knees bend and let myself slip under the surface of the water. My eyes and mouth are squeezed shut tight, and I count in my head.One. Two. Three. Four. Five.I have to get to ten. I know I can get to ten. Ryan doesn’t move a muscle, and when I finally reach ten seconds, push up out of the water, and see his smiling face waiting for me, I kiss him again.

“I can’t believe I did that,” I say, breaking our kiss. My heart is pounding so fast as the adrenaline sweeps through my body. I went under the water and I’m okay. I’m better than okay. I feel amazing. Like I can do anything. “I’ve never had any issues having my face under the water of the shower, but the idea of being under the water in the pool was never something I thought I would even want to try. But it wasn’t as scary as I thought.”

“Did you want to do it again, together?”

“Yes. Oh, I’ll try to open my eyes this time.”

“Just be careful. The chlorine might sting your eyes if they are open too long. How about we go for five seconds with our eyes open?”

“Okay, ready?”

“Whenever you are.”

I count down, and then we both go under the water. My eyes close on instinct, but I force them open, and when I see his brilliant bright blue eyes smiling back at me, I am so glad I did. I forget about counting and let go of his hands to take hold of his face and kiss him under the water.

Big mistake. Everything I’ve seen in movies is a lie. Kissing underwater is fucking hard. The second I open my mouth, the water gushes inside, and my nose wants to breathe, so I snort back a little before breaking away and pushing up out of the water, coughing and sputtering.

“Are you okay? Oh my god, I’m sorry, are you alright?” Ryan asks, patting my back as I spit and sputter, and he leads me towards the edge.

I want to tell him I’m okay. It just got up my nose, but the sting of the water burns, and all my focus is on clearing it.

Finally, I suck in a few deep breaths and relax against the edge.

“I’m okay. That was stupid.”

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