Page 204 of Ruthless Kings of Havoc

Even to the last second.

I count down in my head, diving into the waters when I hit twenty-one seconds. My strokes are as swift as my kicks, and I can see the balloon get closer and closer with every peak.

When there’s five seconds left, I’m crashing into Ares, causing him to gasp. I reach in time to grab the white string of the balloon, stopping it from drifting into the sky while I use my other hand to quickly tap the floating object.

“THERE!” I cheer and have to try not to sink by kicking my legs and moving one of my arms underwater to keep me steady. “WE WIN!”

“Sweet Canary?” Ares asks and looks utterly confused. “Win what?”

“The challenge!” I huff and point to where Zander is standing. He waves the note in his grasp before I look at Ares. “We did it! It said to hit the red dot! Why were you holding this balloon?”

“Matteo told me to give it to you when you come out to swim,” he reveals.

“S-Swim?” I stare at him. “I had no intention of swimming. I’m not even wearing underwear!”

He takes a moment to lower his gaze to the water, making me blush as I splash him with water. He snickers and swims back a bit to make some distance between us.

“No! No lake sex!”

“Why not?” he inquires with a silly smirk that makes me want to drench him with more water.

“We have to figure out the challenge prize!” I huff and splash him some more. “That’s why I raced here on the bike with Zander!”

“Oh,” Ares seems to understand now, which is why his approach tames my need to drench him with more water. “Let’s swim closer to the deck so we can stand,” he encourages.

I decide that will be smart and easier on my limbs. All these up-and-down spikes of adrenaline are making me tired as fuck.

After good fucking sex, too, I’m drained.

We swim to the shallow end of the deck, and Ares helps me up onto the wooden deck. Rising to my feet, I pull out my hair tie, hating how heavy my ponytail is now that I’m drenched.

The balloon is tied to my wrist, thanks to Ares’ help, but I’m waiting for the grand prize.

When Ares faces me, he pauses in whatever he has to say to admire me from head to toe. I end up crossing my arms because I want to know if we won the challenge or not.

“Ares! What’s the grand prize? No. Did we win the challenge?”

“Um…” It’s as though he doesn’t want to concentrate on that. “You won’t focus on anything else until you know, huh?”

“Yes!” I’m determined to find out.

The low chuckle draws my attention to my right, where the patio deck that connects to the beautiful wooden cottage shows a pleased Matteo.

“You’re so competitive,” he says when our eyes lock. “You also look very tempting wet, Sweet Precious.”

“What…” I hold my statement to look down and acknowledge why Ares is so distracted.

Zander’s shirt is white.

Drenched.

Completely see-through.

My groan of frustration couldn’t be any louder.

“I might as well walk naked!”

“That could be arranged,” Ares offers. “We’re the only ones here.”

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