Page 72 of Cherry Auction

I splash him, fully expecting him to return it. When he doesn’t, I splash him again.

A devilish look enters his eyes, and his long body kicks off the edge of the pool and rockets towards me. I squeal, suck in a breath, and start to swim away but it’s no use. He lassos me around my waist and I screech in laughter as he swings me around in the water.

By the time we settle, we’re face to face. I lasso my arms around his neck and grin into his dripping face. My god, he’s gorgeous. His strong jaw is one thing, but those sharpcheekbones make him something out of a magazine. Women must throw themselves at him constantly.

“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” I ask. Then I scoff, “Fuck that. Why don’t you have a wife and a whole shitload of kids? You’re so fucking hot.”

He grins at me, his rows of white teeth with those endearing incisors slightly out of place only making him more devastating.

“The mots down at the club certainly think so. Got ‘em fighting over a night with me.”

“Ugh!” I pound his chest, then slip out of his arms.

Using my arms in powerful strokes, I swim down deep, near the bottom of the pool. Domhn dives after me but I barely look back. I swim along the bottom for as long as I can before having to surface. It feels exhilarating to utilize every muscle in my body as I cut through the water. My lungs are bursting for breath, but I don’t even care.

“What the hell are you thinking?” Domhn demands, bursting through the surface moments after I do. He immediately pulls me back to his chest. He sounds panicked. “Don’t take chances like that! What if I couldn’t get to you in time? I can’t lose you again!”

“Wha— Donny!” I try to say, half smothered in his barrel chest as he heaves in and out for breath. We’re in the shallow end now so I stand on my feet as I push him away enough to get a breath and look him in the eye.

“Christ sake, Donny,” I say in exasperation. “I’m fine!You can’t control every little thing I do. I told you I know how to swim.”

“We don’t know what you do and don’t know how to do,” he exclaims, still irate. “You can’t be taking chances with yourself.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That wasn’t a chance. I can swim. You just saw.” I fling out an arm towards the pool. “I can only find out if I can do things bydoingthem. Are you going to freak out if I try to see if I can ride a bike? Or a motorcycle?”

His eyes darken as he glowers down at me. “You arenotriding a motorcycle. You’re twenty-five more times as likely to die in a motorcycle accident as a car accident.”

I roll my eyes again. “That’s not a real statistic. You just pulled that out of your ass.”

“It’s close enough.” He glares. “No motorcycles.”

“Fine.” I stick out my tongue, chest so light and happy at getting to be silly with him. “But you can’t stop me from swimming!” I dive towards the bottom of the pool again, swimming just past his grasping hands.

We swim for a long time, goofing around like we’re kids and occasionally tangling our bodies together. I’m fully naked but he kept his boxers on.

After about half an hour, I accidentally snort in some water and cough a little. I don’t want Domhnall to know, so I swim over to the side for the towel but can’t quite reach it. Domhnall chuckles and swims up beside me. He easily hopsout of the pool to grab the towel from the bench, but I gasp, hands flying to my mouth.

The whole time we’ve been swimming, he’s kept his chest to me, but as he climbs out?—

“Domhn!” I cry. “Your back!”

TWENTY-NINE

BROOKE

Domhnall immediately whips around,his features unreadable. “It’s nothing.”

I’m still in shock from what I just saw. I climb out of the pool. I need to see it again. Some of those wounds looked fresh. Oh my god, he probably shouldn’t have even been swimming.

“Donny, who did that to you?” I demand, trying to walk around to see the horrific scarring again. I only caught a glimpse, but it was his entire back, fresh angry stripes barely scabbed, laid over old, raised pink scars. I’ve never seen anything so horrific. Tears immediately spring to my eyes.

But when I try to look again, Domhnall just keeps turning, as if determined to keep his broad chest to me.

“Donny,” I demand. “Let me see!”

“It’s fine,” he says, still dancing away from me every time I almost manage to get around him.

“It’s not fine! Some of those are fresh. Who did that to you?” Tears flood down my cheeks but he’s still not letting me see.

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