Page 68 of Bloom: Part 1

“You are.” I ran my hands up his thighs, unable to resist teasing him. “But who knows? Maybe in the future—”

“In the future, I’ll cut off your balls, that’s what!”

He lashed a foot out at me, and I almost sank as hard as I was laughing. I swam away from him. “You’ll have to catch me first.”

“Don’t think because I can’t swim, I won’t come in after you.”

He couldn’t swim? Ah well, I inched closer to him to taunt him some more. “How are you going to reach my balls, Bloom? If you want them as a trophy, you’ll have to—”

He scrambled to his feet and jumped, aiming right at my head. I swam away in a quick burst of energy, barely dodging his incoming body-crash.

Had he been joking when he said he couldn’t swim?

Bloom stared at me with wide eyes and disappeared underwater. He shot back to the surface, arms flailing.

“You’re going to have to do better than that to fool me.”

Bloom splashed more water at me, his panic-stricken face barely above the surface. “I’m not fooling! I can’t—swim!”

Did he expect me to believe him? Who jumped into a pool when they couldn’t swim? Not even he would be that foolish.

He held my gaze for a moment, but then he spit out a spurt of water and sank again. And didn’t resurface. The water rippled where he had been, then went still.

But then again, he’s the same guy who stabbed himself in the thigh just so I could give him medical attention. Is there anything he wouldn’t do?

My heart pounded in my ears, and I stopped laughing. “Bloom?” I called, but there was no response. “This is no longer funny.”

Bubbles floated up where he had disappeared.

“Damn…” I muttered, diving underwater in search of him.

Swimming as fast as possible, I finally reached him. He looked almost peaceful, with his long dark hair floating like tendrils of ink. Shit, he truly couldn’t swim.

I hooked my arm around his chest and kicked hard to propel us back to the surface. With a gasp, we emerged from the water, and the world righted itself. I dragged Bloom over to the edge of the pool and helped him out, then climbed out after him.

Bloom coughed violently, spewing water from his lungs. His skin was pale beneath the sheen of wet droplets clinging to it.

My hands shook as I touched his face. “Are you trying to kill yourself?” I snapped, but I regretted my harsh words as soon asthey left my lips. “Why are you always so reckless? Doesn’t it matter to you how devastated I would be if I lost you?”

“You said—”

“For fuck’s sake, Bloom, you’re the only one I constantly think about. When will you get that through your thick skull? I don’t give a damn about anyone else. Only you. How can there be anyone else after you? Do you understand?”

He nodded weakly and climbed me with his arms and legs wrapped around me. His chest rose and fell erratically, and his heartbeat hammered against my chest. I tightened my grip around him.

“Do you think I’m crazy?” he whispered.

“No. I think you’re impulsive and reckless because you don’t value your life. I need to give those bikers a piece of my mind for raising you that way.”

“My death won’t mean anything. There’s not even any record of my birth. No one would know I existed.”

“Your brothers do. They care about you, though they piss me off for what they’ve gotten you into.”

“Yeah, but with them, it’s different. In our way of life, death is just a part of it. They’d miss me but move on.”

“But what about me?” I stroked his damp hair away from his face. “I was so angry last night when you rode off recklessly because I was afraid you’d crash and die. We’ve just begun. I haven’t had enough time with you yet. The way I feel about you, the time I’ll spend with you will never seem enough, so you’re not allowed to be so reckless again, do you hear me?”

“Logan.” He placed his chin on my shoulder. “Do you really care about me?”

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