Page 7 of Reign

I also know my rack is one of my best attributes as it sits high above my toned waist. If he’s going to make it so damn hard for me to concentrate and work on forgiving his ass, then he’s going to suffer along with me.

The way his pupils are blown out tells me that my vindictive stunt is working. I place my towel on the far side of the pool, hating myself a little for being so childish, but this is war and I’m not going to back down until he’s fully in my camp. I’ll draw a line in the sand until I’m satisfied that I never have to wonder which side he’s on ever again.

He watches my every move as silent and still as the grave. I suppress a smile when I hear Camila try to snap him out of it and finish their conversation as I make my way to the stairs of the pool. I want to cool off before I rub my bronzer in since it needs twenty minutes to dry. My hair is still in a long ponytail from my run and it’s currently floating at my left shoulder. My turquoise bikini is turning darker where it’s wet. I drop under the water and push the loose strands back from my face, ignoring Cas’s end of the pool entirely. I swim under the little tunnel to take a deep breath and evaluate my life just as I hear a body hit the water.

Cas enters the stone tunnel from the other side, through the waterfall. The way the light bounces around the opening makes the water’s reflection dance on the stone.

“You’re fucking killing me and you know it,” he growls. His voice echoes in the hollow space. I feel my resolve weakening as his own wet body slowly drifts toward me. Cas without a shirt on is hard to ignore. The man is huge. Two hundred and twenty pounds of testosterone. His shoulders are thick and broad. The biceps coming down his arms are coated in the perfect amount of veins that leak into his tan forearms. His chest is perfectly proportional and absolutely solid.

I stop my eyes from going any lower because I know I’m a goner as soon as I see his abs and the damn divots where his obliques attach to his hip bones. Fuck that “V”. When I look back up at him, his emerald eyes are mocking me.

“I didn’t tell you to come in here,” I say defiantly. “If you’re struggling, you have no one to blame but yourself.”

Faster than lightning, his hand shoots out and grabs my throat. Not hard enough to bruise me or cut off my air supply, but hard enough that I know he’s having trouble holding back.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Libby.” He moves his thumb so he can run his nose along my neck up to the sensitive spot behind my ear. I want to shiver so badly but I fight it and turn my head away from him.

“I’m not playing any game, Cas.”

Lie.

He pushes into me with his massive frame, backing me up against the stone wall of the tunnel. “If I tried to take you right here, I wonder if you’d stop me.” He’s let go of my neck and has one hand braced on the wall behind me as he trails his other index finger down my neck and chest all while I stand there trying to keep my jaw relaxed and my breathing even. He’s close enough that I can smell him but he’s far enough away that the space is painful.

I stay quiet as I let him continue to assault all of my senses. I damn near cave when he picks my hand up out of the water and places it on his chest. Instead of placing it over his heart and saying something sweet about how it beats for me, he keeps hold of my hand and trails it down his hard body, stopping just at the top of his swim trunks.

Asshole.

I know he can hear my ragged breathing and I’m swallowing too loudly. Yes, he turns me on. Hard. Like no one else ever has. But this is going to be done on my timeframe.

I let my hand fall away from his glorious body into the water.

Keeping my tone business-like – but not bitchy – I tell him about meeting the neighbors. “We’ve been invited to their get-together tomorrow. Camila too. I told them she was your cousin.”

His bark of laughter is loud in the tunnel. “Oh, she’s going to love that.”

“I’m glad you think so, because you’re the one that’s going to tell her.” I slip out of the tunnel and head back to my chair to start lathering on the bronzer.

Four

Casper/Dominic/Casandro

THERE’S NO DOUBT IN MY mind that Libby knows exactly what she’s doing. I’ll let her have her revenge…for a while at least. But when she snaps my self- control, she isn’t going to like it because I’ll prove who holds the power and I’ll make her beg for it.

Once she gets out of the pool and begins to rub herself down with bronzer, I take that as my cue to leave. I think briefly about asking if she wants help getting her back, but part of me knows that shewantsme to ask. She wants to punish me but little does she know this is a game I enjoy oh-so-much. Now that she’s made her plan known, I have every intention of winning. I let her get all lathered up as I wrap my towel around my waist and head inside.

No way am I staying to navigate the land mine she’s set up. If I stay in my current chair, I’m choosing Camila, but if I try to sit closer to her, she’s going to ignore me anywayandCamila will be pissed at me too.

Nope. I’m going in to shower and get back to work.

As I turn to go inside, Camila calls my name. “Cas, wait.” I see Libby’s head snap up from where she’s looking down as she applies her lotion. Camila grabs something off the side table and moves gracefully off her lounger. “You forgot this. Turn around.”

My “A” pendant. I take it off when I swim for fear of losing it. It’s the only time it comes off. I give Camila my back – which means I’m facing Libby – as Camila reaches around my neck to set the pendant.

“I know how much this means to you,” she says loud enough for Libby to hear. I can’t tell if she’s being sincere because she remembers Adriana and how much I loved her or if she’s being a bitch and joining this mind-fuck of a battle-of-the-wills that Libby and I have entered. Once I feel the clasp catch, I walk off the pool deck without speaking to either of them again.

~

I SLIDE MY ARM INTO THE sleeve of the navy suit coat and shrug my shoulders so it settles into place. Tugging on the sleeves and adjusting my watch, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. The house has a full gym in the basement which I’ve been able to take advantage of and I’m starting to feel more like myself as I develop a routine.

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