Page 101 of His Greatest Treasure

I’m starting to believe it never will.

33

AVERY

I’m incredibly horny.

I’m not joking. It doesn’t feel funny either. Not in the slightest.

There’s something criminally sexy about a buff hulk of a man playing mermaids in the pool with your daughter while you get to lounge on a hot pink floatie and drink a bellini that he made you.

Nova squeals and screams as Oliver picks her up and tosses her into the water again. She surfaces with a grin so big it makes her eyes squint nearly closed before she swipes her hand through the water to splash him. The water hits me instead, and I gasp at the shock of cool water under the hot sun.

“Mermans aren’t supposed to stand, Ollie!” she tells him when he starts to chase her around the pool.

“Why not? You’re standing,” he replies.

“Mermaidsare different. We’re special!”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Too bad.” She giggles and splashes him again seconds before she’s yanked into his arms.

He holds her above his head, grip strong even as she wiggles and reaches for me on my floatie. I shake my head at her and lift my cup in the air. She doesn’t have to know it’s empty.

“Sorry, sweetie. You’re on your own this time.”

“Mom!”

“You heard her,” Oliver says. Our eyes catch behind my dark sunglasses as he smirks and takes a step closer. Unease creeps in.

“Don’t, Oliver,” I warn, already dipping my free arm in the water to try to paddle further away from him.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t dump her beside me.”

“What do you mean? Like this?”

Nova falls into the pool with a splash that swells over my pool floatie and wets my entire body. Nova grips the side of my floatie to try and stay above the water, and it goes rolling, sending me falling in beside her with my mouth and eyes open.

Water fills my ears, but I shut my mouth and blow the rest of the air out of my lungs before I resurface. I wipe the water from my eyes before pinning Oliver in place with them, fire in my belly. My cup is gone, floating in the water, and I leave it.

“You’re going to pay for that,” I threaten, standing now.

My bikini’s modest, with ultra-high-waisted bottoms and a top with thick straps and a wide chest, but the way he stares at me right now tells me I might as well be wearing nothing.

I lick my lips and arch a brow in a silent question. I’m egging him on, and I fucking love it. His reactions not only boost my ego, but they make me feel like a woman again and not just Nova’s mom. I’m desired by someone, and not just by any man.

By Oliver.

His chest moves with his slow, even breaths, and the water dripping from the ends of his hair and down his chest is downright sinful.

“How do you plan on making me pay, princess?”

His pool is big. Huge, really. The water hits below my breasts and Nova’s chin, and as I take a leap at him, he goes down beneath it like a dead weight.

My arms wrap around his shoulders as I fall onto him andcling like a koala. He grips me back with an arm banded along my back as he pushes us up through the water until we break above it.

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