Page 41 of Textbook Defense

ROWAN DIDN’Tknow what he expected from life at the Shaw residence, but this wasn’t it.

His general experience with people in Jordy’s tax bracket was that they handed off as much work as they could to hired help and had cold, sterile homes. In contrast, Jordy was a hands-on dad who didn’t expect a perfectly kept house. He liked to let Kaira do things for herself, even if that meant they didn’t get done perfectly—too much toothpaste on the toothbrush, missing a few Cheerios when sweeping up spilled breakfast cereal, dressing in an outfit even a rodeo clown wouldn’t touch.

But even if Jordy wasn’t your typical rich dad, the house did have the trappings—the full nanny suite, for example, and the butler kitchen.

And, most distressingly, the pool.

In theory, the pool was great. In practice….

“Pleasecome swimming with us,” Kaira begged. She was already decked out in pink-and-yellow polka dots and a lime-green sun hat. “It’ll be fun! You have a bathing suit, right? If you don’t, you can borrow one of my daddy’s!”

“I have a bathing suit,” Rowan promised. He absolutely wanted to get into Jordy’s pants, but not like that.

“Yes!” Kaira whooped. “Okay, we’ll be in the pool. Bye!”

“Not until I get there,” Jordy yelled back over his shoulder as her bare feet slapped against the patio tile.

Kaira had already stopped at the edge of the patio, six feet from the pool’s edge, and sat down on a chaise longue. “I know, Daddy!”

Jordy turned his body so he could see her. “You don’t have to,” he told Rowan. “She’s got to get used to you saying no to her sometime.”

“It’s thirty degrees outside and more humid than a bowl of soup,” Rowan said. He would love to get out of the house and get some exercise, but he wasn’t playing Ultimate in this. “Swimming sounds great.”

And it did. Truly. Rowan went down to his bedroom, put on his suit, grabbed a beach towel from the linen closet, and went outside, thinking of nothing more than getting some much-needed exercise in this heat wave.

And then the heat wave attacked him personally.

Rowan was just innocently leaving the house, sliding the patio door closed behind him and shifting from foot to foot to keep the hot pavement from burning his soles. But he was still only two meters from the house when all the breath whooshed out of his lungs.

It wasn’t like he’d forgotten Jordy was attractive. Rowan had seen him sleep-rumpled and scruffy before his morning shave, sweaty from his home gym workouts, and dressed to the nines in an actual tuxedo, and somehow he had never had to excuse himself to ice his crotch.

Unfortunately, none of that prepared him for Jordy crouching half-naked in waist-deep water as his daughter scrambled onto his shoulders, only for him to push up suddenly to his full height, tanned muscles glistening as water cascaded down his body, and launch a squealing Kaira several feet through the air. Rowan assumed she splashed down safely in thepool, but she might as well have achieved orbit for all he knew. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Jordy—from the triangular patch of hair between Jordy’s collarbones and his nipples, or the smaller diamond-shaped one below his navel, or the definition in his chest, or the extremely generous curve of his ass.

Merciful gods. He might have whimpered.

Then Jordy turned toward him, absolutelybeamingas Kaira dog-paddled back toward him and clung to his arm. “Rowan! Come on in, the water’s great.”

Rowan was having an out-of-body experience. At least, he thought hysterically as Kaira’s spirited climbing of her father almost resulted in a wardrobe malfunction, he’d had the foresight to carry his towel in front of him.

Clinging to the tattered remains of his composure, he picked his way across the hot cement, dropped his towel on a lounge chair near the diving board, and cannonballed into the water. With any luck, the cool water would keep him from embarrassing himself.

It worked, mostly. Having a six-year-old chaperone-slash-dictator didn’t hurt either. Kaira kept them both busy throwing, if not herself (Jordy), then rings onto the bottom of the shallow end for her to retrieve (Rowan). She cajoled them into racing, and Rowan lost spectacularly. She wanted to show off her handstand technique, which was admittedly impressive, though she had the advantage of the water holding up 90 percent of her body weight.

Finally Kaira’s energy waned and she dragged a butterfly-shaped floatie into the pool to lounge on. Between the sun and the water and the tremendous energy Rowan was expending restraining himself from licking Jordy all over, he was pretty zonked too and was considering an early afternoon nap.

So of course, before he could make any kind of escape, Jordy turned those beautiful brown eyes on Rowan, smiled, and said, “Can I ask you something?”

Rowan knew he must have heatstroke, because the first thing that popped into his mind wasyes I bottom, but he managed to say, “I’m an open book” instead, like a semi normal person.

Jordy pillowed his head on his hands on the side of the pool and asked, “Why a librarian?”

It was an innocent question, on the surface. Rowan had heard it enough times from his parents, laced with derision and scorn, so he normally had an instinctive gut-punch reaction. But Rowan felt the weight of Jordy’s gaze on him like the heat of the sun, and that light was pure warmth and curiosity.

Oh yeah. Definitely heatstroke.

Rowan skimmed his fingers across the surface of the water. “I usually tell people I’m a nerd who likes learning and organizing.”

Jordy hummed and turned himself over, supporting himself with his arms on the sides of the pool and his chest up to catch the sun, as if he were a giant solar panel. “But that’s not what you’re going to tell me?”

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