Page 41 of Never Always
“Maybe it was for you and maybe it was for me.”
His gaze appraises me. “It’s for me. I love it.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “No jokes?”
He narrows his eyes. “The way you look right now is anything but a joke.” He tugs on my leg. “Come in.”
I sit on the edge, the cool cement against my bottom and thighs makes me shiver. Wrapping my hands around his neck, I slide into the warm water. His hands immediately skirt my body, to all of the exposed skin, and the purchase has already been validated. “This is magical,” I whisper, gaze flickering around to the expanse of the inky water tinged with lights bobbing. “It’s so beautiful. So romantic.” Some of the sticks have been weighted down to sink to the cavernous bottom, others float in the middle.
“It might be the only scenario where our tactical glow sticks can be called beautiful and romantic.” His chuckle vibrates against my chest. “I’m glad you like it. When it warms up outside next summer, we can go scuba diving in the actual ocean.”
“Thank you.” I swallow down the emotion clogging my throat. “It means a lot that you’d go through this trouble.”
Grange takes us into shallower water, where he can stand and I wrap my legs around his waist. “I have a confession,” he murmurs. “This was Rexy’s idea. He took Maeve for a night swim here when they first started dating.”
“No originality,” I coo, playing at mock offense.
He holds up a finger. “The glow sticks were all mine. That’s totally the romantic part anyway.”
“That puts you ahead only a little.”
Leaning down, he kisses my neck, then my collarbone.
“Just a little?” he claps back.
Tilting my head to the side, I give him better access, his mouth glazes the hollow of my throat. “More than a little.”
When he pulls away, his eyes are lazy, his lashes wet and hair hanging attractively in his face. “A lot. You’re ahead a lot, Grange.” I lay a hand on the side of his rugged jaw. I lick my lips, and he pulls away, setting my feet on the bottom of the pool. He walks over to the side of the pool and grabs a couple pairs of flippers.
He extends the smaller pair to me. “Put these on. We’re going deep.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Are we racing?”
He returns my smile as he slides his flippers on. “You could say that.”
I slide my feet in and they’re a little big. “You have the advantage in the water.”
“I have the advantage on land, too, but who is counting?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are perfect. Everybody knows it.”
“Never perfect,” Grange says, taking my face in his hands. “Always confident.”
His eyes glaze over for a half second, and I can tell he’s thinking about something—is a million miles away from where we are right now. He shakes it off and tells me to swim as fast as I can to the deep side and to stay under as long as I can.
“My breath holding sucks,” I admit. “Scuba has ruined me.”
“Go,” he says, sliding under the black surface and disappearing. I watch him, his body glowing in sections as he passes through the shimmering sticks. Sinking under, I hold my breath and swim in the direction he headed. I don’t have goggles, but I open my eyes anyway. The lights are stunning against the black and I’m distracted completely. I’m pretending I am in the sea when he grabs me by the waist and thrusts us up to the surface.
“Get a good big breath and remember that anything underwater doesn’t count. Anything SEALs do underwater never really happens.”
“What?” I say, but Grange is pulling me under, deeper than I just was. He’s holding me close and then he stops, I open my eyes and his face is lit by a yellow glow stick, his eyes open, his hands slide to my head and he crashes his lips against mine, a violent passionate embrace—our first kiss. I forget to kick my feet; my mind is only thinking about his lips. His mouth against mine. I can taste him mixed with the saltwater and if I had any breath to lose he’d own that too.
I pull away when I realize I’m out of oxygen. Swimming up, I look down right before I reach the top and he’s watching me from below—a dark figure hovering, as if he’s made of water. Like he’s unable to follow, trapped somewhere I can’t save him.
Gasping when I reach the surface, it takes several moments to catch my breath. My pulse is pounding in my ears and then I recall what he said before we went under and my heart sinks.Doesn’t count.
Grange stays under longer than I thought was humanly possible, I honestly consider going under to see if he’s still alive, but he bobs up against the back wall and rests both elbows on the edge of the pool.
