Page 27 of Intrigued
“It’s an indoor pool.”
“Oh, I see.” I looked down at my outfit. I was overdressed. “Do you have bathing suits for guests?”
“Yes, Miss Henderson.”
Hearing him call me that made me want to puke. “Please, call me Holly.”
“Yes, Holly.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll show you to the dressing room in the pool area. The bathing suits are there.”
I thanked him again as he led the way.
* * *
The indoor swimmingpool was designed in the style of a Roman bathhouse with blue-and-orange decorative Mediterranean tile covering the bottom and edges. I stood at the edge, watching Gina finish her lap. She was a smooth and graceful swimmer.
When she made it to the end, she removed her goggles and swiped a hand down her face to remove the extra water. “What are you doing here?” she asked just as bitingly as I’d expected.
I dove in the best I could. The warm water engulfed me as I swam to her. I had to think as I went. A woman like Gina was always a hard nut to crack for anyone without a penis. She’d already dubbed me competition, so I was determined to let her win.
I took the last few feet underwater. Her legs were against the side of the pool. As I predicted, she stayed put.
“Whew,” I said as I wiped the water off my face. “You’re so much better at that than I am. I can tell you’ve trained professionally.”
Gina’s eyebrows furrowed. I could tell she was taken aback by my observation. “Yeah, I have trained.” She shrugged indifferently. “In junior high. That was a long time ago, though.” A veil of sadness covered her face, but it was quickly replaced by a look of toughness. “What do you want?”
I pressed my back against the wall and lifted my legs to float above water. “I don’t want anything. It’s cold out there and warm in here.” I glanced at her. “You really are a good swimmer, though.”
“Thank you,” she muttered after a few beats. “You’re okay too.”
I chuckled. “Are you kidding me? What you saw was the best I could ever do.”
“I was really good when I competed. I never lost a match.”
“Why did you quit?”
She frowned then shook her head. “I just quit.”
“Oh,” I said, nodding understandingly.
Gina studied me for a moment. “Men are just fucking pigs, aren’t they?”
“They could be. You’re with Asher. Is he a fucking pig?”
“Not as much as Spencer,” she said.
I tried to contain my relief. I was getting her to walk on my trail, so to speak. “Yeah, he’s pretty much a crude asshole.”
“He’s like that with all women, so…” She shrugged.
I understood that she was attempting to convey that I shouldn’t think I was something special. But she had no idea how she’d further opened the door for me to get what I needed out of her.
“Someone like that would be crude to all women,” I said.
She snarled. “Someone like what?”
