Page 41 of Rebel Obsession

She shuddered. “I can’t.”

I didn’t like the way she trembled. I reached a hand out to steady her. “Hey. Are you really going to let him take this from you?”

Her jaw hardened. “Why, Vaughn? Why say that? I really hate you knew that was probably the one thing you could say that would get me to go.”

My smile widened, and I tugged her hand toward the stairs. “I just wanted to see you in a bikini, Roach. Don’t read too much into it.”

She shoved me but ran up the stairs. When she hit the landing, her little smile gave me one of my own. She had a light in her that had a way of making everything better. Even the mess I’d made with Kian. I didn’t want to see that light go out.

* * *

The indoor swimming pool was surrounded by a vague haze of chlorine. Rebel wrinkled her nose. “Why does the oversized bathtub of death smell so bad?”

It had been a very long time since I’d been to the aquatic center here, but nothing had changed. I strode toward the changing rooms. “So you don’t get sick from all those little kids peeing and pooping in it.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she stared over at the handful of kids playing in the knee-deep water of the kids’ section. “You’re joking, right?”

“Not really.”

She trailed after me. “And yet you still get in there willingly?”

“It’s worth it. I need to swim, and the ocean is too cold this time of year.”

I dumped my sports bag down on a bench seat outside the changing rooms then pulled off my hoodie. My sneakers and sweatpants came next.

Rebel sniggered. “Nice Speedo.” But her gaze dipped down my body, rolling slowly over my abs, and then lower, along the trail of hair beneath my belly button. She coughed. “They don’t leave much to the imagination, do they?”

“Are you complaining?”

She dragged her gaze back up to my face, but it was with clear reluctance. “No, sir, I am not.”

Fuck. If she kept looking at me like that, I was going to want to do a lot more than swim with her. I cleared my throat and distracted myself by digging through my duffel bag. “Get your gear off. I brought you my extra pair of goggles. I’ve got a swim cap in here somewhere too, if you don’t want to get your hair wet. Is that what you’re swimming in?”

She’d stripped her warm outer layers and stood in a black pair of running shorts I was sure had never been used for their intended purpose. On her top half was an oversized black T-shirt that might have actually been one of mine she’d swiped from the laundry.

“Yes.”

I shook my head. “That shirt will drown you.”

She shoved her hands on her hips. “I’ll be fine.”

I pointed at a sign. “You can’t wear T-shirts in the pool anyway. The colors leech out and ruin the pool’s pH or something like that.”

She scowled at the sign that did indeed state regular T-shirts could not be worn into the pool. Specific Lycra swim shirts were fine, but what Rebel was wearing was not.

She shoved her hands on her hips. “That just seems like a ploy by some pervy old guy in management who wants to see some skin. Sexist creep.”

“At the risk of sounding like that guy, what have you got under that?” I asked.

She grinned, looked around, and noticing no one was behind me, lifted her shirt to flash me.

It was a well-designed flash. All I caught was a glimpse of her bare underboob. No nipple. But it was enough to send blood rushing to my dick.

Not wanting to terrify the children across the other side of the pool and their bored mothers watching, I turned and dove into the pool. I flinched at the temperature. It was heated but still a bit of a shock to the system. The water rushed around me, filling my ears, and I blew out to keep the water from going up my nose. I hadn’t even put my goggles on, so I had to squeeze my eyes tight. I swam blindly to the other end of the pool, did a neat somersault, and was halfway back before I had myself under control. I slowed my strokes, treading water while I swiped at my eyes.

Rebel wasn’t standing at the other end.

I used my hands and feet to propel me in a circle, searching for her, but couldn’t see her mop of dark, short hair anywhere. “Rebel?”

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