Page 120 of The Grand Rise

I glance to my left and find Lance still at my side. He seems to glower at me before locking his leg around mine, dragging it to him. Effectively pulling me from my handstand.

As I push up toward the surface, his hands dance up my thighs, my stomach.

“A draw!” Ave whines as we both surface. “Let me practise. I ate water down there.” She dips down again, her toes barely peeking out of the water.

Lance swims to stand at her side, helping her keep her legs straight until she comes up again, takes a gasp for air and goes back down.

I watch as he grins, running his hand through the soaked black strands of his hair.

Nobody should look this good wet.

“How was your phone call?” I ask, inching back until my shoulders rest against the wall. “Not something that could wait until you were home?”

He shakes his head without looking at me, his eyes remaining on Ave under the water. He taps her ankle, and she swims up. “That was my longest yet!” she squeals.

Lance high fives her before she swims off down the pool, heading for the giant unicorn float at the other end.

“It was short but sweet. And it would’ve been highly inappropriate to wait until I got home. Painful even.”

I try to hold back my smile as he swims toward me. “It didn’t last very long?”

I feel his eyes on the side of my face. “No.”

“Doesn’t sound like a very intimate phone call.”

He turns away from Ave, facing his body out toward the ocean. His shoulder brushes mine. “There’s nothing intimate about my cock in my own hand while I think about the feel of you wrapped around it, sunshine. Sucking on it. Dripping down it.” I don’t dare look at him. “That’s not intimate? Am I getting that right?”

“That’s right.” I compose myself before turning my head toward him, finding his cheeks tinted red. I can’t help but bounce my eyes around his face. “That’s just a man with a dirty mind jacking off in a bathroom. It makes sense, though.” I shrug. “You never could last long when it was me under you.”

“I don’t remember you ever complaining.” He looks over his shoulder before inching closer, his mouth ghosting my ear as he reaches out and tugs on the ring that dangles from the end of my necklace. “And, baby, I jacked off in your bed, not a bathroom. If you’re going to make my dick hard, you’re sure as fuck going to let me lie where you sleep when I come for you.”

My heart trips over itself, my chest working faster as a scarlet flush covers it. “You’re too much,” I mutter, side-eyeing him.

He runs his hands through his hair as he relaxes back against the pool. “You make me this way.”

I push off from the wall, making sure to put my ass in the air as I swim under and surface again, creating a distance between us. I push my hair back, clearing the water from my face. “So, itwasa good phone call?” I ask, playful.

His smirk is pure promise as he lazes in the heat of the sun. “Fucking lovely, sunshine.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Lance

I’m barely out of the shower when there’s a knock on my bedroom door. Wrapping my towel around my waist, I head over and open it. My smile is instant. “You’re spoiling me.”

Scarlet stands on the other side of the threshold, freshly showered and wearing a long, black, holey, see-through contraption that makes my balls ache. Her lavender hair is pulled high, twisted in a bun.

She licks at her glossy lips, her eyes fighting to stay on my face. “I just came to tell you to dress up tonight. Wear a shirt.”

I tip up my chin. “Why?”

“Just do it,” she snaps, not taking my shit. She looks over her shoulder.

When she turns back to me, I cock my head for her to come inside, smiling.

“No,” she whispers, but doesn’t move.

I grin and step over the threshold, wrapping one arm around her waist to secure her to my body as I lift her, carrying her inside. I shut the door behind me.

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