Page 40 of Our Secret Moments

When my finger dips down her back, slightly tugging on the band of her bikini top, her back arches into mine. I have to suppress my groan, feeling just how badly I want her in my shorts. I slip my hand under the back of her bikini, feeling her bare skin beneath my palm as my breathing matches her desperate breaths.

“Connor…” she whispers, my name passing through her lips in a breathy and almost unsure tone.

I ignore her plea.

“Do you understand what you’re doing to me, hm?” I swear I hear a soft whimper leave her mouth and I almost lose my balance. I respond by pressing further into her so she can feel just how badly I want her, how badly I want hereverything. “I’m not a jealous person, Cat. I never have been. But with you, knowing you’re about to go out there in front of those fucking vultures, you could say I’m a little jealous.”

Her hands finally gain some purpose as she curls both of her palms on my waist, her nails digging into my flesh as she pulls me closer to her. “Why? We’re– We’re just friends.”

“Friends,” I bite the word out as if it has personally offended me in some way. “Is the very last thing on my mind when it comes to you, and you know that.”

She blinks up at me, those gorgeous brown deer eyes staring right into mine as her lips part. I watch her eyes dip to my lips, and I can’t help but run my tongue against the seam of my bottom lip before biting it. She’s about to say something, but I don’t bother to wait for a response.

“Just get in the pool, Catherine.”

If this is exactly what hell is like, I never want to die.

Every single thing about this is torture.

I walk behind her as she saunters in front of me to open the door to the backyard. Wes and Oliver are at one side of the pool while Sam is at the other, closest to the door. When they see the two of us, Sam and Wes’ faces light up with childlike joy.

“Catherine!” Sam calls when she gets to the edge of the pool. He holds out his hand for her as she walks down the steps, and she waits until the very last second to take off her cover up before she submerges her body under the water. “You came.”

I roll my eyes as I sink into the pool, putting some distance between us as she floats next to Sam against the edge of the pool where the water seems to overflow. “Youinvited her?”

Cat holds her head high, challenging me with those hypnotising eyes. “Yeah, they both did. Is that a problem?”

“No,” I say quickly, lying straight through my teeth.

“Really? Because it seems like your veins are going to pop out of your skull.”

Of course, my whole body might blow to smithereens because Catherine Fables is sitting two metres away from me in a pool in a purple bikini and I want to tear it off her. If it was anybody else, I wouldn’t care. But it’s not anybody else. It’sherand she’s all I want.

“So,” she says, looking at everyone but me. “Is this what you usually do after a game?”

“Pretty much,” Sam says. “We used to have a few more people and more drinks, but we’re trying to do better this season becausesomeoneis being such a grump.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I want us to get drafted,” I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

“You can relax sometimes, Connie boy,” Wes adds.

“This is literally me relaxing,” I say, spreading my arms against the back of the pool. I catch Catherine watching me again and I don’t think she notices that I can see her checking me out. She mutters something I don’t catch as she rolls her eyes tilting her head up to the sky.

“Right,” Wes says, clearly not convinced by my answer. “So, Catherine, is it time for your interrogation?”

“What?” she gawks, tilting her head back down.

“Yeah, you ask us questions, we ask you questions. It’s how we work, isn’t it?” Sam asks, grinning like a fool. They’re up to something. I don’t know what, but there is a strange and unsettling gleam in all three of their eyes and not the moonlight.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Oliver asks.

I immediately tense up at the question, turning to her. The thought has never really crossed my mind. I know she likes to party, but she never goes home with anyone. Not since that breakup over a year ago. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen her around any guys until she was assigned to work with us.

Catherine laughs and the sound instantly eases some of the tension in my body, but not completely. “That’s not exactly how this thing works,” she says.

“Maybe we’ll answer more of your questions if you answer some of ours,” are the words that leave my mouth. I don’t even know what I’m saying. Do I evenwantto know if she’s dating anyone or not? Probably not. For the sake of my own sanity.

She doesn’t even look at me when she starts talking. “Well, no, I don’t have a boyfriend.”

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