S.O.B.

by J.C. Valentine

  When I first found this place, it was completely by chance. I’d been out hiking, looking to get lost, and then this place appeared like something out of a dream, and I’ve been coming here ever since.

  “You like it?” I ask her as I lead us down to the bank of the pond and pull her down to sit with me. “It’s my version of a mini vacation.”

  “It’s gorgeous and unexpected,” she says, looking out over the water with awe. “How did you find this place?”

  “I just kind of stumbled across it. I come here whenever I need to clear my head.”

  I feel her eyes on the side of my head and I hear the question before she asks it. “Why did you bring me here then? If this is your private place, why would you want to share it with me?”

  Drawing my knees up, I drape my arms over them as I consider how to answer her. “I don’t know. I guess because when I come here, everything just seems easier somehow.”

  Mirroring my pose, Vista hugs her knees to her chest and rests her cheek on top of them, her face turned toward me. “How do you mean?”

  “Well, like, when we were younger, for example. Everything just felt...complicated, I guess. Like, here you are, trying to figure out where you fit in the world and you have all these people barking in your ear telling you what you have to do and where you have to go and all you want to do is scream that it’s your fucking life, you know?”

  I take a breath. I’m getting worked up and that’s not what this place is for. I don’t want to taint it with bad energy or whatever. “Anyway, I thought you might like it...and I thought that maybe if you came here with me you might see that I’m not my father.”

  Finally, I look at her, though it’s a struggle. Vista’s brown eyes are steady on mine and I don’t see the judgment in them I was expecting.

  “I don’t think you’re like your dad, Levi. Actually, I think considering the way you grew up, you’re probably a lot better than that. Even though you are a total man whore.” She wears a teasing smile as she says this, and I can’t help returning it.

  “Well, I am single. Gotta sow those wild oats.”

  She looks away, growing quiet all of a sudden, and I realize how that must have sounded. I’m a total jackass.

  Reaching out, I skim my finger down her arm to gain back her attention. “I’m sorry I said that. I didn’t mean it.”

  Her nose scrunches. “Yeah, you did, but it’s okay. It’s the truth. Playing the field is what we’re supposed to be doing at this age, right?”

  I’m surprised at the instant jealousy burning inside my chest. I’m not the jealous type, but the thought of her playing any kind of field pisses me the hell off. I don’t want any man looking at her like I do, and the thought of some asshole putting his hands on her makes me want to hunt him down and rip them off.

  “You know…” Vista says thoughtfully. Standing up, my eyes track her every move as she brushes her hands down the backs of her legs and stares out over the water. “It was a good idea that you brought me here.”

  “Is that right?”

  Focusing straight ahead, she purses her lips and nods once. “Yep. I’m inspired.”

  That makes two of us. Sitting here gives me the perfect view of those long legs that would fit perfectly around my waist and that plump ass that I wouldn’t mind squeezing. She’s completely fuckable, and I’m completely gone for this girl.

  “Take off your clothes, Levi.”

  I blink a few times, unable to believe my ears. I must be dreaming, because she did not just say that. I stare at her, my eyes wide, as Vista starts stripping out of her clothes, revealing a neon pink lace bra and...white cotton panties...that have Wednesday stamped across the ass.

  Laughter shakes my chest and, right hand to God, I try to hold it back, but... “Uh, princess. You do know today is Friday, right?”

  Giving me a questioning look, I point at her butt and she follows with her eyes. “Like anyone really pays attention to what day of the week it is?”

  “I think I’m more concerned with the fact that you’re wearing days of the week underwear. I thought they only made those for ages six and under.”

  “Well, since you’re apparently the authority on underwear, why don’t you show me yours?” she retorts.

  Shrugging, I stand up and pop the button on my jeans and shove them down my legs. I’ve taken off my clothes for magazine covers that millions of eyes have seen. Doing it for her is a walk in the park compared to that.

  Standing there in only my boxers, I watch as her eyes slide from my chest down to my package. Her throat moves as she swallows and hell, yeah! She’s dead wrong if she thinks I’m just going to continue ignoring this little game we’re playing.

  “See something you like, princess?”

  Ripping her gaze away from me, she covers her face with her hands and takes a deep breath. When she finally summons the courage to speak to me, I’m impressed by how calm and collected she is. “We’ve made a lot of progress with your flexibility so I was already planning to start you on the rehabilitation process—”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “The difference is in how we treat your leg. Instead of flexing the muscles, we’re going to start building them back up. There’s a number of ways we can do that.” She dips her toes in the water, testing the temperature I’m guessing.

  “I was going to suggest using the pool at the gym, but now we’re here.” A small sigh leaves her lips and I find myself moving closer, wanting to capture it with my tongue. “This is so much better, don’t you think?”

  Before I have a chance to respond, she turns away and runs into the water. When it reaches her shins, she dives under the surface. A moment later, I see the water ripple further out and Vista’s head breaches the surface. She’s laughing as she pushes wet strands of hair back from her face and wipes the water from her eyes. “Come on! Get in!”

  This girl is crazy. The water is so dark and murky, you can’t see a thing. The idea of fish swimming around me and not being able to see them gives me the creeps, but...

  But.

  “Don’t tell me the big bad adrenalin junkie is scared of a little water?”

  I feel the answering smile stretch across my face. She’s baiting me, and I love it. Plus, she’s right. If word got out that I was scared to swim in dirty water, it’d ruin my rep.

  Before I can talk myself out of it, I dive in after her.

  9

  Something brushed my leg. Twice. I’m kind of freaking out, but I’ll be damned if I let on about it. Levi would never let me live it down if I screamed like a girl and swam for the shore because a fish touched me.

  Unless it’s not a fish.

  Do snakes like water? Oh, God. What if there are alligators in here? Stupid. Alligators don’t live this far north. Or do they...?

  I just need to focus right now. I wasn’t lying when I told him that I thought this would be the perfect spot to work on his rehabilitation, but I can tell he’s skeptical. Maybe it’s the fear I know is reflecting in my eyes, or maybe it’s because right after I said it, I got down to my underwear. It probably wasn’t the best move on my part. Levi’s made it very clear that he wants more from me, and I haven’t exactly said no. The problem is that I don’t know that I want to.

  The way Levi looks at me burns me up inside. I’m not naïve. Men have always looked at me with desire, but the way Levi does it is different. He’s always seen that there’s more to me than just my body. Even now, I sometimes catch him watching me with a certain look in his eyes, and I feel warmth spread through me. It’s not lust—although there is plenty of that, too—but something deeper. Appreciation, maybe. Whatever it is, I love it. I expected to be in a sour mood the whole time I was here, but Levi isn’t exactly the prick I thought he’d be. By some stroke of luck, I’m actually enjoying the time we’re spending together.

  “Admit it,” Levi says, swimming up to me, “you peed in the water.”

  OMG. Leave it to him to ruin the moment
. “As if!” I shout. Sweeping my arm across the surface, I splash water in his face. He splutters and the look of shock on his face makes it so that I can’t help from laughing. “Maybe I should. Then I wouldn’t be freezing right now.”

  Despite the warmer temps, the water is frigid. It reminds me why I don’t like to swim. No matter how hot it is outside, the water is always shocking. Wrapping my arms around myself, I try to hold on to as much heat as possible.

  “Aw, you cold, princess? Come here. Big daddy will warm you up.”

  “Get away from me!” Laughing, I shove more water at him then I dive under the surface while he’s distracted and swim toward the dock I spot at the opposite end of the pond. By the time I reach it, Levi’s already made up the distance and he grabs hold of the weathered wood at the same time I do. His expression is bright, his breath gusting out of his mouth, and I can’t stop staring at his wet lips.

  “Where’d you learn to swim like that?”

  Hanging onto the edge of the dock with both hands, I swirl my legs through the water. “My mom bought me lessons at the YMCA when I was a kid. I went every summer growing up. Where’d you learn to swim?” He caught up to me so fast that he had to have professional training.

  “Chasing girls.” He waggles his eyebrows, a grin forming. “So, what’s this about exercising out here? Or was that just a ploy to get me naked and wet?”

  “Obviously, it was a ploy. I can’t believe you fell for it.” I roll my eyes mockingly.

  “I knew it! I knew you just wanted me for my body. That’s the real reason you agreed to work with me, isn’t it? You just wanted an excuse to touch me.”

  “Caught me,” I say with a shaky smile. Swallowing, I look away, because he doesn’t know how close to the truth he is. While helping him will help me, being able to get close to him again is a definite perk of the job, and, I admit, the distance over the past few years has done nothing to stem my curiosity. And it’s beginning to feel like all my ideas about him before coming here no longer hold as much weight as they once had.

  “Don’t hide from me, Vista,” Levi murmurs. His finger slips beneath my chin, turning my face back to his. For once, I don’t see humor or teasing in his eyes, just a deep need that I feel as an ache inside my chest. “You don’t ever have to hide from me.”

  “I’m not hiding,” I tell him, uncomfortable with the sudden change in him. He grips my chin when I try to pull away, forcing me to stay here, in the moment, with him.

  “It’s okay to want me. You already know I want you.”

  My stomach flutters at his words, but this is wrong. So very wrong. “It’s inappropriate,” I tell him, forcing as much steel into my voice as possible. This time, when I push away from him, he lets me go. Floating in the water, one hand still holding onto the dock, we face each other.

  “Because our parents are married? That doesn’t make it wrong,” Levi reasons. “We’re not related, Vista. There’s nothing incestuous about us being together.”

  While I understand his stance on the topic, and I tend to agree with him, I know how cruel the world can be. He can’t blame me for not wanting to make myself the object of public ridicule. “That’s not how the world sees it.”

  “Screw the world. They don’t rule our lives.”

  I feel the grooves of the wood bite into my waterlogged fingers as my grip tightens. “Maybe it’s not the world that I’m worried about.”

  “Then what is it, our parents?”

  I shake my head, looking away. He doesn’t get it, and I don’t want to get into this with him. Not now, maybe not ever. Four years. That’s how long it took to put everything behind me. I don’t want to dig it up now.

  “We should get working on some moves before it gets late.”

  “It’s not even lunchtime yet. Answer the question.” Levi’s narrowed blue gaze is demanding, full of expectations.

  “They have a lot to do with it, yes,” I answer curtly. Placing my other hand back on the dock, I tell him, “Hold on to the wood like this, then kick your legs out behind you, like you’re swimming.”

  “Vista.” He sighs, like he’s disappointed. Mirroring my position, he hangs his head low enough that his face nearly dips into the water. It’s a look of defeat and I almost think he’s going to follow my directions and let me off the hook, but I forgot that Levi Black is accustomed to getting his way.

  Releasing the dock, he moves toward me through the water, his big body crowding mine. Focusing on the gray, splintered wood beneath my fingers, a ripple of awareness moves through me as Levi positions himself behind me. His heat warms the water at my back as he closes the distance and places his hands on either side of mine, framing my body with his.

  “I’ve spent the past four years trying not to think about you,” he says, his voice low and husky in my ear. Closing my eyes, I listen to his soft voice, powerless to argue when he’s this close, his body touching mine. “You’re a siren, calling to me in my dreams. No matter what I do, I can’t escape you.”

  It’s not the chill in the water that makes me shiver this time. “It’s the same for me,” I confess. I don’t want it to be true, but I’ve been trying to outrun this for what feels like forever.

  “Then stop running,” he rasps, almost as if he’s read my mind. His lips skim the shell of my ear and he takes the lobe between his teeth, giving it a playful tug. “Turn around, princess, and we’ll both stop denying what we’ve wanted for too long. Let me kiss you.”

  Yes. I’m tired of running. Every cell in my body screams to turn around and fall into his arms, but I know that I can’t give in. There is nothing to suggest to me that Levi is any different than I remember. If anything, he’s worse—he has to be—and I’m not trying to get hurt again.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t.” Dropping beneath the surface, I slip free of his cage and come up beside him. Brushing water from my eyes, I open them to see Levi watching me. I can’t read his expression, but whatever it is, he’s definitely not happy.

  “Tell me you don’t want me,” he commands, a muscle in his jaw clenching.

  “Levi—”

  “Just tell me!”

  “Why?” I shout back. What’s the point, when we both know it would be a lie?

  “Because I want to hear it from your mouth. If you can tell me you don’t want me like I want you, then I’ll leave you alone. Tell. Me.”

  The wind kicks up, skating across the water and creating ripples over its calm surface. Pollen and leaves spiral in the air overhead, tumbling to the ground and into the water, mimicking how out of control I feel inside. Levi has to know that nothing between us would ever work. Even if our parents weren’t married, we’re too different. Our worlds are miles apart. But I can see how determined he is. He won’t let this go until he gets the answer he wants.

  “Fine,” I relent. Looking him dead in the eyes, I say, “I don’t want you.”

  The muscle in his jaw pulses as he regards me with a perfect quiet that is unnerving. I’m thinking I should swim back to shore, dry off. There’s no saving this day. I’m about to do just that, when Levi’s gruff voice stops me cold.

  “Liar.”

  My brows pull down in confusion. “Excuse me?”

  Moving his arms, Levi cuts through the water effortlessly, bringing himself to a stop only when our fronts touch and our legs bump into each other as we work to stay afloat.

  “I said you’re a liar, Vista.”

  I don’t know what to say, because he’s right, and I’ve never been any good at lying. “What does it even matter? We’re not getting together!”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s—”

  “Inappropriate?” he finishes for me.

  “Yes!”

  “Wrong?”

  “Yes,” I bite out as he presses even closer, annoyed with myself and how my body betrays me. Every time Levi gets too close, it’s as if every nerve ending in my body comes to life.

  “Dirty?”

 
Yes. The answer is automatic, but this time, I don’t say it out loud. I keep the humiliating truth to myself. He’s baiting me again. The problem is that it’s working. Except, I’m not angry. I’m...turned on.

  My gaze drops to his mouth. I love his lips. They’re equally thick, firm, and kissable. I know because I’ve had them on me, and I yearn to feel their power again. The way Levi says my name, the way he invades my space and calls me his princess, makes me feel weak. I don’t want to be that girl. The one who falls for a guy’s quick lines and filthy mouth, but I am that girl because Levi is that guy... and I’m falling for him. All. Over. Again.

  “Just leave me alone, Levi.” Throwing my arms out, I backstroke away from him, only to find myself stuck in place, going nowhere fast.

  Levi’s arm is tight around my waist, and he has this wicked look in his eyes. I can’t tell if he’s angry or turned on. A secret part of me hopes it’s the latter.

  “I know you blame me for what happened,” Levi says, startling me. “And you have every right to, but I want you to remember that we were both kids then and we didn’t always make the best decisions. Or in my case, any decisions,” he says with a sad, self-deprecating smile.

  It’s that smile that threatens to undo me and a thread of panic weaves its way through my bloodstream. Placing both hands against his chest, I attempt to shove him away, but he holds fast. “Take me home, Levi. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  “You can go on hating me,” Levi continues, his arms cinching around my waist so tight, I can’t struggle without hurting myself. “But wouldn’t it be better if we sorted this out right now?”

  “No. I can honestly tell you that it wouldn’t be better, Levi. Now let me the hell go!” Wriggling an arm free, I raise it up so I can slap him, but Levi’s hand shoots out, stopping me with a firm grasp around my wrist. When he speaks next, his voice is hard and angry.

  “That night has stuck with me for four years, Vista, and I know it has you, too. Don’t you dare try to deny it.” His teeth snap together and the cold fury in his eyes is enough to still my complaint. “I’ve been thinking about how to fix this ever since you walked back into my life, and do you know what solution I came up with?”