Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,158

offering her the junk food freedom she desired.

“Do you wanna keep discussing ways for you to work against them?” I asked.

“No. Not tonight. I’ve got two whole days of freedom ahead of me and I want to be truly free of them for at least part of it. At least tonight.”

“Okay,” I agreed, wishing I could forget about the Memphis family so easily. For so long they’d been all I thought of, all I dreamed of, I couldn’t imagine a true night of freedom from that but I could attempt it. “So what does freedom look like to Tatum Rivers?”

She cut me a look that was full of trouble before pushing to her feet suddenly.

I looked up at her as she reached over her shoulders and my lips parted as the red dress fell from her body in one swift motion.

She hadn’t been kidding about Saint picking good underwear and for a moment all I could do was stare at her in the red and white silk which made her look like a Victoria Secret model before she dove straight into the pool.

I watched her swimming away from me beneath the water and by the time she surfaced, she’d reached the far side of the wide pool.

“You can hold your breath for a long time,” I said.

Did I just try and compliment her on how long she can hold her fucking breath?

“I was on the swim team in a few of my schools, but then I transferred again and they didn’t have a pool so I shifted my attention to gymnastics,” she replied with a shrug.

“So you’re flexible too?”

Why the fuck did I just ask that??

“Yeah,” she replied in that husky voice of hers and I swiped a hand over my face as I tried to remember why the fuck I’d started on the whiskey. I had no fucking game when I drank whiskey and I knew it. Not that I needed to have game right now anyway but for fuck’s sake, I didn’t need to be commenting on how flexible she was or wasn’t.

“Aren’t you coming in?” she called when I didn’t ask her any more fuckwit questions.

“No.”

“Because you’re chicken shit?” she asked, arching a brow.

“Maybe.”

“Or maybe it’s because you don’t know how to be free anymore,” she teased.

It was just a joke, but it hit me right in the gut. Because I sometimes wondered exactly how many things I’d forgotten how to be in my mission to tear Saint’s family apart. I never used to be the kind of guy to back out on a dare. So fuck it. I didn’t even care that she was goading me into it. I was gonna swim in a pool with a beautiful girl and just have some fucking fun for once.

I picked up the bottle of Jack and took another series of long mouthfuls, feeling it burn on the way down as I set the bottle back on the tiles.

I pushed myself to my feet and pulled my tank off before dropping my shorts and standing there in my boxers.

Tatum watched me and the look in her eyes sent a prickle running down my spine. I backed up before running and jumping straight into the centre of the pool with my legs tucked to my chest. Water splashed everywhere as I sank like a stone and Tatum’s screams echoed off the high roof.

The moment I surfaced, soft hands grabbed me and Tatum’s fingers twisted into my hair as she drove her weight down on my back and tried to force me under.

I barked a laugh as she dunked me, taking in a mouthful of water as I went under.

I caught her bare leg and tore her off of me, launching her away again with all of my strength so that she splashed into the water a few meters away.

I started swimming for the far side, but her hands locked around my ankle a moment later from beneath the surface and she yanked me back under.

I laughed as I fought to free myself, but she was suddenly clambering onto my back yet again, her arms locking around my neck as she held on.

I took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface as I swam for the far side with her clinging onto my back like a limpet the whole way.

I reached the edge of the pool and grabbed her thighs as I prised them off of me and she laughed as she fought to hold on.

I managed to get a