Crazy for Loving You A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy - Pippa Grant Page 0,52

more aerodynamic.

Aquadynamic?

Yeah.

Aquadynamic.

I reach under the water as my feet touch the bottom, and I wiggle out of my shorts. “You should probably strip too. Then you might stand a chance.”

“You—”

He stops and shakes his head, and I send my shorts flying back over my shoulder.

No more cats yowl, but there’s a crash and a crack, and West covers a grin with his hand. “You just murdered a pot of orchids.”

“No, I gave them a new viewpoint. They were getting tired of just staring at the pool from the same angle day after day after—aah!”

He’s like a fish.

One minute he’s in the shallow end, then next he’s halfway across the pool toward me.

And despite my bravado, there’s nothing I can do to make my milk jugs aquadynamic.

And really, would I want to when a buff hottie like West is chasing me?

Still, I make a show of trying to swim away.

Friends can bang, right? We can bang out some stress, maybe have dinner together once or twice a week, and then we’ll be much more friendly while all the legal crap gets sorted.

He surfaces right next to me, and I shriek—for show, of course—and flap about helplessly trying half-heartedly to splash him.

“Daisy?” He shakes his head, treading water, droplets sluicing from his thick hair down his face, dripping off his nose, his eyes a mossy green that goes perfectly with the palm trees overhead.

“Yes, my scary captor? Do you need to impale me on your sword? Please?”

He sputters a laugh. “You don’t quit, do you?”

“Quitters don’t win. Oh, help. Help. I only have three fingers holding me up in this water that’s trying to swallow me whole.”

I don’t thrash about and pretend I’m drowning, because that’s one of my few other lines. Don’t cry wolf when it matters.

He’s studying me, and the smile is sliding off his face. That won’t do.

“Oh, no. I’m being dragged down by the weight of my panties. You must take them off me. Please! Please help me, noble captor! I must get back to my baby!”

He doesn’t smile this time.

I don’t know what just went through his head, but whatever it was, it’s changed something. He suddenly looks away.

“West?” I want to reach out and touch his face and turn it to me, but there’s a back off shield going up in place again.

“The last time I got seriously involved with a woman, she had kids, and I was left high and dry without any of them when she decided we were over. I’m not doing that again.”

My heart twists, and another unfamiliar emotion drags at my stomach. “You can’t judge all women by one who treated you poorly.”

“Pretty sure I can judge you.”

Ouch.

Also, probably fair.

He shoves away and dives back into the water.

I should slip out of the pool and let him enjoy some laps and some sun while Remy’s sleeping, but I don’t do the walk of shame.

Not after a one-night stand.

And not after sticking my foot in my mouth.

And not after accidentally pushing good men too far.

But where I’d usually do the walk of I live the fuck out of my life, and I enjoy every minute, instead, I stay in the pool, watching until he surfaces with his back to me.

“Maternal instincts,” I blurt.

His shoulders bunch.

He’s still in his white T-shirt, which is plastered to his body, not at all hiding the epic tattoos on his back. I want a closer look, to see what all he has inked there, but now’s not the time.

“Of everyone in my family, I’m Remy’s best shot at having the closest thing he’ll ever have to a real mother, and I don’t want to fuck him up. I want him to know where he came from without feeling obligated to repeat all of our mistakes. I want him to have a chance at growing up to be the best man he can be. I can’t explain it any other way than to call it latent maternal instincts. That’s why I want to be in his life. That’s why I want to keep him. Because I look at him, and I see an innocent little creature who can be shaped and molded into something better than I am, and I want to be the person to help him get there. But I also don’t know jack about how to turn a baby into a good person, whereas you—you just ooze good person, and I’m pretty sure I don’t deserve to have a co-guardian like you, but for some