Crimson Born - Amy Patrick Page 0,48

to the sight of the scantily clad females in exactly the way the women were hoping they would. Nudging each other to look. Staring. Practically drooling.

I was happy to note Reece was not among them.

Oh, he was there—in all his bare-chested, wide-shouldered, perfect-featured glory. But he wasn’t looking at any of the girls at the pool—including me.

Which was a problem. How was I supposed to get his attention if he wouldn’t even look in my direction?

“They won’t even notice us in this crowd,” Kelly said, drawing the same conclusion I had.

“Oh yes they will. Follow me.” Heather strode directly toward the end of the pool where the Bloodbound had congregated.

Some of them, like Reece, swam laps. Some sat on the pool’s graduated entry steps or the rock seating ledge that jutted out of the pool’s walls below the clear surface. Others stood in the waist-deep water, fanning it with their hands and talking with one another.

While the other women were following the rules and keeping their distance, it appeared Heather meant to jump right into the middle of the Bloodbound group.

“Wait,” I hissed. “I don’t think we should...”

She simply tossed a naughty smile over her shoulder at me and kept going. When she reached them, she didn’t jump in, but she did something just as bold.

Dropping her cover-up at the edge of the pool, she stepped down onto the first level of the entry steps.

Speaking to the two warriors seated on the next step, she said, “Excuse me. Could I get by? Thanks so much.”

One of them ran his gaze up and down her long legs and scooted to the side. Slightly. The other smiled widely and made a grand gesture with one hand.

“By all means. No problem—at all.”

Now Heather turned her attention to Kelly and me as we stood paralyzed on the side of the pool where she’d left her cover-up.

“I was right. It’s much warmer down at this end,” she announced in an overly loud voice and beckoned with both hands. “Come on. Get in.”

I strongly considered turning and running back to my chamber, but then I spotted Reece. He was still doing laps, ignoring everyone around him as he knifed one arm then the other through the water.

He swam like it was a competition, stroking vigorously toward one side of the pool then turning and going toward the other end, barely coming up for air.

He still hadn’t so much as glanced my way.

What was it going to take? Did I have to climb on his back and dunk him under as I used to do to Josiah and Aaron at the swimming hole as children?

Hastily I unfastened the tie of my cover-up, let it drop to the stone pool deck, and followed Kelly into the pool.

As I descended the steps into the water, I was incredibly self-conscious. I’d never been on a stage of any kind, but this must have been what it felt like. It seemed like a thousand eyes probed the skin my skimpy suit left uncovered.

Were Reece’s eyes among them? The thought raised goosebumps all over my body while at the same time warming me up.

The minute my feet reached the pool floor, they were off it again. Someone had picked me up from behind. And then I was being carried like a baby, crushed against a hard chest, immobilized by two steely arms.

“Hey—what do you think you’re—”

“Just shut up,” a hard voice pleaded. “Please. Trust me, it’s for your own good.”

It was Reece, and he was carrying me up the steps out of the water and away from the pool. When we’d gotten away from the crowd, he set me down and gestured to my dripping and now-chilled body.

His eyes were full of fire. “What are you doing?”

“Swimming,” I said innocently.

He gave me a sour glance. “I know that. What are you wearing?”

“A bathing suit,” I said with an isn’t-it-obvious eyeroll.

He gestured to his black swim trunks. “This is a bathing suit. That—is a powder keg.”

I didn’t smile, but I wanted to. If I was a powder keg, Reece was a lit fuse, sparking and sizzling with repressed desire.

I shrugged, keeping my tone blasé. “Kelly and Heather are wearing pretty much the same thing. So are all the other girls.”

“You’re not other girls.”

He sliced a glance at his fellow warriors and grimaced before snatching a towel hanging from a nearby rock wall and wrapping it around me.

Reece lowered his head so our gazes were even and lowered his voice as well until it