at me.
She knew what she was doing.
Vixen.
“What's up, Cacciatore?” she teased. “Am I putting ideas in your head?”
“Like what?” I fired her words back at her the way she did me.
“You tell me. You're the one who started with the ideas.” She threw her towel at me.
I caught it, and she motioned for me to open it, so I stood and held it out. She pulled herself up and sat on the edge of the pool, grabbing her hair. She wrung it out before she stood up and came to me.
I loved it when she looked at me with those eyes. Bright, happy, playful. They were the eyes I remembered.
She snatched the towel out of my hands and pushed me toward the pool. I laughed, sweeping my arm around her waist. She screamed as I tugged her against me and her shove took us both into the water.
“Oh my God!” She gasped, emerging from the water. “Hunter!”
I pushed my hair from my eyes, still laughing. Thank fuck I'd left my gun and wallet in the kitchen before I came outside. “You pushed me!”
“You weren't supposed to take me with you, idiota!” She slammed her hands against my chest.
I caught her wrists before she could back away. She stilled as I wrapped one arm around her back and held her to me. “You pushed me,” I said quietly, my lips twitching to one side. My pinkie finger brushed the waistband of her bottoms, and my hand twitched with the desire to slide down and cup her pert ass cheek. “You should have known I'd take you with me.”
She pursed her lips, looking more mischievous than I'd ever seen her. All it made me want to do was kiss her. I didn't give a shit that we were soaking wet or that I had no dry clothes here. I just wanted to take her mouth with mine and consume her, breathe her in until all there was, was her.
“You're right,” she whispered. Her fingers jerked against my chest, and she glanced at them before meeting my eyes. “I should have.”
“You should have.” My eyes dropped to her mouth.
She parted her lips. My heart thundered in my chest, and fuck—there I was again. Wrong. I shouldn't have been thinking about kissing her. No matter how much I wanted to. Nothing good would come of that.
As cliché as it fucking was, she needed someone who was better than me.
“Addy?”
She jerked back from me at the sound of a guy's voice. I didn't want to let her go, but she pushed herself away from me like I was on fire and she was getting burned.
“Gaige.” She sounded shocked. “What are you doing here?”
Gaige. That answered the Pontarelli question. I turned in the direction of him and saw him standing on the path that lead to the pool area, his hands tucked into his pocket.
“I tried calling you.” He said the words to her, but he was staring at me—and he didn't look fucking happy. “I wanted to make sure you were all right. Given the circumstances.”
I was a circumstance, was I?
Adriana got out of the pool and quickly wrapped herself in the towel. “Sorry. I had school work earlier and then I got given a babysitter.” She motioned to me. “Gaige, this is Carlo Rosso,” she hesitantly introduced us as I followed her out of the pool.
Fuck, I was soaked.
“Hunter, this is Gaige Pontarelli.” She awkwardly waved her arm between us.
Gaige held his hand out toward me, and I accepted the shake. “You didn't kill her yet, then.”
“Gaige!” Adriana hit his other arm. “Don't be a dick!”
“Nope,” I responded. He tightened his grip on my hand, so I returned the favor. “That means there's still a bullet in my gun for anyone who pisses me off.”
“Hunter!” Now she whacked me. “Don't be a dick, either!”
Gaige smirked. “There's two in mine.”
“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow. “I don't need two.”
“Enough!” Adriana snapped.
I dropped Gaige's hand.
“I am not in the mood for you two to have a pissing contest!” She looked between us both. “Now there's no chance I'm getting rid of you,” she paused to glance at me, “So, Gaige, I'm fine, I'm alive, I don't plan on dying anytime soon, and I promise to call you tonight, but I'm not putting up with this testosterone fueled bullshit.”
I bit my tongue so I wouldn't laugh. Not even Gaige Pontarelli's glare bothered me.
Bossy Adriana was hot.
It wasn't helping my cock calm down.
“You're trusting him over me?” Gaige snorted.