pool with all his clothes on. His fall splashes me and everyone else nearby, but it’s totally worth it to see the infuriating smirk disappear from his face when he comes up for air.
“More foreplay, Kail?” He swipes the water from his hair and peels off his wet shirt, tossing it onto the pavement. “I know you live for these moments when my attention is on you, but you don’t have to go to such extremes.”
I know I shouldn’t look. God, I don’t want to look. But his abs are right there, and they should be illegal. I hate him. It isn’t fair that he gets to look like that when he’s a terrible person. I force my gaze up to his face and try to focus on that, but I don’t know what I’m even doing. I’m supposed to be talking to Jared right now. But if my fake boyfriend has noticed me here, I couldn’t tell. This wasn’t the plan. I was going to come here tonight and kiss Jared in front of Landon, and show everyone our relationship is rock solid. And then, I could quietly collect an abundance of damning evidence to shame my enemies with later. Now everything is falling apart, and I can’t quit glaring at Landon’s wet body.
He swims to the edge of the pool and nods to someone behind me. Courtney shrieks, calling out my name in warning just before one of the footballers picks me up like a sack of flour and tosses me into the pool. I sink to the bottom and then bob up to the surface, hair clinging to my cheeks as mascara bleeds down my face. Landon stares at me for a second, and then the strangest thing happens. He laughs. His chest actually rumbles and vibrates with that normal human emotion I didn’t even know he was capable of. He’s carefree and pleased as hell with himself when I shove at him and splash his face with water.
“You are such a dick!”
He circles around behind me and presses his body close to mine, cinching his arm around my waist. His erection is poking into my back, and it’s so huge I have to admit Courtney was right. Total big dick energy.
“Fighting with me gets you so wet,” he growls into my ear. “That’s why you like it, isn’t it? I bet your thighs are sticky too. Go ahead, admit you want to hate fuck me in a dark corner.”
My thighs squeeze together, trying to suffocate the desire triggered by his crude words. Visions of him gripping my hips and slamming into me from behind infiltrate my mind, and the worst part is, it doesn’t even repulse me in the slightest. But it should.
I hate myself for reacting to him this way. He shouldn’t have any control over my thoughts or my body, but somehow, he still does. I wonder if he thinks about what happened that night. I wonder why he invited me in the first place. Did he know what would happen? Does he get off thinking about it?
“Not even if you were the last man on earth,” I answer primly, squeezing the water from my hair. “Been there, done that. Remember? Perhaps you and Carson should find some other desperate soul who’s up for your twisted games because I’m sure as hell not.”
His hand falls away from me, and my stomach shivers in protest. When I turn around to meet his gaze, his eyes are vacant and icy. He’s staring at me as though I’m the worst person on the planet. As though I’m the one who imploded everything. I want him to fight back. I want him to interact with me. This is what we do. But tonight, Landon turns his back on me and drags himself out of the pool without another word. When he walks away, I watch him until he disappears into the crowd. I don’t understand him. I really don’t think I ever will.
My heart is still rioting in my chest when I glance up at Court.
“How’s the water?” She arches a suspicious eyebrow at me.
“Um, fine,” I mutter, dragging myself to the edge and hoisting my body up the ladder.
I feel like a drowned rat, and I can tell by the look on Court’s face I’m a mess, but she’s nice enough not to point it out.
“What was that all about?” she asks.
“What?” I play stupid and untangle my hair with my fingers.