“Have you?” Humour coloured his tone. “Why’s that? Finally bored of me?”
A small smile lifted her lips. “It’s difficult to be bored of someone whose arrogance reaches new heights everyday.” Her smile widened. “No, I’m impatient.”
“Impatient, huh?” He tsked softly. “I suppose I’ll allow it.”
She plunked herself down on a nearby rock and started on the laces of her boots. As she removed her cloak, she sent prayers to Deimos or Kahlia, really whoever would listen, and asked for strength. On a tree branch above, Aera chirped in encouragement and rested her head on her crossed paws. Emmery blew her a kiss.
When she turned back to Destonne, his fingers lingered on the last button of his tunic and his carefully folded trousers lay on the boulder. He shrugged out of his shirt and laid it atop the pile. Then he stood there in only his undershorts.
Emmery’s mouth grew impossibly dry.
Destonne O’Daire was a lot of things: obnoxious, spoiled, selfish, devious, manipulative, and … did she mention obnoxious?
But hecertainlywasn’t ugly.
Emmery stared andstared, ensnared like a fly in a web, or, perhaps more accurately, drawn like a nocturnal insect tofirelight. At first, defensiveness barricaded his eyes as she took in the mottled patchwork of scarred skin along his toned arms and chest, tapering off just below his ribs. A tapestry of pain. But as he read her look, took it for what it truly was, heat stoked in that black gaze. The defined lines of his abdomen, narrow waist and honed hardness, reflected his days in the training arena. A thin trail of dark hair led from his navel and disappeared under his waistband. And everything about him was utterly indecent. Gods save her.
She gawked until both of them realized it had gone on entirely too long and she needed to stop.
Emmeryhatedit.
She hated the way her face flamed and heat gathered in places it had absolutely no business being. She hated that stupid lopsided smirk on his face. She hated that he could do this to her, just remove his clothes, reduce her to a puddle, and boil the blood rushing in her veins.
“If you don’t stop ogling me, you'll be too distracted and surely drown," he stated. He adjusted his waistband like he was trying to draw her eye there.
“What happened to your promise?” She crossed her arms over her chest, spun on her heel, and stalked toward the pond. “And I’mnotogling.”
“Call it what you will. Ogling, staring, admiring, it’s all the same, angel.”
“You’re so vain,” she scoffed. Her pulse thrummed in her cheeks. “Why did you undress? You didn’t before.”
“Because today you actually claimed you would swim. Every other day was on a whim.” He hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe I should have chosen a different incentive to coax you into the water.”
Destonne caught up to her in a few strides and blocked her path. Emmery stilled, her heart throbbing in her throat, andtried to stare anywhere but at his exposed skin. What was he doing? What was his angle?
His proximity set her nerves alight like the night sky; stars winking in her veins.
Could he feel it too? That stifling heat in the air between them?
Like a half-drunk buffoon, Emmery studied the tendons straining in his neck as his throat worked. Destonne’s hand rose to her jaw and he cupped it with such gentleness her breath snagged. As he dragged his thumb across her bottom lip, desire followed that touch, and her lips parted for him. Everything around her faded away as their eyes locked.
“Let me get that drool for you,” he said, his voice low, surprisingly husky.
Irritation flared inside her and she hissed, “It seems you’ve forgotten all my threats.” He chuckled as she slapped his hand away. “I’ll be sure to remind you more frequently.”
She walked numbly toward the pond until she stood at the water’s edge. Destonne wasted no time and jumped in with an effortless glide. He emerged only a few paces away and threw his head back to toss his wet hair out of his face. “Let’s try a short stretch first,” he said.
Toes curled over the edge, Emmery braced herself for the water’s weight and destabilizing pull of the soft current. She leapt.
As she submerged and the water engulfed her, all she saw was darkness. No flashes of fear, terrifying images, or anything that could stop her. She kicked and reached, skimming through the water with less elegance than Destonne, but more than she’d managed before. She stretched until her fingers collided with soft skin over hard muscle.
Emmery’s head broke the surface and she sucked in a breath, only to meet his startled gaze. “Sorry. I thought you were farther away,” she sputtered and wiped her lips, her cheeks hot again.
Destonne cleared his throat, his voice a bit hoarse. “You’re fine.”
She gave him a silly smile and dunked under to splash him in the face. When she surfaced, he chuckled and returned the gesture.
With how things between them had been odd and unpredictable, this was nice. Unanticipated, but nice. There were moments when they fell into an easy rhythm before they realized what they’d done and yanked themselves back behind that line. But when they relaxed and simply existed, she started to believe they could be friends. Maybe they already were.