Chapter Four
He’d taken my advice and dropped the subject; swam a dozen more lengths or so, before thanking me again for the invitation and pulling himself out of the water.
I tried - and failed - not to watch his strong, muscled legs as he lifted himself; tried - and failed - not to stare at the way the wet red fabric clung to the high curves of his ass.
The material creasing into the cleft between his buttocks, only emphasizing just how pert and round each cheek was.
I’d looked away just before he turned, hiding both my attention and my flushed face.
Part of me knew I could decline his exercise plan, simply turn him down sufficient times that he would drop the idea altogether. Yet despite that, I still found myself at the mall on my lunch break, walking the aisles of the unfamiliar sports section.
There were, it felt like, a whole lot more options for sportswear than when I was in high school.
It took me five minutes just to find the swimming section, though only seconds after that to feel overwhelmed.
Different brands, styles, fabrics, and cuts.
.. I’d expected maybe a couple of options, but instead found myself spoiled for choice.
It was hard not to imagine Kai wearing each of them in turn. His body, coursing with water, barely covered with scraps of cloth: some brightly colored, some more simple.
Trying to picture myself wearing them was more difficult.
Or, more accurately, it was only triggering feelings of disappointment, not lust. As someone loathe to take his shirt off when in company, the idea of strutting around the pool - even if it was my own pool, and with Kai at most for the company - was anathema to me.
“Can I help you at all?”
The voice jerked me from my preoccupation, and sent my hand skittering along the rail. Turning, I found an attentive-looking salesman watching me, a professionally-courteous smile fixed across his face.
“Oh... oh, no, I’m fine, thank you,” I stuttered out in reply.
He gave me a nod and turned away.
Hurriedly I flicked through the hangers, looking for little other than something in my size and a color combination that wasn’t reminiscent of a Brazilian carnival float.
It felt like I was smuggling contraband across the border when I approached the counter, as though everybody in the mall could see my imagination stripping Kai down to his trunks as I nervously swiped my credit card and waited what seemed like an eternity for it to demand my signature.
I only started breathing again, it felt like, when I was on the sidewalk, shopping bag clutched in my damp hand and cursing my choice of rentals.
#
The first evening, the bag sat on the dining table, contents ignored. Just thinking about it made my stomach twist into knots. It was ridiculous, I knew, but I couldn’t shake the feeling.
Three nights passed before I saw Kai again.
In fact, he had already arrived - and was already swimming - when I got home from work.
Later than usual, and preoccupied by the tall glass of wine I was more than ready to treat myself to.
As I walked through the kitchen I could see his body moving through the water, softly illuminated by the garden lights.
Sliding open the patio doors, I stepped out onto the deck.
“Evening,” I called out. Kai had just reached the far end of the pool, but caught himself before pushing off again.
“Good evening!” he replied, brushing water from his face before shaking his head. I grinned at the sight of the droplets flying, haphazardly, around him. “Are you only just home from work?”
I nodded, wearily. “It’s been one of those days,” I told him. “Do you want a drink?”
Even from this distance I could see him roll his eyes. “No, thanks. And you shouldn’t either. Come do some laps with me.”
I considered the bottle of wine in the fridge. How cool it would be, how crisp. Just the right balance of dryness and sweetness. The perfect end to a frustrating day with an asshole boss.
Kai could clearly see me wavering. “Look, just do twelve laps and then you can have the drink if you still want to. I promise you’ll feel so much better.”
I felt faintly absurd, being coaxed into exercising, but I also knew that Kai wouldn’t quit until I gave in.
“Fine,” I conceded. “But only twelve.”
He held up his hands in acquiescence. “Deal!”
I turned to walk back into the house, figuring I’d get my shorts from upstairs, but his voice stopped me.
“Did you buy something that would be actually decent to swim in?”
I cringed, inwardly. The bag was still sitting on the table; I’d almost managed to forget about the whole idea. Kai, apparently, had not.
“I’m just going to get my shorts,” I told him, trying to keep my tone airy. I could hear him swimming over to the closer side of the pool.
“Tate, you promised,” he complained.
I sighed. Turned around. His face wore an expression of disappointment that left him looking much younger. Like a teen, told he can’t have a drink or borrow his dad’s car.
“Okay, I bought some,” I admitted, unable to resist that doleful expression. “But I haven’t had a chance to try them on to see if they fit yet, so I’m just going to stick with the shorts.”
Kai shook his head. “Try them on now. If they don’t fit, you can take them back. If they do, it’s going to be so much better for doing laps. I really don’t want you to get disillusioned on day one.”
I stared at him. He stared back, impatient.
“Fine,” I conceded, picking up the bag off the table. “I’ll go try them on.”
“Oh come on, Tate, stop wasting time,” Kai scolded. “Just put them on now so you can get in the water, do some laps, and then have that drink I know you’ve been daydreaming about since noon.”
I chuckled, despite everything. “Noon? More like since 8 am.”
He smiled at me. “See? So the sooner you get in, the sooner you can get out again. Show me what you bought.”
I reached into the bag and, wincing inwardly, pulled out the swimsuit.
At the time it had seemed the most conservative and least likely to grab attention of all the options on the rack, a dark gray that caught the halogens in the kitchen with a slight shimmer. Awkwardly, I held it up for Kai to see.
“Perfect,” he decided. “Put them on and get in here.”
My stomach roiled. Insisting on going upstairs to get changed, or just into the downstairs bathroom, would look odd. Yet the idea of undressing in front of Kai - even if he was across the deck in the pool, and I was inside the house - felt charged in a way that was hopelessly unnerving.
Frustrated and self-conscious, I yanked off the tags; realized, a moment too late, that now there was no way of returning it, if the suit didn’t fit properly.
Set the scrap of glistening fabric down on the table as I pulled off my jacket and then unbuttoned my shirt.
My body half-turned in the process; I knew I was subconsciously trying to present as small a profile to him as I could.
As though that might make me invisible, or as good as.
Then my belt, and then my pants, pushing off my socks as I went. Standing, feeling out of place in nothing but black boxer-briefs and knowing that, if I turned my head just a little, I’d be able to see Kai looking back at me.
The thought of it was sending waves of uncertainty through my body.
On the one hand, I felt so self-conscious that I could be sick.
On the other, though, the heat of his gaze was sending shivers through my crotch.
The idea of getting hard, in such an obvious way, was mortifying, but I knew that if I carried on over-thinking things it was a real - and really terrible - possibility.
It was that which spurred me on. I pushed down the boxer-briefs, quickly stepping out of them, then reached for the swimsuit. Had a moment of near-horror when my foot got caught and I thought I’d stumble, but then dragged it up my legs.
The sensation was strange, so different from the cotton that I’d just been wearing. Smooth, and slippery, and silky but in a light, almost chilled way. Yet at the same time clinging to my body in a manner that felt perilously close to erotic.
“Finally!” Kai called out, breaking me from my reverie. “Now get in!”
I steeled myself for the few steps over to the water, first turned away from him so that I could have a snatched half-second to reach into the front of the suit and rearrange my junk. My cock had already begun to thicken, so I pushed it to the side and tried to will it back down.
I almost made it to the water before he stopped me short. “Wait up, let’s see what you got,” Kai requested.
Awkwardly I paused, painfully aware that I was close to naked. It was strange: the running shorts I’d been wearing hadn’t exactly been oversized, but this felt like another level of exposure.
“Looking good,” he teased, “now turn around.”
Mortified, I pivoted on the spot. Tried to imagine how my ass might look - a long way from the pert, perfectly perky example that filled out the rear of Kai’s swimsuit, certainly - and just how much of me he could see right now.
He made an approving noise, then clapped his hands together. “Okay, stop wasting time showing off... get in the water already!”
I scowled at him, but in the toss up between obstinacy for its own sake and the lure of getting most of my bare flesh out of sight, the latter clearly won out. I practically scampered the last couple of steps, then jumped in alongside him.
The sensation of the suit when it was wet was even more unexpected. Cooler still, and more clinging with it. I felt like every inch of me must be outlined in obscene detail.
“So show me your best stroke,” Kai challenged, and after a moment’s hesitation I obliged.
Kicked off the wall, and broke into some semblance of breaststroke to take me, splashing and not especially fast, to the other side of the pool.
When I reached it I turned, took a breath, and then made my way back across.