Round Twenty-Six
BILLY
Ramone’s hot tub is not one of those four-person kinds, stretching six feet by six feet. No. Detective Devereaux went for something a little more extravagant, the kind that seats twenty people if twenty people felt the need to boil in each other’s juices at the same time.
Luckily for me, the tub remains empty besides my splashing son.
Shucking my jeans down so I stand amongst dozens of my nearest and dearest in just a pair of boxer shorts, I kick my boots off and set everything on a chair to the side, since leaving them on the ground while my son splashes will end with soaked jeans.
“Looking good, Detective Caster.” Rosaline Valera, soon to be Rosaline Darling, nurses a single glass of white wine and wanders closer.
Her lips quirk into a pretty smile, and her eyes dance, which is a nice change, considering how fucking terrified of literally everyone she was when we first met.
She sips her wine and glances across the yard to where Maggie waits, clutching a bag of chips, and wearing a metric ton of ‘what the hell am I supposed to do now?’ on her face.
Swallowing, she brings her glittering gaze back my way. “She looks kinda scared.”
“She’s resilient. She’ll come over when she’s ready.
” I don’t really feel like standing in front of someone else’s woman in just my underwear, and I especially don’t want Maggie to see me standing with someone else’s woman while I’m in nothing but my underwear, so I turn to the tub and climb in.
Jeremy races around the edge on the shelf where bathers sit, but I keep an eye on him, too, because if he falls into the middle, he won’t be able to touch the ground without his head going under.
Goosebumps break out across my chest as I turn and lower into the warmth, and because I can’t stop myself, I sit facing Maggie, my lips quirking up in reaction to her nervous expression.
“She’s shy, is all. But she’s brave, too.
” I break the electrical current pulsing between us and meet Rose’s eyes instead.
“Feel free to head on over and nudge her this way.”
“Ya know…” Instead of going to Maggie, she steps closer to the tub and sets her elbows on the frame. “I didn’t know Aria.”
I peek to my left to make sure Jeremy isn’t listening. “I know.”
“But Ollie did.” She tips her chin in his direction, grinning when their eyes meet.
“He said Aria basically grew up inside his house. Best friends with his sister. Two decades of eating dinner with her, and with you, too, at least every other night of the week.” Slowly, she brings kind eyes back around. “He likes Maggie for you.”
“Rose—”
“No one’s pushing it. Not here, not tonight—except Ramone,” she snickers. “It’s clear we’re working with two extremely stubborn people, and a child, and a tragedy the town will forever feel. But, I dunno.” She shrugs, “He likes her. Thought you’d like to know.”
“You should go get her for me.” I settle deeper into the water and grin. “She’s resilient, but this is a lot of people, and she wasn’t explicitly invited across.”
Smirking, she turns on her heels, lifting her wine as she goes, and shows off a diamond ring that’ll soon lead to a wedding. A wedding I’ve been invited to stand up as best man in, despite how fucking shitty I treated Ollie after Aria’s death.
For eight long years, I hated him and everything he represented.
Not once in all those years did he lash out or throw my hate back at me.
Makes him a better man than me.
“Look, Dad!” Jeremy cannonballs off the seat ledge and splashes into the center of the tub, pushing off the floor and bursting above the surface once more… for a second, anyway. Then he sinks under and flails.
Shaking my head, I extend my leg and wait as, like I expected, he grabs on and uses me for balance.
“You shouldn’t jump into water higher than your head when you can’t swim, dumb-dumb.”
He whips his head back, his hair flipping with the momentum. “Did you see my cannonball?”
“Uh-huh. Did you hear the thing I said about drowning?”
Nodding, he tosses himself off my leg and splashes his way back to the ledge. “That’s why I didn’t get in till you did. I knew you’d be mad if I drowned.”
“Mad,” I chuckle. “Sad. Irreparably devastated.”
“You needed something?”
I swing around and lock eyes with Maggie’s golden stare, her arms folded on the frame of the tub and her chin resting gently on her piled hands. “What?”
“Rose said you wanted to talk to me about something.” Smiling, she drags her plump bottom lip between her teeth.
It’s plump because of me! Because of my teeth. Because of how fucking hungry I am for her.
Sadly, we’re in public right now, and my son is watching, so I lift my hand and drip a single water droplet onto the tip of her nose. “You should hop in.”
“Yes!” Jeremy scrambles from one side of the tub to the other, crushing my cock under his heel as he walks across my lap. He’s braver than me, freer than me, because he sets his arms on the lip of the tub too, and presses the tip of his nose to hers. “Hop in, Maggie.”
“Aw… I don’t know.” Her cheeks blaze bright red. “I’d feel a bit silly taking my clothes off in front of everybody.”
“I took mine off!” He thrusts tall and shows off his bare chest. “It’s okay. Nobody cares.”
“But—”
“I can’t swim, Maggie.” Dropping to his knees, he flutters his lashes. “You wouldn’t leave me in here all alone, would ya? I might drown.”
“Your father is right there!” she laughs. “Nice try, though, cheeky boy.”
“You wore a swimsuit, didn’t you?” I flash one of those smiles that tend to annoy her. I know you fuckin’ did! I saw what you’re wearing under that skirt, beautiful. I shuffle just an inch to the left. “Climb in and sit with us. Jeremy promises not to splash you.”
“I do!” He splashes. “I promise I won’t!
‘Cept if it’s an accident, but if it’s an accident, I’ll say sorry and I’ll mean it.
” He charges back over my cock again, digging his heel in and drawing a grunt of pain from the depths of my soul, then he readies himself on the seat, claps his hands together, and jumps.
Maggie’s eyes follow his every move. They strain to see through the bubbles, and lighten as he bursts above the surface again. She enjoys her moment of relief, but then he goes under once more.
“You should probably get in,” I murmur, sneakily extending my leg under the surface. “He can’t swim, and you’d feel pretty awful if he drowned on your watch.”
“Oh my gosh. You’re both monsters!” She grabs the hem of her sweater, hesitating and staring into the bubbling water.
Her eyes grow larger with each second he remains under.
What she doesn’t see is the way he latches onto my foot in secret, or how he cruelly plucks my leg hairs as he crawls closer. “Billy! Pull him up.”
Cool as a cucumber, I settle back and lay my arms over the lip of the tub. “You pull him up.”
Unable to wait any longer, Jeremy surges out of the water right beside me, spitting everywhere and gasping for fresh air.
For the first time in his life, he studies Maggie through wounded eyes. “You didn’t save me!? Even after I shared my secret chip hiding spot?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” She tears her sweater over her head and reveals a delicious string bikini top in the same shade of purple as the lavender she put in her garden a few weeks back.
Tossing her sweater to the chair holding my clothes, she glows tomato red as someone whistles from across the yard.
Ramone.
Ramone whistles.
“You’re both horrible. Horrible, horrible boys.” She unsnaps her skirt and shoves the denim down her legs. Slipping her shoes off, she sets everything in a pile, then she comes back and studies the tub. “Is there a ladder or something?”
I click my tongue, and since Jeremy makes himself busy celebrating his win, I inch closer to the edge of the tub and peek around at her backside. Fucking delicious, and wrapped in one of those not-quite-a-thong, but not-really-much-more-than-a-thong bottom halves.
“Billy!”
“Guess you’re just gonna have to climb in.” If her happiness depends on the absence of my smug grin, then I’d say we’re pretty well doomed, because I can’t help the curve of my lips any more than I can stop thinking about fucking her again.
And again.
And again.
“But…” She peeks over her shoulder at the not-so-subtle stare of Ramone’s guests, then back to me. To Jeremy. To me. “Billy,” she hisses. “I can’t climb up.”
“You really should hurry,” I whisper. “I can see my handprint on your ass.”
Stunned, her eyes flare wide.
“Which means everyone else is gonna see it too. It’s dark out, so that’ll shield you for a minute. But are you really willing to risk all those folks knowing your business?”
Grunting, she sets her hands on the edge of the tub and hoists herself up. Her shoulders bulge, and her tits become a feast for my eyes.
But, like, a subtle feast, since Jeremy splashes just four feet away.
“Need a hand?” I scoop her up with one arm under her thighs and the other around her back, earning a squeak of surprise from the depths of her chest, then I lift her over the tub and set her down again.
It’s pure accident that I sit her on my lap before she scurries off again. Total mishap that my hand falls to her thigh under the water’s surface. That my pinky brushes across her core and her breath comes to a standstill.
I’m just an innocent man of the law. A single dad. A respectable human being currently broiling in a massive pot of human soup. And because I’m a gentleman who respects boundaries, I allow Maggie to skitter all the way across the tub so she sits facing me.
And because I’m just so unbelievably selfless, I find her leg beneath the water, drag it up to settle between my thighs, and then I dig my thumb into the arch of her foot and turn her fidgeting to mind-numbing bliss as she lays her head back and sighs.
“Feels good, huh?”
She grunts.