Chapter 8 Bump, Set, Spike #2
I frown and turn on my heel to swim over to Max. “Switch teams with me.”
“No way,” Max says as he stretches his arms out, preparing for the match. “My wife sucks at sports.”
“Switch with me!” I growl and shove him lightly.
“Forget it,” he splashes me like I’m a pest and starts doing jumps in the pool to warm up. Psycho.
Feeling desperate, I move over to Luke. “Let’s trade teams.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to be on this side.”
Luke smiles knowingly. “You’re already sharing a room with her. You can’t share a team too?”
“Just quit being a douchebag, and switch with me.”
He sighs heavily and turns to talk to Addison for a moment before finally trading with me.
“No switching,” Everly yells as Luke ducks under the net.
I rush up behind him and thrust my finger through the net at my niece. “Everly, knock it off or I’ll tell your parents about
the time I picked you up drunk at that party and snuck you back home so your dad wouldn’t find out.”
Everly’s eyes go wide. “It was homecoming!”
“Do you think your dad will care?”
She frowns and glances over at her dad who just literally put on a sweatband. Where the fuck did he even get that?
“Fine, you and Luke can switch.”
Damn these kids. No respect.
The volleyball game begins, and it quickly becomes way more intense than I anticipated.
Teaming up with Max was a bad idea. I forgot how crazy competitive that fucker is.
Not to mention a ball hog. I’ve taken elbows and fists to the gut, back, and arms because he’s diving for every ball that comes to our side.
Poor Addison and Trista are hanging onto the wall for dear life trying to keep themselves safe.
Ethan’s nearly drowned twice! One time I swear to God Max stepped on his own son’s head to spike the volleyball.
And we’re on the same team!
But he’s not wrong. Cozy is pathetic on the other side of the net. I glanced underwater at one point to make sure she wasn’t
wearing flippers because the girl can barely move in the water. At one point, she was just singing along to the music on the
patio speakers when a ball smacked her right in the chest. How did she miss that? Everly isn’t much better. You’d think at
six feet tall, she’d have some athletic intuition, but she’s more interested in drink refills than playing a lick of defense.
Luke, Wyatt, and Dakota have the front net completely covered and are setting each other up like they’re trying out for the
fucking Olympics. I want them drug-tested after this match!
“Get your shit together, Calder!” Max screams at me with veins popping out of his neck. “This is game point, and you’re blowing
it!”
My eyes are wide because the psychopath is dead serious. We don’t even have stakes. There was no bet, no money wager...
nothing. This is literally a for-fun family game , and you’d think his multimillion-dollar company was on the line with the way his nostrils are in a permanent flare.
“You need to calm the fuck down, or I’m going to call for Mom,” I call back over my shoulder.
“Pussy,” Max grumbles as he prepares to serve.
“That’s an offensive term, you know.”
Max looks at me like I have two heads before he tosses the ball up to launch it over the net. When I turn back to see what
happens, everything starts to move in slow motion.
The serve falls perfectly in front of Luke who easily bumps it into a soft pass to Wyatt. Wyatt makes eye contact with Dakota,
whose eyes light up with fire as she nods and points up to the sky.
What the fuck does the point mean? That doesn’t seem good!
Wyatt nods back and lifts his hands to the ball, launching it into a high set.
My body tenses when I watch Dakota sink shoulder -deep into the water, her hair sticking to her temples as she bursts up out of waves like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
She pulls her arm back as she catapults a solid two feet over the net, and I look left to see if Max and Ethan are seeing what I’m seeing.
But Max isn’t watching the ball. He’s staring at me with murder in his eyes. “Loook ooout!” he yells, his voice also in the
slow-mo mode that’s playing in my head.
“You’re gonna diiieee!” Ethan squeals while pointing directly at me, and I swear I see all signs of childhood innocence leave
his eyes.
My head jerks back to the match as I launch myself up to try and block the spike she’s about to send my way. But instead of
focusing on the ball, my gaze drifts down her body, and my jaw drops when I see that one perfectly large, D-cup breast has
completely exposed itself. It’s sprung free from the tiny black bikini triangle that everyone knew was no match for the power
and athleticism radiating through her veins during this match. Her pale pink pert nipple winks back at me as water sluices
off its large peak, and I feel my traitorous cock twitch as my eyes flash back up to Dakota. A devious smirk brightens her
clear blue gaze before sparks burst through my vision, and the ball smashes into my face causing the lights to go out.
“Is he going to have to go to the hospital?” I hear Ethan’s frantic voice cry as my body is being dragged through the water.
“No, Ethan.” Max sighs. “But we’re going to have to get out of the pool because Calder ruined it with his blood.”
“Blood?” I croak and lift my hand to my nose. I pull my fingers back and see that yes, that is in fact my blood, and it seems
to be pouring from my nose and leaving a trail behind us. That doesn’t seem good.
“Help me out, Luke! Calder’s ruining the pool,” Max barks.
“I don’t want Uncle Calder to ruin the pool!” Ethan cries.
“It’s not ruined,” Cozy says, finally bringing in some voice of reason. “They’re just going to have to treat it with chemicals,
so we’ll have to take a break for a couple hours.”
Ethan continues crying as Everly says, “We still won, though, right?”
“Hell yes, we won,” Wyatt replies, and I look up to see them both high-five over my lifeless body. “Who wants to play pickle
ball?”
“This is my nightmare,” I mumble as the string from the tampon currently shoved up my nose sticks to my lips.
“It’s stopping the blood,” my mom says as she touches the bridge of my nose.
“Mom, that hurts!” I jerk my head away. “Why do you have to keep touching it?”
“I’m trying to make sure it’s not broken, Calder. I can’t imagine you’d want to have plastic surgery here in Mexico.” She
huffs indignantly. “You boys always play too rough. Almost forty years old and you still all act like children.”
“It’s Max’s fault.”
My mom hits me with a scolding look and stands to place her hand on her hips. “I’m going to go check on the baby. Just sit
still and try not to stain anything.”
I close my eyes to rest for a bit until darkness descends over me and I hear a faint “Hey, Killer” poke through my slumber.
When I look up, the devil appears in a vision, and I hold my hands up and scream, “No, Satan! It’s not my time yet. I have
so much more life left to liiive!”
“Would you knock it off?” Dakota scolds and chucks a bag of ice onto my naked chest. “I was coming over to apologize, but
you’re making me glad I did it.”
My smile hurts my nose as I set the ice off to the side. “Don’t act like you’re not happy about this.” I yank the tampon out
of my nose, grateful to see that the bleeding has stopped.
“I might be a little happy,” Dakota confirms with a spark of glee in her eyes. She sits down on the lounge chair beside me
and turns her muscular legs in my direction, giving me a nice view of them and her long valley of cleavage.
“You have a lethal spike,” I offer, and I swear my nose aches at the mention of it.
Her brows lift. “Is that a compliment from you?”
“Whatever,” I shrug noncommittally and cross my ankles. “Did you play a lot of sports growing up or something?”
“Just volleyball all four years of high school.” She shoots me a cocky wink, and it hits me right in the gut. “And track.”
“Lucky me,” I grumble, looking away because her skin is glowing in this light, and it’s highly distracting.
After a moment she says, “I am sorry, Calder.”
I shake my head and shoot her a look from the corner of my eye. “I’m not.”
She frowns, clearly not understanding my response.
I turn to look at her, and my eyes drop shamelessly to her chest.
“What?” She covers herself protectively.
I shrug. “Oh nothing... I just saw your tit.”
“You did?” She covers herself up like her breasts are still hanging out. “When? During the volleyball game?”
I laugh and nod. “Oh yeah... before it was lights-out, it was high beams on... or beam because only the one tit popped out. What’s the other one look like? Now I’m curious. Are they identical twins? Or fraternal?”
“Shut up,” she grumbles and yanks her dress up over her chest. “Did anyone else see? I thought it just popped out when I landed
in the water.”
“I don’t know who saw, but that image is locked in the vault forever now, along with some other images of you.”
Her face drops in horror. “What other images?”
I turn so my legs straddle hers, taking in the view of her fully now. Her blond hair is in a high messy bun on top of her
head, and the pieces that have fallen out around her face are tight little coils.
I tap my temple as my eyes flare in blatant challenge. “You on your knees at the club.”
“Stop,” she snaps, jerking her head back.
“What?”
“Don’t bring that up.” She yanks her legs away from me and sits back in the lounge chair to face the pool, her jaw taut with
irritation. “We are not discussing that.”
“Now is the perfect time.” I shift down in my seat to recapture her attention. “I’m probably concussed, which means the swelling
in my brain will make me forget whatever you tell me.”
“Why do you care so much?”
She frowns and folds her arms over her chest, and I watch her for a beat, trying to figure her out. What I’ve learned about
Dakota the past several years as the best friend of my sister-in-law is that she dives headfirst into whatever she puts her
mind to. First it was her T-shirt shop, then her house renovation, then as far as I could tell, it was her marriage—though,
admittedly, she hated me during most of that, so I didn’t see as much of her once we were done with the house business.
But Sex Club Dakota? That seems like a big dive, even for her.
“A sex club doesn’t seem like something you’d enjoy. You like control too much,” I reply honestly. “I just want to know why
you had the desire to try it out so bad.”
“You don’t know me that well, Calder.”
“I helped you with your house renovation,” I offer. “You get to know a person a lot when you have to pick out paint and flooring
together.”
“We’re not discussing the house or my sex life, so just stop.” She shakes her head and loses all good humor on her face.
“Bossy as always.” I narrow my eyes on her. “No wonder you couldn’t be a Sub.”
With a growl of irritation, she gets up out of her seat. “I just came over to make sure you weren’t dead. You’re not. I’m
going now.”
“It’ll take more than a vicious spike to take me down.”
A hint of a smirk ghosts her lips as she storms off, which has me sitting back in my seat with a smile. The devil ain’t so
scary after all. But she does have secrets. Secrets that I am annoyingly intrigued by.