Chapter 11 Sloane #2
We swam for a bit, doing some half-hearted laps while joking around.
Though I was having fun, felt lighter than I had in months, I kept glancing back at the door.
Back to Kolton. Hoping to catch him again.
He barely moved though. Occasionally, I’d find him glancing in at us, his brow furrowed until his attention could lock on me.
Each time I saw it, I felt a wave of light tingles washing over me, a drumming inside my chest that felt foreign and new.
I couldn’t help the smile that tipped my lips any more than I could stop the breathlessness I felt.
It was almost like being wrapped up in his arms.
Olivia clung to the wall of the pool, her arms draped over the edge as she let her feet float to the surface.
She looked me over—caught my genuine smile and surely the flush of my cheeks from the exertion of swimming with her.
“Now that you’ve exiled Beckett where he belongs,” she said, something like a knowing smile hanging on her lips, “when are you moving on?”
Surely my scoff was audible out in the hall. “We just broke up. It’s only been a couple months.”
“Officially, yes.” She kicked her foot, splashing water my way. “But you know you were over him long before that.”
It was true. As much as it hurt, Brooklyn did me a favor by taking him off my hands.
I wasn’t happy with him. We hadn’t gone on a date for over a year, hadn’t even slept with each other for months.
I’d blamed it on my tour, on our schedules.
Made excuse after excuse for why we were growing apart, while in reality, he was fucking my best friend and telling me without words that I’d stopped mattering to him long ago.
But still.
“I’m focusing on myself and my music,” I finally answered. “Love is nowhere on my horizon.”
“Who’s talking about love?” She grinned, her nose scrunching up and her eyes glittering in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. “Sometimes you just need to get laid. Isn’t that what your piercing was all about?”
It felt like the temperature of the pool dropped twenty degrees, though I was sure it was just my body heat rising.
I never should have told her. But in my embarrassment over getting mauled by those fans, it had slipped out.
That thought—what if they had found me a couple days earlier?
—rushed from my mouth, and there was no way I could keep it from my friend.
A piercing. In an intimate spot that would likely never be seen by anyone but me and my gynecologist—now that I wasn’t with Beckett any longer and had a bodyguard trailing my every move.
As if the water temperature wasn’t cold enough, Kolton rapped a knuckle against the door and popped his head into the room. “Are you ladies about done? You need to get ready for your dinner reservation.”
Olivia grinned as my teeth began to chatter. “Coming!” She winked at me, then broke into another of her giggles as the water turned to ice at the pure innuendo of her word.
By the time I’d dragged my burning body out of the now-freezing water, Kolton was standing next to my friend, my towel in hand. He held it open for me, letting me step into it as he draped it around my shoulders, his hands tugging it tight around me before rubbing down my arms.
I didn’t know whether to be grateful for the extra warmth or more embarrassed that this man gave me the kind of comfort I’d never gotten from my long-term boyfriend. I muttered my thanks, keeping my gaze off him and Olivia as she led the way out of the door.
Only, before I’d fully stepped through the doorway, I remembered I’d left my phone.
I spun on my heel, intending to go back and grab it and crashed face first into my bodyguard.
I didn’t bounce off him this time. Instead, I found myself cradled in his arms as he stumbled and somehow saved us both from falling to the hard tile floor.
“Shit, are you okay?” He held me tight, edging back to look down into my eyes. His brows were drawn together as he looked me over like I’d actually hit the ground. He loosened his grip, tilted my head up so I was forced to gaze into his beautiful chocolate brown eyes.
I gave a nod, unable to do anything else with his fingers under my chin.
Kolton swept a wet hair out of my face before he let me go slowly, like he needed to ensure I wasn’t lying and could stand steady on my own two feet.
I forced a smile to assure him—a smile that felt like a lie, because I wasn’t sure I was okay.
“You two coming?” Olivia called, and my head snapped toward the open elevator doors where she stood.
“Coming!” he responded, and the rumble of that word left me feeling weak in my knees even without the added innuendo. Kolton’s big hand wrapped around my shoulder, urging me forward as he handed me my phone. “Come on, Diva. Best not keep your friend waiting.”
If I thought the water had gone cold, it was nothing compared to the temperature of the air around me as my blood flamed hotter than the sun. Without another word, I spun on my heel and walked away, putting Kolton right where I wanted him.
Behind me.