Chapter 38
Brooke
By the time we reach the safe house, my body is still humming with leftover adrenaline.
My pulse feels too quick, my breath too shallow, like my nerves haven’t caught up to reality yet.
Even my hands feel different. I keep replaying the moment I pull the trigger, the strange calm that follows, the knowledge that I’ve reclaimed something that had been taken from me.
There's blood on both of us. Not as much as before, but enough that I can feel it drying against my skin. Seth drags me to the sink and rinses it off quickly, his hands rough and efficient as water runs pink over our fingers before clearing.
Seth takes my hand without a word and guides me through the house. His grip stays firm, pulling me past dim lamps and quiet hallways until we reach a door near the back.
“Come here,” he says. “I want to show you something.”
He opens the door, and heat washes over my skin.
The pool room glows under soft blue light. Water ripples gently beneath the surface, steam curling upward and catching along the glass walls.
I stare at it in disbelief.
“I’ve been here two months,” I murmur, “and I never knew this was an indoor pool.”
Seth laughs once.
“I know, this place has everything.”
I turn toward him, and the sight of him nearly strips the breath from my lungs.
The humid air clings to his shirt, outlining the muscle beneath.
His tattoos cut across his skin in heavy black lines, each one stark against the strength in his chest and arms. He watches me with a hunger that makes my stomach tighten, the look that feels like a hand wrapping around my spine.
I don’t look away.
He steps closer, cups my jaw, and lifts my face to his.
“Do you trust me?”
My breath shudders.
“With my life,” I whisper.
Something eases in his expression. He kisses me, slow at first, then deeper, anchoring me to the present, to him, to the heat in his mouth instead of the memory of drowning.
He turns toward the speaker and taps the screen.
Deftones fill the room, drifting across the warm air and echoing off the water.
Seth pulls his shirt over his head. Dark ink stretches across his torso in heavy lines that follow the shape of powerful muscle. A second later his pants slide down his hips and drop to the floor.
I can't look away.
His body looks built for violence and desire. Every line draws my attention. His cock presses thick and heavy against his briefs before he pushes the fabric down and steps free.
He catches my stare and smirks.
“Your turn,” he says.
Heat moves through my chest and lower. I lift my shirt and drop it. Seth’s gaze follows every inch of skin. My bra comes off next. His eyes darken when they settle on my breasts.
My leggings slide down my hips. My underwear follows, leaving me bare in the warm air.
He looks at me like it is the first time, and then he takes my hand.
We step into the pool together.
Warm water climbs our legs while “Cherry Waves” pulses softly around us. Steam drifts across the surface as Seth moves closer.
My pulse quickens.
Water reaches my thighs, easing muscles that have been tight for hours. When it touches my hips, memory pushes back. The slow rise against my skin echoes too closely to another pool.
Seth feels the shift immediately.
His hands settle on my waist.
“You alright?” he asks quietly.
I nod even though my breath catches.
“We stop when you say stop,” he says. “You control this.”
“I know.”
As we move deeper, water climbs my ribs and chest. The room smells clean and warm, nothing like the chemical bite of the manor pool, yet my nerves still react.
Seth draws me against him.
When the water reaches our collarbones, he kisses me again.
Then he lowers his voice.
“I’m gonna put you under, okay?”
My eyes widen.
He brushes his thumb across my cheek.
“I promise. This will help. It’ll let you take back everything they stole.”
My stomach twists.
Images slam into me. Sophie forcing my head under water. Elliot pressing down while I fight for air. Kristie smiling while bubbles escape my mouth.
The moment I almost died.
My breath trembles.
But this is not their pool.
This is Seth.
I nod.
He kisses me slowly, letting our breaths mix. Then his arm wraps around my waist and he guides us under.
Water closes over my head.
Music softens into vibration. Light fractures above us. My hair floats around my shoulders.
Seth’s mouth stays on mine.
The kiss changes underwater. His hands move along my waist and ribs before sliding to my hips.
The last time I had been submerged, I felt terror.
Now I feel something else.
Every nerve wakes beneath his touch. My body is not bracing anymore.
It is choosing.
Seth opens his eyes.
Gray locks onto mine through the wavering light of the pool.
Underwater, everything about him looks different.
His hair lifts slightly from his forehead, dark strands drifting weightlessly around his temples.
The angles of his face soften beneath the shifting ribbons of blue light moving across the water.
Tiny bubbles cling along the line of his jaw and the bridge of his nose before slipping upward toward the surface.
His eyes never leave mine.
The color looks lighter down here, storm gray turned almost silver by the light breaking through the water above us. His gaze holds steady and unblinking, intense in a way that makes my chest tighten even though I’m not breathing.
His hand tightens at my waist.
The muscles in his forearm flex beneath the water while he holds me against him, my body suspended in the warm weightlessness between the surface and the tiled floor.
His other hand drifts slowly up my spine, fingers sliding through the floating strands of my hair before settling against the back of my neck.
The look in his eyes says everything his mouth can’t underwater.
I’m here.
I’m not letting you go.
For a moment I forget about the burn building in my lungs.
All I can see is him.
His mouth still pressed against mine. The faint movement of his chest as he holds the breath we shared seconds earlier. The way the water bends the light across the planes of his shoulders and the dark ink stretching over them.
He looks almost unreal beneath the surface.
Dangerous.
Beautiful.
Mine.
The pressure in my chest finally returns, a slow ache spreading through my ribs as my body reminds me it needs air.
I squeeze his shoulder once.
His arm tightens around my waist and he pushes upward, cutting through the water as he lifts us both toward the surface.
The second our heads break through, air rushes into my lungs in a sharp inhale.
Our mouths are still connected.
He rests his forehead against mine.
“See,” he murmurs, lips brushing my skin, “I got you. You’re okay.”
A shaky breath leaves me.
His mouth moves down my neck. His hands trace my spine and hips while water rolls down my skin.
My pulse jumps again when his cock nudges my abdomen beneath the surface.
Hard enough that the solid weight of him is unmistakable even through the shifting water.
The shaft presses against my stomach with slow insistence, the broad head dragging along my skin before settling again.
Faint ridges of veins run beneath my palm when I reach for him.
The familiar size of him in my hand makes heat bloom low in my body.
When I stroke once slowly, a rough groan vibrates through his chest and into the water between us.
“I missed you so fucking much,” he says. Each word scraping out of him with weeks of tension and need.
“I missed you too, but…” I whisper.
His eyebrow lifts as his hand slides along my waist.
“But?” he asks, voice soft but edged with heat.
“It’s been awhile,” I breathe. “You might break me.”
His mouth curves into a slow, dangerous smirk. He lowers his head, lips brushing my jaw as his fingers grip my hips.
“You can take it,” he murmurs. “You always do.”
My arms rise around his shoulders, fingers sliding across the damp heat of his skin before locking behind his neck. I pull him closer until our chests press together. His heart hammers against my sternum, and the contact sends a rush through me that has nothing to do with the water surrounding us.
He lifts me easily, hands spreading across my hips. My legs wrap around his waist and cross behind him, pulling us tight together.
The position brings him directly against me.
The thick length of his cock drags through the slick heat between my thighs.
My body reacts instantly.
Weeks without him have left a dull ache inside me that I have tried to ignore. The moment his cock touches me again, that ache surges awake. My hips move before I can stop them, chasing the pressure that has been missing for far too long.
He tightens his hold on me and shifts his stance. Water moves between us as he adjusts the angle, his hands firm on my hips while he guides my body down.
The swollen head of his cock settles at my entrance.
God.
Just the weight of him there makes my body tremble.
He pushes forward slowly.
The stretch hits first. My breath catches hard in my throat as my body opens around him. My nails drag across his shoulders while he continues forward with patient pressure, forcing me to feel every inch as he enters.
It's been weeks. Weeks of tension sitting under my skin. Weeks of wanting him and pretending I could ignore it.
My body can’t pretend now.
He eases in slowly, dragging his cock against nerves that feel raw from neglect. I sink lower, breath shaking, until the thick ridge near the head pushes past the tightest part of me and every muscle gives at once. A low sound breaks out of my chest.
The fullness builds slowly, spreading through my core until my entire body trembles from the sensation of him filling me. When he finally bottoms out, my forehead falls against his shoulder.
“Fuck,” he groans. “See? I knew you could take all of me.”