I swam toward the steps. Shay dipped her hands in the water and splashed her face. My focus landed on a bead of water that made its way down her neck and into the hollow of her throat. She leaned her elbows back on the step, pushing her puckered nipples against the skimpy, wet fabric.
"Did you grow up in California?" I rested my arm on the edge of the pool.
"Yes, all twenty four years. Some of those good and some bad."
"How come you never learned to swim in the land of swimming pools and beaches?"
She sat up and ran her hands along the surface of the water. I'd already noticed that when we landed on a topic she didn't like, she pulled her expressive brown eyes away from mine. She concentrated on the pattern her long fingers made in the water. "I never lived in a place where there was a swimming pool. Not even a public one. Actually, not true." She took a deep breath and finally lifted her gaze. She had one of those faces that left an impression every time you saw it.
The bright sun above highlighted the spray of freckles on her nose. "When I was eight, my mom and I moved into a little apartment complex that was named the Golden Palm, but the palms were far from golden. In fact, most of them were dead, and as you probably know, it takes a lot of effort to kill a palm tree."
"True."
"The big yellow sign on the rental office bragged about the lovely patio area and sparkling blue pool. For a brief moment in time, as my mom signed our new lease agreement, I thought I was going to finally live in a place with a pool. I had visions of me diving into the deep end and doing somersaults underwater like I'd heard kids brag about at school. Then the building manager, a roly poly man with more hair on his lip than on his head, showed us to our new apartment. It was overlooking the pool area. And just like the palms weren't golden, the pool area was not lovely and the pool was far from sparkling or blue. In fact, the only thing swimming in it was a family of frogs." She tilted her head side to side. "Which was kind of a cool trade off since I wasn't going to be able to swim. I pretended we were living next to a pond instead."
I grew up without a lot of the cool things my schoolmates had, but we did have a pool. Of course my dad let me use it only for exercise. The words pool party were never uttered in our house. But at least I knew I always had a home. I never had to suffer the stress of wondering if there would be a roof over my head. "So it was just your mom and you?"
"For some of my childhood." I'd stepped onto another topic that made her pull her gaze away. She splashed water at my chest and changed the subject to my least favorite topic, me. "I confess, I Googled your name."
"A little background check, eh? Smart girl. And what did Google tell you?"
"Well, you're not a descendant of Jack the Ripper, which was a plus. I actually put both your names into the search bar in the little quotes but no matches."
"Not sure if Jack the Ripper comes up on any family trees because they never found out his identity. That said, I'm pretty sure there's no connection."
"Good to hear." Shay coasted off the step and moved her arms through the water but kept her feet on the pool floor. "But I did read that you are the son of a billionaire, David Archer senior, and you work for a private equity firm. And as one newspaper article boasted, you are close to passing your dad up on the Forbes list."
"I was working for an equity firm, but I don't think I was that close to brushing past the old man on Forbes."
"Did all this come from family wealth?"
"Nope. I earned every penny."
Her brow lifted. "You don't expect me to believe that."
"Believe what you will, but if you met my dad you'd know I was telling the truth."
I climbed up the steps and walked over to my towel. I could feel Shay's gaze on my back. The thought of her looking at me sent a surge of heat to my cock. I was in trouble if the mere thought of her could make me hard.
I sat on the lounge and watched as she climbed out of the pool. Drops of water splattered on the cement around her as she stopped to twist out her hair. The movement displayed a good sized bruise on the inside of her arm.
I sat up. "Did that asshole from Fantasm give you that bruise?"
She glanced down at the bruise as if she'd forgotten she had it. She quickly pushed her arm down to hide the ugly mark. "No. That bruise came from one of many stupid decisions I've made in the past few years. But that decision is gone now."
I rested back, but my jaw was clenched at the idea that some asshole would hurt her.
Shay sat on the lounge. She stretched back but not in a teasing way. Not that it mattered, because she was a sight to see even just sitting on a lounge.