Raine did that underwater somersault turn, saw him, and jackknifed to the surface. He rose up from his dive a few feet from her. She’d pulled off the goggles again and was already yelling.
“—kidding me right now? What the hell?”
He treaded water while reaching with both hands to rake his dripping hair off his forehead. “I told you we need to talk, and I don’t have all night to wait you out.”
“That’s your problem, not mine.”
Her words were full of bravado, but her expression had a frantic edge as she moved to swim away.
Reyes lunged to catch her arm. Combined momentum made their bodies collide under the water. Shock widened her eyes, and a gasp parted her lips at the same time a molten wave of awareness flooded his veins. Heart thudding hard, he released her and eased back a couple feet. She was already feeling threatened, last thing he wanted was for her to be afraid of him physically.
But she remained facing him instead of rushing to get away again. A glimpse of her pink tongue swiping across her glistening lips had him biting back a low groan.
Raising his gaze to the spiked lashes framing her luminous hazel eyes, he forced his brain to stop thinking with his dick. “Do you even want to compete anymore?”
Surprise flashed across her face a second before her forehead furrowed while she averted her gaze. “Of course I do. I just don’t understand why you want to make me talk about what happened. I’ve been trying to forget it.”
“That’s why. You need to face it, not forget it.” When she gave a wild shake of her head, he leaned to the side and scissored his legs to move back into her line of vision. “Trust me. I know what I’m talking about.”
“You saw the tape, but you weren’t there.”
“I’m talking in general. We all have our demons to fight.”
Her angry gaze speared into his. “Oh really? And what’s your demon?”
“I don’t like the dark.” The words slipped out without thought, and his breath seized in his throat as she gaped at him in surprise.
What the fuck? Where had that come from?
“Why don’t you like the dark?”
His heart beat thunderously loud in his ears. “This isn’t about me.”
She tilted her head. “Not so fun when the tables are turned, is it?”
Definitely not. Time to turn them back. “You said Diamonds don’t back down. It’s time to face this head on.”
Annoyance narrowed her gaze. “Is that supposed to be a dare or something?”
He arched his brows and shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”
She gave a slow shake of her head, then twisted around to swim toward the deepest, darkest corner of the pool. Her movements were slow and measured instead of a frantic escape. Reyes followed, keeping a good two feet between them when she folded her arms on the edge and stared into the privacy hedges along the back side of the patio.
After
a moment of silence, she said softly, “How about we compromise?”
Her soft, almost empathetic tone made his gut clench with foreboding. He hadn’t turned the tables far enough. Resting one arm on the brick rim, he warily studied her shadowed profile. “There’s nothing to compromise.”
She turned her head to meet his gaze. “Tell me why you don’t like the dark, and I’ll tell you about the accident.”
Fuck.
He’d given her a hand grenade, and she’d just pulled the pin.
8
Raine saw the hunted look in Reyes’ eyes and knew exactly how he felt. What she hadn’t expected though, was the guilt that squeezed her chest when she watched his silent struggle with her negotiation.