He didn't sleep well last night if his crankiness is any indication. Or maybe it's me and the longer he thought about what happened last night the madder he got. He wades over to the shallower side and stands up. Water sloshes off his body and catches in the gleam of the overhead lights. All I can do is look at him and hope I'm not drooling. I'm not supposed to objectify men and I hate women who do but goodness Jack has a beautiful body, one that I don't mind looking at. My eyes travel over him and I walk closer to where he is then stop. I see the scars that mar his tanned skin, one on his upper shoulder and one on his arm. When he turns I see he has two more on his back and one that the water hides just below the surface.
They're pink and look new but they're not the only ones on his body. He has white lines slashed on his back and around his ribcage that might be knife wounds. This man has the body of a warrior and it makes me even hotter than I was before. God I hope he can't tell.
"You gonna keep looking or you gonna get in?" Shit, he knows. I shift from one foot to the other trying to figure out what to say. "In the water! Now!"
I yank my shirt over my head and slide into the water from where we are, not bothering to go over to the other side to use the ladder or the steps. The water isn't cold so that's a plus I guess. I'm still not sure why he wanted to practice self-defense in the water anyway. The odds of me getting attacked in the pool are pretty low but whatever, I'm here.
"First things first, when I tell you to do something you do it. No questions, no sassy comebacks. I tell you to do it for a reason. Many times for a very good reason like to save your life. I'm in charge, got it."
"You have control issues, don't you?" Shit! That was not the thing I was going to say. It just fell out before I could think through it.
His eyebrows go up, "No, I have no problem giving the control over to another person," he has me flipped over his hip and sputtering in seconds, "when they know what they're doing."
I'm still wiping water out of my eyes and coughing up chlorine and all he's doing is smirking and looking hot. Jerk! This is going to be the longest summer ever!
6
____________
Lexi
I spend the next hour learning all the ways I can have my ass kicked by a SEAL. I had forgotten that Jack started out as a SEAL before going to work with Jim in a highly trained team of special ops guys. He has made sure I won't ever forget again. I’ve swallowed more chlorine today than I have in the past six summers.
"Again." He commands it so we line back up and he walks me through the motions of fending off a foreword facing attacker without using any weapons, just their momentum and my hands. I suck at this self-defense stuff. When I line back up to go through it at normal speeds he stops me. "The water is not your enemy. You need to learn to use it and let it guide you."
I give him a look that clearly shows I am in no mood for philosophical discussions right now on taking the path of least resistance shit. "Come here."
"Are you going to hip-check me again? Hold me under this time so you don't have to worry about babysitting for the rest of the summer? I'm sure you can make it look like an accident if anyone could."
He reaches out for my wrist and pulls me into him. "Wrap your legs around my waist smartass and stop giving me ideas."
He wants me to what now? I'm not really sure where to begin to put my legs up that high. He bends down and lifts me and I follow natural instinct and put my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.
"I want you to lean back and float. Just float." What he says seems to make sense but I can't get comfortable enough to do it. I never have been able to.
"I can't float. I've tried a bunch as a kid and I just can't."
"Bullshit, it's because of a lack of trust. You have to trust me and you have to trust the water. If you can perform these moves in water then when you have to do them on land it will come so much easier and stronger for you. Now lay back and float."
I inch my hands down his arms hanging on so I don't go under again. I try to think about keeping my head above water and not the thousand other things I have going on in my head. "You're stiff, loosen up. Just relax into it. Being in the water is the freest humans can ever be."
I try but I just keep thinking about what is going on around me and if Jack can see my nipples through my bathing suit. It's the change in air temperature making them so hard. At least that is what I am going to say if it ever comes up, which I hope it doesn't.
"You're thinking too hard, babe. I have you so you're not going to sink. Nothing else matters but just feeling the water under you moving you up and down."
He called me babe. He called me Babe! What does that mean? Is it like something he calls everyone like honey or darling or is it just something that slipped out because of how close we are working together?
"Lexi, listen to me, listen to the sound of my voice, and just relax. Breath with me, through your nose and just relax."
His voice shouldn't be as soothing to me as it is but it's like my body has no other option than to listen to him and do as he says. The sense of weightlessness comes over me and my lips tilt up in a small smile as I realize I'm actually doing it - I'm floating.
I have several seconds of feeling free and light and then the hands that were at my waist helping guide me leave as Jack pulls himself from between my legs. I'm so thrown off by the suddenness of it that I go under and come up sputtering only to find Bambi watching from the side of the pool.
She is not dressed in a one-piece. Instead, she's wearing something that resembles three slingshots and some thread that holds them all together. All that's covered are her nipples and the opening of her vagina. She waves and thrusts her chest out at Jack.
"Hi, I was just going to take an afternoon swim."
Jack doesn't do anything at first and then he looks over at me, "Why don't you go find Libby or one of the other girls to hang out with for a while."