“Not awkward at all, though some music might make it more fun.” He wanted her to keep dancing in the water, in her swimsuit. It was fun, lighthearted, would distract both of them, give her exercise, and make his heart race out of control. He wished he could tell her she could never be ugly and that he’d been around sweaty men for far too long, he hadn’t even noticed if she smelled bad. He’d simply been teasing her last night.
He pulled his phone out and opened the Spotify app. “Any requests?”
She swirled the water between her fingers. A shaft of sun penetrated the trees surrounding the pool area and sparkled off her dark hair and trim shoulders. The one-piece suit was modest, but it dipped in the front and dipped even deeper in the back. Not that he was staring. He was definitely staring. How could Melene be so innocent yet sensual at the same time?
“I’m not going to keep dancing while you watch me,” she protested.
“I’ll do it with you. You can be the teacher and I’ll willingly do any dance move you ask me to do.” He hoped that didn’t come across as too flirtatious. Even if he really would.
“The Navy SEAL has moves?”
He chuckled. He wasn’t some incredible dancer, but his fun-loving cousin Maddie had taught him how to stay on beat. “Oh, you have no idea,” he told her.
Her dark eyes glinted. A challenge or an invitation, he couldn’t be sure.
He found a Spotify clean dance station and pushed play. Pocketing his phone, he didn’t even think about taking off his gun, even though the pool was miniscule.
He jumped into the pool, tucking his knees into his chest to create a bigger splash. He heard Melene cry out. He hit the concrete bottom and pushed back up, flinging out of the water and imitating her cheerleader looking jumps with his arms splayed.
“Let’s jazzercise,” he called out, trying to move to the beat with his arms up in the air and his abdomen and hips swiveling. The water slowed down his movements, so he had to go faster.
He should’ve taken his T-shirt off, but there was still the matter of the tattoo reveal being perfect. It shouldn’t even be something he was thinking about as he knew neither he nor Melene could have a long-term relationship, but it was hard not to plot and strategize intimate moments with a woman as irresistible as Melene so close.
Melene wiped water from her face that he’d put there from his cannonball and folded her trim arms over her chest. “It’s not jazzercise,” she said primly. “It’s water conditioning.”
He chuckled. “Condition me then, beautiful lady.”
She shook her head and then she rewarded him with a light, tinkling laugh. It was great to hear her laugh, especially after how terrified she’d been when they were escaping the general and then her being so sick. It was still surreal he’d come upon Melene at the right moment to rescue her and now he was protecting her. So far it was the best protection detail he’d ever been part of.
She started dancing to the beat, and he imitated every silly and sexy move she made. They laughed and splashed each other and he actually got his heart rate up, but that might have more to do with how cute and beautiful Melene was at the same time. Cute because she was so fun and could let go and be silly, and beautiful because her gorgeous face and her body in that suit were far too alluring to him.
They’d been going for a while when one of the songs ended and she put up her hands as if in surrender. “All right, you win. You’ve out-jazzercised me and I am starving.”
“Ah shoot, I bet you are.” He pointed at her, frustrated at himself for not thinking of that and insisting she eat first. Distracting was too tame a term for Melene’s power over him. Absorbing, all-encompassing, enthralling … he wasn’t a literature expert, but those seemed more fitting. He was in trouble. “You wait out here and I’ll go warm up and bring all the food out.”
She smiled. “I’m not faint from hunger, Aiden. I can help.”
“Melene.” He gave her a stern look. “You haven’t eaten a decent meal in days, you’ve thrown up any food I managed to coerce down you, and you’ve just worked up a serious appetite with all this intense water conditioning. I will get the food.”
She gave him a sassy look and tried to push past him to the stairs. Aiden grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back against his chest. He was suddenly out of breath and his pulse skyrocketed higher than it had been during his burpees this morning. He found his hands sliding naturally around her waist and her trim body melted back against his.
Instead of fighting or teasing with him, she snuggled against him. Aiden had no idea what to do now, or what to make of her reaction. She was either faint from lack of nourishment or being close to him affected her as much as it did him.
His brain was screaming at him to unhand the beautiful woman. Besides the distraction issue, he wasn’t in any kind of position to offer a long-term commitment, and Melene was not the type of woman any man should trifle with.
He tried to remember to tease. “You think you can mess with a Navy SEAL?” he asked, his voice far too husky and telling.
She looked over her shoulder at him. Aiden’s breath caught and something lodged in his chest, making it impossible to inhale properly. He needed a regulator and a full oxygen tank. No … he needed to kiss her exquisite mouth for a very, very long time. Kissing Melene would give him everything he needed.
“I think I have complete power over this Navy SEAL,” she said softly.
Aiden’s eyes widened. Was he that transparent?
Tease out of this, keep it light, keep it shallow, his rational mind begged, but his body was rebelling.
He chuckled, and it sounded unsteady even to him. He had to move and quick. He had to think as if an enemy had him in his sights and was going to fire and incapacitate him. Melene was the farthest thing from an enemy, but he was in her power and he couldn’t allow that. He was on a mission. Her safety was what mattered, not the out-of-control beating of his heart and the way he was reacting to her soft but firm body so close.
React. Move. Do something, you infatuated wimp, his brain pleaded.