Ripping her gaze away from me, she covers her face with her hands and takes a deep breath. When she finally summons the courage to speak to me, I’m impressed by how calm and collected she is. “We’ve made a lot of progress with your flexibility so I was already planning to start you on the rehabilitation process—”

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference is in how we treat your leg. Instead of flexing the muscles, we’re going to start building them back up. There’s a number of ways we can do that.” She dips her toes in the water, testing the temperature I’m guessing.

“I was going to suggest using the pool at the gym, but now we’re here.” A small sigh leaves her lips and I find myself moving closer, wanting to capture it with my tongue. “This is so much better, don’t you think?”

Before I have a chance to respond, she turns away and runs into the water. When it reaches her shins, she dives under the surface. A moment later, I see the water ripple further out and Vista’s head breaches the surface. She’s laughing as she pushes wet strands of hair back from her face and wipes the water from her eyes. “Come on! Get in!”

This girl is crazy. The water is so dark and murky, you can’t see a thing. The idea of fish swimming around me and not being able to see them gives me the creeps, but...

But.

“Don’t tell me the big bad adrenalin junkie is scared of a little water?”

I feel the answering smile stretch across my face. She’s baiting me, and I love it. Plus, she’s right. If word got out that I was scared to swim in dirty water, it’d ruin my rep.

Before I can talk myself out of it, I dive in after her.

9

Something brushed my leg. Twice. I’m kind of freaking out, but I’ll be damned if I let on about it. Levi would never let me live it down if I screamed like a girl and swam for the shore because a fish touched me.

Unless it’s not a fish.

Do snakes like water? Oh, God. What if there are alligators in here? Stupid. Alligators don’t live this far north. Or do they...?

I just need to focus right now. I wasn’t lying when I told him that I thought this would be the perfect spot to work on his rehabilitation, but I can tell he’s skeptical. Maybe it’s the fear I know is reflecting in my eyes, or maybe it’s because right after I said it, I got down to my underwear. It probably wasn’t the best move on my part. Levi’s made it very clear that he wants more from me, and I haven’t exactly said no. The problem is that I don’t know that I want to.

The way Levi looks at me burns me up inside. I’m not naïve. Men have always looked at me with desire, but the way Levi does it is different. He’s always seen that there’s more to me than just my body. Even now, I sometimes catch him watching me with a certain look in his eyes, and I feel warmth spread through me. It’s not lust—although there is plenty of that, too—but something deeper. Appreciation, maybe. Whatever it is, I love it. I expected to be in a sour mood the whole time I was here, but Levi isn’t exactly the prick I thought he’d be. By some stroke of luck, I’m actually enjoying the time we’re spending together.

“Admit it,” Levi says, swimming up to me, “you peed in the water.”

OMG. Leave it to him to ruin the moment. “As if!” I shout. Sweeping my arm across the surface, I splash water in his face. He splutters and the look of shock on his face makes it so that I can’t help from laughing. “Maybe I should. Then I wouldn’t be freezing right now.”

Despite the warmer temps, the water is frigid. It reminds me why I don’t like to swim. No matter how hot it is outside, the water is always shocking. Wrapping my arms around myself, I try to hold on to as much heat as possible.

“Aw, you cold, princess? Come here. Big daddy will warm you up.”

“Get away from me!” Laughing, I shove more water at him then I dive under the surface while he’s distracted and swim toward the dock I spot at the opposite end of the pond. By the time I reach it, Levi’s already made up the distance and he grabs hold of the weathered wood at the same time I do. His expression is bright, his breath gusting out of his mouth, and I can’t stop staring at his wet lips.

“Where’d you learn to swim like that?”

Hanging onto the edge of the dock with both hands, I swirl my legs through the water. “My mom bought me lessons at the YMCA when I was a kid. I went every summer growing up. Where’d you learn to swim?” He caught up to me so fast that he had to have professional training.

“Chasing girls.” He waggles his eyebrows, a grin forming. “So, what’s this about exercising out here? Or was that just a ploy to get me naked and wet?”

“Obviously, it was a ploy. I can’t believe you fell for it.” I roll my eyes mockingly.

“I knew it! I knew you just wanted me for my body. That’s the real reason you agreed to work with me, isn’t it? You just wanted an excuse to touch me.”

“Caught me,” I say with a shaky smile. Swallowing, I look away, because he doesn’t know how close to the truth he is. While helping him will help me, being able to get close to him again is a definite perk of the job, and, I admit, the distance over the past few years has done nothing to stem my curiosity. And it’s beginning to feel like all my ideas about him before coming here no longer hold as much weight as they once had.

“Don’t hide from me, Vista,” Levi murmurs. His finger slips beneath my chin, turning my face back to his. For once, I don’t see humor or teasing in his eyes, just a deep need that I feel as an ache inside my chest. “You don’t ever have to hide from me.”

“I’m not hiding,” I tell him, uncomfortable with the sudden change in him. He grips my chin when I try to pull away, forcing me to stay here, in the moment, with him.

“It’s okay to want me. You already know I want you.”

My stomach flutters at his words, but this is wrong. So very wrong. “It’s inappropriate,” I tell him, forcing as much steel into my voice as possible. This time, when I push away from him, he lets me go. Floating in the water, one hand still holding onto the dock, we face each other.

“Because our parents are married? That doesn’t make it wrong,” Levi reasons. “We’re not related, Vista. There’s nothing incestuous about us being together.”

While I understand his stance on the topic, and I tend to agree with him, I know how cruel the world can be. He can’t blame me for not wanting to make myself the object of public ridicule. “That’s not how the world sees it.”

“Screw the world. They don’t rule our lives.”

I feel the grooves of the wood bite into my waterlogged fingers as my grip tightens. “Maybe it’s not the world that I’m worried about.”

“Then what is it, our parents?”

I shake my head, looking away. He doesn’t get it, and I don’t want to get into this with him. Not now, maybe not ever. Four years. That’s how long it took to put everything behind me. I don’t want to dig it up now.

“We should get working on some moves before it gets late.”

“It’s not even lunchtime yet. Answer the question.” Levi’s narrowed blue gaze is demanding, full of expectations.

“They have a lot to do with it, yes,” I answer curtly. Placing my other hand back on the dock, I tell him, “Hold on to the wood like this, then kick your legs out behind you, like you’re swimming.”

“Vista.” He sighs, like he’s disappointed. Mirroring my position, he hangs his head low enough that his face nearly dips into the water. It’s a look of defeat and I almost think he’s going to follow my directions and let me off the hook, but I forgot that Levi Black is accustomed to getting his way.

Releasing the dock, he moves toward me through the water, his big body crowding mine. Focusing on the gray, splintered wood beneath my fingers, a ripple of awareness moves through me as Levi positions himself behind me. His heat warms the water at my back as he closes the distance and places his hands on either side of mine, framing my body with his.