“Umm . . . good, I guess,” I say in response as I step up beside him in front of the water.

When I look down at his hand, I notice him adjusting the crotch of his jeans. I give him a shove and he looks over at me with a grin. “Damn, Tripp. Are you trying to make me wrestle you? You know it’s been a while, but you’ve been pretty damn pushy today. I still have the skills to take you down.”

I can’t help but to laugh. “I pushed you because you were playing with your dick. Are you seriously hard right now?”

He pulls his hand away from his jeans and sure enough I see a huge bulge. I can tell it’s not fully hard, but damn! “Well, what the hell do you expect when you call this the sex pool? Am I not supposed to get aroused at the thought of fucking someone in here?”

I pull my eyes away from his crotch and punch his arm. “Oh come on, Tripp. Don’t be ashamed to look. We’ve known each other our whole lives. You don’t really think I haven’t sneaked peeks at your body from time to time, do you? Don’t lie to me. You know you’ve imagined how big it is before. I’ll even give you a look if you want. What’s mine is yours,” he says huskily.

Why is that sexy?

He bites his bottom lip and reaches for his belt as he steps closer to me in a teasing way. The thought of his erection being so close to me has me so nervous that I reach out with both hands and push him into the pool. My hands instantly go up to cover my mouth as he falls in with a huge splash.

I burst out in laughter as he quickly resurfaces and jumps out of the pool, while wiping his face off. His shirt is clinging to his muscular body and water is dripping down his face and lips. It’s the most glorious sight I have ever seen. Just when I think he’s about to yell at me, he yanks his shirt over his head and reaches into his pocket to toss his phone aside. He grins and closes the distance between us.

“You’re getting it now.” I take in a deep breath as his cold, firm chest presses against my breasts. “You ready for me to get you wet, Tripp? I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time.”

He’s too quick for me to even attempt to make an escape. He picks me up, wraps my legs around his waist, and walks over the edge of the pool. I instantly take notice of his partial boner pressing firmly between my legs; which only makes me wish we were naked.

We sink to the bottom with his hands gripping onto my bare thighs as he holds me close. As soon as his feet hit the bottom of the pool, he pushes up with his muscular legs and we both swim back up to the surface.

I fight to catch my breath while wiping water off of my face. “Dammit, Alex!”

I hear him laughing behind me, so I turn around to yell at him, but he’s too quick and is already back behind me again. “What’s the matter? You didn’t expect me to get you so wet?”

I lean my head back and bite my lip in frustration. Him and this damn teasing. He’s really getting a kick out of this. “You’re lucky I love you so much,” I bite out.

I feel his body press behind me, before he wraps his arm around me and starts pulling me back to the edge of the pool. Once there, he picks me up and gives my ass a boost until I am on my knees, catching my breath on the smooth, wet cement. My body gets heated from the skin to skin contact and feeling his finger so close to slipping inside me. All it would take is one little nudge. It’s the closest it’s been before and it steals my breath away. I chose to wear a thong today, so not only did my dress ride up, but also I’m sure he just got a full on view of my ass in his face.

I quickly get back to my feet and turn around to face him, now embarrassed. He’s just standing there, staring up at me, his eyes unreadable. “Aren’t you getting out?”

His eyes quickly scan over my breasts before moving down to my exposed thighs and staying there. “Yeah. I’m coming.” He smiles and I give him the middle finger. “No, I didn’t mean it like that.” He laughs while pulling himself halfway out of the pool. “You have such a dirty mind,” he says in a serious tone. “I’m not sure I can handle living with someone with such filthy thoughts. You just might corrupt me.”

I place my foot on his shoulder and give him a shove back into the water. He comes up laughing and flashes me his charming smile; the one that gets any and every girl in bed. For me, this smile makes me forgive him for anything that he ever does; it lets him get away with everything. This smile melts my heart. It’s the one thing that kept me sane as a child. Whenever I was sad he would flash that smile and point at his dimples and all of my worries disappeared. Now, he just flashes the smile. It still has the same effect.

“Come on, Alex. Stop teasing me. You know I will be devastated if you don’t move in. I already have your room picked out.”

He smiles up at me and jumps out of the pool. I stand here in silence for a moment and watch as he wipes the water down his firm, tatted chest. I’ve always loved the way his muscles flex whenever he moves. I find it sexy and hypnotizing, especially now that he’s wet. It almost makes me wish that he were just a stranger, with no strong connection, so that I could have just one night to do anything that I please with his body. That would be to have him and no consequences afterward. I never once expected Alex to grow up to be so painfully sexy.

Oh the things I would do to you if I could.

“Well, when you put it that way . . .” He walks over and kisses my forehead while wrapping his arms around my head and squeezing. “How can I say no? Show me to my room.”

“Thank you!” I grab him by his arm and start pulling him through the room excitedly.

He pulls me back a few times to slow me down and catches me when I almost slip. “Careful, Firecracker. I don’t want to have to rush you to the emergency room before I get to see my room.”

I slow down and turn back for my sandals when I realize that they are now in the pool. Screw all that. Then I look down at his black Chucks that are soaking wet and laugh to myself. “Why do you still call me firecracker? I colored my hair red once when I was fifteen.”

He picks up a strand of my hair and examines it. “Your hair has always reminded me of a shiny new penny with all the copper tones in it. Even under all that brown and copper though, there has always been red in your hair. You can only really see it in the sun though. I like it. And plus, your face always turns all red when I tease you. You’ll always be my firecracker.”

I shake my head and roll my eyes. “Oh yeah. Why don’t you just write a song about it.” I tease. “That sounded pretty deep coming from your mouth.”

He follows me down the hall toward the stairs. “Maybe I will. You know I still play my guitar each night. I can’t write songs for shit but for you I would try.”

I stop and he does the same. I look him up and down, standing there shirtless and wet as I try to hold back my desire to kiss him. Our eyes meet for a split second before I pull myself out of my trance, clear my throat, and reach for the railing. “Alright,” I say, changing the subject and my thought process. “Well, there are two rooms upstairs,” I continue, as he follows me up with his hands on my hips for support. “The other one is downstairs and down the hall from the pool and rec room.”

We stop in front of the first door and I reach for the handle, but then stop and smile at him. “This one . . . is not your room.” I head for the back of the hall and his smile broadens, because he loves being teased. “This here is your room.”

He walks past me and pushes the door open. His eyes widen as he takes in the sight before him. “Wow! Did you do all of this?”

He walks over to the wall by the window and touches one of his own favorite drawings that I attempted to paint. Yesterday, I spent the whole day painting music notes and some of his drawings onto the back wall of his room. I even brought his favorite plush pillow that he leaves at my aunt’s house so he can sit on it whenever he plays his guitar for me.