Chapter 13
“I’m not,” Kevin told him. “Not tonight. Not with you. Now get the hell off my chair before I throw you out of the pool, you hear me?”
“Jeez,” Danny pouted. He jumped down and kicked one of the chair’s wooden legs for good measure. “I’m not the one who disappeared the other night, dude. I go to open the door for my friend and when I come back, you’re gone.”
Kevin shook his head. Did Danny seriously believe that crap? Kevin was the one who got ditched, not the other way around, and he wasn’t about to let it happen to him again. “Whatever.”
“Do you know how long I’ve dreamed of getting into these red swim trunks of yours?” Danny asked, tugging at Kevin’s shorts.
“Keep dreaming.” Kevin moved his leg away and stared pointedly across the pool. “You lost your chance.”
“Why you doing me like this?” Danny kicked the chair leg again, petulant. “Come on, Kev—”
“Don’t come on me,” Kevin warned as he shook Danny’s hand off of his ankle. “Touch me again and you’re out of here. Get it? Go.”
“I’ll change your mind,” Danny promised, but when Kevin’s jaw clenched in anger, he backed away. A few feet from the lifeguard station, he turned and shouted, “Tonight, I swear it.”
Adrenaline roared like the ocean in Kevin’s ears as he turned away from Danny. Beneath his breath, he muttered, “You wish.”
* * * *
At nine o’clock, Kevin blew his whistle to signal that the pool was closed. The few lingering students gathered their towels and headed for the gym doors but Danny wasn’t among them. Maybe he left already,Kevin thought. The fact that he hadn’t noticed—and that Danny didn’t even bother to say goodbye—bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Quickly Kevin checked the locker rooms that branched off near the deep end, but they were empty at this hour. Now he had the pool all to himself. He’d swim two laps around the perimeter to warm up before running through his competition strokes for practice. Climbing up onto one of the starting blocks that lined the shallow end of the pool, he bent his knees a few times and pumped his arms to get the blood flowing, then took a deep breath and dove into the still water below.
For one refreshing moment, the water parted to let him in before closing above his head. All senses disappeared. Resurfacing, Kevin pulled himself through the water with a fast front crawl. At the deep end he kicked down to touch the bottom of the pool seven feet below. The water was dark there, and deathly silent. There was a scary moment when he wasn’t sure which way he was swimming, his lungs screamed in protest, but then his fingers scraped the bottom of the pool and he turned around, pushing off against the tiles with his feet to propel himself back to the top. He broke through the surface and gulped in fresh air as he smoothed back the blonde bangs plastered to his forehead.
Behind him, something splashed into the water.
Kevin whirled around, heart racing. He should be alone. “Hello?” he called out. There was someone in the water, near the lifeguard chair. Kevin pinched his nose and blew hard to clear his ears, then noticed a pair of blue swim trunks lying on the concrete floor beside the pool—Danny’s, he remembered seeing them earlier. That meant … as Danny swam towards him, Kevin scrambled for the ladder at the edge of the pool. Beneath the water, something brushed against his foot and he kicked out, angry. “Danny!”
Cold, strong hands gripped his legs, pulling him back. Kevin kicked into a soft stomach, felt a swirl of hair tickle his knee, then felt fingers pulling at the waistband of his swim trunks. When he twisted away, the shorts slid down to his knees, then slipped off completely. “This isn’t funny,” Kevin hollered.
With a laugh, Danny popped up out of the water nearby. “Told you I’d get you out of these,” he shouted as he held Kevin’s shorts up above his head like a prized trophy. “Didn’t I?”
“Give them back.” Kevin lunged, but Danny swam out of reach. “The pool’s closed.”
“You’re in here,” Danny pointed out. As Kevin watched, he swung the shorts above his head, then let them go to land in a wet heap on the side of the pool, far enough away from the water that Kevin had to climb out to retrieve them. He glared at Danny, who laughed again and said, “You want them back? Go get ‘em.”
Kevin eyed the distance between the ladder and his shorts—there was no way in hell he’d walk that length naked, not with Danny watching. When he didn’t speak, Danny ducked back into the water. Kevin swam for the edge of the pool, thinking he could get out now, get dressed or at least get covered before Danny came back up for air, but just as he reached the side, Danny resurfaced behind him. Kevin felt a hand smooth along his thigh then higher, tracing the curve of his ass, and he kicked out to shake it away. “Don’t touch me,” he muttered.