Beneath These Scars

My body relaxed and I breathed a sigh of relief as I broke the surface and swam a few yards underwater. It was the perfect temperature, and the thrill of naughty, decadent freedom built with every pull of my arms and kick of my legs.

I made my way down the length of the pool, diving under the surface and pushing off the bottom to pop my head up again. Reaching the lap lane, I swam to the side and wondered where the control was that would activate the current. Locating a small panel at the end, I tested the buttons one by one until the current surged to life.

Win.

I let it push me backward before lowering my head and paddling against it with what felt like long, smooth strokes. I swam until my arms, shoulders, and thighs burned with fatigue. Finally ready to get out, I let the current sweep me back again until it lessened, and I dropped my feet to the tile bottom and got my footing.

A low, deep voice came from behind me, and I froze.

“How the hell did you get in here? And more importantly, how can I have you strip on command if you’re already naked?”

IT HAD BEEN A LONG fucking day.

I was supposed to be on my way to Dusseldorf right now, but the week of meetings I’d been scheduled to attend had fallen apart three hours ago when the CEO of the supplier had been hospitalized with a heart attack. A quadruple bypass had a way of changing plans. Inconvenient as hell, and yet not a damn thing I could do about it.

So now I had a rare evening free of plans or commitments. Which meant I’d worked until everyone had left for the day plus another hour before finally heading home.

I’d planned to do nothing but relax with my cigar and Scotch until I walked past the glass walls of the pool room that stretched along the back quarter of the house. And that was when I saw the intruder.

What the hell?

I shoved open the glass door, and my eyes zeroed in on the bare, heart-shaped ass and toned legs that flashed in the water as a woman swam in my lap lane.

How? I had no idea. Who? Also no fucking clue. But I wasn’t going to interrupt this show for anything. My night had just gotten a whole hell of a lot better.

She swam for another few minutes before floating out of the current and standing with her back to me. Time to solve the mystery.

“How the hell did you get in here? And more importantly, how can I have you strip on command if you’re already naked?”

She spun to face me, all wet, naked curves. Immediately my eyes dropped to her round tits tipped with nipples just a shade darker and pinker than her skin.

Her mouth dropped open and she screamed. The shrill sound echoed off the glass walls of the room, and she ducked underwater just as she remembered to cover herself.

A shame, really. My eyes moved up to her face.

What the hell? Was that—? No way.

Yve?

My dick, already hard from watching her swim, pulsed against my zipper. My dress pants would do little to hide my hard-on, but I didn’t give a damn. This was my house, and she was the one trespassing—naked.

Her expression flashed from confusion to realization, and then morphed into indignation. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she demanded, her words rife with disbelief.

“What am I doing here? It’s my house.”

Her brows wrinkled together into a deep V, as if she was working out some complex scenario. “You’re Levi’s brother,” she finally said. “No way. No goddamn way. His name isn’t Titan.”

Levi. She was fucking my brother? The punk was on his way to New Zealand. Why the hell did he have his girlfriend in my house? And why didn’t I know the woman I haven’t stopped thinking about is fucking my brother? Frustration and anger boiled through me hot and fast.

“It was before he decided to legally drop it and just go with Levi. Like the kid is Prince or something.”

It had been a rebellious move as soon as he’d graduated from military school and told me he was going to pursue his career in music. One year living in LA waiting tables had cured him of that, but the legal name change had already been done. Now he was finally back in college, and on an extended mid-semester break. And what did my little brother do? Use his quarterly trust fund distribution to buy a plane ticket to New Zealand to visit a sheep farm or some shit like that.

Yve couldn’t be involved with Levi. But then, how the hell would she know him if she wasn’t dating him? Levi didn’t exactly have many friends. But if they were together, wouldn’t he have told her who he was? No. He wouldn’t have. That was my brother. Deny the money to the very end, except when he got the bright idea to spend a couple of weeks in New Zealand.

I still didn’t believe it. She had to be almost ten years older than him. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but wouldn’t I have known? It didn’t make sense.

“How do you know my brother, and why are you here if he’s on his way to New Zealand?”

Yve’s gaze on me was hard as she wrapped her arms around her body more tightly, almost as tightly as her lips were pressed together. “He works for me at Dirty Dog. He said no one would be home.”

His boss? Then she was fair game. Satisfaction pulsed within me.

“That doesn’t answer my question about why you’re naked in my pool. Not that I don’t appreciate the view.”

Her cheeks flushed a deeper pink, and the color reminded me of her nipples. My dick once again jerked against my suit pants in response. Now that I’d seen those tits, I’d never get them out of my head. I needed to see them again. Now.

“Look, I didn’t know,” she said. “I never would’ve come here if I’d known this was your house. He said it’d be empty, and I needed a place to crash for the night.” She lifted her arm, unable to suppress the natural urge to gesture, and the movement revealed a flash of nipple.