Between Heats (Downtown Aquatics Book 1) (6 page)

He frowned. “Hey, you said you didn’t want unnecessary
attention… wait a minute, are you jealous?"

Madison gave a brisk laugh. "Me, jealous? You have got to
be kidding."

His gray eyes were suddenly serious and so was his voice.
Seconds passed by. "So
who
did you bet on, with
Elliott? The model I'd be taking to dinner tonight? Anna?"

Madison was quiet for a few seconds. Then she opened the
passenger side and got in, her cheeks pink. She looked straight ahead instead
of meeting his eyes.

“Me.”

She was a serious fireball, unpredictable and infuriating and much
more dangerous than a girl with naked photos on her iPhone. She drove him
crazy.

And he couldn’t get enough of her.

“And after dinner?” Aaron asked as he got in. He started the
car and glanced at her. “What happens to us then?”

“I brought home the white swimsuit,” she replied, her cheeks
now a bright shade of red. Her voice seemed husky. “You could finally teach me
to swim underwater.”

Dinner was at a restaurant that used to be an old fire
station, but all Aaron could think of was Madison in her white swimsuit, in the
water.
His
water. There was a large
lap pool at his apartment, but there was a smaller and more private one that
only tenants from the top two ‘clusters,’ as they called it, could use. The
building gave him more leeway with its use but none of his neighbors complained
anyway. He could bring Madison there and no one would bat an eyelash.

There was something about her that captivated him. He could
claim that it was her face and her body that first caught his eye, but she was
no-nonsense and focused in ways that had nothing to do with competitive
swimming, and he found that incredibly sexy. She blew hot and cold and he found
himself increasingly intrigued. Like there was always something going on behind
her flashing green
eyes.
She was like chili and
coffee, with a hint of cherries right beneath the surface.

And now that he was taking her back to his apartment tonight…
dinner was rapidly becoming the last thing on his mind.

Aaron was already in the water by the time Madison stepped
out onto the deck, nervously adjusting the straps of her white swimsuit.
Damn.
She stopped in her tracks, just a
few steps short of the pool. Aaron was submerged in the deep end of the pool,
hands holding on to the sides in a breathing exercise.

Aaron turned to face her, diving deep once and then emerging,
his black hair slicked back by the water. His eyes were trained on her face and
her body as he slowly swam lazy strokes to get to where she was.

Aaron stopped by the pool handrails. He gripped the rails,
bringing out the definition in his toned arms and muscles. She looked down at
him and he hoped she liked what she was seeing. His lithe torso was chiseled
and the
V that his female fans seemed to find so sexy was
emphasized by the jammers he wore
. “The water’s fine,” he said with a
grin.

Madison smiled as she slowly made her way to the edge. She
turned around to get a better grip of the handrails and descended down the
ladder with her back to him. She had no way of knowing what the
sight of her trim figure
in a virginal white suit was doing
to Aaron.

Double damn.

His strong hands were on her waist, helping her down. “Got
you,” he murmured.

“Thanks,” she said. Damn, she was so gorgeous. The white swimsuit
clung to all her curves. Even in the dim lights around the pool, he could see
the light brushing of freckles over her shoulders and breasts. His hands slowly
skimmed her sides before letting go. They were alone, true, but they were also
technically in a public place. He thought he saw her blush, and reminded
himself that she was here to learn swimming techniques. She was such a
contradiction. One moment her mouth would be dishing out comebacks and retorts;
the next moment her body would be responding as if she were embarrassed.

“Let’s see you swim first,” Aaron said.

“Performance anxiety!” She laughed, submerging herself in the
water and then coming back up immediately. “I feel like I’m about to be
judged.”

Aaron grinned and watched. Madison swam to the opposite end of
the pool, took a short break when she got there, then swam back to where he
was. “I’ll leave the underwater turns to experts like you,” she teased. “So,
how did I do?”

“Your posture’s awful,” he taunted back. “But I think I can
work with you.”

Her reply was to roll her eyes at him. “So how do we start?”

 
“I think you should
relax a bit and maybe try some breathing and kicking exercises. But first...”
Aaron moved closer to Madison, his hand smoothing over the curve of her waist
and drawing her close. She gave in to his tug, her snapping green eyes now
softer and gentler. She parted her lips slightly and Aaron closed the distance
between them. Her lips were lush and soft. He could feel the heat from her body
and it drove him wild. He wanted to tangle himself in her as his lips captured
hers in hungry, tantalizing kisses. He wanted her so much. Her breasts pushed
against his chest as she responded enthusiastically, her hands behind his neck.
His tongue tasted hers, sliding over her eager sweetness. She was ready for
him. In the water, they were completely level.

Aaron’s legs locked around hers while his hands on her waist
slowly brought her down. She didn’t seem to have time to panic, so intent was
she on matching his tongue movements with hers. The water closed in above them
as they continued to kiss underwater. Their tongues played and lapped, until he
brought her back up again and they broke for air.

“That
was
…” she panted, still clinging
to him. The color was high in her cheeks while her chest heaved as she caught
her breath.

Aaron looked down at her mischievously. “Breathing exercise,”
he said. If this was what kissing her felt like, he couldn’t imagine what she
would be like in bed. “Want another round?”

Madison moved in the water, and rubbed herself against him. He
hardened instinctively. “Yes,” she almost purred.

Their underwater kisses became longer and more intense.
Madison’s chest was flush up against Aaron’s and he could feel her sensitive
nubs hardening with every sensation. Her body was so damn honest that he was
already hardening. On their fourth trip down, Aaron abandoned all thoughts of
kissing her lips and moved on to exploring the rest of her body with his hands.
She jerked in surprise, surfacing and taking deep
lungfuls
of air.

But Aaron remained underwater. He wasn’t finished yet. He
anchored one hand on one of her breasts and the other on the back of her thigh.
Then slowly both hands made languid, caressing movements over the rest of her:
her legs, her thighs,
her
butt. He was everywhere.
When she made no protest, his fingers brushed against her center.

And then suddenly he was tracing her contours there.

Madison brought her legs together, unable to suppress the moan
that escaped her lips. His face so close to her heat, his fingers content with
just teasing her.

“Aaron!” she half-panted, half-scolded. “You said you’d teach
me, remember?”

He resurfaced, a laugh on his lips. “I am doing that!”

“You’re not,” she pouted. “Show-off.”

“I’m not the one who came here with a body begging to be
touched,” he said in a low voice. “Who’s the show-off now?”

Madison shook her head. “Why anyone thinks you’re the perfect
boy-next-door, I’ll never know.”

He grinned at her. “I can’t control what people think of me.”

“You’re supposed to be teaching me how to swim underwater,” she
reminded him, leaning to give him a quick kiss, before wading out of reach, as
if he couldn’t catch her with just one stroke.

“All right,” Aaron said. He let her swim around a bit more,
just content to watch her. Finally, he asked, “Do you know how to do a breast
stroke?”

“Is this a legitimate question or a loaded innuendo?” she shot
back.

“Legit,” he replied and she switched from her front crawl to
execute a couple of basic breaststrokes. Satisfied, he took her through some
breathing exercises by the side of a wall. But her chest was too damn
distracting so he ended up demonstrating how to swim underwater, just to take
his mind off her body.

He swam back to her. “Now it’s your turn.
Take
a deep breath, that’s right
,
just hold it
. Now
leverage yourself against this wall, bring yourself down, and push off, like I
showed you. And then breaststroke underwater.”

“What if I float?” she asked him.

“Then we do it all over again,” Aaron answered. “And frankly, I
don’t mind staying here all night.”

He watched her nibble on her lip self-consciously. He almost
wanted to reach out and kiss her again when she inhaled and exhaled a couple of
times, getting ready to try. When she pushed off, he watched her graceful form
glide underwater, sleek and silent, and he dove in after her. He slowed himself
so he could swim abreast of her.

She surfaced for air and they did it over and over, not
talking, instead moving closer and closer to each other. Then finally, when she
managed to reach the middle of the pool without coming up for air, she turned
to him in triumph. The water slicked her red hair back, making it appear black
under the lights. “Is that how you do it, hotshot?” she asked challengingly.

He pushed her against the side of the pool, trapping her with
his strong arms. “Now I’ve got you right where I want you,” he said, before
meeting her lips in a passionate, open-mouthed kiss.

“I’ve always been—mmm, yes—right here,” Madison
murmured between breaths. She rubbed her foot up and down the side of his leg
and they tangled all the way to the side of the pool.

“Stay,” he murmured in her ear, as he slid a finger beneath her
swimsuit strap. “I want you.”

It was way past eleven but it felt like the night had just
begun. Madison had insisted on going up and continuing where they left off in
his apartment. He wouldn’t have minded staying where they were, but the pool
was the main view of most of the balconies. She had kissed him and stroked him,
promising it would be worth it.

When they got back to his apartment, she had asked to take a
shower first. Damn she was making his head spin and ache for so much more. If
he had his way, he didn’t care if she tasted of chlorine. He just wanted her.

He then heard a phone ringing. The tone and pitch was different
from his, and he saw her phone ringing and vibrating on the kitchen counter
where she may have put it down.

He heard something click inside his room; Madison was probably
finished showering. So he quickly grabbed the ringing phone and briefly glanced
at it, out of curiosity. There was no photo, and just a letter in place of a
full name. Thinking nothing of it, he opened his bedroom door and stepped in,
only to find Madison standing there in just a bath towel and drying her hair
with a smaller one.

It took him just a few seconds to take it all in: Madison
standing in his bedroom with just a towel wrapped around her, reaching just the
top of her thighs. She was staring back at him. Only the shrill ringing brought
them back to earth.

He extended the phone towards her, screen facing out so she
could see, while he stood frozen at the doorway. He cleared his throat.
"You've got a phone call."

He saw her look at the phone, her face unreadable, then looked
back at him with those bright green eyes of hers.

With her eyes focused on his, she slowly walked towards him,
while languidly unraveling the towel around her chest. Aaron couldn't keep her
eyes off of her. Sure, he had seen her in next-to-nothing on their first day of
shooting, but seeing her in all her naked glory walking towards him, was doing
things to him other than a raging hard-on. Maybe it was how her hips swayed as
she stalked towards him. Maybe it was how she looked at him the way a predator looked
at its prey. Or maybe how a corner of her luscious lips was tugged up to a sexy
smile.

He hadn’t remembered the ringing phone until Madison relieved
it from his hands. He could care less if she had turned it off or rejected the
call. She had already silenced it and chucked the phone away from his view.

Her fingers drew small patterns on his bare chest as she
stepped forward, sending so many sensations across his body. Her gorgeous body
was pressed against him, and that slight widening of her eyes told him she felt
how much he needed her at that moment.

She just grinned, trailing her fingers from his chest down to
his growing need. "Do you need a hand with that?" she asked, her
voice now husky.

He almost snapped out his answer. “I want more than that.”

She bit her lower lip, and without another word, slowly slid
her thumbs into his jammers’ waistband. She rubbed her bare chest on his, and
slowly went and knelt down on the floor in front of him, like last time. She
had pulled down his swimwear down his thighs, and his erection sprang in front
of her. But this time, her mouth came on him instead of her hands, and was
quick to lick the pre-cum off before kissing it, and clamped her lips around
the head.

Damn. This was what he was craving for to get the first time
they met. This was what she teased him then. He had been thinking how those
lips and that tongue would feel around him since yesterday.
 
Now that she was giving it to him, and
it was better than he had hoped.