Chapter Five

At the mansion, the morning after the pool situation, I came downstairs to find breakfast had somehow become a hostage negotiation.

My mom kept sliding looks at Richard. Richard kept sliding looks at his coffee and Jace sat across from me shoveling cereal into his mouth like a man trying to physically outrun a conversation. Okay weird!

Maybe I was just overthinking things. Maybe I was the one being weird but for some reason,I could not bring myself to look at Jace. Throughout breakfast, my head was buried in between the orange juice and toast.

I tried to paint in my room after. I actually sat down at my easel, brush loaded, blank canvas staring back at me. Twenty minutes later the only thing on it was one aggressive blue line that looked like an EKG line.

I gave up and went to campus early, mostly to escape the house, and ran straight into Noah at the quad.

"Hey — I owe you an apology," he said, hands in his pockets, doing his best wounded-puppy face. "For the whole Bree thing. I should've been clearer."

"You should've been a lot of things," I said, “Why would you ask me out on a date when you already have a girlfriend? Do you think that I am a joke?” I asked, every emotion bubbling over.

He laughed like I was joking, then he threw his hands up in mock surrender. “No hard feelings. Izel, I wanted to get to know you, and that's why I asked you to go to the movies with me. I had no idea you considered it a date.”

I opened my mouth to say something devastating and that's when I saw Jace across the quad, gym bag over his shoulder, watching us. He was so concentrated on us that his forehead wrinkled. Then he turned and walked into the athletics building without a word, and I don't know why that bothered me more than anything Noah had said in the last five minutes, but it did.

I told Noah I had class. I did not have class.

I went to find Jace instead. Since last night, it was hard to get him out of my head…hard to stop thinking about our kiss.

Practice was already wrapped up when I got to the natatorium, and I slipped in through the side door just in time to watch Jace pull himself out of the water wrongly.

His arms shook on the ladder, his face went the color of chlorine tablets, and he sort of folded onto the pool deck in a fetal position. 

Thankfully no one was there. I rushed over to him, only one thought in my head. “Jace, I swear you need to tell your dad.” 

Jace seemed annoyed to see me. He grunted and moved away from me. “What the hell are you doing here, Izel? Don't you have classes?” 

I rolled my eyes and pulled my hair up in a bun with a handy pink scrunchie I always wore as a bracelet. “I don't have any classes today. Now…” I grabbed his arms again and tried to help him stand upright. Jace was heaving and even though he was wet, his brows were sweating. “Let get you out of here, before someone sees you.”

Jace groaned. “Will you stop? I've been managing this way before you and I don't need your coddling now. If anyone is going to notice, it's going to be because of you, doing the most.”

I sighed but I didn't let go. “Shut up and let me help you.” By now, we were making our way to the locker room beside the swimming pool. 

As soon as we entered the storage room, he pulled off his swimming gear, exposing his wet, deliciously ripped body. I tried my best to act nonchalant but damn…I was chalanting.

“Look, Izel. I didn't tell you about this so you can hover over me like a mother hen. I can take care of myself you know? Besides don't you have other things to worry yourself about like Noah? I saw him talking to you earlier.” his voice suddenly became caustic at the mention of Noah.

“What? Are you jealous?” I heard myself ask, half wishing his answer would be yes, but he coughed out a laugh.

Jace took two steps forward until I was wedged between him in the small locker room. He took his time, his eyes dragging up and down my body so slowly it felt like he was undressing me with them. “Why would I be jealous, Izel?” He asked in a seductive husky voice.

“Why wouldn't you? We did more than kiss yesterday, Jace.” I breathed, my eyes refocusing on his lips. He seemed to be doing much better now.

“You mean this?” Jace’s hand was suddenly on my bare legs and he made his way slowly to my panties while I heaved. 

“Jace…someone might see us.” I said with a conviction I didn't even feel. I didn't want him to stop at all.

Jace leaned down and swallowed my complaint with a kiss. All that adrenaline from screaming at each other turned quickly into heat. He kissed me hard, backing me against the wall.

Once again, he rubbed my wet vagina through my panties and I moaned into the kiss. “Did you think about me last night, Izel? I know I did.”

Something zapped in my belly and I murmured an answer, lost in pleasure. “I…I…”

The storage room behind the Pacific Coast University’s Aquatic Center smelled like chlorine and Jace Carter, my stepbrother who had me pinned to the wall.

His wet hair dripped onto my forehead. My hands were fisted in the front of his hoodie, mostly because I was trying to push him away and failing.

“We shouldn’t be doing this. What if someone sees us?” I whispered, biting my lower lip.

"You've said that four times, and I don’t care. I want you Izel." He grinned that stupid, unfair grin that made girls line up outside swim meets pretending that they cared about swimming.

That's when the arena outside exploded. And several people rushed in at once. Jace pulled away so quickly that I didn't have time to register anything.

Apparently, Jace Carter had broken the NCAA record earlier, and now half the athletics department was hunting down their missing star swimmer. 

And we were about to get caught.