Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

brOOKE

Cool water steals my breath in an exhilarating rush as the water envelops me and I scramble to get back to the bright surface.

The water might be temperature-controlled, but it’s still a shock to my sun-warmed skin. My limbs know what to do and that’s a rush, too.

Almost as much of a rush as hearing Donny fucking ask me to marry him. What the fuck is he thinking?

I burst back into the sunlight laughing. I feel high with joy. These rollercoaster extremes of emotion I’ve been riding the past couple days should probably concern me, but I’m too happy to give a shit right now .

Domhnall’s right there, in the water where I pop up. He must have jumped in right after me. “Jaysus you just took years off me life. Don’t scare the shite out of me like that!”

“But look, Donny, I know how to swim!” I laugh as I spin around while I tread water.

“Well how do ya know?” He looks nervous, arms all but circling me. “You have amnesia.”

“It’s weird, but the doctors say that’s how it is.” I easily do another spin like a mermaid, my feet twirling naturally. “Some skills I can remember. Like playing chess. I think I used to swim.”

It feels absolutely fucking amazing to be in the water.

I suck in a quick breath, throw myself backwards into a dive under the water and then swim back around between Domhnall’s legs. He tries to catch me but he’s too slow. I pop up on the other side of him, giggling.

“Careful!” he says. “We should be sure you can swim before you go do shit like that.”

I roll my eyes. I can’t believe this is the same guy who just had me in a dungeon. He’s suddenly treating me like I’m so breakable.

Though I guess, even in the dungeon when he was ostensibly being a brute, he was still careful with me. He made sure all my basic needs were met. The mattress was certainly a thousand times softer than at the shelter. Apart from the first day, I had amazing food that was fed to me by his own hand. I never went hungry, and if I had to squat to potty, well, it was still a toilet that flushed. Each time he came to me, he took me to euphoric places, sometimes without putting a hand on me.

I understand it was wrong. I also know that with our fucked-up past, right and wrong have gotten twisted sideways, crumbled in a ball, and shat out again.

But he’s always been careful and controlled with me, even when he hated me. Earlier today he wanted to let me go. Well, he was at least willing to let me go to his sister, who he has under constant security. Still. Even that feels like part of his fucked-up way of caring.

I feel less and less like a clinging koala, and it’s been a wonderful morning. Yes, I still feel panic at the thought of leaving his side, but I also want to be here.

When I swim towards the deep end, he doesn’t stop me. He just follows, at my side but a distance away. I fling my arms out and throw my head back, face to the sun as I float.

Ripples of the crystal blue pool glitter all around me like diamonds.

It feels so free to be in the water like this, all my limbs extended with the sun warming my face. I float, completely weightless. I feel like a goddess. Even with my eyes closed, I know Domhnall is near.

I feel… good . It’s strange. Foreign. Just because I haven’t had a lot of feeling free and happy since I woke up from the amnesia, or because I didn’t have it before, either? Is my body remembering what my mind can’t? That I’ve never been happy before, at least not for real, or for very long?

How much of my life did I spend with that awful, evil man? I don’t even want to think of him as my father. If I was only thirteen when Domhnall knew me, that meant at least five more years with my father before I was eighteen. Was I able to run away from him at some point? Because Domhnall said I knew… To be related to someone who could do that to?—

My eyes fly open, peace disturbed by the ugliness of it all.

Only to find Domhn circling me like a shark. I laugh, startled back to the now . I cling to the warmth of his presence, warmer than the sun.

He keeps circling me.

“Are you worried I’d go under?” I ask.

He shrugs, easily doing a backstroke, his bulging muscles glittering as water splashes off them. “Just making sure you’re safe.”

I splash him, fully expecting him to return it. When he doesn’t, I splash him again.

A devilish look enters his eyes, and his long body kicks off the edge of the pool and rockets towards me. I squeal, suck in a breath, and start to swim away but it’s no use. He lassos me around my waist and I screech in laughter as he swings me around in the water.

By the time we settle, we’re face to face. I lasso my arms around his neck and grin into his dripping face. My god, he’s gorgeous. His strong jaw is one thing, but those sharp cheekbones make him something out of a magazine. Women must throw themselves at him constantly.

“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” I ask. Then I scoff, “Fuck that. Why don’t you have a wife and a whole shitload of kids? You’re so fucking hot.”

He grins at me, his rows of white teeth with those endearing incisors slightly out of place only making him more devastating.

“The mots down at the club certainly think so. Got ‘em fighting over a night with me.”

“Ugh!” I pound his chest, then slip out of his arms.

Using my arms in powerful strokes, I swim down deep, near the bottom of the pool. Domhn dives after me but I barely look back. I swim along the bottom for as long as I can before having to surface. It feels exhilarating to utilize every muscle in my body as I cut through the water. My lungs are bursting for breath, but I don’t even care.

“What the hell are you thinking?” Domhn demands, bursting through the surface moments after I do. He immediately pulls me back to his chest. He sounds panicked. “Don’t take chances like that! What if I couldn’t get to you in time? I can’t lose you again!”

“Wha— Donny!” I try to say, half smothered in his barrel chest as he heaves in and out for breath. We’re in the shallow end now so I stand on my feet as I push him away enough to get a breath and look him in the eye.

“Christ sake, Donny,” I say in exasperation. “I’m fine! You can’t control every little thing I do. I told you I know how to swim.”

“We don’t know what you do and don’t know how to do,” he exclaims, still irate. “You can’t be taking chances with yourself.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That wasn’t a chance. I can swim. You just saw.” I fling out an arm towards the pool. “I can only find out if I can do things by doing them. Are you going to freak out if I try to see if I can ride a bike? Or a motorcycle?”

His eyes darken as he glowers down at me. “You are not riding a motorcycle. You’re twenty-five more times as likely to die in a motorcycle accident as a car accident.”

I roll my eyes again. “That’s not a real statistic. You just pulled that out of your ass.”

“It’s close enough.” He glares. “No motorcycles.”

“Fine.” I stick out my tongue, chest so light and happy at getting to be silly with him. “But you can’t stop me from swimming!” I dive towards the bottom of the pool again, swimming just past his grasping hands.

We swim for a long time, goofing around like we’re kids and occasionally tangling our bodies together. I’m fully naked but he kept his boxers on.

After about half an hour, I accidentally snort in some water and cough a little. I don’t want Domhnall to know, so I swim over to the side for the towel but can’t quite reach it. Domhnall chuckles and swims up beside me. He easily hops out of the pool to grab the towel from the bench, but I gasp, hands flying to my mouth.

The whole time we’ve been swimming, he’s kept his chest to me, but as he climbs out?—

“Domhn!” I cry. “Your back!”