Page 62 of Crushing Clover

“No such luck.” I patted his chest, which was disturbingly bare. I snatched back my hand. Normally, I would have expected someone throwing me in the water to be laughing at his own joke, but his face was humorless.

“You threw me into the pool. Why are you pissed at me?”

“You sleep too much. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me. I don’t get a lot of uninterrupted sleep.”

He towed me to the shallow end of the pool, where I was able to touch bottom. “We have to figure out who keeps waking you up so I can tear them a new one. Sneaking around like that goes against all the rules.”

“Maybe it really is a ghost.”

“I’m guessing it’s Lucky having trouble keeping his dick in his pants. He has a history.”

“Oh, and the other two of you were saints before I came along?”

“Saint John, remember?”

“Considering your personality, your parents must have named you ironically.”

Not bothering to respond, he started doing laps again. I headed for the edge of the pool, planning to get out, only to find myself being towed away from the deck.

“Swim. You’re not going to stay healthy if you spend all of your time tied to a couch, being fucked, or sleeping.”

“Look at you—suddenly caring about my well-being.”

“I don’t care about your well-being. I just have no idea how to dispose of a body.”

“You live a few blocks from the ocean. How hard can it be to get rid of someone?”

“Thanks for the tip.”

I swam back and forth a few times but didn’t have the kind of stamina or technique he did, and soon found myself getting tired.

“Weak!” he called after me as I boosted myself out of the water and onto the deck.

“Not all of us have daily access to a swimming pool,” I shot back. I peeked over my shoulder as I grabbed a towel. Rather than meeting his scowl, as I was expecting, he was checking out the way Lucky’s wet clothing clung to me. He flicked his gaze to mine, and his dark eyes were filled with chagrin at being caught. Rather than say something dismissive, he dove under and started doing laps again.

So much for his assertion that he wasn’t attracted to me.

He got out not long after I did and stalked over to his towel. I watched while pretending my eyes were closed. All three of them were gorgeous, but my attraction to Saint John had a weird twist which likely had everything to do with the fact that he hated me. What the hell was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I fantasize about safe, respectful guys?

Noah used to fit that bill.

The thought of my ex-cinnamon-roll boyfriend was like a toothache. The betrayal had been so unexpected that I was still grappling with what had happened.

“What’s with the face?”

I banished thoughts of Noah, and even welcomed the flecks of water that hit me as Saint John took the seat next to me.

“Thinking of my ex, unfortunately.”

“You mean your last John?” He snickered like he was hilarious.

“I know you might find it difficult to believe, but I probably have far less sexual experience than you three.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Seriously. I was with the same guy since high school. He was my one and only until I went to work at the resort. Even there, I was only with a few people. That brings me up to a grand total of four, other than Lucky and Rush…and maybe you.” I glanced over at him. He’d opened his book but was still looking at me.

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