Page 65 of Ecstasy
“What the hell are you—”
“A girl died in here, huh, Za?” I set her on the underwater steps at the entrance to the pool, the water to her waist. I sink down to my knees and she’s still grabbing at me even though she’s well above the two fucking feet of this part of the pool.
“Your girlfriend.” Her words are bitter. It makes me laugh.
I part her knees, bring my thumbs to her inner thighs under the water. She’s shivering, and she doesn’t let go of me.
“She wasn’t,” I inform her. “But we’re going to play a game.”
“What kind of game?”
“A dangerous one.” I rub the inside of her thighs, my thumbs teasing her but never getting close enough. She wiggles on the step of the pool, trying to get me closer as she bites her lip, watching me. “Take off your top.”
She swallows, but reaches behind her to untie the string. She’s so slow about it, I know she’s fucking teasing me, but I don’t care. I wait until it drops from her neck, and then she pulls the last knot free, behind her back.
The scrap of fabric falls away, floating off into the water. She keeps her eyes on me. “What’re you going to do?” she asks me quietly. Trusting me. Waiting.
“I’m going to hold you under.”
She sucks in a breath, her chest rising as she holds it, her nipples puckered with the cold of the water on her lower body, the open air of the night.
“And see if I can get you to come before you…” I smile at her, brushing my thumbs up higher.
She swallows, her eyes fluttering closed for one brief moment.
I remember when Alex stopped me, “She’s nodding off. She’s fucking nodding off.”
But Alex isn’t here, and she’s looking at me again, waiting.
She’s gonna do this.
I’m gonna do this.
It’s a terrible idea, her being high and me being, well, me.And that’s exactly why it’s about to happen.
“Okay?” I ask her.
“This seems like a bad idea.”
Very observant, this girl. “It is.” I push my thumbs up higher and watch her squirm on the step, gripping the sleek metal handrail of the pool.
But she lets me touch her. Stares at me as if she’s waiting.
I’m plenty good at waiting, but I’m kind of done with that tonight. There’ll be more later, but for now, fuck it.
I stop touching her between her thighs, grab her by the throat and push her down, so the back of her head is submerged in water.
She takes a deep breath, her eyes wide, hands gripping the ledge of the stairs on either side of her as she floats horizontal on the second-to-last step.
“Take another breath,” I tell her, still on my knees on the bottom of the steps.
She listens.
And then I push her under.
She’s probably got about thirty, forty seconds before she needs to come up for air. I’ve been toying with her the past half hour, so I know she’s ready. And with the fear, that panic bubbling up inside of her—her eyes are closed tight underwater, her hair floating white around her much like Rihanna’s did—she’s going to be close to the edge.
Fear always brings you closer.
