Seduction: Book 4 (Strong Young Women Series) (4 page)

“I get that,” Kelly agreed. “It’s the same with the bridesmaids dresses. If they are bought or hired from different places, they can be several shades off.”

“Yes,” Jes agreed. “But people usually assume every black tux is exactly the same as the next.”

“That’s kind of obvious, yet can easily be overlooked,” Ana agreed too. “Thanks for the information.”

Kelly leaned forward and whispered, “The boys have come out to play. We need to get into the pool first.”

Evelyn who had a perfect view checked and nodded her head in agreement. “She’s right,” she said and started removing her t-shirt and shorts.

Kelly grabbed her t-shirt and threw it on her lounge chair, then stepped out of her daisy duke shorts.

Ana pulled her white sundress off and laid it out on her lounge too.

Then they all turned to look at Jes who was struggling with the zipper of her dress. Evelyn turned her around and pulled it down, then she stepped out of it.

“Four or five laps?” Ana asked.

“Four,” Kelly answered.

Like synchronized models, the
y walked to the pool and dove in, although Jes had to be pushed in by Kelly.

The water was breathtaking. Kelly soon forgot about Rafe as she started swimming lengths, back and forth. This is what she had missed when they moved to New York. Not that the New York weather was all around great like it was in California.
Too bad she couldn’t merge the cities.

They made it back and held onto the wall grinning like fools. Yes, everybo
dy had enjoyed the swim.

“Come on, last lap,” Jes said. “It’s not everyday I get to swim in a large pool that isn’t at the YMCA or at
a hotel.”

“You’re on,” Evelyn agreed and shot off into the water.

They laughed and quickly followed her.

Ana flopped down on the shallow end steps. “I’m not an olympian swimmer, so I’ll just rest here if the rest of you want to continue.”

“A drink and then volleyball. Kelly and Ana versus Jes and me. West versus East. I know Texas is central, but close enough to the west coast for the purposes of this game.”

“What?” Ana asked. “I don’t even know the rules, let alone know how to play.”

“I played ages ago, in middle and high school. But social not on a team,” Kelly volunteered.

They both looked to Evelyn and Jes.

“I’ve dabbled,” Evelyn relented.

“Basketball is more my thing,” Jes told them. “I’ve played beach volleyball once, though.”

“Everyone okay?” Evelyn asked them.

“Sure,” they all said in union.

“Let’s do this. Five minutes hydration of your favourite beverage, then back in the water.”

“Do we even have a ball?” Kelly asked.

Evelyn nodded. “I’ll go and get the ball my brothers sometimes use to shoot hoops,” she said pointing to the basketball ring.

Jes grinned. “Well, after, can we shoot some hoops?”

“I don’t see why not,” Ana replied. “But we might want to have lunch first though,” she suggested.

Seven minutes later they were on opposite ends of the pool. They stood at waist water level and agreed to pretend there was a net in the center.

Four

Rafe watched Kelly as she sashayed from the bedrooms and out to the pool. He had thought about mentioning the indecency of her shorts, but had quickly thought better. Besides, they were going to be with family. He didn’t think he would have been so easy going having other men checking out her legs and assets. No, he was the only one allowed that pleasure.

He helped Mitch stock the huge cooler box they usually used when they spent the day outside by the pool. They carried it outside, then poured the ice on top. The girls were huddled together, probably discussing wedding stuff. He remembered Kelly telling him that was what was on their agenda.

He wondered when he should ask her to marry him. She was it for him, but would she think it was too soon? And maybe freak out? Yes, they both loved each other, but sometimes it was either not enough or not the right time. He grunted as they lifted the heavy cooler box, placing it a few inches back, closer to the wall.

He saw Gabe and Nate prepare the fixings for lunch, and place the meat in a smaller box layered with ice to keep the meat fresh. Nate being the better cook, or the best in the kitchen out of them all, was tossing a salad.

What could be better than an afternoon, hanging out with his brothers, and new friend, Mitch, with their women? Except that Nate was still single. And so was Jessica. He had seen the way his brother had checked her out at Evelyn’s house when they first met her. And earlier today when the girls had walked out to the pool.

He remembered how they had done the same thing every summer, almost every weekend for the past several years. But now it was different. Having women around wasn’t as bad as he had originally thought. Well, before he hadn’t met any that he had enjoyed being in their presence or company for longer than ten minutes if sex wasn’t involved.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

Rafe turned to Mitch and snorted. “Just enjoying the view,” he said his attention focused on Kelly.

Mitch grinned. “I know what you mean,” he agreed looking at Evelyn. “Your sister is a real looker.”

“Don’t go there, man.”

Mitch grabbed a beer and twisted the cap off. “Nuh, I wouldn’t torture you that way.”

“Good answer,” Rafe replied. “We might as well get the best seats in the house,” he said pointing to the chairs close by.

As Gabe and Nate joined them, Rafe saw them drop their outer clothing attire and walk towards the deep end of the pool, then dive in and swim several laps.

His jaw dropped as he saw what Kelly was wearing inside. How had he not seen that before they left the apartment? She had been dressed by the time he had shaved and left the bathroom. A white bikini and bra held tog
ether by sheer material in the middle. And when she turned, oh boy, the bra didn’t go all the way round the back. It was all sheer material from the bikini bottom. Fuck, he thought and stood up as if he were a robot.

Gabe almost stepped onto Rafe, and they were both almost toppled over by Nate. The groan that came from Mitch mirrored theirs too. What was this? Victoria’s Secrets swimsuit show? He had never thought a one piece could look that good on a woman.
Were they part of he ones he had bought her? He didn’t think so and was surprised to know that Ana had one piece suits. As if he would, when he insisted she swim naked with him.

Her suit was fire engine red, the two pieces held together by strings that criss-crossed
with no apparent pattern. She turned walking with the other girls and he saw the back, barely held in place by two strings creating an ‘X’ from the bottom to the top.

He saw his brother Nate tense, and swear. At first he didn’t pay much attention as his attention was gripped by Ana. Then the swearing went on repeatedly and he was forced to look at him.

Nate had seen Jessica six days ago. He could count the hours, minutes and seconds since that day. Every night, his dreams had been filled with visions of Jes. If he had known she was going to be here, he would have found an excuse not to show up. Unfortunately by the time he had seen her it was already too late.

He had committed to doing the grilling and confirmed he didn’t have any plans for the day. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he swore. “Double and tripple fuck.”

He was so screwed. Could he be any more screwed? He turned to walk back into the house, then saw her step out of the dress she had been wearing and then glimpsed a yellow and white one piece suit. “Wow,” he breathed out. Oh God! He had never seen anything like it before. Victoria’s Secret models didn’t stand a chance. She toosed her hair and walked alongside his sister, Ana and Kelly. He realized they were all wearing gorgeous suits, like they were walking down the runway.

Every thought disappeared from his mind as she laughed and fell into the pool after Kelly had pushed her inside. She rose to the surface with a huge smile and started swimming towards the other end of the pool.  He was not only triple fucked, but quadruple fucked too. “Damn!”

Gabe followed Nate’s eyes and finally saw what had held his brother immobile and swearing like a sailor. He smiled, knowing his brother was fighting the attraction. Oh, man! This was going to be interesting. Finally. What had his brother said not so long ago? Oh, yeah. Nate was right, he was so fucked.

Mitch was glad he was still sitting when he saw Evelyn remove her shorts and t-shirt. He thought he had seen her wear a different swim suit earlier. What had happened? Why had she changed? Not that she hadn’t looked good then, but boy oh boy.

Were swimsuits ever meant to look that good on a body? If so how was a man supposed to preserve his dignity in the company of other men after seeing something like that? His cock came to attention and he groaned.

He took a long swallow of his beer. He drank it like water.
Like a fish drowning. Hot pink was now his favorite color. It had two long pieces covering her breasts and held together at the neck holter top style, and two strings from her breasts and tied at the back. He saw how the two pieces met in the navel area as two small triangles and joined to one small hexagon that covered her crotch and was tied at the side bikini style to the piece covering her butt. That was so hot.

Gabe
grabbed Nate’s arm and pushed him into a chair, then he found a bottle from the cooler box and handed it to him. When he just held onto the bottle and still did nothing, Gabe nudged Rafe and took the bottle from Nate, opened it and gave it back to him. He grinned at Rafe who suddenly realized his brother had just been placed into a coma by a woman.

“Where the fuck is Manuel?” Rafe asked. He would never believe it when they told him.

Gabe snickered. “I think they painted the gay bars red, last night. Him and Stefano will be here soon.”

“Well, he’s missing all the fun.” He watched his brother again, who still hadn’t moved. Did they need to rush him to the ER? “Earth to Nate,” he said waving his hand in front of Nate.

“Huh?” Nate asked.

Mitch who had finally caught onto the free show happening beside him laughed until Nate smiled sheepishly and drank the whole bottle then asked for another.

Gabe gave him a weird look but handed him another bottle. “You okay man?” he asked grinning.

“Yeah, I think he’s just dandy.” Rafe gave him another smile and he wondered if
everyone had seen him freeze at the sight of Kelly. Surely not, they must have been watching their own women.

“Man, I’ve
always pictured a deer caught in headlights, but never seen one.” Mitch shook his head thinking back to Nate’s statue like status. “But today?” He smiled. “You were like a deer caught in headlights.”

Nobody said another word after that as they saw the girls rise from the pool and walk over to the cooler box. Each one bent down as they looked for something to drink. They all looked and were behaving like high school boys
who couldn’t seem to stop grinning. They watched as each held a glass up as they mixed drinks and then walked away.

Mitch saw Evelyn enter the house and thought about following, but couldn’t get up. Everyone would see the huge bulge in his pants. And these were her brothers. It just wouldn’t do. A few minutes later she walked out holding a ball and bouncing it as she went back to join her friends.

It took another ten minutes for anyone to say something. If it hadn’t been for the arrival of Manuel and Stefano, they might all have just continued sitting like frozen ice sculptures.

The girls were now into their game as they rose up and slammed the ball to the other side, and the other side caught the ball, slamming it back.

Mitch watched Evelyn and each time she rose up to slam the ball, he tensed wondering if she would have a wardrobe mulfunction as she pushed her chest out and the gape in between her breasts widened, giving a tantalizing view of the inner parts of her cute breasts.

“Are you going to join?”

“Or sit like statues?” Manuel asked finishing Stefano’s question.

Stefano shook his head and smirked. He walked over to where the girls had left their clothes and undressed, then dived in and swam to the center of their volleyball game. “Manuel,” he called out. “You need to come and even the game,” he said. “Okay, ladies. Which side do I join?”

“Manuel will have to join the east coast team, and you’ll come and join us. We are the west coast team,” Ana said and rolled her eyes. “Don’t ask.”

Mitch stood up. “Everybody up,” he said in his army voice. “We can’t let Stefano and Manuel have all the fun.” He dropped his pants and pulled off his t-shirt. “Drop y
our pants gentlemen. Now,” he said in a deeper voice.

He almost laughed when they all followed his instructions, and soon everybody was ready to
jump into the water. He motioned with his head for them to start walking, then he followed them. They simply got into the water and each one went to the team that their significant other was playing in. Nate with no choice, except to make the numbers balance, went with Mitch to join Evelyn, Jes and Manuel.

The game then got very competitive and crowded. Nate kept brushing against Jes as they both ran to hit the ball back to the other side. Each time was like an electric shock and
he wondered why he wasn’t dead yet. Water and electricity didn’t mix. The electric current kept zapping into him, repeatedly. Little curents, big currents, they just kept zapping him. He wanted to take her somewhere private and explore those electric currents. They were making him hard and he was grateful for the water body that kept his private parts covered.

Nate quickly got out of the pool when the game ended. He had the perfect excuse. Grilling
for lunch. He took his duty with more seriousness than ever trying not to think about the past sixty minutes of bumping into Jes and feeling her soft skin against his. Brief though each moment had been.

Nate took his platter of grilled steak and left the chicken thighs grilling. He laid it on the table and went indoors to take the salad bowl
back outside. He looked over to the pool and called out that lunch was served. He saw Gabe and Ana, Mitch and Evelyn and Rafe and Kelly all grabbing each other like the world was coming to an end. Jes was sitting in between Manuel and Stefano, talking by the shallow steps. A sudden wave of jealousy rose in his chest and he clutched it in surprise.

He knew his brother wouldn’t move onto a woman, and neither would Stefano, but he wanted to be the one rubbing shoulders with her. He was glad when they all came to the table, but how he ended up sitting next to Jes he didn’t know. It was both a heady feeling and torture, all rolled into one.

The least he could do as a civil human being, was to engage her in conversation. The safest topic was her calling. The wedding planning she did for her clients. And since Ana was her client, he knew he would be seeing her more often than he might have liked. Never a coward, he took the bull by it’s horns and plunged in.

Jes was surprised when Nate who was sitting next to her suddenly asked her about planning weddings. What man voluntarily wanted to hear about weddings? Was he being sincere or just being polite? As a lunch guest, perhaps?

“I’m actually not just a wedding planner, but an event planner,” she volunteered.

“You mean, you do birthday parties, dinner parties, Christmas parties and the like?”

She nodded. “More or less.”

“We’ve been meaning to have a welcome party for Ana at the office. Would you be interested in organizing that?” Huh? Nate asked himself. Where had that come from?

“Seriously?” Jes asked. Now she knew the guy was full of shit.

“Yes, seriously. Are you in?”

“Nathaniel. That’s your name right?”

“Yes, but call me Nate.”

“Nathaniel. You don’t have to make up events. I’m not that hard up for business. I’m doing quite well actually,” she told him. “Well, I’m certainly not starving.”

Nobody ever called him Nathaniel. Only his mother ever did. And only when he was in trouble. “I never said you were struggling. And the party is real.”

“And why hasn’t Ana mentioned this before?”

“Ever heard of a surprise party?”

She snickered at him. “Nice save,” she said taking a bite of her meat. “I don’t belive you, but just to play along and see how far you’ll go, I’ll agree.”