The Pool Boy Read online

  He gives me a look and an encouraging nod. “That’s a beautiful goal to have. I’m sorry you’re not having good luck.”

  “How did you know that?”

  He packs down some dirt. “If you were having good luck, you probably wouldn’t be home in the middle of the day or need to blow off steam.”

  “Right,” I laugh. “Good point.”

  “But,” he says, “You may have a promising career in over-watering flowers.”

  I look down, and see there’s a puddle of water around the base of the camellia I’m watering. I quickly point the hose in a different direction. “I swear, I’m not usually bad at this.”

  “Don’t worry,” James says. “I was in your garden—I’ve seen what you can do.”

  I smile at him. “Good. But next time you want to go in my garden you have to ask permission.”

  “I will. I think I’d like to explore it further.” He winks at me. I didn’t realize winks could be so sexy. “I promise to be careful and not deflower any of your plants.”

  My mouth goes dry as I realize: he’s flirting with me. Oh. My. God. I’ve never been good at flirting, but his words have my imagination spinning and the reply is easy. “Sometimes a little deflowering is healthy.”

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  I feel my body heat up, and I have to move away from him. I finish watering the circle of flower beds, and then grab the second bag of soil. I join James on the ground and dive into filling the beds. It’s hot, and soon I’m sweating, my arms covered in dirt. James is sweating too, and I’m desperately trying not to imagine him without his shirt on, sweating and glorious. The work is good, and the silence comfortable. I keep sneaking glances at him out of the corner my eye because I can’t help it. I’m pretty sure he knows it too.

  He pauses to get more soil from his bag and adds, “I wouldn’t have thought you were the kind of girl to get dirty.” The way his fingers form the soil around the plants has me imagining his fingers doing other things. To me.

  “I—” I look over at him, and he’s closer than I realized. So close that I can see his eyes are a rich coffee brown and there are crinkles around them as he smiles. His eyes move down to my mouth, and I realize I’m thinking about him kissing me. And what I imagine is being kissed like I’ve never been kissed before, right here on the ground, his arms pulling me tightly against his hard body, and now I’m staring at him again. “I like getting dirty,” I murmur. “Dirty is good.”

  His lips curl into a teasing smile. “I guess we’ll have to save that for another time, then.” He gestures to the ground. “We’re finished.”

  I hadn’t even realized that we’d made it all the way around the circle. “I guess we are. What do you have left to do?”

  James picks up both the bags of soil. “Clean the pool. Saved it for last.”

  “Great,” I say, “I’ll see you over there.”

  He laughs. “It’s kind of a one person job, though I appreciate the offer.”

  I turn and give him my best flirtatious smile. “You’re going to clean the pool. I’m going to use it.”

  3

  James

  I watch Vera walk toward the house, and I’m absolutely sure there’s a swing in her hips that wasn’t there before.

  Damn, I’m in trouble.

  When Mike asked me to fill in for him this week he told me the client’s daughter was hot. I’m going to kill him when I see him next, because she’s way more than hot. She’s got curves no amount of clothing is going to hide, and I’ve been half hard since the moment she ran up totally intent on ripping me a new one.

  I take the bags of soil back to the utility shed, thinking about the way she let her hands get dirty. I’ve met plenty of girls like her—rich and spoiled and totally privileged. But most of them are too worried about looking good to do any kind of work. Vera surprised me, but she was still planning on busting me for working in her garden. Until she saw me.

  I relive the way her eyes travelled all over me, and…I have to think about anything but that in order to keep my body in control.

  Then there’s the fact that she wants to be a humanitarian. It’s something else I wouldn’t have pegged her for. I like the contradictions I’m finding even though I just met her. The image of her sweating in the sun and inches away from me comes back. I was seconds away from kissing her. I would have pushed her down into the flowers. I would have kissed her breathless before slowly finding out the dimensions of each and every one of her curves. I let myself imagine everything.

  I can see the way her skin will streak with dirt and sweat, her nipples hardening under my lips and teeth. I can feel the heat of her as I pull my gloves off and press my fingers into her one by one, and I can imagine the tight exquisite pleasure as I sink deep inside her.

  My dick is straining painfully against my jeans, and I’m more than tempted to take care of it right here in this little garden closet.

  I think about vegetables. About cute animals. About being cold. Anything to get me to cool down. I took this job for the extra money, and I don’t want to get fired for jacking off next to the tools. If I’m going to get fired, it’s going to be for a better reason than that.

  It takes a few minutes, but I manage to get the raging hard-on under control. I check the time—I have a couple of hours. I have more than enough time to clean the pool and get back across town in time. If I move fast I might be able to get some work done on the Mastersons’s house before the end of the day. I make sure all the landscaping tools are put away and head over to the pool shed. It made me laugh when Mike told me they had two sheds, but these kinds of houses always have more than they need.

  The pool shed is infinitely nicer—it doubles as a changing room for guests. I grab the pH kit and the chemicals and the skimmer and head back out onto the patio—holy hell.

  Vera is lying out next to the pool.

  And that might be the smallest bikini I’ve ever seen.

  Her eyes are closed as she basks in the sun and I take this moment to consume her without being observed. I let my gaze slide down her body, starting at her face and mouth and moving to her breasts, which are barely contained by that blue top. Her stomach is glistening, and I watch it rise and fall with her breath, trying very hard not to visualize my hands touching her everywhere. Finally my eyes land on her hips and the fact that her bathing suit bottom ties at the sides. I memorize the image—I’ll certainly be returning to it later.

  My dick is stirring in my pants and I grit my teeth hard enough to crack to keep it down. Vera opens her eyes and sees me. A lazy smile plays across her face, and suddenly I feel like she’s wearing that just to tease me. Keep it together, man. You took this job for the money, not to get tangled up with a rich girl.

  Vera stretches, her arms over her head, arching her back. Her tight belly contracts and her breasts thrust upward and I swear for a second I think they’re going to burst out of her suit.

  Damn damn damn.

  I move over to the pool. I can’t just stand here staring.

  But I can see that Vera’s smiling at me, and I know she isn’t finished with me yet. I force myself to look away and get to work. If I can make it all the way through this week with my pants on, I’ll be lucky.

  4

  Vera

  I own several bathing suits, none of which are nearly as skimpy as this one. But from the look on James’s face, it’s doing its job. I wanted him to look at me the way I looked at him—as absolutely delicious.

  I stretch out on the chair, arching my back. It feels great after being hunched over working on the flowers. Plus, I know that James is watching me. It may be incredibly stupid, but I’m hoping my hitting on James gets back to my dad. It’s the perfect opportunity to piss him off. I’m old enough to know better, but the truth is, I want nothing more than to make my father angry. Maybe then he’ll feel the way I’ve been feeling for months.

  I hear James clear his throat and move over to the pool. I watch h
im set the skimmer aside and kneel down with the plastic case that tests the chemicals.

  “I’ll let you test that first so I know it’s safe for me to swim.”

  He smiles just a little. “I’m sure it’s fine.”

  “All the same,” I say, “I wouldn’t want to get soaking wet only to find out I was being poisoned.”

  I put my hair back in a clip so I can keep it dry when I get in and lean back on my elbows, very aware that this position makes my body look damn good. The sun is reflecting off the pool and shining on James’s face and I think I could look at him all day. He takes a sample of the water and puts it in the tester, shaking the container gently.

  “You said you were new,” I say. “When did you start?”

  He glances up at me. “Today.”

  “Lucky me,” I say under my breath. Louder, I ask, “Liking it so far?”

  His gaze rises across the pool and drags up my legs and chest before landing on my face. His eyes on me feel like a physical thing, sending tingles over my skin. “You could say I’m enjoying myself.” Is it my imagination or is his voice a little rough? He checks the tester. “Good news. You won’t be poisoned.”

  “Excellent,” I say, standing. I walk into the pool from the shallow end, the water a perfect cool temperature.

  James is standing now, skimmer at the ready. “How’s the water?”

  “Perfect,” I say. “It’s too bad you can’t swim with me. We could get you out of that terrible polo shirt.”

  One corner of his mouth tips up into a grin. “It almost sounds like you want to see me shirtless.”

  “More like I want to see the death of the polo, but the end result is the same.” I dip into the water, letting it rise to my shoulders. “How much trouble would you get in for swimming with me?”

  “Probably a lot.”

  “Really?”

  “Well, maybe not the swimming. It’s what would likely happen while I swim that would get me into trouble.”

  My breath catches, and I laugh it off, stroking my way back to the shallow end. “You have some weird thing you do while you swim?”

  James doesn’t say anything. Did I say something wrong? I look up, to find him staring at me. Heat flushes through my body at the unfiltered want I see there. I realize now that he’s seeing me dripping in a bikini that hides the essentials only. His jeans are bulging, and I can only imagine what that looks like.

  I raise an eyebrow at him, wandering closer to where he’s standing at the edge of the pool. “Having some trouble with control?”

  “Yes.” His voice sounds deeper, and he looks away. He dips his skimmer into the pool—not that it needs it.

  “And why is that?”

  He reaches the skimmer across the pool, crouching down to reach further. He’s close to me now, and I can hear him speak soft and clear. “Because I can’t stop looking at you, and I’ve already imagined dozens of ways of fucking you—from burying myself in you on top of those flowers to letting you ride me in the deep end. Seeing you practically naked and floating in a pool like some kind of walking fantasy isn’t helping, and it makes me want to touch you and taste you and make you scream my name.” He stands back up. “Does that about answer your question?”

  The images he just described roll through my mind, and I’m seeing splaying limbs and straying fingers and feeling his mouth on parts of me that haven’t been touched in far too long. I’m suddenly very glad that I’m in the pool, because my entire body is flushed and I’m now soaking wet in more ways than one.

  James is still looking at me, though not at my face.

  I glance down. My nipples are hard, and my bathing suit does nothing to disguise the fact. I swallow, trying to get my voice back. “I don’t know what to say.” This time it’s my voice that’s rough.

  “Well, it’s not words that I’m looking for.”

  Wow. I let the possibility of this spin out in my mind. I’m not a virgin, but I haven’t been with anyone since I graduated—unless you count my vibrator. I look at James out of the corner of my eye. Let’s be honest, there’s not a lot I wouldn’t do just to have the chance to see him naked. Getting caught would be bad. Very bad. But is it worth the risk?

  I sink back down into the water, and James cleans the pool. We don’t say anything, instead taking turns looking at each other, occasionally locking eyes. It doesn’t take long for James to finish skimming, and shortly after that, he puts in the little robot that roves the bottom of the pool sucking up gunk. He grabs the test box and the skimmer and goes into the pool shed. I glance at the house to make sure my mother isn’t peeking through the windows, and realize I’ve made my decision.

  I don’t bother with a towel, instead going straight into the pool shed, closing the door behind me. James turns from where he was putting away the equipment. “You followed me,” he says.

  “Yes,” I murmur, taking a step toward him.

  “This is not a good idea,” he warns, taking a step toward me.

  “No, it’s not.” Now we’re face to face, inches apart.

  “Thankfully I’m not known for my good decisions,” he says, and then he kisses me.

  Oh god. The kiss slams through my body and it’s all consuming. It feels like my entire body has been asleep and suddenly decided to wake up. James’s hand runs down my back and the sensation sinks into my spine. His tongue plunges into my mouth and I gasp, sending mine right back. He’s not close enough to me. I wrap my arms around his neck, pressing my body against his and feeling his erection hard and ready.

  I weave my hands into his hair and feel him groan more than I hear it, the vibrations skimming through my mouth. I feel his fingers at my neck working at the knot of my halter, and I freeze. “Wait.”

  Catching my breath, I pull away from him. I don’t like stopping, but I need to be sure. “If we get caught, you’re definitely going to get fired. You’ll actually be lucky if you get fired. My father will kill you.”

  “Then I guess we shouldn’t get caught,” he says, with a smile as dirty as the devil on his lips.

  “I just want you to be sure.”

  With one fluid motion, he takes his shirt off. My heart skips a beat as I see the dips and planes of a body that is cut. Gardening has been good to him. “Believe me, I’m sure.”

  “Well then.” I clear my throat. “I guess I won’t be needing this.” I reach up and untie my halter, letting the fabric fall away from my breasts. I hear James suck in a breath as I untie the back and toss the top aside. The way he’s looking at me now, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt sexier or more powerful. “Show me some of those things you imagined.”

  James reaches out, skimming around my breasts and taking them in his hands. Goosebumps rise on my skin as he touches me, and I want more. My body is still damp from the pool and because I’m cold his hands feel like sweet, sweet fire. He takes my nipples between his fingers, rolling them and squeezing. The sensation makes me gasp, lines of heat running straight to my pussy, which is soaking through my bathing suit. He pinches harder, the small bite of pain waking up all my nerves, and then he pulls. He draws me forward by my breasts until there’s no more space between us.

  He’s taking his time and playing, still pinching and squeezing, now leaning his head down and putting his mouth on me. His tongue rasps over my nipple, teasing me before he sucks my breast deep into his mouth. I let my head fall back, groaning as I imagine that he’s sucking on other parts of me. He releases me, leaning forward to lick the skin between my breasts. “Your nipples are darker than I thought they would be,” he says.

  “Oh?” I can’t manage more than the single syllable.

  “And just as sensitive as I hoped.” He takes my other nipple in his mouth and as I moan again, I realize that I’ve never felt like this. We’re not even to the sex yet and it’s the best sex I’ve ever had.

  I explore his chest and abs with my hands. His skin is firm and warm and I would love to take the time to trace every line of his body, b
ut I’m not going to be able to wait that long. I drop to my knees and I’m working on his belt before I’m even on the ground. I pull down his jeans and his cock is straining against his underwear. Even masked by the fabric I can tell that he’s huge, and I’m sure that what I’m about to see will match his body in its perfection. I press my mouth against his length, licking him through the cloth, and from above I hear James curse.

  Slowly, I pull his underwear down and allow his cock to spring free. I want to touch and taste every part of him, and so I do. My hand is barely able to wrap around him, but I still try as I trace my fingers along his length, grinning as the muscles in his stomach tense with anticipation, and jump at every unexpected touch. Sealing my lips around him, I swirl my tongue over his head and tease him at the tip.

  “Fuck,” he says, and I look up to see him watching me. His expression is a perfect mixture of awe and lust, and so far it’s the best one I’ve seen on his face. I lift him up, running my tongue along the length of him and stroking him with my hand. I love this feeling, having him literally and figuratively in the palm of my hand. It’s a heady feeling, knowing you can make someone else feel this kind of pleasure.

  I take his balls into my mouth, and roll them across my tongue. The sound that comes from James is raw. It’s pure lust, and I feel my body warming in response. Sucking gently, I look up at him. We lock eyes, and I watch his go dark at the sight of me like this. Letting him go, I lick my lips. “Is this what you imagined?” I ask.

  He nods, “And there’s so much more.” He steps away from me and out of his jeans. “Tell me what you want.”

  I don’t get the chance to answer. He spins me so my back is against his chest, his cock pressing up against my ass. He’s untying the bottom of my bikini, and then his fingers are on me and in me and I think I might come right now. His thumb slides across my clit and I see sparks as my whole body tightens in anticipation. “Tell me what you want,” he repeats in my ear.