Grounded (Up in the Air #3)(58)

Stephan didn’t let me go even when were both in the water, just cradling me to him and smiling.

“Who did you invite to this?” I asked him suspiciously. I could just tell by the look on his face that he was in an ornery mood. His huge grin at the question only confirmed it.

“Wrong question, Buttercup.”

I pulled his hair lightly. “What’s the right question, then?” I asked. I knew this game.

“Who didn’t I invite?”

I heard a bark of a laugh behind me, and craned my head around to see James striding back to the house. “If it’s going to be that sort of a party, I’ll at least have it catered,” he muttered as he walked. “And I don’t suppose a house full of pilots and flight attendants won’t want an open bar.”

I had to laugh. He’d assessed the situation accurately. If Stephan had sent out a blanket invite to everyone he knew, we were a few minutes away from having a house full of pilots and flight attendants, and they would be drinking.

The first few people to arrive were complete strangers to me, and it felt beyond awkward meeting new people wearing a tiny bikini, and a tiny, sopping wet cover-up, but I tried to play it off.

I shot Stephan a glare. “Do you even know who they are?”

He shrugged. “I think they’re pilots. Murphy’s friends? They look vaguely familiar.

James dove into the pool, his form perfect. He swam straight to me, staying underwater until he reached me. He grabbed me around the waist and dragged me from where I was huddled with Stephan. He cornered me against the side of the pool. “Stephan gets to play host tonight, since this was his idea, and I planned to spend my entire day touching you, so I’m damn well going to do it.”

I had no problem with that. I just smiled at him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Mr. Scandalous

Of course a party at a swank mansion with an open bar attracted a lot of people, and within an hour the place was packed. I recognized maybe a third of the people that swarmed into the pools.

Our usual group ended up hanging out with us, taking one of the large pools to ourselves.

Marnie and Judith were there. I’d figured they would be. If they were in town, you couldn’t drag them away from a good party. Marnie, however, wouldn’t get in the water, which was unusual for her. I asked her why.

She waved her martini glass in the air. “You see this?”

I nodded, smiling. I knew there’d be a punch line.

“This is not a martini. This is a Midol-tini, cause I’m on the rag, folks, and it is a heavy flow day!”

“OOOhhhh,” Murphy cried. “TMI, Marnie TMI! I picture things!”

“Well picture that whole pool turning red if I take one step in.”

Every man within ten feet groaned in disgust. Except for Mr. Beautiful, who didn’t seem to have a squeamish bone in his body. He just laughed.

“Women are disgusting!” Murphy told her. “And what does it say about me that I’m kind of turned on right now?”

“You want a shot at this?” Marnie taunted him, waving a hand at her cute little body. “Liz told me you were good in bed, but I’ll warn you right now, if you don’t make me come, I’m spreading the word.”

Murphy slapped his forehead. “How am I supposed to perform under that kind of pressure?”

She pointed at him. “If you can’t perform under pressure, that’s a deal-breaker. If this makes you nervous, what will you do when I bust out my strap-on? The pressure hasn’t even begun. Take it or leave it, Cap’n!”

Murphy’s eyes widened comically. “Will you call me that while we’re going at it? That might help my performance.”

She gave him a smart little salute. “Ay Ay, Cap’n!”

She shouted the words, but could still barely be heard over the sounds of all of us laughing. The funniest part was, I had no idea if they were actually joking.

Murphy turned to Damien, holding out his hand as if to shake. “We’ll finally be Eskimo brothers, mate! I’ve been looking forward to this day!”

Damien just shook his head, looking pained. He was particularly quiet tonight, chatting up Jessa in the corner of the pool. “So wrong,” he muttered.

Murphy threw his arms up in the air. “Is that too crass? How about fish-sticks? Can we cross fish-sticks now?”

“What does that even mean?” I asked James, figuring it was a guy thing.

He grimaced. “It’s a really crude way of saying that they hooked up with the same woman.”

Judith held up two fingers to Murphy, bouncing over to him in the pool. “Fish-sticks!”

They began to have a long mock sword fight with their fingers.

“Your friends are a riot,” James told me. “But I can’t imagine they weren’t a shock to a virgin.”

I gave him a look. “I was a virgin, but I’ve seen plenty, James. I was on the streets as a young teen. I was past the ability to be shocked before I was sixteen. I think that Judith and Marnie were more shocked at my virginity than they’ve ever managed to shock me.”

He laughed. “I can well imagine.”

“They tried to relieve me of the ‘condition’ for months. I had to really chew them out to get them to stop.”

His face darkened. “I’m glad they didn’t succeed. The idea makes me feel violent.”