Undeniable (Cloverleigh Farms #2)(105)

“What’s the difference?” He tossed the can onto the sand, then took off running toward the water. “Race you! Last one in’s a rotten egg!”

“No fair, you had a head start!” I yelled as I followed close behind. The water was freezing, and I squealed as I rushed in waist-deep.

Oliver dove under first, and before he came up, I took a second to make sure my bikini top was properly in place before dunking myself. When I popped up, he was right there grinning at me, his hair sticking out in all directions.

“I win,” he announced.

I splashed him. “Not everything has to be a competition. If we’re going to be partners, we need to work better together.”

“You’re right,” he said, surprising me.

I squinted at him. “Did the cold water freeze your brain or something?”

“Not at all.” He stood up, the water hitting him at the top of his shorts, which hung a little lower than they had before. “I just agree with you that we need to put our usual differences and competitive streaks aside. We’re a team now.”

I tilted my head. “I guess we are.”

“Does that mean your answer is yes? You will go into business with me?”

I was tempted to say yes right then and there. Oliver had something with this whole Russian rye angle, and I was eager to jump on board. But I’d eagerly jumped on Oliver’s board without thinking before, and it had not ended well for me. Although truth be told, he looked so good standing there, the sun glinting off his wet skin, his blue eyes bright, water droplets running down his washboard abs to the top of his V lines … for a moment, I’d have jumped aboard anything he wanted me too.

But I caught myself. I wasn’t that girl anymore. “I’m still thinking.”

“What are you thinking about?”

I realized I was still staring at his abdomen and lifted my eyes to his. He was grinning. He’d so caught me staring at his nether regions.

“Nothing,” I said quickly, ducking under the water up to my neck. My nipples were hard.

“I don’t believe you.” He moved a little closer. “If we’re going to be partners and all, we should be truthful with each other, right?”

“Ha! I’m not the one with a history of obscuring the truth. And anyway, being truthful doesn’t mean we have to tell each other everything.” I swam backward as he approached. “It just means we don’t lie to each other.”

“I was only asking a question, Chloe. What are you getting so defensive about?”

I forced myself to stop retreating. If this thing with us was going to work, I could not let him push me around. “Frankly, I was thinking about all the bad decisions I’ve made in your company.”

Oliver tossed his head back and laughed. “Some of those decisions were totally yours, I’d like to remind you. I’m thinking about one in particular, a certain night in my college dorm.”

“I’m not blaming you entirely, I’m only saying that I have a history of questionable judgment where you’re concerned,” I said.

“You liked the games just as much as I did. Admit it.”

“Maybe I did.” I focused on my hand fanning through the water. “I like to think that I’m smarter now. More mature.”

“I don’t know, you seemed pretty mature that night.” He fell onto his back, floating on the surface. “You knew what you’d come for, and you got it.”

“Um, as we have established, you were the only one to come that night.”

He stood up. “Oh, that is cold. There I was, doing you a favor—”

“Ha!” I shrieked, splashing him. “As if it was such a hardship for you!”

“That was a lot of pressure, being your first,” he argued. “I don’t think you’ve ever appreciated that. If I didn’t give you a good experience, you might have been scarred for life.”

“Well, don’t worry. The experience was fine. I hardly felt a thing, and it was over before I knew it.”

“That’s it.” Oliver lunged for me, trying to dunk me beneath the surface. “When are you going to stop teasing me about that?”

“When it stops being funny, so never!”

He finally succeeded in shoving me under, but I clung to his neck so hard we both ended up fully submerged. Underwater, we each struggled to hold the other one down, just like we had a hundred times before as kids. Eventually, we burst above the surface again, laughing and gasping for air, my arms still looped around his neck.

I let go of him immediately and backed up as I caught my breath. “No fair,” I panted. “You’re a lot bigger than me.”

“And you have nails,” he said, checking out the red marks I’d left on his arm. “I forgot how you used to scratch me.”

“Let’s call it even.” I ducked under once more so I could get my hair off my face. When I opened my eyes again, he was staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“We go back a long way, don’t we?”

I shrugged. “Since we were born. I’d say that’s a pretty long way.”

“And even though we’ve had our differences, if there was something one of us needed, like really needed, we’d help each other out, right?”