Unfiltered & Undressed (The Unfiltered Series) (4 page)

Will shot to his feet. “
Would have
been swimming?” he repeated as the meaning sunk in. “Are you fucking nuts? Are you saying you can’t even swim, and you just, what, dove right into the ocean to figure it out?” He ran his hand through his messy hair, agitation clear on his face. “I’ve heard a lot of stupid things in my time, but never—
never
—anything as
fucked up
as that. You’re lucky you’re not shark-bait right now, you know that?”

Not quite as steady on my feet, I jumped up too. There was no way I was letting him have the last word. “Like I said, I’d have been just fine if you hadn’t run into me with that
stupid board
of yours. It’s really none of your business how I learn to swim. If I want to do it by jumping off a ship, then I damn sure will.” By the time I was finished, I realized how I must look, standing there all covered in sand, with my hair hanging in soggy stands around my face as I scolded him for saving my life. Like an ungrateful disaster.

“Okay, okay, just…hold up a sec.” Will raised his hands in surrender, giving me the kind of placating look you give an unreasonable toddler. “You’re right—none of my business. And I
was
the one who got you hurt in the first place.” He took a step closer, until he was standing directly in front of me. “So let me make it up to you.”

I scowled and attempted to brush away the layers of sand on my arms. I glanced away, determined to look anywhere but at him. “What do you mean,
make it up to me
?”

His finger reached under my chin and tugged my gaze up to his. “If you’re so hell bent on learning how to swim, at least let me teach you properly.”

My scowl deepened, but before I could open my mouth to argue, he stopped me. “I mean it. I teach at a swim club. Come by tomorrow afternoon, say three o’clock. We’ll start at square one.” He abruptly swept his hand along the sand on my arm, and the gesture sent a shiver along my spine. “Stick with me and you’ll be back in those waves body surfing in no time.”

I tried to concentrate on his words, but the feel of his hands over my skin was almost too much to bear. “I thought you were a bartender,” I said, still trying to make sense of how I’d gotten to this place, standing on a beach with an almost total stranger who’d just saved my life and was now trying to talk me into letting him give me swim lessons.

“I’m a lot of things.” He smirked. “A jack of all trades, you could say. Why don’t we start with this, how ’bout you tell me your name?”

“My name?” I sputtered, realizing just how much of a stranger he really was and wondering how much I wanted to reveal. He knew too much already, I thought, recalling the way his lips had moved over my belly the night before. “How about we start with you telling me why the landlord had you take my keys? Why not Lucas?”

He smiled, like the answer was crystal clear. “You have a short memory, don’t you? Remember that jack-of-all-trades thing? I do odd jobs for the owner. You know, maintenance, repairs…” He raised his brows. “Key sitting. I told Lucas so you’d know where you could find ’em.”

Annoyed that Lucas hadn’t done a better job explaining the situation, I tried to tell myself that maybe swim lessons weren’t such a bad idea after all.

This was exactly what I’d wanted. I’d finally get my chance to learn how to swim, and I could do it without fear of being carried out to sea.

“Lauren,” I said, making my decision. “And about those lessons…I mean, why not? What do I have to lose, right?”

He beamed back at me. “Now if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.”

LAUREN

At exactly two-forty-five, I found myself standing in front of a building with a sign that read
Weston Hills Pool Club
, and wondering at the sudden attack of butterflies swirling in my stomach.

After my ocean adventure, the pool should be no big deal. At least I wouldn’t have to spend an hour beneath the shower spray trying to wash sand out of places I didn’t know sand could get.

But not even my hot shower had been able to salvage my bruised pride.

I was more worried, though, that if I didn’t figure this swimming thing out, I’d have to reassess my whole reason for coming to California in the first place. I couldn’t remember a time I didn’t want to be a lifeguard, but I was seriously starting to doubt my chances. With my luck, I’d end up being the first lifeguard in history to need a lifejacket.

After I checked in as “Will’s guest” at the front counter, I was given a key to one of the closet-sized lockers in the club’s fancy locker room. While I changed, the butterflies continued, and I wondered if they had less to do with the lesson I was about to have, and more to do with who was giving it.

He’s just a guy
, I reminded myself.
And the lesson is no big deal
.

I slammed the beechwood locker closed and padded on bare feet to the outdoor pool deck, just beyond the girls’ locker room.

I stopped short when I saw Will, not wearing his wetsuit, or even the skintight t-shirt he’d been wearing at The Dunes when I’d gone after my keys—the night his tongue had done a little diving of its own.

Today, he wore only his swim trunks, and if I’d thought Lucas was the Chiseled Abs titleholder of LA County, I’d been sorely mistaken. Chiseled didn’t begin to describe Will’s defined torso. I tried to tear my gaze away, for my own good—it was like looking at the sun, too much intensity in one white-hot package. I didn’t want to go blind.

“Hey, Brown Eyes!” he called, and I felt my cheeks get hot when I realized he’d totally caught me staring. “You made it. Go ahead and get in the pool with the rest of the class; we were just about to get started.”

I heard the raucous sound of laughter and splashing coming from the pool beyond him, and could hardly believe I hadn’t noticed right off the bat. Seriously, when did I become the girl who was so easily captivated by a nice piece of man candy?

Kids. The pool was filled with a bunch of kids.

My jaw tightened as I marched closer, not wanting prying ears to hear what I had to say. “What on earth made me think you were trying to be nice? So, you what, brought me here to…humiliate me?” I never should have trusted Will in the first place. My first instinct about him had been right—he was a Grade-A jackass. “I get it, jumping in the ocean was a dumb move. You didn’t have to be a jerk about it.”

I turned to storm back to the locker room, but Will caught my arm. “Hey. Hold up a sec.” His voice was low the way mine had been, and his head dipped closer to me. “This isn’t some plan to humiliate you. You’re right—what you did was dumb, but my offer was completely serious. I teach people how to swim—I thought that’s what you wanted.” I didn’t want to look into his eyes, but I couldn’t help myself, and the earnestness I saw in them had me believing what he said.

My shoulders sagged as I peered past him, my brow furrowing. “Okay, yes, but…” I grimaced, not even sure where to start. “Not like this. Not with them.” I nodded toward the pool, to the kids.

His voice grew even lower. “Don’t be that way. It’ll be okay. Come on, let me show you,” His hand slipped around mine, and before I could object, he was leading me toward the water.

I wasn’t sure he was right, but I really needed this lesson. When we reached the pool’s edge, he made an announcement. “Class,” he said, while ten kids stopped what they were doing to stare up at him. “I have a special surprise for you.”

I wanted to slink away, but Will dragged me forward, until I was standing right next to him, and suddenly I felt like there was a spotlight shining down on me. It was bad enough that all ten kids were watching, but I knew the parents in the bleachers were as well.

“We’re going to have a helper for these classes.” His hand settled on the small of my back as he pushed me to take a step closer to the pool. “Say hi to Lauren.”

The kids did their best to greet me in unison, waving spastically and showing me their gap-toothed grins.

I turned to Will, not quite sure what had just happened. “Thank you,” I mouthed as the butterflies erupted all over again.

‡

The hour went fast and wasn’t nearly as torturous as I had imagined it would be.

Will spent the first several minutes coaxing one particularly terrified little girl off the top step. “Gracie,” he told her in the kind of gentle voice I would never have expected to come from him. He stretched his hand toward her. “How ’bout we make a deal? You only have to try one lesson, and if you still hate it, you don’t ever have to come back.” Behind the girl, her mother’s face turned red, like she might explode, but Will held up his finger to stop her from arguing.

The little girl frowned, her lips puckering as she considered his proposal. “Pinkie swear?”

Will eased closer to her, raising his hand and closing the distance between them. “Pinkie swear,” he told Gracie conspiratorially.

She wrapped her tiny finger around his, and as if it actually sealed the deal, her narrow shoulders visibly relaxed. This time, when Will held his hand out for her, she let him lead her down to the second step, and then the third, where she waited anxiously for the lessons to start.

The first thing we were supposed to learn was how to put our faces in the water and hold our breath. Since I had a lock on that one, I sat back and watched as kids who had yet to master the skill came up sputtering and blowing disgusting snot bubbles.

On her first try, Gracie managed to get her face beneath the water and Will gave her an enthusiastic, and utterly endearing, thumbs-up, making her flash her toothless grin at him. This Will was nothing like the guy from The Dunes, making me wonder which was the real Will.

When he announced he wanted us to try lying back in the water, to see if we could float on our backs, I knew I was in trouble. I was about as graceful as a drowning cat, and I glanced nervously up at the bleachers, where the parents—moms, mostly—sat watching the pool intently.

After a few surreptitious glances their way, it wasn’t hard to realize I was pretty much invisible to the mom-crowd. It wasn’t their kids they were interested in watching, it was Will they had their eyes on. I caught more than one eager mommy tracking the instructor as he moved from one child to the next, as he made sure none of their precious cargo sank to the bottom of the pool.

I couldn’t blame them, really. Will without a shirt on was hard not to look at, and I’d caught myself peeking at his defined muscles and sculpted abs more than once.

I jolted when I felt his hand slip beneath my back, moving low as he supported me while I tried to stay afloat. “Relax,” Will soothed, lifting my body so I was lying flat atop the water’s surface. I found myself staring up at him. “Keep your chest up and your head back.” His voice was gentle…slow. “Remember to breathe.”

Breathe
, I told myself even as my throat squeezed closed. His hands were distracting on either side of my hips as they tethered me, and it felt like forever that we stayed like that, looking at each other. Too long. Then one of his thumbs moved, just the barest amount, and unfamiliar heat lashed through me. I jolted again, but this time it was something only the two of us would have noticed, and I swear I saw his eyes cloud over.

He let go of me abruptly. “You’re…doing great,” he mumbled, but almost like he wasn’t saying it to me at all as he turned immediately to the boy on the other side of me.

“How you doin’, Jackson? You look like a champ!” If it hadn’t been for the look on his face, or the way he’d practically shoved me away from him, I might not even have suspected he’d been bothered just then. There was nothing in his voice to indicate he was even half as unsettled as I was by whatever had just passed between us, but I was sure I hadn’t imagined it.

‡

“Lauren, wait up a sec.”

I had my gym bag slung over my shoulder and was just about to unlock my car when I saw Will jogging my way. “What’s up?”

“I’m...” he started, and when I saw the look on his face, my stomach dropped.

“Yeah…?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure
this
is gonna work out.”

“What are you talking about? My swim lessons?”

“Yeah, that. The lessons…maybe they weren’t such a great idea after all.”

I blinked several times. The lessons had been his idea in the first place, and now he was…
firing me
. “Um…can I ask
why
? Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” he assured with a shake of his head. “Of course not. I just…”

Pursing my lips, I stared at him. I was irritated by the way he was beating around the bush. Irritated that I’d thought it was sweet the way he sweet-talked Gracie off the steps and told the kids I was his helper rather than some loser grown-up who’d never learned to swim. “Really? Because I thought it went fine.” My hands were on my hips as I closed the gap between us. “Are you embarrassed to have me in your class? Or did one of those bitch moms complain about me?” I stabbed my finger at his chest.

He chuckled, closing his hand over mine to keep me from further using it as a weapon against him. “Take it easy, Brown Eyes. It’s nothing like that. Really. It’s just…” His eyes found mine and I could see he was telling me the truth, that this had nothing to do with the swim-mommies. “…I don’t know how to say this, but I think you need more attention than I can give you.”

I didn’t think it was possible for him to give me any more attention than he was giving me at that very moment. It would’ve been easier if he’d released my hand, because God knew I wasn’t capable of taking it back myself. And from the way he was looking at me, his eyes searching mine, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted my hand back.

I’d never given any other guy the chance to look at me like that before, which is why Emerson was always giving me such a hard time about still carrying my V-card. But at least now I got the appeal. There was no denying he drove me crazy, but for whatever reason, he also made me want to explore these crazy new feelings I was having. Made me consider giving up the card entirely.

But then the truth of what he’d said hit me, and humiliation washed over me. I pulled my hand from his. “So, you’re saying I’m…
terrible
? That I suck so hard I can’t even be in your
beginner
swim class?
The one
for children
?” I seriously thought I might die, right then and there.