I allowed myself a sigh of disappointment and started toward the garçonnière. Did I really expect her to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to talk to me? Maybe I should just take this as a sign that I should let this go. Enjoy the weekend, celebrate my friend and his new bride, then carry my ass back to Chicago and get on with my life.

The predawn air was still humid and filled with night sounds — the meeps of little peeper tree frogs and the occasional rise and fall of a cicada whose own circadian rhythms were off. I checked to make sure the back door was locked before I headed toward the stairs up to the apartment, feeling a little wired and antsy. Midway up, I heard a loud splash. I paused and held my breath, and sure enough, I heard another one.

Darcy was in the pool.

Now locked out of the house, which was the easiest route to the pool, I hopped the fence into the yard, stumbled through some bushes, and crossed the grass until the pool was in full view.

Wearing a different swimsuit, this one black and covering far less skin than the one she had on yesterday, Darcy sliced through the brightly lit water almost soundlessly. I walked over to where I knew she would stop to flip around, took off my shoes, and dangled my feet in the water. Her form was perfect. She barely broke the surface to take in a breath before kicking her powerful legs to propel her forward and knifing her hand through the water, so in the zone that when she came to the opposite end of the pool where I sat, she kicked me then startled, splashing to the surface.

“Oh, fuck!” she cursed. “How long have you been sitting there?”

“Long enough to see that you’ve become quite the athlete.”

“Thank you,” she answered shyly.

Fuck, she’s beautiful. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“I was waiting up for you,” she said, her voice soft.

Nervous. I’m fucking nervous, and she’s looking at me like I have the answers. “So, how about that drink?”

“Okay.”

Planting her palms on the tiled patio, Darcy levered herself out of the pool. I stayed where I was and watched as each muscle in her lean arms engaged, and then her long legs until she was standing over me, water sluicing off her body, making her look like a mermaid out of a dark fairytale.

Sitting at her feet like this… Why did that make me hard almost instantly? At your service… Those words I’d tossed around playfully felt really fucking real right now.

I slipped my hand around her ankle and watched her skin pebble as I dragged my eyes over every inch of her until they met hers. She shivered a little, but I didn’t think it was because she was cold.