He settled her back in the inner tube and shot Jake a glare. Jake erupted into loud laughter, not in the least intimidated by an Elijah scowl. She really liked his friends. She liked that they knew Elijah well enough to occasionally tease him. He needed that every bit as much as she did.

She couldn’t imagine what it would have been like for him growing up with the violence and controversy in his family. Other children were forbidden to play with him because their fathers were afraid if there were a childish fight, his parents would retaliate. That was how bad the Lospostos reputation was.

She let the current take her away from Elijah, all the while keeping her gaze on him as he walked around the pool until he caught up with Catarina and Emma. She loved looking at him, at the fluid, easy way he walked. He did look like a leopard padding so silently around the pool, danger in the very set of his shoulder and the rippling of the roped muscles beneath his white tee.

He turned his head and looked at her, his eyes meeting hers, and for the first time, in front of his friends, he smiled. Really smiled. The kind of smile that reached his eyes and lit them up, turning them from dark mercury to dazzling silver. The burn between her legs grew hotter. Company was definitely going to have to leave soon if he kept looking so good.

She held on to the side of pool, waiting for Emma and Catarina to make their way around it as Elijah disappeared back into the house. She lay back, closing her eyes, her long, thick braid in the water, her fingers clutching the water bottle. She felt lazy and happy, completely relaxed for the first time in months ever since she’d come home and found Paolo’s eyes on her every time she moved.

Paolo didn’t look at her the way Elijah did. There was something sneering and perverted about the way Paolo stared at her. She felt her stomach shift into knots. Just that fast, the thought of Paolo could take away the beauty of the afternoon. A shadow seemed to slip into her mind, coloring the blue of the afternoon gray.

She opened her eyes quickly to look up at the floating clouds. The sky was still blue. Very blue. A slight breeze pushed fluffy formations across the sky. The pool gleamed, and the children still laughed in excitement as Jake carried both from the water to wrap towels around them.