The large pool through the window and stories below caught my attention. I needed to blow off steam. I could either try the exercise room or throw on some swim trunks and do a few laps. Even though most of the chairs seemed filled, the water was relatively empty. That was the way with places like this. The people were merely decorations, not living breathing beings. The exception was the hot tub. That was filled with laughing, talking people. I didn’t want the hot tub—I didn’t want people. I wanted to push myself. I could accomplish that with a series of laps, clear my mind, and prepare myself for my afternoon meeting.
Leaving the office, I made my way to the suite’s balcony to check on the pool’s filling progress. Beyond the railings, the ocean glittered all the way to the horizon. The view from this suite was stunning at all times of day; however, I particularly loved the sunsets in Del Mar.
I exhaled, finding the private pool still half empty. Maybe it was half full? I had too much shit on my mind to figure out what my initial perception said about my current mental well-being.
“Deloris, I’m headed down to the pool to swim laps,” I said a few minutes later, as I passed through the living area wearing my trunks and flip-flops.
“You’re going to the pool?” she asked. “The one with people?”
“Yes.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m someone who is about to lose my shit. I’m anxious to see the senator and with the names and information you provided, I want to rush the meeting. Swimming will...it will...” I searched for the right word.
Deloris nodded. “Go. You have time. Maybe it will help put things in focus.”
Focus, as if a swim could align the magnitude of my thoughts.
The doors of the elevator closed as I was whisked down to the ground floor. The private elevator was another reason I liked this resort.
“Mr. Demetri,” the doorman guarding the private hallway to the isolated elevator said. “Sir, I’m Fredrick. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you, Fredrick. I’d like water in my pool. Other than that, everything is as accommodating as usual.”
“Sir, we are very sorry. There was evidently a mix-up on your arrival. We promise to have it filled by this afternoon. May I secure you a chair at the large pool?”
“That won’t be necessary. I only plan to swim and return.”
He nodded. “If you change your mind, it will be immediately arranged.”
Thoughts of the resort’s dedication to service replaced my annoyance over the pool situation. It was as I was mulling the names over in my mind—the names that Deloris had discovered—that she caught my attention.
For only a moment, my steps stuttered.
This wasn’t me.
I didn’t notice women, not in a way that knocked me off my feet while simultaneously, rerouting my circulation. And yet, as I stood in the Southern California sunshine, surrounded by more people than I cared for, I saw only one. At the far end of the pool, with a large floppy hat and a figure that beckoned me closer, a cosmic explosion erupted.
I stood unmoving as the stars shifted.
At the other end of the pool was one of the only women to ever take my breath away.
Perhaps she is a mirage?
Kicking off my sandals, I dove into the pool, allowing the cool water to return my blood supply to where it belonged, especially when surrounded by strangers. I pushed against the water, stroke after stroke, lifting my head for air as I somersaulted and swam the other direction—away from her.
It didn’t help. Even under the water, even behind my closed eyes, I saw her.
Reading and smiling, as if the words she saw gave her happiness. With each stroke, I became filled with an overwhelming need, the need to be the one who did that—to provide her happiness, relief, and reason to smile. The feeling was overpowering in a way I hadn’t experienced since...my thumb went to the gold band. In the cool water it rotated easier than usual, almost too easily.
Ten lengths back and forth and I stood in the shallow end. The water came to below my waist as I took in the view, now different than earlier. Where before she’d been reading, now she was talking with the woman by her side. I was about to swim another lap when I noticed two men approaching them.
It shouldn’t upset me. I didn’t have any right to step in, and yet, I recognized the men.
Men or man was a generous description. They were really only boys. They worked this resort and I knew that. They didn’t work at this resort. They worked it.
I wasn’t sure what kind of a deal they had with the management. Maybe the young men cut the supervision in on their earnings. Maybe the resort personnel turned a blind eye or perhaps refused to see what was under their noses. I didn’t care. The two blonds now standing near her and her friend were familiar because from my view high above, I’d watched as they conned women out of money, drinks, food, and God knows what else.
It wasn’t a conscious decision, yet before I knew it, I was at the end of the pool near her chair.
In the time it took me to swim the length, her friend had gone and one of the blonds was in the chair beside her. My muscles flexed as I pulled myself from the water.
His voice was flirtatious and filled with suggestion. Another step closer to his chair and I could hear him better. It took almost more self-restraint than I possessed to keep my hands at my side. I imagined lifting the little shit from the chair and throwing him into the pool where I’d just been.
“...we’re being secretive,” he said. “My guess is there’s a boyfriend…” He glanced at her hand. “…no ring. So it can’t be a fiancé. But there’s someone back wherever home is.”
“Guess again.” Her voice was a melody flowing through the air, breaking the sameness of my mundane monotone world.
“You’re an aspiring actress, and this is the week before you do a big shoot.”
She laughed. “Two strikes. One more and you’re—”
“Out,” I said, unable to remain silent any longer. With the sun to my back, my shadow loomed over their legs as the muscles in my neck tightened and my hands balled into fists at my sides. There was something about seeing her with this con artist that brought out a primal response.
No longer was I thinking about the senator or my meeting. Rescuing this beauty was my only thought. That’s not true. Causing bodily harm to Mike or Max or whatever the hell he was calling himself today was also in my thoughts.
When they didn’t speak, I repeated, “You’re out.”
“Excuse me?” the little shit asked. “Who the hell are you?”
She didn’t speak. Instead, the beauty in the hat and bikini lowered her sunglasses, revealing the most stunning golden eyes. Peering up at me, they sparkled with the reflections of the sun, surf, and glistening pool.
Each second her gaze lingered on me, mine did the same on her.
There was a buzz of electricity that I’d forgotten. Cosmic alignment. A magnetic pull that I couldn’t back away from if I’d tried. My feet were rooted to the concrete as my jaw clenched.
I no longer cared about the little shit beside her. I couldn’t even think about him as I unashamedly scanned from her dark auburn hair and floppy hat, along her sexy, toned body barely concealed by the material of her bathing suit, and all the way to her brightly painted toes. The longer I stared, the more intense the connection.
She felt it too. I knew it. Not only in my heart but by the way her skin peppered with goose bumps. My cheeks rose as my attention went to the way her nipples pebbled beneath the thin material.
Fuck. I needed to see under that material.
How do you miss a feeling when you forgot it existed?
I wasn’t sure. It had been too long since I’d felt like this. The energy was potent to the point of overpowering. I turned back to the blond shit and lowered the tone of my voice. It came out decisive, protective, and arrogant.
“I’m her husband. That person you mentioned…” I paused to let my words sink in, “is me and I'm not somewhere else. I'm here. Leave my wife alone or I’ll have you thrown out.”
My stare zeroed in on the boy until he shook his head, lifted his hands in surrender, and wisely stood. I was easily six inches taller than him, probably outweighed him by thirty pounds, and none of that mentioned my time as an MMA champion. It would be nothing to send him squirming into the pool.
That wasn’t my objective. I simply wanted him gone.