He roared and dived after me. I plunged beneath the surface, zigzagging and doubling back, enjoying the feeling of the water rushing up around every part of me without the barrier of Lycra. I lasted mere seconds before King Triton captured his absconding mermaid, our two heads cresting the wave together. We spluttered and coughed and laughed and squealed, then he hauled me over the edge of the pool and gave me three hard smacks to my wet behind before pulling me back in against his chest and starting a game of octopus-hands.
I was so busy twisting and slapping and splashing that I did not see Lloyd break away from the jacuzzi group until he was sitting on the poolside, dipping his bare feet in the water, still wearing his white shirt and boxers.
'Lincoln!' he called. 'Oi, Lincoln!' Lincoln tucked me under one arm and looked up in annoyance.
'What, man? I'm getting down to business here.'
'She can wait. Jade's got a challenge for you.'
'Jade?'
'She wants to know if a man can hit the same spots with his tongue as a woman. She thinks not.'
'Can't you do the honours?'
'She's asking for you. Besides, I've got other things on my mind.'
We looked over at the jacuzzi. I could see the back of Maria's dark head, bobbing up and down Jake's abdomen in an unmistakable way. Jade lay back, looking bored, soaking up the froth. Lincoln looked at me, then over at Jade.
'Think I could turn her?' he asked with a low chuckle.
'No chance,' I said. He dropped me like a stone and I fell briefly underneath the water's surface, seeing his blurred legs striding off out of the pool and knowing that now I would be alone at the tender mercies of Lloyd. I resurfaced, shaking my head until my ears were clear. Lloyd was still sitting there, watching me, leaning back on the palms of his hands.
'Come here,' he said. 'There's something I want to do to you.'
'Just one thing?' I asked, swimming over but keeping my distance, beyond range of his hands or feet.
'No,' he admitted. 'Not just one thing. But this is the thing I want to do right now.'
'Tell me.'
'Come here and I'll show you.'
'You'll have to catch me first.' I pushed off with my feet against the side of the pool, swinging on to my back and waving at him while my legs kicked up mountains of foam.
'You bitch! I've chased you long enough. You're not getting away this time.'
Without removing his clothes, Lloyd launched himself off the edge and into the water. His build was bulky, so I did not expect him to catch up with my streamlined stroke too quickly, but it seemed there was a shade more muscle than fat on those bones, because he gained pace alarmingly once he embarked on his pursuit. I did not know
which way to turn, and it was looking less and less likely that I would make it to the steps to effect a dripping escape across the tiles. Less than a foot from the poolside, he make a lunge for me and grabbed an ankle. Kick and scream as I might, I could not shake him off; he reeled me in and flipped me around so that I faced him, holding me to his heaving wet shirt by my hips. The water lapped over my breasts and the soaked cloth of his boxers covered my pubic triangle. I tried to push against him with my legs, but he stood firm, grinning victoriously before switching into a more sinister gear.
'I've got you at last,' he said, reminding me of Snidely Whiplash. I had the strongest presentiment that I was about to be tied to a metaphorical railway track. 'I've waited so long for this.'
'Make the most of it,' I advised him. 'It won't be happening again.'
'We'll see,' he rasped, and then he bent and put his lips to the side of my neck, kissing the droplets at first, then licking up and down a little, then suddenly clamping down fiercely, sucking and nipping with full force.
'What are you doing? Don't make a mark!' I fretted, but he continued his vampiric claiming of my skin, pulling me tighter against him, encircling me with steel. His erection unfurled between my thighs, the cloth of his boxers pushing between my lower lips, while the upper part of me withdrew into glorious reminiscence. Oh yes. This was why we did this as teenagers. Because it feels good, it feels so good, so primal, so vicious and yet so delicate. I was being marked, in a place I would not be able to hide it, and I should have been angry, but it felt so good, it drained the anger out of me. There was something behind it, something I had not felt in so long, in all those years of seeking my pleasure and taking it where I found it . . . a feeling of being ravished. Ravishment, delirium, captivation, possession. I gave myself up to it, yielded to its seduction and strength, bowed my head and laid it against his shoulder, giving up my neck for more.
He gave me a final leeching suck, then surveyed his work with satisfaction, pressing against it with a wet finger.
'I'm going to tell everyone in the hotel I did that to you,' he whispered. 'Including Chase.'
'Don't you fucking dare!' I exclaimed, tumbling immediately back into struggle and rebellion. He laughed, hanging on to my upper arms while I tried to trip him up.
'Have I said something I shouldn't? You seemed to be having fun before.'
I sank my teeth into his shoulder. He cried out, let go of me for an instant. I lashed towards his face but he caught my wrist and twisted it. We fought like that, in a kind of slow-motion forced by the water's weight, until he succeeded in getting me to the side of the pool, where he jammed me up against the side, snatched my wrists in one hand and the back of my head with the other and proceeded to kiss me to death.