Page 24 of Huntress Unleashed

“I’ll tell you if he communicates with me again,” Jacqueline said as they walked out to the patio and stood looking at the aqua pool.

“Good.” He knew she would, as long as she was able to and Heskel didn’t stop her from doing so.

“Is it…too early to go swimming?”

“Anytime is great for swimming. As hot as it is already in Dallas? No. And since it’s indoors, even if the sun is fully out, we’re fine.”

“Great. I’m off to change. Coming?”

“Yeah, I sure am.” He was thinking he needed to do some fun things with her and not just prove to her that he could make a great hunter companion on hunts. He was right behind her when she vanished. He chuckled, his brothers smiling at him.

“She’s tenacious,” Matt said.

“That she is. We’re going swimming.”

“Enjoy!” Ryan said.

He would.

To give her some time to change into her bathing suit, he headed up the stairs, instead of vanishing and reappearing in the bedroom. When he reached the bedroom, she was already changed, wearing a bright teal, high-waisted bikini and she smiled at him. The bikini top caressed her breasts, her bottoms fitting her shapely form beautifully.

Before he could tell her how much he loved the bathing suit on her, she vanished. He laughed. He would never get used to that. He hurried to strip out of his clothes and yanked on his swim trunks. He wanted to join her quickly, so he teleported himself to the indoor pool and found her already in the pool, swimming.

He jumped in so that he could be in her path, making a calculated strike. She saw him, just before she swam into him. He captured her in his arms and kissed her.

“Hmm, as a hunter, were you this persistent in dating a huntress?” she asked.

“Is it working?” he asked, kissing drops of water off her cheeks.

She laughed. “I think you are doing just fine, despite me trying to keep this on a more professional level.”

“Hell, yes! I was so afraid I wasn’t doing this right. As to dating others? I never was successful at dating and truly, I don’t know how I ended up with being engaged to Wendy.”

“She didn’t deserve you.”

“Yeah, in retrospect, I realize that’s true. The same with Van being engaged to you.” Then Dane kissed her again, and she deepened the kiss. Oh, yeah, she was incredible and way too good for the likes of any hunter like Van. “I can’t imagine anyone giving you up. And we truly make a great team on a hunt.”

“Oh, yeah, I was thinking the same thing about you.” Then they kissed again.

After they separated, they began to swim and tackle each other. Then his brothers came out to the pool wearing swim trunks, and Jacqueline and Dane laughed. He loved his brothers, and he knew they wanted to kind of slow things down between Jacqueline and himself because they wanted to make sure he wasn’t just having a case of rebound, just like she wasn’t after they were no longer with their ex’s.

He knew they would help them to be in the relationship, to back them, but just to take it more slowly. He hoped Jacqueline was okay with it, and she appeared to just be amused and happy to see them. Maybe she was thinking the same thing. He figured if it was meant to be between the two of them, it would be.

He chased after her, ignoring his brothers as Trey cannonballed into the pool, and Matt dove in. Ryan soon joined in, and the three brothers began wrestling each other in the pool, splashing water everywhere. But for now, Dane preferred playing with Jacqueline in the pool when he usually loved to horse around with his brothers when they went swimming together. Yeah, he wasn’t giving up on her that easily.

8

Jacqueline loved Dane’s brothers. She thought they were the greatest. She loved that they were willing to back them on going to a hunters’ club. She didn’t want them to tarnish their reputations as hunters, but she thought the world of them for offering to be there for both of them. And she was completely amused that they would come and insert themselves during their pool time to cool things down a bit between her and Dane. She knew they had his best interests—and probably hers—at heart.

She got a kick out of the brothers all wrestling in the pool. They were fun. But Dane wasn’t playing with them. He stayed with her and kept her company, chasing her, or she chased him, diving under the water, treading water together.

She and he finally got out of the pool and sat down on a couple of lawn chairs to dry out. “It was good that you have an indoor swimming pool once you were turned.”

“I know. It really was fortuitous. I just figured we could use it all year round, even in winter if it was enclosed. But it was really good that we can use it any time now, even if it’s fully sunny out.”

“Where are you?” a voice said in Jacqueline’s head suddenly. “You’re not at home.”

Jacqueline grabbed Dane’s arm. “It’s him.”