Heidi led me down the startlingly empty corridors, the sound of my flip-flops reverberating off the walls. I felt very exposed, what with my entire midriff on show due to the bikini top Heidi had chosen out and my hoodie which didn't even cover much of my skin.
"Your heart rate is increasing," she observed. "Are you nervous?"
"Nervous? Ha, no," I tried to convince myself.
"It'll be fine, it's just swimming."
"That's the thing; it's swimming. I really can't swim, and when I say that, I mean it. Do you know just how many swimming instructors I've had throughout my childhood? Every single one of them failed to teach me to float, forget about swim," I explained.
"Wow, you really can't swim?" she asked in disbelief.
"I wish I could. Once, one of my friends held a pool party and wanted me to get in the pool with her, and I had to make up an excuse about me being ill and the chlorine affecting it, I don't know, I was desperate."
"So whose idea was swimming today?" she asked.
"Aro's," I responded simply.
"Probably just wanted to see you in a bikini," she muttered under her breath almost silently.
"You actually may have a point there," I responded unexpectedly, which caught her off-guard.
Her feminine laugh echoed down the hall. "Look, put it by this way, the Masters will never let you drown or get hurt in any way. It goes against their instincts."
"They'd better not in anyway," I scoffed jokingly just as we got to the set of double-doors which I assumed led to the pool.
The stench of chlorine only had gotten stronger up until this point, which explained why the pool had been built so far away from the rest of the rooms in the castle. I turned to Heidi, expecting her to go in first.
"Go in, I can hear them in there now," she gestured me through the doors.
I was about to ask how before I quickly reminded myself about her freaky vampire hearing. Cautiously, I pushed the door open and wandered in timidly with my hands in the pockets of my hoodie. When they said swimming pool, they really did mean swimming pool.
The room was surrounded by windows which allowed the warm sunlight to stream through and reflect off the surface of the clear water. Scattered around the poolside were a few white sun-loungers, one of them occupied with what I assumed to be the kings' clothing. The three of them were already in the pool, Marcus leaning against the wall while Aro and Caius looked like they were having some kind of contest, swimming instant lengths of the pool to the point where all I saw were two blurs of movement parallel to each other.
Marcus' face lit up when he saw my hesitant figure approach. "We were unsure whether you were going to show up, tesoro," he chuckled.
The other two quickly stopped their swimming and swam over to the wall at a much more leisurely, human-like speed.
"You're lucky I actually came, I was tempted not to," I giggled, tossing my hoodie onto the pile of dark clothing and proceeding to take off my shorts before walking over to the edge of the pool and dipping my foot in, "Is the water cold?"
"Not particularly, just jump in," Caius answered.
"You're crazy," I scoffed, "I can't swim, remember?"
"So? Just take a deep breath in and jump."
"But I don't want to drown!" I whined.
"We will not let you, bellissima," Marcus reassured.
"Just jump, we will catch you," Aro added.
I sighed. "Fine, here goes nothing. But, if I die, I'm blaming this one on you."
With that, I closed my eyes and lightly hopped up off my feet and into the pool, a light scream escaping my lips. The water rushed around my head just as I was brought back up to the surface by a strong pair of arms.
"What did we tell you, carissima? You will not die on our watch," Caius looked at me amusedly with his arms encircled around my waist as he held me against him tightly.
I was surprised at how long it took me to notice that all three of them were obviously topless and only wearing swimming trunks, their toned muscles fully on display. This made me instantly blush slightly as I wrapped my arms around Caius' neck with my legs around his torso.
Without any warning, he then placed his hands on my hips and passed me across the pool to Aro. I grabbed onto his arm as soon as I was within reach, anxiously pulling myself into him.
"I believe with enough practise, we could definitely teach you how to swim," he spoke, propping me up against him with one hand under my right thigh.
"You keep telling yourself that," I laughed just as I looked down at my top, "ugh, you've got to be kidding, my bikini top is coming loose. It feels like my boob is going to pop out at any moment," I groaned, clutching the top to my chest with my left hand.
"Would that be such a bad thing?" Aro asked cheekily.
"He is right, carissima," Caius chimed in.
"I was actually going to ask one of you to retie it for me, but I guess I'll just ask Marcus, seeing as he's the only mature one here," I snarked and spun around, still holding the top to me, "Marcus, babe, could you do me a favour and retie my top?"
"With pleasure," he smiled, gently tugging me over to him so that I was leant forward against the wall.
"It's always the quiet ones," Aro whispered silently.
"What was that, brother?" Marcus looked at him unimpressed as he tied the back of the bikini top much more securely than Heidi had done.
"Did I say something?"
"Nothing of any significance," he retorted, wrapping his arms around me so that my back was pressed against his chest.
"Thanks," I smiled awkwardly and leaned back in to him.
"No problem at all."
As soon as he finished his sentence, he picked me up horizontally and threw me across the pool to Caius. I screamed as I landed in his hold, smoothing my hair out of my face while I came to the realisation that I'd just been hurled five or so metres away from Marcus.
"What was that for?" I yelled at him while Caius swam us back over.
"You seemed like you were becoming bored," he justified with a shrug, followed by a loud chuckle from Aro.
"So the new cure to boredom is being hurled across a swimming pool?" I asked exasperatedly.
"Are you bored now?"
"No, but-"
"Then I do believe it worked," he teased.
Caius held me in his arms tightly as I circled my legs around him. "Do you keep forgetting I can't swim?"
"Caius caught you, did he not?" Marcus raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Well yeah, but-"
"Then this is not an issue, tesoro."
"But I-"
"Cara mia, this is a losing battle, stop trying," Aro advised, earning an even bigger grin from Marcus.
"Ugh, god, you're so annoying!" I groaned at Marcus.
Before I'd realised it, Marcus had me pinned to the edge of the pool, stood between my legs while his face was millimetres from mine. He had a playful grin as one arm snaked around my waist, the other holding my thigh.
"I'm sorry, what was that you just said, Eliana?" he asked.
"I didn't say anything, I don't know what you're on about," I giggled.
He pressed his lips to mine gently, biting at my bottom lip as I opened my mouth further. His hand went to my hair, holding the back of my head firmly while the hand that had been around my waist slowly edged down further. I reluctantly forced myself away from him for air, when I noticed that his irises had become almost completely black, with only a few crimson strands left.
"Your eyes are black," I noted with a light chuckle.
"A vampire's eyes only ever turn black for one of two reasons; hunger or lust," he answered, his cool lips moving to my neck and collarbone.
"Which reason is it now then?"
"Not hunger, bellissima," he murmured huskily, which sent an odd shiver through my body.
"I do apologise for interrupting such an… intimate moment," Aro's cheery voice chimed in from a few metres away before anything had the chance to escalate, "but the whole purpose of this visit to the swimming pool is to swim."
"Okay then," Marcus' eyes quickly turned back to their usual crimson colour, but he still seemed a little bitter, "you take Eliana."
With that, he again threw me across the pool but in Aro's direction. This time, I wasn't caught as I fell back into the water before a pair of arms pulled me back up to the surface again. I opened my eyes to see myself pressed up against Aro, my head resting on his shoulder.
"Marcus!" I turned my head to yell at him, "Again?!"
"I am simply keeping you on your toes," he replied.
I groaned. "Why are you like this?"
"Only for you," he responded sarcastically.
"Hold your breath," Aro instructed.
Suddenly he jerked my arm down just as I let out an abrupt yelp, pulling me under the water with him. Had he given me a little more warning, I probably could've stayed under for longer, but I began seriously struggling for breath very quickly. Due to the fact that his hand was holding my wrist, he saw that I needed air and swam us back up to the surface. I gasped just as he came up beside me, holding on to my waist.
I slapped his arm lightly. "A little warning next time would be nice, thanks."
"I did warn you, it is not my fault that you did not hold your breath as I instructed," he excused.
"You barely gave me enough time to!"
"Cara mia, you make it seem like I had the intention of drowning you," he chuckled.
"Well I hope you didn't. Drown me and I'll make sure my ghost comes back to haunt you, and Marcus for good measure," I crossed my arms.
"What did I do?" he called from the other side of the pool.
"What do you mean? You hurled me across the swimming pool well knowing I can't swim! Twice!" I yelled back.
"Aro and Caius ensured you were caught each time, tesoro," he countered, "like I would let you drown," he scoffed disbelievingly.
"You'd better not," I answered him back as Aro swam us back over, his arm around my waist.
"Carissima, even if any of us wanted to hurt you like that, our instincts would never let us," Caius assured, taking me from Aro's grip and holding me bridal style just under the water.
"That's a relief," I giggled before kissing him lightly on his jaw.
I'd like to say the next hour or two of swimming was productive, but it really, really wasn't. It turned out that Aro was a patient guy in pretty much everything except when he's teaching. Caius just seemed glad that it wasn't him I was constantly arguing with this time. The three of them had literally tried everything they could think of to teach me to swim, which included throwing me off their diving board and leaving me in the middle of the deep end to see how I'd do on my own, but nothing worked. By the end, not only was I exhausted and fed up, but I was also just as incapable of swimming as I was when we'd started.
"Well, that was a waste of an hour," Caius muttered as he climbed out of the pool. I couldn't help but stare at the toned muscles in his back as they flexed when he moved. God help me, my mates are hot.
"There is no need to be like that, brother, this was fun," Marcus responded half-heartedly, climbing out with him.
He turned around and offered me his hands, pulling me out of the pool by my arms and helping me onto my feet. I was absolutely freezing as I shivered on the spot, shifting my weight between my legs in a weak effort to stay warm. A pair of cold arms abruptly surrounded me from behind without warning, pulling me backwards into the pool again as I let out a scream. Once my head came back to the surface of the water, I realised who it was.
"ARO, WHAT THE HELL?!" I shouted, splashing him with water while his arms still surrounded me from behind.
"If only you could see your reaction, tesoro. I only wish I had thought of that first," Marcus laughed, gripping onto his sides.
"That was rather hilarious, bellissima, if I do say so myself," Aro murmured with a light chuckle as his lips grazed my neck softly.
"What is with you three and scaring me half to death?" I steadied my breathing, my heart rate finally coming down to acceptable levels.
"There is no need for such dramatics," Aro's cold lips moved against my skin as he began kissing my neck with more force, causing me to let out a soft moan. His hands were just under my breasts, tracing light patterns on my skin.
"Get a room," Caius joked, while I lifted my head up to notice that he already had a towel wrapped around his waist along with Marcus, both of them drying their hair quickly.
"Geez, how are you that fast?" I drew my eyebrows together as Aro helped me out of the pool.
"Vampires," Caius responded simply, carefully tossing me a towel.
I pointlessly wrapped the towel around my torso just as Caius took my hand and began to lead me back out of the room.
"Who gave you rights to our mate, brother?" Marcus asked.
"He makes a valid point," Aro added, quickly towel-drying his hair slightly.
"Eliana, who would you rather spend the remainder of the afternoon with then, hmm?" Caius raised an eyebrow.
"Um…you snooze, you lose," I shrugged, looping my arm around Caius' as he lead me back out and to his quarters with a smug grin on his face, "catch you later boys!"
Author's note: Haha, I almost didn't get this chapter done in time to post it today. It's so much fun watching how her relationship is progressing through these chapters, I'm literally loving writing this. Anyways, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback, stay safe, and ily!