Roll the Dice

twelve. miss adelaide

[Dedicated to Bayan, a fantastic friend and one of the best listeners I've ever met. Bay, it's always so easy to talk to you about anything, and besides, now I have another person to laugh with about my high school's ridiculousness. <3]

"Nice place you've got here," I remarked to Dom as I reclined in the beach chair beside the pool. And then, immediately after, I sneezed.

Dom pushed his sunglasses up his forehead, glancing at me with a raised eyebrow. "Bless you. And thank you."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What?"

"Why do you have a cold in the middle of the summer?" Dom sat up in his own beach chair, slinging a towel, which had been draped over the back of the chair, over his shoulder and grabbing a pair of goggles. "And by the way, I didn't really think that you would insist on coming here even though our relationship is strictly confined to educational purposes."

Even though I pouted playfully, I really did feel the sting. And Dom still looked at me this way after these few weeks? To cover up the evidence of how I truly felt, I crossed my arms over my chest. "You wound me."

Dom stood up, drawing my attention back to the fact that he was, in fact, shirtless. I bit my lip and took in a sharp breath, extremely aware of how my entire body felt a whole ten degrees warmer (despite frying in the sun for an hour or two now). One would think that I'd be used to seeing him like this now, but I blamed my hormonal rushes on his abs. God, they were perfect.

I frowned as I glanced back up at the azure sky sprinkled with cirrus clouds. I really needed to stop with these pervy thoughts if I wanted to further associate with Dom in our "educational" endeavor.

"Well," he said, casually strolling to the pool and bending over to put his towel and sunglasses just a couple inches away from the poolside, "I only try to tell the truth."

His ass was magnificent. And so were his tanned, muscled back, in fact.

Dom lowered himself into the pool, giving me a fantastic opportunity to observe (or rather ogle) his biceps. He was incredibly tan already, which was unfair since I myself mostly burned and tanned rather minimally. Besides a tank top tan line, Dom looked absolutely perfect and glorious in the morning sun.

Fate liked me today, so the weather was fairly balmy in contrast to the scorching heat and high humidity from the day before. I stretched in my beach chair, taking care to pull down my cover-up – there was no need for Dom to see something that would probably horrify and scar him forever.

Clearing his throat, Dom looked at me expectantly as he pulled his goggles over his head. I straightened my back quickly – oh God, I must have been staring in silence for way too long.

"That's mean," I sputtered out quickly. I reached for my lemonade glass on the table next to me and took a sip. "I feel like you should be more grateful, especially after our 'field trip' from the other day."

Dom placed his goggles over his eyes and grinned at me. "You're reclining in a beach chair next to the swimming pool in my backyard. I don't know how that isn't personal in any way, and this has nothing to do with the museum."

And with that, Dom ducked his head underwater and pushed off the side of the pool into a tight freestyle stroke. With a little smile on my own lips, I sat up, pushing up my own sunglasses, and licked my lips. Oh my. And right after, I broke out into a series of coughs that just kept pushing themselves out of my throat.

By the time Dom got back to my side of the pool, I'd finished successfully hacking out my lungs out and drunk the rest of my lemonade. Dom popped his head out of the water, exhaling loudly. "What's up with you?"