Chapter 6

We heard some howls and whistles that weren’t completely out of place until we also heard Danielle’s name. Both of us turned around and watched the redhead walking toward our end of the pool. Jordan moved toward the edge and I followed, wondering what was up.

Danielle was smiling and waving off the invitations to dive in. All of the attention seemed to make her feel better and she waved at me with a smile much more at home with the party she was hosting. She sat down on the edge of the pool and leaned toward Jordan. I was close enough to hear them, but didn’t want to be a pest. She kicked her feet in the water and said, “I’m going to be inside for a little while making some phone calls. Can you make sure this crowd doesn’t get too rambunctious?”

Jordan nodded. “Absolutely.”

Danielle looked at me and smiled again. “Could you help her out?” I couldn’t help but return the smile and nodded. She winked and got up. “Shout if you need me. I’ll be in my room.”

Jordan and I watched her go, and then the wet brunette turned to me. “So, now that we’re in charge, what should we do?” The smile on her face suggested several possibilities, but I didn’t answer.

However, once Danielle was back in the house, one of the other guys did, yelling, “Marco Polo!” Everyone calmed down and looked around. He stood near the center of the pool, up to his chest in the water. He was smiling and nodding at all the looks. Before there was any real reaction from everyone, he looked over at one of the girls, a brunette in a dark blue two piece, and held out his hand to her. She giggled, accepted his offer and let him pull her very close. Smiling at everyone else, he said, “Find a partner!”

I had played the game when I was a kid and wondered how it would work with the mixed gender, because I didn’t remember a ‘partners’ version. Watching everyone else, I noticed that most of the partnerships were each made of a guy with a girl. I remembered noticing that the ratio was pretty even before I got into the pool. Did everyone bring dates? Before I gave any real consideration to who might be willing to partner up with me, Jordan moved up behind me, ran her hand over my shoulder to my chest, and said in my ear, “You move and I’ll hang on.”

Compared to our rambunctious actions while we’d been splashing and dunking one another, her gentle touch, soft voice and heated breath caused a big rush. I nodded, not sure how else to respond, and not trusting my voice enough to speak.

She pressed her chest into my back with her momentum. She was soft, not just of skin, but in the way her breasts molded against me. My heart was racing, and I wasn’t entirely sure it was only from horsing around.

Doing my best to ignore the feelings Jordan’s touch and body inspired, I looked around for the announcer. He and his partner were going first. They held hands and reached out in opposite directions with their free hands. Doing that, they could cover a lot more ground. As per the normal game, they both called out “Marco!” and the rest of the players yelled, “Polo!” With their reach though, it didn’t take long before the girl grabbed the ankle of one of the other guys.

There was plenty of laughter going on, everyone was having fun, but when the guy that was caught finally stood up and cleared his face, he cried foul. “You two aren’t doing it right,” he said. Everyone else seemed to disagree, siding with the original chasers, but he stood there shaking his head with a big grin on his face. I had seen smiles like that before and it never bode well, but I didn’t think this guy wanted to cause grief. “Nope,” he said. “You two can reach out too far like that. You can sweep too much of the pool too easily.”

Next to me, Jordan said, “Okay, how should we do it then?”

The guy looked our way and his smile got bigger, if that was possible. He pulled his partner to him, a bottled blonde wearing a deep green one piece that had as little material as many of the two pieces. He held out his hand for everyone to wait and whispered something into her ear. Then he turned to the crowd and said, “We’ll show you.”

The girl jumped up into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, and kissed him. I wondered if all of the chasers were going to be expected to kiss like that. I wondered briefly what it would be like to kiss Jordan, and another vision filled my eyes.

Her arms and legs were wrapped around me, holding me tightly. Her body’s heat was a sensuous contrast to the water around us. Her eyes smoldered. Her lips were wet and slightly parted. She pulled herself closer to me...

I shook my head and noticed that the new chasers had lowered into the water. He had his hands stretched out as if playing with her attached to him. As he turned, calling out, “Marco!” I saw that she was holding on with her legs and one arm while reaching out with her other. It was like they had three hands, but without the reach of the previous team.

“That’s more interesting,” Jordan said with a grin. I secretly agreed, but didn’t make any outward mention of my opinion.

At first, when we moved through the pool to dodge the chasers, Jordan only held on with one or both hands, like some kind of cape, but after one close call where she was almost snagged, she pulled in tight behind me and wrapped her legs around me. “I hope you don’t mind,” she said in my ear, breathing hard from laughing.

I instantly shook my head. I didn’t mind, really, but it made me nervous. It felt good to have her wrapped around me like that, but I didn’t think she’d appreciate my reactions to her. It turned out to work better for us as a team though, because when the chasers got close again, it took a lot less effort to move of us both out of reach.

I held Jordan’s legs to me in front, worried that she might accidently graze or even kick me in her enthusiasm for the game. However, she turned out to have very strong legs. She never slipped, and whenever I had to lunge away from the chasers, she tightened down with a squeal of excitement.

After a couple of rounds, when we were far enough from the chasers that I could whisper and not be easily heard, I said, “You have very strong legs.”

She squeezed them around me. “Do I?” I nodded, not sure what else to add, or certain that I should. She seemed to like the compliment and fished for another, rubbing her chest into my back. “And what else do you like?” Her voice rose in turn to call out, “Polo!”

I was grinning and couldn’t stop. I wanted to mention as many things as possible, but found that I couldn’t croak many of them out. I settled with, “You have the most amazing eyes.”

“But like this,” she said, gently rubbing her chin softly along my shoulder, “you can’t see my eyes.”

I squeeze her legs where I was holding them. “Yeah, but I remember the first thing I saw when you asked me for my seat at the orientation.”

She wiggled her chest against me again. “And what was that?”

I turned my head slightly, wondering why she would think I had seen anything else. “Your steel-blue eyes.”

For a second, she didn’t say anything, not even to reply to the chasers calling, “Marco!”

“No one’s ever seen the blue before,” she said softly in my ear. “All they see is gray.” I didn’t know what to say to that. I was trying to be polite, but the tone of her voice suggested something else, something more. Then she added, “But then, a lot of guys don’t even see my eyes.”

I stopped and wanted to turn to look at her, but she was firmly attached to me. “Why not?” I asked.

She giggled and wiggled her chest into my back again. “Why do you think, silly?” I didn’t know if I was supposed to answer or not, but had to focus on the game again because the chasers were getting really close.

Jordan giggled like a little girl when I had to lunge to get away. We both went under for a second, but I got my feet under me and pulled us up out of the water. She coughed and sputtered while I put some distance between us and the chasers. When I felt safe again, I asked, “You okay?” She nodded with her chin on my shoulder and we focused on the game again.

For several rounds the chasers either didn’t come near us, or when they did, they couldn’t catch us. Since my limbs were really the only ones anyone could grab, because Jordan’s were securely wrapped around me like a human version of an octopus, all I had to do was move and pull out of anyone’s line of attack.

The initial excitement of having Jordan so close had long since waned, but when one of the chasers finally caught me, my heart raced at the thought of having Jordan latched onto the front of me. I was sure I already looked flushed from playing the game, so much so that Jordan probably wouldn’t be able to tell that I felt somewhat uncomfortable. She let go of me and I turned to face her. She had a small smile on her face, though I had no idea why, and she simply asked, “You ready?” I looked around at everyone watching us. I so did not need an audience. Doing my best to slow my racing heart, I nodded. Without further preamble, Jordan wrapped her arms around my neck and jumped.

I knew I was supposed to catch her, but in that instant, I also knew where my hands would end up and I had no time to think about it. I caught her, my hands squarely on her cheeks, and braced for the impact of her hand across my face. Instead, I looked to find her smile had grown. She wrapped her legs around me as tightly as before and held on with one hand. I lowered us into the water watching her close her eyes. I closed mine, reached out with one hand and called “Marco!”

Lowered into the water like we were, it was easier to move. I even realized I could let go of her with my other hand, considering how tightly as she was wrapped around me, but when I did, reaching for someone I heard on that side, she brought her other hand back to hold on to me. I didn’t jump or lunge like I did when we were being chased, so I wasn’t entirely sure why she felt the need to hold on with everything. Granted, we didn’t know each other well enough to move together like the other chasers had and I wanted her to trust that I wouldn’t dump her in the water while we played. Hell, I was enjoying our closeness too much to even think it.

Having missed my target, I brought my other hand to her back to hold her again. She, in turn, let some pressure up off my neck and reached behind her to move my hand down to her cheek and then stretched her hand out behind me.

For a second, my brain short-circuited. Did she want my hand down there for better support, or for some other reason? When Jordan yelled out, “Marco!” I shook off my stupor and focused on the game again. Her yell caught a reply of someone behind us, really close too. I grabbed Jordan with both hands and lunged back. Working like a real team, she let go with both hands, reaching for the same target I had heard.

I went under completely. I don’t know if she did or not. It was difficult to tell when I got up for air. Jordan was laughing and hugged me again. “I missed,” she said as she wrapped her incredible legs around me again and I held her to me.