Page 13 of Clean Finish (Goliaths of Wrestling #2)

The Pool Party

Larkin

When Holt invited everyone to a pool party he was throwing the following Monday to welcome Taylor to Goliaths, I thought I would’ve been psyched. Getting to hang out with everyone and drink beer and see all the wrestlers wet and half-naked? Getting to meet Assmo Dickus— the Assmo Dickus, legendary incubus adult film star—because Susan had already said he’d be coming with her?

I should’ve been freaking ecstatic, but in reality, I was massively bummed, because it completely derailed mine and Seb’s plan for my next lesson.

I didn’t even really want to go, but I knew I had to—everyone else was going, and besides, I really liked Taylor and I wanted to celebrate him joining Goliaths. I was already stressing about it though, because a pool party meant getting in a pool. Which meant wearing swim trunks. Which meant everyone potentially seeing…

Maybe I could tell everyone I had plantar warts. Or, like, an infectious skin thing. No, wait, I didn’t want to use that excuse in front of Seb. It might make him rethink being my fuckletics instructor.

I told my little brother what was worrying me over breakfast on Sunday morning, and when I got home from work that night, I found a carrier bag waiting on my bed. He’d bought me a pair of long swim trunks that I could tighten around my waist slightly higher than I’d typically wear pants.

Stuff like this was why I loved my brother so freaking much. Even if he was a little twerp sometimes.

I was still super nervous on Monday morning, and I was definitely still pissed that mine and Seb’s next lesson had been delayed. The moment we’d all received the invite via text from Holt on Friday, I’d sent Seb a row of frowny face emojis.

About twenty seconds later, he’d replied with, Tuesday instead?

So, yeah, okay, it had only been pushed back by a day. But that was still twenty-four more hours. Twenty-four whole freaking hours that I had to wait to find out what Seb had planned for our next lesson, to feel his hands on me again and see his eyes go that dark maple syrup colour from arousal.

I drove myself to Holt’s, because I wasn’t going to drink today. I didn’t want to be all shaky and hungover for my lesson with Seb tomorrow. There weren’t many cars on the drive when I got there, which meant a lot of the wrestlers had probably carpooled or shared cabs and planned on letting loose in the boss man’s nice pool and fancy backyard.

I was wearing my swim trunks under my sweats, but I still planned on avoiding getting in the pool if I could. I’d just chill on a lounger or something. Maybe I could hang out with Seb. I doubted he’d want to mess around in the pool with the wrestlers.

About ten seconds after I knocked on the front door, it opened to reveal Taylor in a pair of tropical print swimming trunks, a Tasselled Tussler T-shirt, flipflops and a Dullahan Dan cowboy hat. I grinned at him. He was a cute little human dork.

He smiled back brightly, his skin looking slightly tanned and freckles sprinkled over his nose. He must’ve spent a lot of time in the pool during his week off. He looked relaxed and happy, an iced coffee clasped in one hand.

“Hi, Larkin!” He stepped aside to let me in. “How are you?”

“Hey, T-bone. I’m great. How’s your week off been?” I nodded at his iced coffee with a smirk as I walked inside. “Any booze in that?”

He chuckled, closing the door and allowing me to shift out of my human skin, wings emerging from the slits at the back of my T-shirt.

“No. I’m taking it easy today. Don’t want to be hungover on my first day tomorrow.”

“Aw, yeah, it’s gonna be dope having you there.”

We made our way through the house, and I waved at Holt standing behind the small bar in the living area mixing up a jug of margaritas. He was wearing a big floppy sun hat, his usual fifties-style shades and a sheer, flowy robe-type thing with wide sleeves. Holt insisted he wasn’t a diva, but he totally was.

“Yo, boss man.”

“Hi, Lark. Want a drink?”

“Nah, I’m okay, thanks. I’m driving.” I glanced out through the open French doors to the patio. Heidi and Val were out there, as well as—oh god—Frank and Beans, who were already screaming in the pool. Biff had taken charge of the grill, and Gabe was standing beside him sipping a beer and sneaking his fingers under the apron covering the gargoyle’s chest. It said ‘Kiss the Cock’ with an arrow pointing down at his groin.

My gut clenched with nerves. I craned my neck, trying to spot the hot tub tucked in the corner of the deck. I could just about see the arm of someone sitting in there, but Taylor’s voice made me jerk my head back.

“How about an iced coffee?” he asked. I barely managed to stop my nose from wrinkling. “Or a soda?”

“Soda would be shweet. Thanks.” As Taylor hurried over to the minifridge behind the bar, I casually asked, “So who’s already here?”

“Frank and Beans turned up an hour early,” Holt muttered, pouring himself a margarita and immediately gulping down half of it. “Thankfully they just dove straight into the pool and haven’t got out since.”

“Heidi and Val are here.” Taylor approached with a can. “And Gabe and Biff. Ludo, Brian and Kenneth are in the hot tub.”

Seb wasn’t here yet? He was definitely coming, right? I hadn’t actually outright asked him, just assumed he would be.

“Anyone not coming?” I asked nonchalantly, accepting the soda from Taylor and cracking it open.

“One of the maintenance guys has a family thing.” Holt took a more measured sip of his margarita and sighed in pleasure. “And obviously Carl can’t get here until it’s dark.”

“Right, right. Vampire.” I sipped my soda and licked my lips. It tasted like pineapple and something. Maybe lemon. “But… everyone else said yes?”

“Uh-huh.” Taylor beamed at me. He’d returned to Holt’s side and slipped his arm around his waist. “It’s gonna be fun.”

“It’s going to be something,” Holt muttered, which made Taylor laugh and kiss his cheek, almost nailing him in the eye with the brim of his cowboy hat. But Holt just smiled kind of dopily and gazed over at him like nothing else existed.

Ugh, they were disgustingly cute.

“Go and relax, Lark.” Holt waved his glass toward the patio, spilling his drink over the side of his hand and making the wise decision to lick it up instead of getting a napkin. “There are plenty more sodas in the fridge when you finish that one.”

“’Kay.” I didn’t move, darting another look at the wrestlers. I was kind of… really freaking nervous, for some reason. This was outside my comfort zone. It was easier talking to wrestlers at work because it was a familiar setting, and I always had the excuse of escaping back to the office if I got overwhelmed.

I wasn’t sure whether Taylor noticed, but he left Holt’s side and rounded the bar with a reassuring smile. “Come on, let’s go sit by the pool. Claim our spots before more folk show up.”

“Okay.” I followed him outside, clutching my towel and sunglasses, which were my dad’s old ones from the eighties or something. But they were pretty cool, so he’d given them to me. Dad was a sentimental dork who never threw anything out, so he’d also given me all his crop tops and tiny shorts from that era, but I was too self-conscious to ever wear them.

I was wearing a ball cap, because my hair always bleached to a paler pink in the sun, which I didn’t much like. After setting my stuff down on the lounger next to the one Taylor perched on, sipping his iced coffee, I fiddled with it, curving its brim over and over as I looked around.

“Hi, pretty boy.” Gabe sauntered over, eyes tracking all the way down my frame from my hat to my socks-and-slides combo as he sipped his beer. “Gonna get in the pool today?”

“Um, nah. Maybe.” I laughed a little too loudly and forced myself to lower my hands. “Depends. Um… I get cold easily, so…”

It was a weak-ass excuse, especially because the day was already hot, the sun beating down on us. But Gabe just nodded, his smile turning less salacious and more friendly, as if he could sense my discomfort.

“Well, there’s no way in Hell that Corey or Crossbody will be getting in the pool and letting chlorine touch their hair, so you can always chill out with them.”

“Yeah.” I relaxed a little and sank down onto my lounger.

I didn’t really get nervous around Corey—The Tasselled Tussler—because there wasn’t any kind of attraction between us. I mean, yeah, he was ridiculously ripped and pretty, but we were definitely just friends without even an inkling of any sexual chemistry. I liked sitting in his dressing room with him while he got ready, playing with Cora and listening to him gossip about literally everyone in his life. He loved to gossip, and I loved hearing gossip.

High Lord Crossbody didn’t make me nervous, exactly. More… timid. Probably because he was fae royalty, which meant it felt like I had to defer to him. I didn’t really like that feeling, so we didn’t talk all that much. There was a reason my ancestors had moved away from Otherworld and all the court politics and settled here instead—the Fairchilds obv weren’t all that good at listening to authority figures. My dad was pretty punk in a laid-back hippie kind of way. He did what he wanted. So did my mom.

Like getting married in a meadow three weeks after meeting. My nanna often shared the story of fainting onto her chaise longue when my mom had told her she was marrying the eccentric dude who’d recently been hired as their gardener and held slam poetry nights in a nearby apple orchard every Wednesday. And who’d also been spotted by my grandpa drinking the nectar from the honeysuckle growing in the yard.

He still did that. The front of our house was covered in climbing honeysuckle, and every summer he could be found out there drinking the nectar from the flowers. Our human neighbours thought he was such a weirdo.

“Hi, folks.”

My head snapped up to see Vince sauntering onto the patio with Dan, Kit and Mads—aka Lady Victoria Venom—following behind, all of them dressed appropriately for a pool party. My belly clenched with something, I wasn’t sure what, as I took in all the exposed skin—Dan’s miniscule shorts, Vince’s bare chest, Mads’ cleavage and slender neck. It felt… different from seeing them in their wrestler outfits. More intimidating, almost. Maybe because they weren’t dressed as their Goliath personas.

Or maybe because I would be expected to get as underdressed as they were, if I wanted to go in the pool.

I smiled and said hello to each of them, but my gaze kept darting back to the living room through the open doors.

Seb was coming, right?

Ludo was already here, and I would’ve assumed they’d come together, because they were buddies and it would have meant one of them, at least, could’ve drunk without worrying about driving home. Brian was already here too, although Seb had told me that they weren’t really friends outside of work, which had… kind of relieved me, for some reason. I didn’t know why. Brian was a super sweet guy.

More people arrived—the folks who worked the bar at the club, the maintenance guys and cleaners, David the commentator and Coach Boris, who everyone called Hogbody. He was a pig shifter, and it’d been his wrestler name back in the day, before he retired to train others instead.

I sipped my soda, chatting to Taylor and Holt, who’d come outside with a fresh margarita and draped himself on Taylor’s lounger, resting his feet in his boyfriend’s lap. Mads took the lounger on the other side of me, wearing her big dark shades so she didn’t accidentally turn anyone to stone. I tried not to pout about it. I’d been hoping it’d stay free just in case Seb wanted to take it when he got here.

I kept glancing back at the door every few seconds. It was busy now, people milling around everywhere, several of the wrestlers joining Frank and Beans in the pool. Biff got some steaks and burgers on the grill, and Gabe vanished inside for a minute, returning with a huge cooler full of beer and Corey and Crossbody in tow. The pair of them claimed two loungers in the shade and immediately began slathering themselves in high-factor sunscreen as Cora started snuffling around, going up to everyone for a fuss.

My pulse leaped when I faintly heard the doorbell ring. Taylor patted Holt’s shin and shifted his feet off his lap so he could stand to go and answer.

I glanced around quickly. That had to be Seb, right? I was pretty sure everyone else was here already. I reflexively tugged on my baseball cap and shifted back, trying to appear totally relaxed and at ease.

But when Taylor returned, it was with Susan and Asmo. As in Assmo Dickus. I felt a brief flash of excitement, followed by a hefty dose of nerves. Oh my god, it was… weird seeing him in person. Fully clothed. Well, no, he was nowhere near fully clothed—he was only wearing a pair of tiny shorts and a backwards cap. Oh god, he was even hotter in real life. And he seemed super friendly. He cheerfully said hello to everyone, then grabbed Taylor and pulled him close to take a selfie, delivering a hearty slap on his back that had the human jolting forward and laughing nervously.

I looked away and pulled out my phone to check it, just in case Seb had texted me saying he was going to be late or something. Or that he wasn’t coming. The only messages I had were from Hans, asking me if I’d be gaming later, and Nolan, who’d sent me a meme about a zombie show we both watched.

I fiddled with my phone, periodically glancing up at the door and trying not to hunch over as Holt and Mads chatted casually on either side of me. Why was I feeling so weird and self-conscious? Maybe it was because I was the youngest one here. I was pretty sure I was, anyway—one of the guys who worked behind Goliaths’ bar was maybe a year older than me, but I hadn’t spoken to him all that much.

I suddenly felt something snuffling at my sock, so I looked down to see Cora panting up at me, muzzle parted in her wide, manic grin and her eyes pointing outward. I laughed and leaned over to scoop her up, feeling more at ease as she placed her little paws on my chest and stretched her neck to try and lick my chin.

“Hi, babycakes.” I buried my fingers in her coat, scritching lightly at her sides the way I knew she liked. “I bet you get hot fast with this thick fur. Make sure you don’t sit in the sun too long, okay?”

Taylor had returned and perched on the edge of Holt’s lounger, looking slightly flushed from meeting Asmo, but he stood back up. “I’ll go get her a bowl of water.”

“I’ll do it, babe.” Holt set down his margarita and swung his legs off the lounger. “You relax.”

“Okay.” He smiled up at Holt as he stood and bent down for a kiss, then adjusted Taylor’s cowboy hat with a smirk before gliding away.

Taylor shuffled back to stretch out on the lounger, smiling as he watched me fuss over Cora. “She’s so cute.”

I grinned at him, scratching behind Cora’s ears as she draped herself over my crossed legs and watched the wrestlers in the pool with interest. “Yeah, she is. We never had a dog when I was growing up, but I really want one someday.”

Taylor chuckled. “I’d love a dog too, but I don’t think Holt would. Unless it was something small that he could carry around, like Cora.”

“I’m sure you could convince him, bro.” I smirked at him. “Just put that party hat back on and smear some frosting on your face. Apparently that works like a charm.”

Taylor’s cheeks turned pink. “Shut up,” he grumbled.

I snickered. “No judgement, bro. I already knew Holt was into some unique—”

“What do you want to drink, Seb?” Holt’s voice drifted out from the living room, making me freeze mid-sentence before my head snapped up and I twisted around to face the doors leading into the house.

Then I heard him—“Just a beer is fine, thanks”—before he appeared from the gloom inside, stepping out onto the patio.

I looked him over quickly before he could notice me. He was wearing plain blue swim trunks and a soft, worn white T-shirt that clung to his wide chest. My skin prickled, fingers clenching a little tighter in Cora’s fur. It was probably weird that I’d literally stroked his dick but hadn’t seen his legs until now. His calves were strong and muscular, shins dusted with dark hair. And his biceps looked… big, the sleeves of his T-shirt straining against them.

“Seb’s here,” Taylor commented needlessly. I forced myself to look away and glanced at him, cheeks flushing when I saw him watching me with a knowing look on his face.

Which, I mean, what was up with that? A knowing look? What did he think he knew? There wasn’t anything to know. Well, except that Seb had recently started giving me sex lessons. But there was literally no way Taylor could know that.

And we could never, ever let him find out that we’d frotted in his brand-new office. On his brand-new desk.

“Is he?” I jerked my shoulders in what I hoped was a careless shrug. “Cool.”

He chuckled, then suddenly stood from the lounger, grabbing Holt’s drink and towel. “I just have to go… do something. Hey, Seb!” he added enthusiastically, making my gut go all twisty and weird. “There’s a free lounger here. Better grab it quick before someone else does.”

“Hi, Taylor. Thanks.” Seb’s low voice made me tense up again, and I kept my head bent, watching Cora, who was starting to drift off on my lap, until I saw a towel land on the now vacant lounger beside me from the corner of my eye.

Looking up, I found my face melting into a huge grin when I saw Seb sitting down. “Hey.”

He flashed me a brief grin back, eyes darting down my frame before he huffed in amusement at the sight of Cora. “Hey.”

“I thought maybe you weren’t coming,” I blurted, then flushed and squirmed a little, which made Cora snort.

“I went to have breakfast at my parents’. They live in the next town over. My sister showed up with my nieces.” He gave me a tiny smile. “I haven’t seen them for a while, so I ended up staying longer than I’d planned.”

“Oh. Nice.” Suddenly I couldn’t stop smiling, and this party was starting to feel fun. “How many nieces do you have?”

“Two. My older sister’s kids.” His smile grew affectionate, and he paused to thank Holt when boss man appeared to hand over a bottle of beer and place a bowl of water by my lounger for Cora. “They’re eight and four.”

“Cool. You have another sister too, right? Is she younger, then?”

“Yep.” He sipped his beer, and I tried not to stare at his Adam’s apple bobbing in his strong throat. “I’m the middle child.”

I snuffled a laugh. “Is that why you’re so quiet?”

He grinned over at me. “Maybe. My older sister, Maeve, was very protective and a little overbearing when we were younger. And Polly is the wild child. She’s the loudest and was always a bit of an attention seeker, but she’s great. They both are.”

“My little brother’s a total d-bag, but I guess I love him or whatever,” I grumbled. “I’d love him more if I didn’t have to share a bathroom with him.”

Seb chuckled. “How old is he?”

“Seventeen. Like, the worst age.”

His smile widened. “I bet you were a nightmare at seventeen too.”

“No way,” I said innocently. “I was a total angel. I mean, I didn’t do all that well at school…”

He shrugged. “That kind of structured learning isn’t for everyone.”

“Yeah.” I grinned at him, leaning back against the lounger as I relaxed more. “But I’m really good at falling down a rabbit hole online and learning a tonne about some random subject that pops into my head.”

“I bet you are.” He side-eyed me, bringing his bottle back to his lips. “You’re excellent at learning new stuff when you’re interested in it. And highly motivated.”

My breath caught, stomach twisting with pleasure, because I knew exactly what he was referring to. I guessed that meant I was a pretty good ‘student’ in our lessons. I wanted to puff my chest out with pride.

I opened my mouth to speak, wanting to keep the conversation going, but Ludo suddenly appeared in front of us, twisting the cap off a fresh bottle of beer. He gave me a friendly grin, then turned his easy-going smile on Seb.

“You didn’t even come say hi, you ass.”

I sensed Seb tense slightly, before he relaxed again and shot Ludo a crooked grin. “Didn’t see you.”

“I’m chilling in the hot tub with Brian and Kenneth.” He gestured with his bottle at the deck behind us. “Come join. Both of you. Might be a little too warm in there for Cora, though.”

Seb hesitated, then sat up. “Alright.”

As Ludo wandered back off to the hot tub, Seb set his feet on the ground and looked at me. His eyes looked almost like gold in the sunlight.

“Uh, so, want to go in the hot tub?” His gaze drifted down my frame again, taking in my sweats and T-shirt.

I wanted to keep hanging out with Seb, but I really, really didn’t want to strip down. Anxiety filled my belly, making me fidget as I glanced back at the hot tub.

I knew I was being silly. He’d see it eventually. He’d have to, if we were going to… do more stuff together. But the thought of everyone here—literally everyone from work—potentially seeing it too was… too much. No way. I wouldn’t survive the embarrassment.

“Uhhh…” My voice wavered a little, before I fixed a grin on my face. “I’m okay here. I’ll hang out with Cora.”

Seb hesitated, glancing over at the deck. After a few seconds, he sighed and nodded, then peered at me with a slight frown. “You okay?”

“Totally fine,” I said brightly, then gestured at the wrestlers splashing around in the pool. “Just gonna… watch the guys.”

Seb’s lips turned down slightly as he glanced at the pool, a hint of tension stiffening his shoulders. He gave another terse nod, then set down his beer and stood to strip off his T-shirt.

My mouth dried out in an instant.

He was… big. And strong. But not impossibly cut like most of the wrestlers—he looked more real. His skin was tan, almost golden, like he’d already spent some time in the sun. His shoulders were wide and dotted with freckles. His biceps were huge, and his chest was defined and sprinkled with dark hair that made my tongue feel too thick in my mouth. A line of it trailed down between his abs to his navel, then continued lower to disappear under the waistband of his trunks.

I probably stared a bit too hard at his lean, muscled stomach and that line of hair. Then he leaned over to pick up his beer, making my gaze snap back up as heat flooded my whole body.

He gestured at the wrestlers in the pool. “Have fun.”

“Uh-huh,” I croaked, sneakily watching as he padded across the patio and up onto the deck.

There was a big brown freckle on his lower back, to the right of his spine. Just above the twin dimples that made me swallow thickly as I stared at them. His back was wide and ridiculously strong. I bet he could easily pick me up.

Less than a minute after he’d gone, I regretted not being a big boy and getting in the stupid hot tub with him. I should’ve just done it. I was already wearing my trunks, and I was sure I’d be able to pull my sweats off without accidentally tugging them down too.

But now if I got in there, he’d think I was, like, following him around or something. Like a lost little puppy. So I stayed where I was, getting tense and fidgety again as everyone drank and laughed and had fun around me.

You can’t just sit here like a dingus all afternoon.

I should get up and mingle. Go and sit with Corey in the shade and talk. Or strike up a conversation with the actual Assmo Dickus, who was sitting behind Susan on a lounger and hugging her tightly, resting his chin on her shoulder as they laughed at the guys messing around in the pool.

Or I could go and see if Biff needed help on the grill. Except I didn’t really feel like flirting with Gabe and Biff today. I didn’t really feel like talking to anyone, except…

I glanced over my shoulder at the hot tub, then immediately whipped my head back around when I caught Seb’s eye. The four of them were chilling out in there, their big bodies taking up a ridiculous amount of space. Three werewolves and a cyclops, although Brian was the only one currently in his werewolf form. Even if I wanted to get in there with them, I’d have to squish between two of them. Or maybe I could just sit really close to Seb. Or on his lap…

Sighing, I stayed where I was. Cora was asleep now anyway, twitching against my crossed legs, and I didn’t want to disturb her. Hunching over, I pulled out my phone and kept my gaze fixed on it so it would look like I was busy, not just waiting for this to be over.