Page 20 of Knot Going Down (OlympicVerse #3)

EMILY

“ I can’t,” Ava whispers, even though we’re floating in the middle of the pool, far from anyone else.

“It makes the most sense for me to question Declan while you see what you can get out of Knox,” I argue, leaning my weight on the inner tube. It’s massive, but we’re still squished together along one side so we can talk more privately. Our legs keep brushing as we kick lazily through the water.

“It’s too risky for me to get close to either of them,” Ava says.

“And our best bet is still a subtle, flirty approach. Which requires things like touching and invading personal space.” She drags her toes up my leg in a way that has to be intentional, like she’s showing me what she means. I shiver even in the heated pool.

“Both those men stare at you like you’re the hottest piece of ass they’ve ever seen,” she adds as if she didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. “A little flirting, and they’ll be putty in your hands. It’ll be nothing to get the information out of them.”

“You don’t understand,” I groan. “I’m a horrible flirt. Like next level terrible. I can do the whole smiling, giddy, fun thing, but seductress? Yeah, not so much. And Knox and I… we…” I swallow the thickness in my throat. “We have a history.”

“Kinda guessed that.” Ava shifts her sunglasses higher up on her nose. “What happened?”

“We dated in high school. Started just before he designated. Ended soon after.”

“First love?”

I nod.

Ava makes a humming noise in her throat that’s almost like an omega purr. “Still hurts, doesn’t it?”

I turn away from her, gaze unfocused. “Like a broken finger that didn’t heal quite right.”

“I’m sorry, Em, but you have to do it. I can’t be around alphas right now.

What if they figure it out? And they aren’t just alphas.

They’re—” She cuts off, leaving me wondering what she was going to say.

“I just can’t. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your relationship with Declan, and you know how alphas and omegas can be.

It’s better if I keep my distance from them as much as possible.

Especially until we can get suppressants. ”

“My relationship with Declan is dead in the water. It can’t go anywhere.

” I roll over and adjust so my upper back is on one side of the donut and my legs draped over the other.

Ava does the same. Our combined weight drags us together, so she’s flush against my side.

I still haven’t caught a whiff of her scent due to all the perfume she’s using and the chlorine we’re currently drenched in, but this close, I have the urge to bury my nose in her throat so I can see what she smells like.

It’s a silly impulse, but we’re so scent driven as people.

Knowing she’s hiding it, makes me want it even more.

“The big guy definitely hasn’t gotten that memo,” Ava says.

Two women speed by, their arms cutting through the water in wild backstrokes, sending splashes everywhere.

When they reach the pool’s edge, they burst into laughter, and the winner pins the other in a fierce, heated kiss.

I can’t look away— something about their effortless boldness pulls me in, a vivid reminder of freedom and fire I don’t possess.

Finally, I sigh. “I’ll do it. But I’m serious about not knowing how to flirt, so you need to teach me. Show me what to do.”

She pops up, propping herself against the pool float as much as she can, gazing down at me. “I think you’re better at this than you think. But practice makes perfect.”

Her smirk is a crooked invitation that makes my stomach swoop.

Ava is objectively beautiful. I’ve always thought so, even when I thought she was kind of a territorial bully. But she’s not really a bully. I think she’s just insecure, more than a little clueless about reading people, and a bit tactless when it comes to social norms, like personal boundaries.

With her looking at me like she is right now, I can’t bring myself to stop this. “Okay. Let’s practice.”

“Pretend I’m Declan, and show me how you’re gonna find out if he has the suppressants.”

My throat feels suddenly dry, and my mind is completely blank. What are words? I blink at her for way too long. “Um… uh… hey, Declan, so…”

“That’s absolute crap.” She splashes me right in the face.

I laugh and splash her back. “I know!”

She licks her lips and slides down into the water, shifting her sunglasses up into her hair like a headband. We’ve floated into the shallow end of the pool, so she can easily stand. I join her, feeling like my feet need to be on the ground for whatever’s gonna happen next.

“New plan,” Ava says. “You be Declan. I’ll be you.”

She takes a deep breath, and twists her wet hair back, like she’s preparing herself. Then her face completely changes. A stunning smile shows off her straight, white teeth. She moves in close enough that her breasts brush against my arm.

“Hey handsome.”

That’s all she says. ‘Hey handsome.’ But it’s the way she does it.

I have a flash of clarity as I realize this is what Ava does.

She’s the perfect person to teach me this because this is the mask she wears around everyone.

Overly eager, flirty, feminine, seductive.

I’m not sure when she lost that mask with me.

Slowly, sometime over the past couple of weeks at the Olympics, she’s stopped with the act and let me in a little.

Once, a few months ago, I overheard my brother Ellis and his pack mates trying to convince Harrison to break up with Ava.

He said Ava was actually great when you saw the real her.

I didn’t understand or even believe him then, but I see it now.

With her mask firmly back in place, the difference is crystal clear.

She leans closer so that her whole body is pressed against mine, her lips by my ear. “You know I’ve always been fascinated with law enforcement.”

My heart is like a rabbit trying to escape my chest. Every wet inch of skin is tight and heated.

Her fingers walk a path slowly up my spine. “Could you tell me about it? What happens once you catch someone? What do you do with all that… evidence?” She whispers the last word right in my ear like a seductive secret just for us.

All too quickly, she steps back, dropping down in the water and spreading her arms. “Okay, your turn.”

Is it possible for your palms to sweat in the pool? I feel nervous and clammy, and I don’t think it’s just because I’m uncomfortable being seductive and flirty.

“So…uh, caught any bad guys lately?” I try to do a seductive, hooded-eye look, but I’m pretty sure it just seems like sunscreen is making me squint.

Ava furrows her brows, but lets me keep going. I shift, trying to lean in the way she did, but nearly headbutt her instead. To her credit, she doesn’t shove me underwater, so I keep at it.

“So… you must have, like, a license to… catch bad guys?” My voice wobbles like I’m asking for a favor, not flirting. “Maybe later you can show me how you handle your taser?”

Ava clears her throat and sputters before her laugh escapes. “Sexual electrocution?”

“Officers have tasers!” I explain in defense of myself, splashing water at her perfect, laughing face.

“Your long, hard taser,” Ava mocks and splashes me right back. “Thick, throbbing taser.”

We dissolve into laughter, waging a water war at each other until the flirting about Declan’s girthy taser is completely forgotten.

“Maybe you should stick to the whole innocent thing you’ve got going on,” Ava says, brushing a bit of wet hair out of my face. “I bet you could still get the information out of them just as you are, Em.”