Page 127 of Taste of Thorns

“It’s just fish,” Dray reassures her. “Little ones. They’re harmless.”

“Aren’t piranhas little fish?” she says, continuing to splash around frantically.

“Yeah, but this water’s too cold for piranhas.”

“I bet the Madame will find a way to fill this lake with the things,” she says, finally relaxing and sinking her feet back down to the bottom of the lake.

“Okay, sweetheart?” Beaufort asks, with an amused half-smile.

“Just fine. But if one of those little terrors tries nibbling me, I’m going to blast it away with my magic.”

“Good idea!” Dray says.

“Right then,” Beaufort says, wading through the water towards her. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

“Got?”

“Yeah, let’s see you swim.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Beaufort

The erratic, chaotic movements Briony makes through the water cannot be described as swimming. They also don’t seem to propel her in any particular direction. In fact, all she does seem to do is bob up and down and eventually run out of puff, sinking her feet back down to the lake’s bottom and rubbing water out of her eyes.

“What do you think?” she asks expectantly.

Dray ducks under the water and Thorne looks off moodily into the distance, both obviously leaving me to deliver the bad news.

“It’s, erm,” I drag my fingers through my wet hair, searching for the words that are going to cause the least damage, “a great start.”

“Really?” she says, grinning, “I didn’t think I was very good.”

Crap!

“There are things we can improve.”

I wade closer to her. Her blond hair is slick to her head and hangs down her back and droplets of water race over her face.Her green eyes sparkle in the weak sunlight. The thin material of her bathing suit clings to her body, her breasts clearly outlined, her nipples hard little pebbles. She looks breathtaking and for a moment I have to remind myself why exactly I am here.

“Like?”

I take a grip of her waist and when she looks up at me with those same green eyes, I have to tame the desire to kiss her.

“Fuck, Briony,” I mutter.

“What?” she says. It kills me how clueless she is, how completely oblivious to her own attractiveness.

“Nothing.” I shake my head and with it all the dirty thoughts in my mind. “Right, we’ll start with the kicking. You got to think of it as your engine house.” I take her hands in mine, have her lean into the water and get to practice kicking as hard as she can. The other two call out instructions, tips and adjustments, and soon we have her kicking in a fashion that looks more like swimming.

Getting her top half working proves a lot harder, even with me or Dray hanging onto her waist and keeping her afloat. The coordination isn’t easy and we have to go over it several times until something clicks and she finally manages it.

Then comes the difficult bit – combining the kicking with the arms.

I make Dray pace several yards away from us. The lake bottom falls away and he’s forced to tread water to stay in place.

“If you’re going to ask me to swim to him, then, no, no way. It’s too deep. I won’t be able to touch the bottom.”

“Briony, you’re going to have to swim right across the lake during the trial.”