Page 51 of The Lost Ones

"That's better." Kai says quietly, tucking a stubborn piece of my black hair behind my ear.

He leans in and gives me a soft kiss against my lips before standing up and pulling me with him.

"Come on Beautiful, we're going to do something fun to take your mind off of things for a little bit." Kai informs me, a mischievous glint in his green eyes that has me equal parts nervous and excited.

I glance around at the others, but they don’t give anything away and just grin at me. I internally shrug, I need the distraction. The others obviously know what Kai has planned and don't seem to be too worried, so I decide to just go with it. Before I can open my mouth to ask any questions about what we’re going to do though he’s pulling me towards the front door.

Are we going out then?

He stops just inside the front door without going through it. He lets go of my hand and ducks down rummaging through all of our luggage that we dumped by the front door earlier. He finally tugs free the bag he wants. I watch him amused and slightly curious as he searches through it for whatever it is that he's looking for. I’m quite happy to stand back and watch his rummaging, that is until I see my favourite pair of black lace boy shorts clutched in his hand whilst he carries on searching with his other hand.

I hear one of the guys make a choking noise behind me, having realised what Kai is holding. Kai though, seems completely oblivious to the fact that he has a pair of my underwear clutched in his hand and is still a hundred percent focused on whatever he's searching for in what I now realise is my bag.

"Kai, if you don’t put my underwear back in my bag right now, we’re going to have an issue." I say my tone saturated with fake sweetness.

"Hunter, where did you put it? I know I told you to bring one," he says seemingly not having heard me. "You better have brought one, although I suppose a bra and panties are pretty close.” He ponders pausing in his search.

It's at this point he seems to notice he's holding something in his other hand.

"Well hello there!" he holds my panties up for better inspection a rakish grin on his handsome face.

I feel my face heat up. Reaching out I snatch them off of him quickly stuffing them in my pocket. All of the guys finally can't hold back their laughter, it probably doesn't help that Kai looks so shocked at having them taken away from him. I try to stay stern with him and I have a lecture all ready about not going through my things but he just grins up at me cheekily and then winks, looking absolutely adorably cute.

Damn it, I am such a push over.

"Here you go, I found it." Kai says proudly, shoving a small bundle of material into my hands. I look down and frown, why on earth would I need my bikini?

Before I can ask the obvious question, I’m again being dragged through different hallways, this time by Kai and Jax. Jax is gripping my hand very tightly and I can feel anxiety that isn't mine thrumming through the Soulmate Bond to me. Using my instincts, I find my centre and for the first time, try to focus on the threads of the Soulmate Bond. My suspicions are proven correct, there is a lot of anxiety coming from Jax and I can't figure out why.

Before I can ponder it for any longer though, they both drag me through a set of large double doors. My nose is instantly assaulted by the smell of chlorine and I'm pretty sure I'm gaping like a fish.

"You have a giant ass swimming pool in your house?" I exclaim unable to hide my excitement.

The guys chuckle but I ignore them as I take in my surroundings.The pristine blue water is spread out in front of me, in a large pool looking incredibly inviting. There's a hot tub attached to the left top corner of the large main pool.A couple of sun loungers are placed on the deck around the edge and one wall is made entirely of glass and looks out onto a large garden that backs up onto some wood. It's beautiful.

"Go and get changed Darling. We’ll meet you in the pool." Levi tells me pointing to a door on the opposite side of the room to the glass wall that I hadn't noticed in my initial perusal of the room.

I dash through the door wanting to be back out and, in the pool, as quickly as possible.I've always adored swimming but growing up the way I did, meant I didn't get to go as often as I would have liked. I change into my black bikini; it's been a while since I last used it but thankfully it still fits. I'm about to open the door to go back out to the pool when it finally registers just how little coverage a bikini has. It's not that it's too small, like I said it still fits and it's not that I'm insecure about my figure, it's been kept trim through my training. Although I'm probably a bit too thin due to not being able to eat regularly and doing the amount of exercise I do.

None of that is what's stopping me from going out the door, a small part of what's stopping me is that with the bikini on you can see both of my Imprint Tattoos, as well as the Soulmate Bond mark but It's occurred to me that the guys must've seen the one on the top of my thigh, since I have an apparent tendency to walk around in just large t-shirts.They haven't mentioned it before so that gives me hope that they wouldn't ask about it or the one on my ribs now.

I'm not ready for that conversation yet. The larger part of the reason why I'm cautious about stepping out in just my bikini is because of my scar.Going from my right shoulder and curving back and forth down the entirety of my back to the top of my left butt cheek is a massive scar that I’ve had for as long as I can remember. Despite how long I’ve had it, it is still puckered, red and angry like a newly healed scar. I can’t remember where it came from, but I can assume that it was done by my mother, after all who else would hurt me like that. It used to bother me immenselythat I had no recollection of it happening but as my mother’s behaviour towards me continued to deteriorate, I started to see it as a blessing in disguise.

I don’t want to remember going through that sort of pain.

I quickly shake off the memories of all the other times she’s come at me in a violent rage, usually after coming back from secret places she refused to tell me about, I stopped asking pretty damn quickly. Surprisingly, it’s the only scar I have, even some of the worse cuts she’s given me have healed without scaring.

I sit down on the bench that's edging the room, thinking about whether I can go out there in just my bikini or if I should put my t-shirt on over the top of it. I grab the tank top I had on under my blouse to pull it on but before I do the guys faces flash through my mind’s eye, all of the small kind things they've done for me since I've known them play through my thoughts. I hear all of their sweet words and most importantly, I remind myself that they haven't judged me or thought any less of me yet, and I've told them some pretty fucked up shit.

They are my Soulmates.

With my determination renewed, I throw my tank on the floor and stride out of the changing room with my head held high. My scar does not define me, I am a survivor.As soon as I enter the pool area though I stop dead in my tracks, my mouth drops open and I'm pretty sure I'm drooling.

Levi, Hunter, Kai and Maverick all stand before me topless, in their board shorts. I mean holy mother freaking hotness batman, wow. They each run their eyes up and down my figure instantly causing my body to flush with heat, their eyes devour me, and I take the opportunity to greedily study them in return. They are all extremely well defined, looking like their chests and stomachs were carved by the gods themselves, they even have that 'V' on their stomachs that's like a sexy arrow pointing towards a delicious reward.

As my eyes greedily take them in I notice the impressions of at least one Imprint Tattoo on each of them, they haven't pried about mine so I make my eyes pass over them hoping I get to study them in detail one day. I'm acutely aware that Jax is missing and I glance around the pool area trying to find him, wanting to ogle him too.I finally spot him already in the pool at the opposite end with a loose black t-shirt on. He is determinedly not looking in my direction and I frown, getting worried that something is wrong.

Maybe it's something to do with why he was so anxious earlier?