Lexi splashed him while we all laughed. “I’ve got a big-ass rock on my finger that proves that I do,” she replied.
Luka threw our towels down on a chair and kicked his flip-flops off. I pulled his shirt over my head, tossed it on top of the towels, and tucked my sandals under the stack since I hated when they got wet.
“Cannonball!” I yelled before jumping in the pool. I’d always loved swimming since I’d grown up spending the summers at the family lake house.
“You’re such a goof,” Lexi sputtered when I came up for air, her face dripping with water.
“And you’re not?” I asked.
“She’s got you there,” Drake said as there was a knock on the door. He hopped out of the pool to let a group of his friends in.
I’d met the first five guys who walked in a few times before when I’d hung out with Drake and his friends. I even beat a couple of them at poker. But I figured that the last guy might be a problem for Luka and me. I knew him well enough to know that he’d enjoy it too.
I flashed the group a quick smile and waved before turning back to Luka, who was already glaring at them all. And they hadn’t even done anything other than say hello.
Lexi swam over to me as Luka climbed out so Drake could introduce him to the group. “I swear to God I didn’t know Eric was going to be here,” she whispered, nervously looking over at the guys. She hadn’t liked him when I’d dated him, and it was clear that her opinion hadn’t changed since then.
“It’s fine,” I told her. “It’s not like I have to hang out with him or anything. There’s enough room for me to stay away from him.”
“Yeah, but without being obvious about it or Luka will know something’s up,” she warned as he walked back towards us.
I managed to make it through about an hour of swimming and horsing around with everyone before Luka honed in on what was going on. I’d just left the pool and was toweling off by our stuff.
“You used to date that guy, didn’t you?” Luka muttered in my ear as he crushed my body against his.
“Yes,” I whispered back. “But I didn’t know he was coming. He and Drake don’t normally hang out, so one of the other guys must have invited him. Lexi would have told me otherwise and I would have warned you.”
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath, looking pissed.
It was the first time we’d ever spent any time around someone I’d dated before meeting Luka. A lot of the guys I’d dated my freshman and sophomore years were older than me and had already graduated. I’d barely dated last year, so that didn’t leave me with many exes for us to run into.
This was horrible timing too. Luka already hadn’t been happy to have me running around in a bikini in front of the guys. The last thing I needed right now was this, but I did have one thing going for me that would make the situation slightly better.
“We didn’t date very long,” I told Luka. “And I never slept with him.”
His eyes glittered dangerously. “Did you blow him? Let him eat your little pussy? The one that belongs to me?”
“Jesus, Luka,” I hissed. “Listen to yourself for a second. That is so damn rude.”
Luka’s arms held me tight against him as he buried his head in my neck. “That better not fucking mean yes or I’m going to have to beat the shit out of him.”
“I know you’ve never really had to deal with this much before because you and Kat were high school sweethearts, but you are very close to crossing a line that you will have a hard time coming back from with me, Luka,” I warned.
“You think this is just the way I would be with anyone?” Luka ground out. “I wasn’t Kat’s first for fuck’s sake. There were guys in high school I’d see in the halls and I knew she’d been with them. Hell, I fucking hung out with someone who’d slept with her before me. It was no big deal. I never even really thought twice about it.”
“Then why are you acting like this?” I wondered aloud, stunned to learn that he hadn’t acted like this when he’d been with his ex for so much longer than we’d been together so far.
“This is about you, Aubrey. All about you,” he growled. “You’re the only person in the world who drives me crazy like this. I’ve never been jealous like this before.”
I didn’t even know what to think about what he’d just admitted to me. “But you trust me, right? This isn’t just because of what she did to you?” I asked softly.