Page 147 of Rogue & Her Hunters
The board flexes.
Bird edges closer to me, tense.
I take a breath.
Hold it.
Then Joker jumps.
He rises in the air and turns smoothly in a reverse dive. It is a rotation that carries him briefly away from the water before drawing him back in.
It’s breath-taking.
The move is more beautiful than a perfectly placed bullet between the eyes.
Under the moonlight, Joker is all lines and angles.
I trace the arc of his dive. It is impossible to believe that someone can train their body in such movements.
Just for a second, Joker appears suspended in the air. The moment appears private between him and the water.
I’m seeing behind Joker’s mask. It is a glimpse of his past and true nature, and he’s choosing to share it with me.
Bird wraps his warm arm around my bare waist.
My heart races.
Is Joker going to hit the surface?
He’s too close.
At the very last instant, he extends his arms and lengthens his spine.
I let out my breath in a relieved gust, when Joker enters the water in a single, narrow line. He barely disturbs the surface with ripples.
“You’re bonding that Beta,” Bird says with a steel to his tone. “I want him as my permanent pack member. He’s incredible.”
I smile, while never looking away from the still surface, waiting for Joker to reemerge.
Part of me can’t shake the image of Joker weighted down at the bottom of the pool in his SEAL training, struggling for breath until he blacked out, not knowing that he’d been left there to die by his own brothers-in-arms because he was a Beta.
Seeing how in control he is in the water has made me sickened that the SEALs chose drowning as their method to reject the trainee who they didn’t want in their ranks.
I want Joker, however, inmyranks.
Anyone who can’t see this man’s strengths is a fucking idiot.
My shoulders slump with relief, when Joker’s head and shoulders finally break the surface of the pool. He is almost at our end again, but then, what do I expect from an ex-SEAL?
Bird, however, yelps. “He’s a fucking shark.”
Joker also gives a shark-like smile, as he swims toward us.
He’s not fighting against the water, as I tend to, he’s in sync with it.
I clap. “I’m officially offering you the magician’s apprentice role because that dive was magic.”
Joker leans his elbows on the edge of the pool. “I’m honored. Are you two coming in?”
