Althena Book 2

82. Tease

Everyone is half asleep, but Mike gets us out the door at 7:30. Clayton, Akmae, and Atlas go back to sleep after we get to the boat. The rest of us seem to be more or less awake. We eat breakfast on the deck. Then I snuggle with Cyrus until I fall asleep.

I wake up with Conner a couple of hours later and tease him until he gives it to me. Then we hold each other and cuddle.

"You boys do anything fun last night?"

"No. Mike got tacos and burgers about 10. He said he wasn't going at 1 in the morning. After we ate, we were ready for bed."

"He cheated the system."

"He really did. But that's alright. At least I'm not hungover. Hopefully he does that more often."

We go up to the deck and sit with Clayton and Akmae at the table. We watch Chris mess with Akmae. He keeps shaking his wet hair out and lying as sexy as he can on a sun chair. Akmae can't even look away and keeps adjusting the way he's sitting.

Conner keeps trying not to laugh. Then he goes up to the wheel, saying he can't do this.

I watch Monte. He's in swim trunks standing by the pool. He is sexy. He bends down and takes a sample of the pool water. I think he's testing chemicals in it or something.

Clayton cracks up laughing and breaks my trance. "It's getting tense over here."

Monte looks at me and winks.

Akmae and I look at each other and try not to laugh. Then I toss my coverup off. There's a big splash and Clayton falls off his chair laughing.

I turn and watch Monte climb out of the pool. All those muscles are wet and dripping.

Then I hear a thud. Akmae has his head on the table and Chris is pulling me away laughing. "You're right. It is kind of tense." He pushes me into a sun chair. "Try sitting. Monte, dry off before you kill everyone and I know why you fell in."

Monte chuckles and grabs a towel.

Chris rolls his eyes and hands me sunglasses. "Try not to drool."

I slam them on my face. "I'm doing my best."

I get myself collected while Monte finishes the water test. Then he goes up to the wheel. Clayton and Akmae walk around the deck looking at stuff. They end up sitting on the rail.

Chris smirks. "I'm going for a sexy swim."

"You'll kill him. The boy can barely look away from you the way it is."

Chris laughs. "I'll make it so he can't stand up for a while."

I smile and pull my hair back. This is going to be a good show.

Chris giggles and bends over to put his sunglasses on the chair. Then he walks over to the pool and puts his toes in it. "It feels so good." He does a little hop into the water and goes under. Then he climbs out and shakes his hair. He has a lot of muscles too. He's sexy and he knows it.

Then an alarm goes off and Clayton is running somewhere.

I look around and Akmae is gone. Chris and I run to the rail. He's floating beside the boat rubbing his face. We crack up laughing at the same time. "You made him fall off the boat, Chris."

"I didn't know I was that sexy."

I laugh so hard I nearly pee myself. I got tears running everywhere.

Drogon comes over. "What did you do to him?"

I point at Chris and cross my legs.

Chris wipes his eyes off. "I was just showing him what sexy is."

Drogon picks up. "No more sexy on the boat. Let's go pee, babygirl."

When I get back, I'm more or less collected. We're all on the deck now.

Mike crosses his arms. "No more sitting on the rail. We're going to move again. Stay off the rails. Also, the alarm buttons are red. There is one right there." He points to a big red button. "Clayton did it right. If anyone falls off the boat, you hit it right away. It kills the motors. We don't want the blades turning in the water with someone down there. People can be killed quickly. Do not hesitate to hit that button. Are you all good now?"

I burst out laughing. "Yea."

Chris nods. "We're good now."

Mike rolls his eyes. "Let's go and stay off the rails."

Chris and I go back to our sun chairs. Akmae climbs out of the pool right in front of us. "Did you do that on purpose?"

Chris's eyes are all over him. He reaches for my arm. "What?"

"Did you do that on purpose?"

"Do what?" He finally gets hold of my wrist.

I nod and scoot closer. "I see him. He's real... Put on your sunglasses." I can't look away either.

Chris slams sunglasses on his face. He had them in his other hand.

Akmae smirks and shakes his hair a bit.

Chris's knees shoot up and Clayton loses it.

"I can play that game too." Akmae winks and hops back in the pool.

I scoot closer to Chris. "I think you're in trouble."

"Yea. He's not afraid to tease."

"You're still winning though. You didn't fall off the boat."

He turns to me slowly and smirks. "I am winning." Then he hops in the pool with Akmae. He goes under and pops up right in front of him. Akmae shivers so hard. I can see it from here. Chris says something but I don't hear it. Then Akmae grabs him and kisses him. They kiss and make out for a while. Then it starts to get more heated.

I turn to Clayton. "This is not a show I want to watch."

"Yea, they're getting feely now. HEY! NOT IN THE POOL."

Chris pulls him away somewhere not in my vision. I stretch out. "Well, this got boring."

Monte sits on the other side of me and puts on sunglasses. I think he's taking a nap.

"You need to bring some girls. I wish Lila had come."

"She's not wrong to want to wait for her mate, Clayton. And she really likes you. That's where the problem is."

"Why is that?"

"When you go on casual dates, it's about being polite and opening doors. When you go out with someone you like, it's about cuddles and kisses. It turns physical quickly. It would be nearly impossible to casually date someone you really like. You'd want to hold their hand and kiss them. Soon it would be other stuff. You'll end up falling in love. She wants to wait for her mate for all that. I know it's hard, but you have to respect her decision."

"I do. It just sucks for me. What the hell am I supposed to do? I can't stop thinking about her."

"Do like always. Try to keep your mind off her. Go on casual dates. Help my boys more if you need to. They're always doing stuff, and now we have islands and a casino. There's always work to be done. Eventually, you'll like someone else, or you could decide to wait for your mate too. That's always a good idea. Mates are amazing, and you'll fall in love so fast."

"I hope I find her fast."

"We all do." Monte stretches. "It's especially hard at 17. Your hormones are going crazy. They make you want s*x all the time. You're almost an adult, so parents back off a lot and let you have freedom. So, you spend your days staring at sexy people going through the same thing. All you want is your mate to help you work everything out, but you're still too young for that. Your age is the worst for waiting. Once you get a little older, you get used to the freedom and become better at handling things yourself and knowing what your limits are."

"How did you make it?"

"I didn't. I didn't even try. Now I regret it more than anything."

"Why?"

"Because I do want my mate. But I worry about when I have to tell her about what I've done. I'm not going to lie to her. I don't want to base a relationship on lies. But she's supposed to be the one I love forever. Our souls are tied. What if she walks away? What if I never have a chance to show her I'm worth it? What if she hates me for everything I've done? What if she can't love me? I didn't even try to wait for her. It's going to hurt her and I never even thought about her feelings, until now. You don't need to have these worries, Clayton. You have the choice to wait for yours, do it. You don't need to go through this pain."

I want to tell Monte his mate will love him and to stop worrying, but I know Clayton needs to hear this. I'm kind of torn.

"Maybe I could just do some stuff."

I shake my head. "Some stuff leads to more stuff."

Monte smirks. "Pretend Lila is your mate, Clayton. Just pretend."

"Ok."

"Picture her with another man." Clayton's aura comes out. "Not s*x. Just 'some stuff' as you put it. Making out. Kissing. Imagine him between her legs." His aura flies out and nearly knocks me off my chair.

"Damn it, asshole. You're pretending."

"Sorry. I don't want to pretend anymore."

Monte chuckles. "If you want to get blowjobs from random girls, think about someone treating your mate like that. That's how she would feel too. Don't hurt her like that."

Clayton slams himself back in the chair. "Being 17 sucks."

"Yes it does."

"I don't mind it. But yea, I have 4 mates. They help me work through everything."

Clayton nods. "Were they perfect?"

"Mostly. All of them but Cyrus got to play with boobs before me. They like boobs. I think that's a normal part of being a teenager. They waited as best as they could. Nothing too serious happened. Nothing I would have to get over, anyway."

"Were you perfect?"

"Yes. But..." I giggle. "I claimed Mike without knowing we were mates at first. Actually, Conner was the only one I didn't touch until we knew." I wiggle. "Something about mates, they're impossible to stop touching. Good luck trying to wait once you find her. Your willpower will be gone. You'll be lying there naked and yelling, 'just do everything you want. Touch me. Touch me. Touch me.'" They both crack up laughing. "And the f*****g tingles. She'll just randomly touch your hand by accident and tingles will fly up your arm, nearly stop your heart, then land somewhere around your crotch. Those are something else."

Monte laughs. "Pass the remote and get a hard on cause you touched fingers."

Clayton laughs. "That would be so awkward."

I roll my eyes. "You'd be surprised how often it happens." They lose it. I wait for them to stop. "But it's your choice, Clayton. Nobody expects perfection. Your mate isn't going to expect it, and you shouldn't expect it from her. But if it upsets you thinking about your mate doing something with someone else, then you shouldn't do it either. Just keep that idea in mind, you'll be fine."

Mike yells, "TIME FOR LUNCH." Then he looks around. "Fuck."

"What?" Monte gets up.

"We're missing two teenagers."

"I'll find them. They better not be naked."

I stand up and stretch. "Chris is a virgin. He won't do anything."

"Good to know."