--[First POV]--
Despite my interrogating her, Beth didn't seem the least bit worried as she stared back at me with a level gaze. "I never said I came here to sleep with you."
"Right, you just heavily inferred that was your goal, with your looks, behavior, and attitude," I retorted with a small smirk, as I sat down on the foot of Beth's lounge chair, "I have to say, Beth, I feel betrayed."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I wasn't entirely lying when I said those things," Beth muttered with a roll of her eyes, "For what little it amounts to, you are an incredibly attractive man, and if the opportunity presented itself, I definitely wouldn't have minded taking you for a little test drive."
"I'm not that shallow, but thanks, I guess," I replied, not totally sure where the conversation was going, "So then, back to my original question, what was your main reason for coming here?"
Beth raised an eyebrow like the answer was obvious, "To make sure my daughter wasn't messing around with some degenerate creep."
"And that required you to overtly flirt with me?"
"Yes, if I had tried to do the usual overbearing mother, Summer would have gone underground and started sneaking about, which would have made my job so much more complicated," Beth explained in an exhausted tone, "But since I played my cards right now I get to keep an eye on her and enjoy a day out on a yacht."
"Unless I kick you off," I threatened, though again Beth didn't react in the slightest, "You won't kick me off."
"And what makes you so sure about that?"
"Because in addition to being a sexy himbo," Beth insulted me as a small smirk spread across her lips, "You're actually a decent person, which is unfortunately in short supply. Your good heart makes you easy to manipulate, which is good because that means my daughter can wrap you around her finger if she needs to."
"Now I'm really tempted to kick you off," I muttered with mock insult.
"It's really not in your best interest, and you know that," Beth said confidently as she reached up and put her sunglasses back on, "After all, there's a chance I still might take you out for a test drive."
I stared at Beth for a second before shaking my head with a wry smile, "I guess you were right about the manipulating part."
"I wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true," Beth muttered as I stood up from the chair.
Leaving the lounging chairs, I stepped back into the sun, which had intensified with the approach of noon, instantly warming my skin and filling me with the urge to nurse an ice-cold beverage.
Though before I could make my way over to the bar, a splash of water caught me across the chest, snapping me out of my reverie. Looking over to the culprits who were now laughing wildly in the pool and staring at me with expectant looks on their faces.
Staring at Patty and Megan, I raised a brow, "Are you sure you want to start this?"
My only response was an even bigger splash one that I gracefully avoided by stepping to the side, "Alright, you asked for it."
Reaching up, I quickly unbuttoned my shirt, followed by my pants, leaving me standing on deck in my swimsuit. Once my clothes hit the deck, I took a running start before jumping into the air while tucking my arms and legs into a ball.
I hit the water with a splash, no doubt sending a massive geyser into the air, but instead of rising up to the surface to see the aftermath of my impact, I stayed beneath the waves using the confusion and chaos to hide my movement.
With slow but powerful strokes, I propelled myself along the bottom of the pool as I spotted my first victim. Correcting my trajectory, I circled around to my victim's blind side before aligning myself and pushing off the bottom of the pool and propelling myself at Megan's legs.
She didn't know what hit her.
My arms locked around her mid thigh, preventing her from balancing as my momentum carried me forward, making Megan fall forward into the water with another chaotic splash. Next, I hauled back with my arms, pulling Megan down until she was face to face with me, and I could see the bewildered look in her eyes.
I gave Megan a victorious grin before kissing her on the forehead and letting her go up for air, all while I swam away, remaining ever elusive. With my lungs still surprisingly full of air, I moved on to my last target.
With Megan already back up at the surface, Patty had her guard up and was constantly spinning around trying to spot me. But the sun reflecting off the water's surface made that nearly impossible for her. Much to my chagrin, however, Patty quickly changed her plan and broke out into a frantic dash, kicking up a storm as she flew through the water.
For a moment, I wondered if Patty was going to get out of the pool, but instead she chose a much more interesting option, 'Clever girl.'
Patty stopped swimming as she backed herself into a corner, forcing me to come at her head-on if I wanted to close the distance. Unfortunately for Patty, I wasn't interested in playing fair.
Infernal magic coursed through my body as I summoned my Puppeteer's Hands and sent them to work, shooting towards Patty with such speed that they created visible waves in the water.
I watched Patty freeze as her mind failed to come up with an explanation for why she was suddenly being pursued by two separate entities. Still, Patty recovered rather quickly and tried to outrun the specters hunting her, swimming towards an opening left between them.
Unfortunately for her, that was exactly what I wanted; the opening had been by design, and I had already moved to capitalize on it.
"Aghr!" I let out a roar as I leaped out of the water and wrapped my arms around Patty, catching her mid-stroke and splashing her with water.
"AH!" Patty screamed in shock and thrashed about for a minute before quickly giving up once she realized that she wasn't going to break out, "Damnit, you cheated!"
"I never said hexes were off the table," I muttered under my breath as I placed a kiss on Patty's cheek.
"Yeah, but I assumed you wouldn't use any, seeing how there are others around," Patty muttered conspiratorially, only for me to shrug as I glanced around. Beth, Summer, and Tricia were all still lounging on the deck, completely unaware, while Lois and Ashe were keeping the bar staff fully occupied. "Yeah, I don't think to worry about that."
Patty opened her mouth to reply when the ship's horn suddenly blared out, silencing all conversation, meaning everyone heard as Seamus' voice came through the intercom system.
"Attention passengers, we have arrived at our destination, Stillwater's cove, a popular fishing and crabbing spot for local fisheries. In just a few moments, the crew will be setting out traps to hopefully catch the freshest ingredients possible for dinner tonight. And if you feel so inclined, there will also be fishing at the port of the ship."
"Did I hear fishing?" Ashe drawled as she stood up from the bar with a surprising amount of stability given how many beers she had no doubt gone through, "Tiger, get your ass out of the water, we quite literally have bigger fish to fry."
"Looks like I'm being recruited," I muttered, having already made peace with my fate.
"Fine, go have fun torturing innocent animals for fun," Patty muttered as she playfully splashed some water in my face.
"You won't be complaining after I catch us a bluefin tuna and cook it into steaks for us to eat," I countered as I let Patty go and stared swimming toward the edge of the pool.
"Wait, you're cooking?" Patty called out as I climbed out of the pool, "I thought this was supposed to be a day off, a way to unwind from working in a restaurant and then a cooking competition."
"Yeah, but cooking wasn't the stressful part," I pointed out while grabbing a towel offered by a deckhand and using it to dry off, "The day my break includes not cooking for you girls, then I've been replaced by an imposter."
"Come on, enough with the pretty words, Tiger!" Ashe suddenly interrupted as she came storming over with a cooler tucked under one arm, "Let's go catch us some fish!"
"Alright, but just a heads up. My only experience with finishing was a company retreat where we weren't legally allowed to drink and fish at the same time."
Instead of being upset, Ashe grinned, "Then you haven't been fishing at all. It looks like I'm about to pop your cherry, Tiger. Hope you're ready for it."