The Code Of The Alpha

He came to walk alongside me as I hugged myself, shivering.

“Your tits look great in that bikini top, by the way.”

My jaw dropped in shock of his blunt statement.

Watching him laugh, I reached out and shoved him as hard as I could, clearly taking him off guard as he toppled over into the pool.

Luca was glaring at me as he surfaced and swam back to the edge.

Now it was my turn to laugh.

I didn’t have enough time to run before Luca’s cold, wet arm was wrapped around my torso and lifted me into the air. He chucked me into pool, but I had enough of a grip on his arm that he followed in behind me.

The difference in the water temperature between the pool and hot tub had me gasping for air when I swam back up to the surface.

“Jackass,” I quipped, despite trying not to laugh.

Luca laughed and ran a hand through his hair, shaking the water from it.

“All jokes aside,” he said.

“I was serious about your tits.”

“Stop talking about my tits.”

“Why? They’re nice tits.”

I swam up to him, put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his head and dunked him under the water.

He wrapped both arms around my torso as he resurfaced, our chests pressed together.

“Can we please get out?” I asked him, trying to pry his hands from my waist.

“I’m freezing.”

“I can tell,” he said, peering down at my cleavage.

“Oh my God,” I muttered, putting a hand over his eyes.

“I still see them,” he said.

“I’ve taken a picture with my brain.”

I sighed in feigned annoyance as he finally let go of me. Luca followed close behind as I walked through the shallow end of the pool towards the stairs.

As I made my exit, he whistled.

“You’ve got a nice ass too,” he commented.

I turned around and splashed him with my foot. I was only able to hope he didn’t notice my cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Luca laughed.

“Might have to spank that later.”

He’s actually enjoying tormenting me, I thought.

Mustering all the nerve I had, I turned to look at him.

“Is that a promise?”

I turned away before I could lose my composure, wanting nothing more than to double over in laughter at the look of surprise on Luca’s face.

I twisted the water from my hair as I walked under the deck, towards the sliding glass door. Luca walked behind me, over to a cabinet that sat next to the grill. He pulled a pool towel out and began to dry his face and hair.

“You had towels over here this whole time?” I asked him, pulling the cabinet door back wider to see a stack of them folded on a shelf.

He winked at me as he passed me to walk towards the door. I grabbed a towel and dried myself off quickly, still cold in the early night air. I followed Luca into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom.

“I need to shower and get the chlorine out of my hair,” I said, scowling as I tried to comb through the tangled mess with my fingers.

“Amore, you can get as naked as you want to.”

I made my irritation audible with an exasperated sigh as I grabbed clothes from my suitcase.

“There’s room in here if you want to hang those up,” Luca said walking into his closet and turning on the light.

“I need to do laundry,” I muttered, seeing more than half of my suitcase was dirty clothes.

“Well, I’m happy to inform you that I own a washer and dryer,” Luca said sarcastically.

I mocked him in a high pitched voice before turning to walk into the bathroom.

“Don’t shut the door” he told me.

“I’Il be in there in a second.”

“Like hell you are,” I said, shutting the door and locking it in such an exaggerated way I knew that he would hear the ‘click’.

Showering, I realized that I had barely any shampoo or conditioner left in my travel-sized containers. I was running equally low on soap and face wash.

I need to go shopping, I thought.

As I stood there under the hot water, I realized that I had gone from crying to the point of hiccups and puffy eyes to laughing and playful in less than an hour.

Whether Luca realized it or not. I needed the distraction and I was grateful for it.

After I was done in the shower, I combed through my hair and changed into clean clothes. Luca was standing by the bed on his phone when I opened the bathroom door. I gathered all of my dirty clothes and went into the laundry room to wash them.

After starting the washer, I walked out into the kitchen and began to look for something to eat.

Too exhausted to cook, I grabbed a bagel and peanut butter. After toasting the bagel in the oven, I sat down at the counter to eat. Just as I began to smear peanut butter on the bagel, Luca walked into the kitchen, freshly showered and changed.

“You didn’t want to go out and get something?” He asked.

I stopped and smiled sheepishly.

“I kinda forgot that was the plan.”

He shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter to me.”

Luca walked into the pantry and came out with a Pop-Tart in one hand and a bag of chips in the other.

“My mom wants us over for dinner with them tomorrow night,” he said as he sat down.

I paused in the middle of biting into my bagel.

“Tomorrow?”

He nodded. “Is that too soon?”

I shook my head slowly.

“No, I guess not.”

Luca watched me cautiously.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said.

“No, we should,” I said.

I bit into my bagel, still trying to convince myself.

I just met him, I thought. This is happening so soon.

I felt so intimidated by the thought of meeting Luca’s mom and stepdad.

“We don’t have to,” he reiterated.

“We can,” I told him.

“That’s fine with me.”

“Okay.

I hoped Luca didn’t see the look of apprehension on my face when he turned away.

You’ll be fine, I told myself.

We were quiet for the rest of dinner, each of us finishing our meals. Luca asked if I wanted to watch a hockey game with him, but I declined. As soon as my clothes were moved over from the washer to the dryer, I was on my way to Luca’s room, yawning.

Despite taking a nap that day, I was ready for bed.

I was so tired, in fact, that I didn’t wake up when Luca came to bed that night. I did, however, wake up when he left. I was startled awake at some point during the middle of the night by the sound of the bedroom door opening and closing quickly.

Sitting up, I saw that Luca was gone.

Feeling an unexplainable sense of urgency, I got out of the bed quickly. I opened the bedroom door and walked into the dark living room.

From where I was standing, I could see that the side door next to the kitchen was halfway open. As I walked towards the door, I saw the trail of his t-shirt, sweatpants and boxer briefs leading outside.

What the hell?

l opened the door and stepped outside into the chilly night air. He was nowhere to be seen. Confused and somewhat unnerved, I went back inside and closed the door, grabbing his clothes as I did so.

When I went back into the bedroom, I saw Luca’s phone was still on the nightstand.

Maybe someone called him to an emergency?

I pondered this explanation for a moment, wondering why his phone didn’t wake me up when it rang. I got back into the bed. But, despite my best efforts, my heart was still pounding and I couldn’t relax to fall back asleep.

I guess we were both good at the disappearing act.