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"That's the point." She bit back with a dark chuckle. "You do it because it's silly. Sometimes, that's enough reason to do anything at all." She waited another few seconds until she thought he had a good hold, before her body straightened out underneath him, lifting his up just enough for her to start swimming. She used butterfly stroke, since it was easier than flailing around in freestyle with someone on your back, and slowly carried him forward. He felt heavier than he should, because he didn't know exactly what to do with himself in the water, and she wanted to sink back down to the bottom to see if he came with her this time.

But she didn't. She was ignoring a lot of great ideas, today.

She slowed once they neared the other edge of the pool, and then her body sunk back down to normal. She turned around, still bobbing in his arms, and faced him. Her eyelids hooded heavily - this situation, this position, this everything was intoxicating.

"See," Her husky voice growled out. "Silly."

She expected instant sass, too. When it didn't come, her eyes flickered to his lips, and her brow furrowed. They returned to his eyes, and saw in them the searching that tried to dig too deep into the abandoned soul behind her eyes. Her head actually pulled back an inch, unsettled by how hard he tried to find something inside the empty vessel that held his body flush against hers.

And it wasn't the first time he'd looked at her that way, either.

Her lips twitched, and the perfect smile was marred by something she couldn't quite control. It wanted to be a frown, but she wouldn't let it stay, so instead the corners of her lips tilted downward for only a moment, before returned to a flat plane of apathy.

"What are you looking for." Her voice wavered, broken with the hint of confusion she couldn't work away from. There was nothing there, nothing for him to find, no matter how hard he looked - but he looked. He looked, and it scared and thrilled and horrified her. She just didn't know why - she already knew the answer.

Nothing.

Motive. She sighed with relief. That made so much more sense than anything she could have imagined, and it answered all the questions that made her second guess herself. He wanted to know her motives - a perfectly understandable question.

Of course, she had no intention of answering it, but it was a relief to know he wasn't looking for more. A relief, and something else. Something she refused to accept as disappointment.

"I always find it funny," She murmured, brushing her well manicured red nails across the skin of his shoulder. "How someone who isn't afraid to be honest, is always read as insincere. I've always told you exactly what I want you to do to me, Otto. Every little detail, until you played my body like an instrument. But I am insincere. You, however, have had trouble expressing yourself to me from the beginning. But you're the sincere one." She loved this game. She loved that they were playing it against one another in a pool. "So tell me how that works."

When he listed all of the things that he thought couldn't possibly feel good, her body arched against him in a helpless reaction. There was no better proof of just how wrong he was. "Don't be so close-minded." She snapped out in a hiss, trying to regain control of herself. "Of course it feels good to me. I asked you for it. I begged you for it. I commanded you to do it. I deserve every bit of it. You don't get to tell me what I shouldn't like, Otto."

Her teeth were exposed in a sudden, startling smile. "You're the one whose body seems to like someone like me just fine. How do you feel when someone asks you why? Why do you let me have you, Otto? Do you have an answer for that? Do you even like being asked the question?"

She didn't expect an answer. So instead, she leaned in and brushed her lips against his. She didn't kiss him, she just brushed the skin of her soft, cold lips against his, over and over. She pushed in enough to grab his lower lip with her teeth, and sucked it gently until she could taste him on her tongue.

No one liked to be asked why they did the things they do. The answer was too often because I know it's wrong.

Just like the first time they'd verbally sparred, Maebe was coaxing him to let go of all that was tying him down. This time, however, Otto was much more receptive to the idea, and she swelled with victory as he melted against her, and dug his nails into her body. He gave her what he knew she wanted. And he knew it well, so well that she did not hold back the sound of content that escaped her. Immediately after she heard herself make that noise, she chuckled under her breath, letting his lip go to kiss the swollen skin.

"Finally shut you up, did I?" She breathed out, the curl of success lacing around her words, barely hiding how desperate she sounded. "Wonder how long it will last."

Her eyes flickered from his lips, back up to his eyes, and glimmered with almost childish mischief. "Ah, but that's just as bad as asking why, isn't it. You've got me making so many mistakes nowadays, Otto."

Maebe stilled in his arms, and her lidded eyes narrowed to glare at him for a moment. "Watch it, buddy." She warned, reaching down to squeeze his rear end with both hands as punctuation to her words. "I didn't choose you for your sass." And that was partially a lie, because his sass was actually part of his appeal. But this time, she didn't like being reminded that he had her slipping in ways she'd never admit.

Her hands remained where they were, pulling him closer in ways that left nothing to the imagination. Her legs lifted up in the water, hooking around his hip bones. And there she settled, proving she was very effortlessly not slipping from anything.

"You wouldn't want me to slip." Maebe breathed out. All of the warning had fled from her voice, but it was the genuine nature of her words that should have been the real warning. "You like things just the way they are."

Otto's response put her at ease. She fell into a lull of comfortable numbness, prompted by his agreement that he never wanted her to slip. Never wanted her to be real, or more, or something she wasn't. What he wanted was exactly what she was willing to give him. It felt .. nice.

She smiled, and for the second time, Otto was allowed to see what it really looked like. Her eyes closed and she pressed her forehead against his. "That's my boy." She praised, sliding her hands up until they reached the top of his shorts. She was about to test his boundaries, because that was what she did, and she did it so well. Public displays, for example, happened to be her specialty.

And as she kept him locked in while tugging his swim shorts off, she promised him she knew exactly what she was doing. Even if he did not.

--------

No matter how cold pool water was, it never felt cold enough to soothe a sexually heated body. The waves in the water were rough, as they still tried to compensate for all the movement, and they lapped rough against her and threatened to wash her away with the last of her energy.

This wasn't the first time she'd done something like this in a pool. But it was the first time it had felt like that. She clung to Otto with loose, weak arms, and caught her breath. In the corner of her vision, she caught sight of one of the security cameras far in the corner, aimed directly at them. She wondered how much she would have to bribe Dwight to make her a copy.

It would be worth it.