Anna glanced out the windows to the dark night, to the dunes and the beach and beyond into the black. Something welled inside her, brought a smile to her lips. ‘Will you teach me to surf?’
CHAPTER
23
Joe decided he was in hell.
He was standing behind Anna, close enough to reach out and touch her if he wanted to, studying every inch of her curves that were now frustratingly out of sight, hidden by the black wetsuit she’d just shrugged on. The neoprene sucked tight onto the swell of her breasts and her arse with only a honey-coloured sliver of skin still uncovered on her back. He propped his hands on his hips and let out a sigh into the southerly wind blowing off the blue ocean.
Since the day he’d met Anna Morelli, all he’d wanted to do was get her naked. And now he was here, on the warm white sands of Middle Point beach, zipping her into something that resembled a twenty-first century chastity belt.
The strap attached to the back zip flapped in the breeze and tangled with her hair, silky and long and as dark as the wetsuit she was wearing. Joe let it tease and twist in his fingers, loving the heavy feel of it as the breeze whipped it into strands. He leaned down to talk in her ear. ‘Your hair, Anna. Tuck it out of the way.’
Without a word she reached behind her neck and scooped it up on her head with a quick twist. The move revealed the soft skin at her hairline and her fine gold chain caught the sun and sparkled. He had an overwhelming urge to trace the delicate strand around her neck and down to the place her trinket rested between her breasts. But he shook this off, tugging the strap and the zip higher so the cool tightness of the wetsuit enclosed Anna’s back and shoulders. He fastened the velcro at the top of the zip and then brought his hands to rest on her shoulders.
‘How does that feel?
Anna let her hair drop and it cascaded down her shoulders and back like a shimmering curtain. When she turned, he left one hand on her shoulder, in a move he hoped she might judge to be reassuring rather than gropey.
‘Like I’m going to choke.’ Anna swallowed, lifting her chin high.
‘Never worn one of these before, huh?’
‘Nope.’ Anna snagged a finger into the high neckline. ‘And I don’t know if I ever will again. I feel like a salami.’
‘You’ll get used to it. It’ll get more flexible with your body warmth.’ Just saying the word ‘body’ had him looking at her breasts, tightly enclosed and accentuated by the wetsuit.
Why the hell had he offered to teach Anna how to surf?
Because she’d asked him to last night. And he’d agreed in a millisecond. Because if it meant one-on-one time with Anna Morelli, he was in like Flynn. Hell, the way he was feeling about her, he’d even volunteer for medical research if she was the one doing the probing. Now they were together, alone, on a half-empty beach with the sun shining down on their faces, with her trussed up like a virgin princess in a neoprene castle. Joe didn’t know why, but a flash of something crossed his mind. Was it nerves? Was this performance anxiety?
He shrugged the thought off. ‘Okay, the essentials.’
‘A surfboard,’ Anna said dryly.
‘I can see you’ve got this thing nailed already. What do you need me for?’ He crossed his arms over his chest. He liked the way she was looking him up and down.
‘You’d better be a good teacher, that’s all I can say.’
‘You doubting me, Anna? I said I could teach you to surf and I will, damn it. By the end of this weekend, you’ll be up on that board. I promise.’
Anna lifted a hand to her eyes, blocking out the sun as she looked up at him through squinting eyes. ‘You’re dealing with a protected species here, Joe. Italian girls like me? We lived in the ’burbs, not on the beaches. You’re lucky I can even swim.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘No, not kidding. My parents didn’t believe in swimming lessons or dancing lessons or watching me play sport or any of that stuff. And I spent most of the time in my room studying anyway.’
‘Well, aren’t you Miss Smartypants. Is that why you became a doctor? ’Cos you were the smartest person in the room?’
‘Threatened by that, are you?’
‘Threatened? Hell no.’ He took a step closer, reached out and took a strand of hair between his fingers. ‘Incredibly turned on? Hell, yeah.’
Anna smacked his hand away with a smile. ‘Oh shut up. We going to do this or what?’
Joe laughed. He was enjoying this. Anna was clearly out of her comfort zone and he liked watching her squirm as she navigated this unfamiliar place. He had no doubt she was the smartest person in the room when she was the doctor in her surgery. He’d seen it with his own eyes, how comfortable she was in that skin, in that sphere. But here in his space? On the beach he’d grown up on, had surfed half his life? She was a woman way out of her depth. And one who was depending on him to save her from drowning, if it came to that. Joe liked the thought that she had to trust him, had to lean on him.
‘So, Miss Smartypants, what’s the most important thing to concentrate on?’
Anna looked down at the two boards lying side by side on the glimmering sand and shot Joe a cynical look. ‘Staying on?’
‘Yeah and the thing that’ll help you do that is balance.’
For the next fifteen minutes, Joe talked Anna through the fundamentals. Where to lie on the board. How to position her hands before springing up to crouching. Advising her to keep her knees bent as she crouched low. Looking up as the wave caught you, not at your feet. How to paddle – like freestyle not breaststroke. She was patient with him, he noticed, and when he’d got her to lie on the board, still positioned on the sand, and practice, she did it without complaint. There was a determination in her eyes, steely as she listened to him, taking in what she’d heard. He wondered if she realised you couldn’t learn by reading about it or listening to someone describing it. This wasn’t like studying for an exam, where you could cram for hours and get the result you wanted. Learning to surf had to come from freeing yourself, feeling the wave, letting instinct work for you. He wondered if she was ready to be Zen about it, to let go and wait. Did the tightly wound Anna Morelli have the patience for that?
Joe hopped onto his board to demonstrate a point about how to stand. ‘You need to keep low and keep your feet apart. Use your quads and grip your feet on the board.’
‘Won’t I slide off? Doesn’t it get slippery out there in the water?’
‘Don’t worry about that. See that opaque stuff? It’s wax and it’ll help you stick to the board when you’re out there.’
Anna peered down at the boards at the sandy, gluggy substance that looked like small corrugations obscuring the logo on his board. ‘I wondered what that was. It’s wax?’
‘Yeah,’ Joe grinned, wondering how she’d react when he said it. ‘“Sex Wax”.’
Anna stared at him with narrowed eyes. ‘You made that up.’
‘You can google it if you want.’ Joe felt his grin reach all the way to his toes. She was so easy to tease. ‘Shall we get out there?’
Anna looked out to the waves. ‘You think I’m going to chicken out, don’t you?’
‘Are you?’
‘I made a deal, didn’t I? And I’ll never live it down with Julia and Lizzie if I give up now. Not to mention Ry and Dan.’ Once they’d heard the news that morning over breakfast about her agreement with Joe, they’d threatened to set up camp on the shoreline and watch the spectacle. Only a stern look from Joe had kept them away.
He bent to pick up his board and Anna followed, lifting her smaller one under the crook of her arm.
‘You’re right. They’ll nag you to near death. Believe me, it’s why I left Middle Point twenty years ago. So,’ Joe said over his shoulder, ‘watch me.’
Watch him? Now that was a chore. Anna wasn’t even sure where the ridiculous idea had come from the night before, to ask him to teach her to surf. The absolute last thing she wanted was to be alone with him. But maybe it wasn’
t such a crazy idea after all. There was barely anyone on the beach and the fewer people around to see her make a fool of herself the better. There were only a few people in the distance, a couple of scampering dogs and overhead, was that a pair of pelicans? Anna stopped and could only stare at the majestic, soaring sight. A deep breath left her lungs and she wondered what was happening to her. Maybe being down here at the beach softened her defences, helped her let her guard down, so formerly ridiculous schemes like being out there in the water on a sliver of fibreglass and plywood seemed like something she might quite enjoy.
‘You coming?’
‘Yeah,’ Anna replied, nodding away the distraction and nervousness that ached in every muscle. Anna’s stomach hadn’t settled since he’d turned up that morning already wearing his wetsuit, a nose covered in zinc cream and bearing two surfboards stashed in the back of his car. He’d even searched his shed and found an old wetsuit of Lizzie’s for her to wear. All she had to do was gulp down her coffee for fortitude and walk across the road with him. He’d taken care of everything else. And now her traitorous stomach was executing a double back flip with a twist.
And why was that? Because she was watching Joe Blake run into the water looking like a sex god wrapped in a black silk sheet. She’d exhausted herself for the past half an hour trying to concentrate on every word he said and every instruction he delivered, rather than every part of his body. And it was excruciatingly hard. She’d been lying on the board, still surfing the sand, and he’d been standing right in front of her, explaining how she should jump to a crouching position. He loomed tall and powerful in front of her, and looking up he seemed all out of proportion, all strong chest and powerful shoulders. And when he’d mentioned the word ‘sex’ just now, she’d wanted to have it with him, right there and then.
She hoped like hell the cold waters of Middle Point would shrivel up all that pent up sexual tension. Anna followed him to the water’s edge and beyond until she was waist deep in the water. Their boards floated between them, which Anna decided was a good thing. Distance was good. And lots and lots of cold water. She ran a finger around the neck of her wetsuit, still not used to its stiff firmness and the constricting, choking sensation.
‘One last thing,’ Joe smiled and it almost lit up the sky. ‘It’s important to remember, the fins always point down, okay?’ The laugh in his eyes and on his lips sent another quiver reverberating through Anna. Was this what it felt like? Letting go? At that moment it felt more like nausea. The sooner she stood up on that damn surfboard, she decided, the sooner this would be over. And that would be for the best. Because deep down she feared that surfing might lead to something else entirely.
Anna shot him a narrow-eyed glare. ‘Strut your stuff, surfer boy.’
CHAPTER
24
Two hours later, Anna flopped on to the warm sand, a forearm over her eyes to block out the sun and the humiliation dripping from her like sweat. Every muscle in every part of her body ached and she hadn’t even managed to stand up for more than a couple of seconds before toppling off into the water like a floundering fish. It had sounded so easy when Joe had been explaining it. But actually doing it? Anna wondered if maybe she had an inner-ear infection that was affecting her balance. She’d been so determined but had failed. She felt it harshly. Even the seagulls seemed to be laughing at her.
‘Don’t try to make me feel better, Joe. I sucked.’
‘Anna, don’t be disappointed. You did great.’
She harrumphed. ‘There’s no need to be nice about it. I stink.’
That had Joe belly-laughing and he dropped on to the sand beside her, his knees propped up in front of him and his elbows resting on them. She couldn’t look at him. When they’d dragged themselves from the water, the first thing Joe had down after dropping his board on the sand was to trawl down the zip of his wetsuit, shrug out of it and peel it down so the arm holes flapped around his narrow waist. He had a swimmer’s body and it was beautiful and tanned, and begging to be touched. Anna wasn’t just trying to keep the sun out of her eyes. She was trying to keep him out as well.
‘Don’t be so tough on yourself. You just need to loosen up a bit and not try so hard.’
‘Me? Not try so hard?’ Anna chuckled as she pulled herself to her feet and began searching for the zip on her wetsuit. She really had to get this sausage casing undone and quick. She found the velcro but her wet hair tangled with the strap attached to the zip and she stood up fumbling. ‘Shit, I can’t get this stupid thing undone.’
‘Here, I got it.’ Joe stood beside her and then was in front of her so they were face to face, body to body. Anna met his eyes, which were shining as blue as the sky and full of teasing humour. He reached slowly around her neck and she shivered at the touch of his fingers on her hairline. He gathered her hair in one hand and pulled the strap so the zip of her wetsuit slowly released, freeing her and allowing her to breathe again. Funny, though, she couldn’t seem to.
‘You’ve got to chill, Anna. You’ll get there eventually, I promise.’
Anna looked into his eyes, at the crinkly laugh lines she’d grown to know, the fair growth on his cheeks and that mouth that had once been on hers with an intensity that had knocked her off her feet.
‘Chill? You’ve got the wrong girl.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ he replied, his hands lingering on her hips. Anna found them and gently removed them from her body. She wondered if she were to look down she would see scorch marks on the wetsuit in the shape of his hands.
‘Joe … we can’t breach the student-teacher relationship. It would be wrong on so many levels.’
He took a step back and pushed a hand through his hair. ‘Something’s gotta give, Anna. It’s all loved-up super-couples around here. It’s driving me nuts.’ He laughed at himself, something that Anna found incredibly sexy.
‘It’s nice that someone’s loved up, don’t you think? Just because we’re miserable, it doesn’t mean they have to be.’
‘Absolutely. Especially my sister. It’s just that most of the time I feel like a spare prick at a wedding around here. And I know that’s not about them, it’s about me. You know how long it is since I’ve had some fun?’ Joe looked out to the ocean, his blue eyes squinting into the mid-afternoon sun, which caught and shimmered on the fine hair of his arms and glistened each grain of sand that was clinging to his fingers, his chest, his face.
‘Fun?’ Anna asked rhetorically. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s been years. That’s hard to admit. It’s been years since I’ve laughed like I have today. With you.’
Anna joined him in staring out at the water and the white-capped waves. She knew what he meant. She hadn’t had this much fun in years, either. Out there in the water, making an absolute and total fool of herself, was sure as hell the craziest thing she’d ever done. She’d let go, laughed at herself, let herself be guided by Joe, listened intently to him. There was something about him that was reassuring, safe. She knew in her gut that he wouldn’t let her drown out there in the blue, blue waters off Middle Point.
And when it came down to it, she hadn’t laughed this much in years either. And that was totally dangerous because she was a total sucker for a man who could make her laugh. Something was pulling them close, she could feel it. Like stitches on a scar, pulling tighter.
‘You’re not such a bad teacher,’ Anna admitted, not meeting his eyes. She watched as, out on the waves, a teenage girl leapt from her prone position up onto her feet and rode a wave as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Maybe one day she’d be like that.
‘And for someone who’s such a smartypants, you’re not such a bad student.’
Anna kept staring at the water and the gulls overhead and the breaking waves on the perfect white sand.
‘So what do you say? You in the mood for some more fun, Dr Morelli?’
When she finally let herself look at him, she couldn’t figure out what was sexier – his bare chest,
his smiling mouth or his offer. It was a hard call.
‘Fun?’
‘Yeah. With me. We’ve got the whole long weekend down here. Let’s not waste it.’
And right then, a freedom she hadn’t felt in a long time bubbled up inside her, was clearly liberated by being with Joe and laughing with him.
Her answer was yes.
CHAPTER
25
An hour and a half later – Joe wouldn’t have wasted more than ten minutes before the chance to see Anna again but he knew women usually needed a little more – the two of them were sitting by an open window in the Middle Point pub with a chilled bottle of wine and two half-filled glasses decorating the table between them.
Anna was staring at him as if he’d just announced he’d enlisted in the Army. ‘You’re going to work here. At the pub. For your sister.’
‘Sounds like some fun, huh? Me and the barflies. Pouring a few beers, chinwagging, free meals. I can’t see a downside to the new gig.’
‘But aren’t you a reporter? Aren’t you going to go back to that?’
Joe thought he knew the answer to that question. It had always been a resounding ‘hell yes’. He’d made some enquiries about work, was waiting for answers that seemed a long time coming. The brilliant Middle Point weather and Anna’s company were making the wait easier to bear.
‘That’s a very good question,’ he said and shrugged.
‘Which is the answer people give when they don’t want to tell the truth,’ Anna replied with a wry smile.
‘Oh Anna, don’t expect Stinkface to tell you the truth about anything.’ Lizzie had arrived with the plate of food they’d ordered and she placed it with a flourish between them on the white linen tablecloth. It was a tantalising display of dips, cured meats, cheese and chunks of fresh bread.
‘To what do we owe this special treatment from the manager?’ Joe asked with a tease for his sister.
‘It’s not for you, Stinkface. You’re the hired help now. It’s for Anna. She is our special guest, after all.’
Our Kind of Love Page 16
