Outside

by Michelle Mankin

  I

  kissed

  him.

  She totally changed, completely transformed after I laid it all out for her. I was still reeling from her pressing her ripe luscious lips to mine. Simone made me as dizzy as when I got on my board and did a full turn reverse. Currently laughing and smiling, she was charming my aunt and uncle with her effervescent personality and drawing the attention of every single male inside the packed club, all of them moths to her irresistible flame.

  “Linc tells us that your family owns Napoli’s?” My aunt had to practically shout to be heard over the heavy bass thump of the recorded music. My Aunt Maggie might not be as striking as Simone’s mother but she had platinum hair just like Ash and blue eyes similar to mine and my uncle certainly treated her as if she were a rare beauty. He sifted through her shoulder length hair while she grilled Simone for personal details I had mostly already given her.

  “That’s right.” A shadow crossed Simone’s pretty face at the mention of the restaurant. My aunt must have noticed and smoothly changed the subject.

  “Are you looking forward to going back to SDSU in the fall?”

  “Yes.” A curt nod accompanied that answer and she tucked her delectable body closer into my side. I liked that being close to me seemed to make her feel more comfortable but I wondered why my aunt’s innocent questions were making her feel awkward.

  “What are you studying?”

  “Officially?” she blurted out then covered her lips as if she hadn’t meant to be that candid.

  “Yes.” My aunt smiled. I had the same problem around her. She was one of those people who were easy to talk to. “I promise not to tell.” She elbowed my Uncle Gene who looked out of place in coastal California since he resembled a mountain man with his imposing build and thick beard.

  He pretended to be serious locking his lips with an imaginary key but his coppery brown eyes danced beneath bushy brows near the same color.

  “I want to get a degree in theatre arts,” Simone admitted. “I love singing and acting on stage. Maybe if I’m really lucky I’ll get a chance to perform on Broadway someday. I actually got the part of Kim in Miss Saigon on a campus production this fall.”

  “That’s the title role isn’t it?” My aunt guessed as I looked at Simone completely floored by that revelation. “That’s a big deal.”

  Simone nodded. “Don’t say anything to anyone else. Please. For real. My dad isn’t at all supportive.” She looked down at her feet, her internal light dimming further. “I haven’t told him yet.” I wondered if she ever really planned to.

  My aunt touched her arm. Simone looked up, her eyes shimmering, reflecting the twinkling lights woven through the rafters of the open air bar that sat on stilts and hung over the water. “I won’t tell a single soul.”

  “Neither will I,” my uncle chimed in.

  God, I loved them. My dad certainly was no prize, but I’d hit the jackpot having both of them and Ash solidly in my corner throughout the years.

  The recorded music screeched to a stop and the overhead lights flashed a couple of times. Like everyone else, I turned to look at the stage and watched my surfing slash sometimes rocker buddies take it. Ash as usual looked a little green as he took his seat behind his drum kit and tapped on his snare beginning the song without any lead in. Ramon looked confident popping along with the guitar chords that launched the band straight into a cover of the Foo Fighters’ ‘Gimme Stitches’.

  They had come a long way from their modest beginnings. They were actually pretty damn good. Dominic was exceptional on the bass. Ramon was no slouch on the guitar, though their sound would have been fuller with a second guitar and someone to harmonize with Ash.

  My aunt and uncle found their table and motioned for us to join them but I shook my head, taking Simone’s hand and leading her out to the empty space in front of the stage that served as the dance floor.

  I didn’t care that we were the only two people on it.

  I didn’t care that it wasn’t really a slow song.

  I didn’t even care that I was going to get an earful of teasing from the guys later.

  I just wanted to hold her.

  I reminded myself to breathe and tried to do it slowly, though the proximity to Lincoln and my racing heart made it difficult to do. His hands resting on my lower back seemed to scald my skin through the cotton of my dress and even though he kept a respectable distance between our bodies as we swayed in time to the music, I was imagining us being much closer.

  What would it be like to have a man like Lincoln Savage make love to me?

  My hands glided across his broad shoulders. Taut. Lean. Warm. And so very tempting.

  How would it feel to test and learn every masculine curve and contour of his muscular body, to have his weight on top of me, to feel him inside of me?

  My cheeks grew hot. I laid my head against the rock hard wall of his chest to hide them.

  “You ok?” he whispered, his breath stirring the wispy tendrils of hair near my ear.

  “I’m fine.” I willed my heated cheeks to cool before looking at him. “Better than fine,” I admitted peering at him through my lashes and boldly reaching up to trace the whisker roughened planes of his handsome face. His eyes darkened, the direction of his gaze dipping to my lips. Seemed we might be having similar thoughts.

  “We’ll stay until their set is done. If I don’t I’ll never hear the end of it from the guys or my aunt and uncle. But then we’re going for a walk down on the beach. Just you and me.”

  I nodded wondering if the surface of my eyes glittered with as much passion as his did. Maybe, but surely mine didn’t glow like the Pacific on a cloudless day. I closed my eyes, swayed closer and dreamed about Lincoln being mine.

  Ash introduced the next number. “RHCP’s ‘Otherside’ for the couples in the audience.” I cracked open my eyes. I felt out of it as if Lincoln’s ocean fresh scent had been a drug I’d been mainlining. We weren’t alone anymore. A dozen or more couples had joined us on the dance floor. Seemed we might have started something.

  When the song ended, Linc pressed his warm lips firmly to my temple. I sighed contentedly.

  “I don’t know if they’re through but it’s getting late and I don’t want you getting too tired.” He took my hand and led me closer to the raised stage. “I just wanna let Ash know we’re heading out then we’ll split.”

  Ash had other plans. “Seems my brother has a pretty songstress on his arm tonight. Simone,” his gaze and his words snagged me, “Come up here and sing something for us. Surely you know some Rihanna.”

  “I’m sorry.” I felt Lincoln’s tension on my behalf. “I told him about your singing right after I first met you. I didn’t realize that it was something that needed to be keep secret.” He spoke over the heavy bass drum beat intro for ‘We All Want Love’. “Listen, you can do this, Mona. It’s just a short tune and it’ll be bigger news if you refuse.”

  I nodded numbly.

  He whispered more encouragement. I must have processed it because my feet started forward. I stepped up onto the small stage and took the mic someone handed me. Somehow I did it. Staring into Lincoln’s warm gaze, pretending it was just the two of us I sang a song about needing something, about needing someone, about needing love.

  And it didn’t feel at all like a stretch to sing those words to him.

  Ash was starting to piss me off. I couldn’t figure out what his problem was with Simone. It was almost like he was jealous of her which made absolutely no sense. She on the other hand had blown me completely out of the water with her singing. Her voice on the beach had been one thing with the ocean and the wind dispelling its power and range. But here in the club with the microphone and the speakers it had given me chills.

  I wasn’t the only one impressed. A line had formed after my aunt and uncle had complimented her. I don’t think that was the result Ash had been going for but I was glad she had gotten it. She deserved to be affirmed openly and often. She was
positively beaming by the time the well-wishers dispersed and she caught my eye.

  I uncrossed my arms and went to her. She passed her mic to Dominic, put her hands on my shoulders and I helped her down from the stage waving to the guys without speaking a word. I was done with talking and done with sharing her.

  “You stole the show.” I took her hand after we stepped outside into the humid air. The steady churn of the ocean was our music now. I curled my fingers tighter around hers and led her down the stairs.

  “I did, didn’t I?” She turned to look at me and her smile widened. She swung our arms as we walked along the sidewalk almost as if jazzed on the energy of performing and I hoped also because she was with me. Without consciously making the decision to do so I led us in the direction of the pier. I believed the water called to her the same way it did to me.

  We both popped off our shoes when our feet hit the sand. “Leave ‘em,” I insisted when she started to reach for hers. “We’ll come back for them later.”

  “Alright,” she agreed pressing her body closer to my side as we strolled along the water’s edge a full moon illuminating our path. Hand in hand we were silent for a while but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. It was one of the most comfortable nights of my life. I glanced at her. It was her, not the peaceful setting. She was the part I had been missing in my life. The solace I’d always lacked even in my aunt and uncle’s home.

  As if sensing the weight of my heavy thoughts she stopped walking and turned to look at me. I stared back at her wanting to memorize every single detail. Her pretty expectant face. The breeze tossing her hair around it. The moonlight caressing her sexy body and giving it an almost ethereal glow. The way her toes unconsciously dug into the sand as if she wanted to become one with the beach.

  “Come here.” I tugged her hand to pull her into me and she came willingly resting her slender fingers against the center of my chest. I wrapped my arms tightly around her enfolding her into me. I forced myself to be patient, to savor, to just enjoy the feel of her soft curves, the ultimate counterpart to my hardness.

  But every muscle in my body was drawn taut and on high alert. Just like when I was in the final round of a competition and time was running out on the clock and I knew that I was getting ready to pop up into my stance and catch the perfect wave to the perfect score.

  I reveled in the thump of her heart beat.

  At the silky texture of her hair as it swirled around both of us in the steady ocean breeze.

  I tipped her chin up. Her eyes were alight like the moon. She smiled at me in a way that told me she was marveling in the moment, too.

  I loved her. I knew it to be true but it was too soon to speak the words aloud. So I decided to show her. Soft at first like the last time, I touched my lips to hers to declare my intention to cherish her. But I wouldn’t be able to keep them there because I lost all focus when she was near me, because I had wanted her from the start, because she was a fever surging through my blood, because her lips were the catalyst that quickened my madness.

  “Linc,” she breathed. Her eyes were seductively lowered, the lush warmth of her mouth spilling over mine and her fingers moving restlessly on the front of my shirt as if she didn’t know what to do with all of the need coursing through her.

  I knew she wasn’t experienced. All the signs were there but that wasn’t a turn off. The opposite. It meant no man had ever tempted her to cross the line. It meant she was all mine. And that was good because from this moment on I was all hers, too.

  “Put your hands on my skin. Under my shirt, babe.” I adjusted my stance to more fully align the part of me that pulsed for her with the part of her that melted for me.

  She complied immediately and I hissed in a breath as her fingers touched me. A bolt of desire rocked me and I didn’t hold back anymore. I crushed my mouth to hers. Her fingers glided from my abdomen to my back and she kneaded the muscles there as if encouraging me to deepen the kiss. So I did. My firm demanding lips overs her soft ones that gave me entry. I slanted my head and tunneled my fingers into her silky hair to cradle the base of her skull in my hands. Tongue thrusting inside I drank deeply from her sugary nectar, feasting on her sweet taste while my hips mimicked my mouth’s movements.

  Low needful sounds bubbled up from the back of her throat and exploded like champagne bubbles on my tongue. I groaned as she rolled her core over me. I swore I could feel her damp beckoning heat even through her dress and my boxers and jeans. I nearly threw her to the sand and took her in the shallow surf like some scene from an old movie.

  But I couldn’t.

  Not her.

  I reined in my desire like a blow tail in reverse, ripped my lips from hers, untangled my fingers from her hair and took a big step back nearly stumbling because my feet had sunk into the wet sand.

  Moonbeams glowing in her hair, she opened her eyes and swayed unsteadily. Her expression grew confused as her passion cooled. “What’s wrong?” She touched her kiss swollen lips with fingers that trembled. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, Mona.” My voice was low, the strain within it evident as I wrestled against this insane desire for her. “I’ve never had a kiss more perfect or a woman in my arms who felt more right than you.”

  “Are you only taking prerequisite classes for your business major?” Karen asked.

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “Good. I hope you’re taking advantage of some of the arts offerings. I still remember all the plays you did in high school. I’ll never forget the last one where you were the prostitute and sang that song before you died.”

  “’Someone Like You’ from Jekyll and Hyde.”

  “You gave me goosebumps.” She nodded reflectively. “I’ve always hoped you’d go on to do something with that, fly, like the girl dreams about in the song.” She tipped her shaded eyes my way. “Have you tried out for anything at SDSU?”

  The sound of the surf was punctuated intermittently by the laughter of children building a sandcastle on the beach next to us. I tipped my face up into the warm sun and considered my next answer carefully. “Yes I have,” I said vaguely. “But enough about me, what do you want to do once college is over?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t even want to go to Yale in the first place. It’s a whole other world. I like it better here. If it were up to me, I’d come back to OB. Open up a surf shop. Hang at the beach as much as I could. Do my own thing, have a family of my own someday.” She sighed wistfully turning her head to watch the kids.

  This was nice. I had missed talking to her. Maybe we hadn’t grown so far apart. Maybe the distance just made it feel that way. I liked that we were sharing again.

  “That sounds like a really good plan.” I brushed sand off my beach towel and peeked once more at the spot on the ocean where Lincoln was floating on his board alongside Ash, Ramon and Dominic.

  I didn’t want to appear too eager or too into him. Even though we had shared a kiss that had rearranged my world. Even though he had walked me home after and given me another one that had rocked me every bit as much as the first. Even though he’d cleverly gotten around the fact that I didn’t have a cell and had passed me a note written on a Napoli’s coaster asking me to come to the beach to meet him.

  Even with all of that proof that he was interested, in the back of my mind I worried that what was going on between us was just some kind of fluke. An experienced guy like him would quickly lose interest in a girl like me. Maybe that was why things hadn’t gone any further with him the night before.

  “He’s staring over here at you,” Karen huffed from her blanket beside me. “Again.”

  My heart sped up and my lips curled into a pleased smile. “Could you get my back for me?” I passed the bottle of Coppertone to her. “It feels hot. I’m afraid I might have missed a spot.”

  “Alright.” She frowned as she popped it open and poured some of the coconut scented lotion into her palm. “But don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Simone.�
�� She gestured for me to turn around. I moved my ponytail to the front as she started to spread the sun warmed liquid onto my heated skin. We had been on the beach in our bikinis for a while. “You’ve deflected every single question I’ve asked you about him.” She pouted her lips. “It’s not fair. Everyone’s talking about you and him being at the Deck Bar together and you haven’t told me a thing. You always would tell me when you liked a guy.”

  She tapped my shoulder to let me know she was through and handed me the bottle. When I turned back around, she was leaning forward arms over her knees staring out at the ocean. “I’m sorry. Things are different now. My dad is even less tolerant than he was before.” I sighed. “I can’t afford to do anything that would upset him.”

  She shifted to look at me. I could see the narrowing of her eyes behind her opaque tinted shades. “Why does he hate surfers so much anyway?”

  That I couldn’t answer, though I knew. I just shrugged.

  “Oh, oh, oh!” she exclaimed suddenly. “Linc’s coming out of the water.” She squeezed my knee. “They all are and they’re heading this way.”

  “How do I look?” My heart fluttered around inside my chest.

  “Hours in the sun,” she mused, lifting her glasses onto her braided hair and tucking a few loose tendrils of mine behind my ears. “Barely mussed. You look beautiful. I hate you.”

  “Give me a break, beauty queen.” I rolled my eyes as she returned her shades to their original position. “It’s not me who wore a homecoming and a prom queen crown.”

  “Mona.” His shadow fell over me and his deep voice gave me a shiver. But the sun was so bright even with the shades I had to cover my eyes to look up at him.

  “Linc.” I smiled giddily my stomach flip-flopping when he smiled back, his dimple winking at me within his tanned gorgeous face.

  “And who’s this?” Ramon asked while cocking his hip forward and rolling his gaze slowly over my stunning friend to check her out.

  “I’m Karen.” She smiled confidently. “Who are you Mr. McCool? You look familiar.”