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Storm

Page 16

by Mankin, Michelle


  Reaching between my shoulder blades, I stretched for the long string to lower the back zipper on my wet suit. “Go away. I need to get these things off, and you need to leave. I don’t want to cry in front of you.”

  “Why the hell would you cry?” he asked, his voice louder as he came closer. “I thought what I said was nice.”

  I curled my fingers into fists and gave him the truth of it. “Because no one says things like you did to me anymore. Not since my father passed.” A tear fell on my cheek, warming the cool skin.

  Journey moved behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Well, that’s not right. They should.”

  I wanted so badly to lean back into him, to have him closer.

  His strong body pressed hard into mine, and he moved my arm away. “Let me help you with that zipper.”

  “But I’m all sandy,” I whispered. “And you’re already clean.”

  “The opposite is true,” he said, his mouth so close to my ear that his warm breath spilled into it. “The things I’ve done, I don’t want you to know. You’re far too nice for a guy like me.”

  A shiver rolled through me as he tugged on the string and lowered my zipper. I stood completely still as the cooler air licked my exposed skin. Not an invitation for him to do more, but not a protest either.

  “You’re admirably strong, yet so perfectly feminine,” he said, his hands gliding over my shoulders as he peeled the insulated rubber away. The firmness of his touch was a compelling contrast to the crackling heat of our connection.

  He pressed closer, his hard thighs to my ass, and I leaned my head back onto his strong shoulder. Just for a moment.

  “This needs to come off.” He tugged, releasing one of my arms and then the other from the wet-suit sleeves. “Knowing you’re wearing a red bikini under your suit all day has been driving me crazy.”

  He lowered his head, and I felt the ends of his hair brush the sensitive skin where my neck met my shoulder. His whiskers grazed my skin, followed by his firm lips.

  “Journey.” A bolt of lust struck me as he pressed his warm mouth, then his wet tongue, to my skin. My legs trembling, I rocked where I stood.

  He gently turned me around, his long fingers encircling my upper arms. His expression was hungry, his eyes glittering and dark.

  “Never seen a woman fill out a bikini like you do,” he said, his voice throaty and his gaze heavily lidded. “Say stop, or I’m going to have you right here, right now, against this wall.”

  I didn’t say stop. Couldn’t speak a word. The vibrations of his voice made my nipples harden beneath the skimpy triangles of my top.

  He walked me backward, and step by step, I retreated. I was enthralled by him, by the unrestrained desire that burned inside his hooded eyes.

  My back hit the rough concrete wall, and he drew me to him by my upper arms. I brought my hands up and laid my palms on the center of his hard chest, and my body went compliantly soft. I yielded, surrendering oh-so-willingly, my resistance breaking like crashing waves against the rocks at the shore.

  “Lotus,” he murmured, lowering his head.

  Going up on my toes, I lifted mine.

  His warm breath bathed my lips, making them tingle. Knowing how he kissed, how he tasted, I wanted nothing more than to experience that decadent rebirth again.

  “My beautiful girl,” he whispered, an opening line to a ballad.

  “Please,” I said softly, my heart racing in anticipation.

  As his eyes drifted closed, mine did as well, but an unexpected voice made them pop open wide.

  “Lotus!” Cork called.

  “No.” I pushed Journey away, my head snapping in the direction of my brother’s voice. But I was too slow, my body too sluggish.

  Cork stepped out from the willows and his eyes widened. “Oh.”

  My body turned to ice, where it had been flames a moment before.

  Quickly taking in the scene, he stopped in his tracks. “Sorry to interrupt. Saber’s on the phone.”

  “Now?” Focusing on the cell in my brother’s hand, I slipped away from Journey.

  “Yes.” Cork glanced back and forth between me and Journey. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing’s going on,” I said, but my expression and everything else about this scene made a liar of me.

  My legs trembled as I moved toward Cork. Licking my dry lips, I frowned at the phone my brother offered me like it was a serpent about to strike.

  “Go ahead,” Journey growled. His flip-flops slapped the ground as he stomped past me. “Take the fucking call.”

  Storm

  I DIDN’T STICK around to hear what Lotus said.

  It was a douche move for me to make an already contemptible moment worse by saying what I did, but I was mad, frustrated as hell at being interrupted by Saber again, when I’d almost had her. Yet fucking again.

  The return trip to OB was pure torture.

  Cork was all frowns now instead of smiles, and Lotus was no longer speaking to me. In a white pair of short overalls and a lime-green tube top, she was pressed against the door on the far side of the vehicle, her gaze anywhere but on me. Her brother glowered with a healthy amount of side-eye, a disapproving buffer between us.

  “Can you drop us at Outside when we get to OB?” Lotus asked, cutting through the tense silence.

  “Sure,” I gritted out. The wind at freeway speed tossed my voice around. Snidely, I asked, “Was that Saber’s request?”

  “Yes.” She kept her gaze straight ahead as tendrils of her hair whipped around her face. “He wants to talk to you.”

  I’ll just bet he does.

  Rather than respond, I took the exit I needed. There would be no exiting the current situation. I knew I’d created it, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to escape it. In fact, I was spoiling for a fight.

  I maintained our speed through the traffic lights that took us by the water that separated Mission Beach from Ocean Beach. When we reached the fork, I went left at the welcome to ocean beach sign and put on the brakes as we got stuck in a line of traffic. It freed up a little, but then we hit more when I turned onto Newport Avenue.

  Eventually, we arrived at our destination. Finding a spot in the parking lot by the pier, I cut the engine. Lotus released her seat belt and popped open her door. Apparently, she couldn’t get out of the Scout fast enough. As she hightailed it to the tailgate to grab her stuff, Cork unlatched his seat belt and turned to glare at me. Without preamble, he came right to the point, reminding me of her.

  “What’s going on with you and my sister?” His jaw was set, his youthful features tight.

  “Cork,” Lotus said from behind us. Obviously, she’d heard him. “Don’t do this.”

  “He had you backed into a wall, Lotus.”

  “You mistook what you saw,” I said, regaining his attention. “I asked before I put her in that position. I’ve never taken from any woman what she didn’t want to give me, and I’m not about to change that with your sister. Does that reassure you?”

  His scar creasing as he considered my words, he nodded once. “But you didn’t really answer my question.”

  I raised a brow. “It answers it as much as I’m going to.”

  Cork huffed out a breath. “I thought you were an up-front guy. Obviously, I misread you.”

  He started to get out, but I couldn’t let it be. His disapproval sliced me about as deeply as hers did.

  “Hold up,” I said, and he swiveled to look at me. “I like your sister, Cork, and I like you. We had a lot of fun today until the end. Can we just leave the other stuff out of it? Go back to being friends?”

  He gave me a narrow-eyed look. “That’s up to you.”

  “How so?”

  “Will you respect Lotus, and any boundaries she sets for you?”

  “Absolutely,” I said firmly. “I have, and I’ll continue to respect her wishes.”

  “Can you be honest with her and me, and table all the evasive bullshit?” he asked, his expression
as firm as my reply. “We don’t need a friend who lies to us.”

  That hit me hard, considering there was a secret I’d been hiding from them. I couldn’t do anything about what had already been done—or maybe it was just that I didn’t want to, not yet at least—but I could give Cork something.

  “I promise to answer truthfully any question you ask me.”

  He studied me a long moment, then nodded. “Okay, I accept that.”

  I let out a breath. The kid was tough. “Thank you.”

  His expression tightened. “So, answer this. Do you just want to sleep with my sister, or do you truly want to be her friend?”

  “Cork, no.” Lotus appeared on his side of the vehicle, her hand on her hip, obviously displeased. “It’s not for you to ask things like that.”

  He glanced at her. “Dad’s gone. It’s up to me now to look out for you.” Turning back to me again, he stared at me more determinedly than before. “Lotus is the best person you’ll ever know. She deserves a guy who will be honest with her, not one who just wants to jerk her around.”

  With that declaration made, I had to admit I liked Cork. Even though he was giving me a hard time, it was because I deserved it, and his priority was her. Lotus was a priority we shared.

  He slid out of the vehicle, his shoulders squared, and strode to the rear, probably to grab her board.

  “Leave the boards and shit,” I said, climbing out and closing my door. “I can take everything to the apartment.”

  “I don’t know.” Staring at me across the Scout, Lotus bit down on her plump bottom lip, and that was it. All it took for my cock to get hard again.

  “It’s not a big deal. I gotta get my guitars to my apartment anyway.” At the beach, all my gear had been safely in sight. I wasn’t leaving it unattended here. “Tell Saber I’ll swing back to talk later.”

  “All right.” She nodded, and Cork came around to stand beside her. “But can I talk to you, alone, before you leave?”

  “I’ll go inside and find Saber,” Cork said, pointing his chin toward the building. “Okay?”

  “Sure. That would be good,” she said, and he gave her a chin lift.

  Lotus and I both remained silent, watching until Cork was safely inside.

  Turning to her, I said emphatically, “Man, I like your brother.”

  “Me too.” Some of the coolness left her tone.

  “I know you do.” Taking her in, I wanted to get her back in my arms so badly, my muscles ached with the strain of denying that urge. I curled my fingers into my palms, pulled in a breath, and let it out. “I’m sorry I was an ass earlier and got you in a tough spot with Saber.”

  “It’s okay,” she said, but she didn’t look like it was okay. She looked troubled and unsure. “It’s my fault.”

  “It’s not solely your fault.” I stared deeply into her beautiful eyes, willing her to acknowledge the truth. “You know there’s more than only friendship between us.”

  “There was,” she said firmly. “But not anymore.”

  That wasn’t true, and her saying so pissed me off.

  My eyes narrowed. “I want you, and you want me. If your brother hadn’t come along when he did, we would’ve both had what we wanted a second time.”

  “You’re right.” She looked down, blowing out a breath that lifted a wisp of her hair from her sexy lips. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry Cork got into it with you, and Saber probably will too.”

  She looked up, her eyes shining determinedly. “I’ll do my best to smooth things over with him. But I think it would be better from now on if we keep our distance from each other.”

  Oh, hell no.

  “I’m in a band with your boyfriend.” My heart pounding, I frowned down at her. “I live downstairs from you.”

  “It’ll be difficult to maintain that distance, given that and the chemistry we share.” Lifting her chin, she met my gaze.

  Lotus was open and honest with her emotions, an ability I lacked, even to this day. She also unabashedly took responsibility for her part in the situation between us. I was more than a little in awe of her.

  “The important thing,” she said, “will be avoiding situations where we might end up alone together.”

  She meant important for her to maintain her relationship with Saber. Fuck me and what I wanted. I might be shit with my emotions, but I could read between those lines.

  “So, even friendship between us is out?” I asked to clarify.

  “Yes.” She gave me a tight nod.

  “And the offer to be there for me should I need you?” I let that hang a moment, my fingers clenching into tighter fists. “Is that offer withdrawn?”

  “I’m not going to abandon you, but we can’t do another day like today. I’m sorry I’m not stronger.”

  Her eyes glistened, and I felt a pain in my gut, the wound inside me that had never healed after leaving her all those years ago. I wanted to tell her she was the strongest person I knew, both in the past and now. But I had to remain silent to keep my secret and respect her wishes.

  “I realize you don’t know a lot of people in OB yet,” she said softly. “I feel bad about that. But you have the guys in the band.”

  She glanced away, staring at the ocean as I stared at her. When she returned her gaze to me, her expression had changed.

  “And you’re not completely without other opportunities for companionship.”

  “Meaning what?”

  She twisted her hands together, saying softly, “You already made an impression on Tess.”

  “Who?” I asked, having absolutely no clue who she was talking about.

  “The waitress at the Deck Bar. The blonde. The one who gave you her phone number.”

  “Oh, her.” Recognition dawned slowly. Recognition, yes, but absolutely no interest.

  “She’s nice.” Lotus swallowed, her eyes a bright umber.

  Realizing what Lotus was trying to do pissed me off, but I called her bluff. “I’ll give her a call. If you’re sure this is the way you want it to be between us.”

  Lotus bobbed her head. “It’s the way it has to be.”

  Has to be?

  Although I bit my tongue, mentally I called bullshit on her response. Homing in on her word choice, I grabbed it like a life preserver thrown into an unsettled sea.

  Has to be didn’t have fuck-all to do with wants or needs.

  Lotus

  I WAS SHAKY and felt sick, but I knew I’d done the right thing with Journey. He didn’t do relationships, and I didn’t do hookups.

  Not usually.

  And because nothing about me and him was usual, and since I couldn’t trust myself around him, not being alone with him was my only option.

  “Hey, Penny,” I said to the receptionist as I stepped into Outside. She looked up from her computer screen and peered at me over the top of a cute pair of lime-green reading glasses. “New haircut,” I asked, noting the bobbed length.

  “Yeah.” She reached up and plumped the curled ends. “Platinum color’s new too, like Holliewood’s. Cool, don’t you think?”

  “The style and the color are very Doris Day,” I said, knowing Penny loved everything from the fifties.

  “Exactly.” Both her smile and her hazel eyes gleamed. “I could do something like it with your hair.”

  “No, that’s okay,” I said. “I like my color, and the longer length works for me for now.”

  Penny Stein cut hair on the side at the Velvet Hair Salon. She rented a chair, but I knew she was saving up to have her own place one day. Sophia, Penny, and I all had ambitious dreams.

  “A trim then.” She winked. “Let me get my hands on that gorgeous hair of yours. Please.”

  “Okay. As soon as I have some spare time.”

  She wrinkled her button nose. “You never have spare time.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  I’d had some today, and it had been wonderful. But I knew the wonderful part had a lot to do with Journey. And on that thought, m
y nausea returned.

  “I’ll call you,” I told Penny. “Set something up. We could make it girl time, if you wanted to hang, and I could get Sophia to come too.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I, um . . . I can’t pay you for a trim what you get at Velvet.”

  Penny gave me a knowing grin. “Can you whip me up one of your famous pineapple margaritas?”

  “I could,” I said, remembering that she was twenty-one now and old enough to drink. “I could make a whole pitcher for us to share.”

  “We can talk about guys and watch classic movies for inspiration for hairstyles.”

  “Sophia loves movies. I love music. Maybe we could meet in the middle and look at some rock documentaries about bands in your favorite era.”

  “Ones with hot musicians like the ones that walk around here?” She fluttered her heavily mascaraed eyes and sighed. “Sounds heavenly.”

  “Sold.” I hooked a thumb to the hallway. “I’d better get a move on.”

  “Saber’s in studio ten.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Shield too. The boss is with them.”

  “’Kay.” I lifted a finger in the air and headed down the hall. The studio was more crowded today.

  I saw Linc and Simone in studio one, working on a duet for another Blaine Donovan film.

  Diesel was in studio three, his back to the door but visible through the glass insert. He was at the piano, probably writing the score for a new film.

  A little farther down, Ramon was in studio five with the band Freewave. He often gave the local OB band creative direction.

  Apparently, all the Dirt Dogs were in residence today, working on one project or another.

  When I reached studio ten, I saw the waves crashing plumes of spray against the pilings of the pier through the large window inside it, and I heard the clashing of tempers within.

  “The song is good, Saber.” Ash’s hands formed a placating gesture. Not dressed like the man today, he was the dude in an Offshore tank and board shorts, his standard nonbusiness meeting attire. “But the chorus needs work. So does the intro, for that matter. You should have brought Ted in today to lend you a hand.”

 

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