“That’s because those twenty other kids don’t look like Swimsuit Illustrated models, Derek. That’s because those twenty other kids don’t sit in my bookstore, right in front of me, drooling over your every stupid word, Derek. That’s because those twenty other kids, Derek, are actually, you know… kids!”
“Please don’t make this something it isn’t,” Derek said. “I promise, nothing happened that day.”
“What did happen?” Sage asked.
“Nothing,” he insisted. “We surfed, she acted stupid, I told her I was involved and that was that.”
He started avoiding her eyes halfway through the lie, and she caught him, smirking triumphantly, if joylessly. “Define ‘acting stupid’,” she huffed.
“What you’re doing right now!” he huffed back, and she reeled. He knew why; he’d never talked to her like that before. “You know what I mean,” he reasoned, using a softer tone – and kinder words – this time. “This isn’t like you, Sage. This isn’t like us.”
“No, Derek,” she spat. “What isn’t like you is that display you and Colby put on tonight. Blushing and flop sweating and flubbing your lines and staring at her… her… bazooms all night. Jesus, it was embarrassing, particularly because every woman in that audience tonight knows about us being together – including Colby.”
“I… I don’t know what to say,” he stammered, hands out impotently. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Which time?” Sage countered, looking surly and almost unrecognizable in her anger, confusion and pain. “In the waves or in my bookstore?”
“Period, Sage,” he said, lowering his voice, and his eyes. “I’m… maybe Colby’s not the only one confused right now. Shit, I don’t know.”
She calmed, somewhat, looking down at the counter with a curious expression – more sad than angry, more confused than hurt. “You remember why I tried to deny my feelings for you when we first met?” she reminded him as their eyes met over the bakery counter. “You remember why I was so against us being together.”
“Yes, Sage, our ages, but—”
“Now you know why, Derek.” She grabbed her purse, at last, sliding the thin strap over her shoulder resolutely. “I knew this would happen. I knew someone closer to your age would come along, free and unencumbered, with no responsibilities or wrinkles or expectations.”
“That’s not what this is,” Derek huffed. “Jesus, are you going to act like this every time some blond bimbo hits on me?”
They stood, face to face, in the darkened bakery of Sage’s store. “No, Derek, I won’t,” she said, turning to stride toward the side door. “Because you’re free to do whatever you want now.”
“No, Sage, I didn’t mean that.” His voice was high, panicky. He suddenly realized what she was saying and it both worried and sickened him. “I don’t… I don’t want that.”
“Huh,” she clucked, reaching for the doorknob. “Me either, Derek. But after what I saw tonight, I’m just saving myself from the inevitable. And doing you a favor. You should be grateful, not hurt.”
“You’re putting words in my mouth,” he accused her as they stumbled out into the darkness, Sage locking up behind them as he continued to pace, nervously, behind her. “You’re accusing me before I’ve even done anything.”
“That’s just it, Derek,” she said, calmer than she had been inside. It was as if she’d made a decision and, in deciding, freed herself from the anger and hurt that had made her so vulnerable back inside the store. “A young guy like you, footloose and fancy free his whole life, you don’t think you did anything wrong in there tonight.”
“But I didn’t,” he insisted, voice breaking. “You act like I touched her or something, or kissed her.”
“Derek, you forget… I know your bedroom eyes.” She lowered her voice, inching closer after looking around the deserted street to make sure they were alone. “I know what desire looks like in those eyes of yours, and you had it all night long. You couldn’t hide it earlier, Derek, and God, I love you, but… you can’t hide it now.”
“But I didn’t act on it,” he blurted before he could stop himself. “I wouldn’t, ever. I won’t!”
She stopped short, a small rush of air escaping her throat. “You didn’t… you don’t have to actually do anything to covet her, Derek. It’s written all over your face.”
She turned, racing up the metal stairs that led to her loft apartment directly above the store. He stepped onto the bottom step and she turned at the top, whipping open her door. “Don’t follow me, Derek,” she said, tears in her voice, if not her eyes – yet. “Not tonight, not ever…”
The door slammed, leaving him alone in the street. The empty, quiet street. After a few moments, when the blood stopped rushing through his ears, Derek heard the familiar sound of the surf pounding the beach not too far away.
He thought of going there, and putting his bare feet in the warm sand. But he was dressed up for his presentation, and didn’t want sand on his new black loafers. Instead he walked home, alone, heart still pounding, upset at the exchange with Sage.
Upset with his behavior earlier that night, upset with Colby. Sage was right about one thing: He’d had desire in his eyes, if only briefly. But she was wrong to think he’d ever act on it. He’d been stupid to let that little tramp knock him off his game but he was playing by old rules. Not doing anything physical with her meant nothing had happened. But now that he was attached, wanting to do something was, apparently, just as bad.
And Sage had seen that want written all over his face. What he wanted to do to Colby and what she wanted to do to him. Now he just had to find some way to make it up to Sage. Problem was, Derek had never been very good at apologizing, let alone getting himself out of the doghouse. In the old days, he’d just pull up stakes and move on.
But he wanted Sage, more than anything. Wanted their life together, the life they’d built here in Seaside, if only for a few precious months. It was an unusual and unaccustomed feeling for him. One that was going to take a little getting used to.
And a lot of smooth talking to get back…
Chapter 5:
Derek
Derek rose early, again, groggy yet wired from another restless night of tossing and turning, alone in his bed. Again. He lay there for a moment, letting the blue and orange glow of dawn wash over him before sitting up and staring out of his second floor window at the ocean, a mere block away.
The glistening white froth and rolling waves stirred his blood and he knew the sea would be the only place he’d find solace that day. He rose at last, scratching himself in his baggy boxer shorts and stumbling downstairs to brew a pot of coffee before greeting the day.
If only it hadn’t been a bag of fresh ground “Beach Brew” from Sequels, the red and green bag reminding him of Sage and her perfect attention to detail. Still, the brew was strong and good and just leaning on the counter next to the pot while it percolated woke him up.
He missed walking up next to Sage, either in her loft above the store or here, in his simple cottage by the sea. They didn’t spend every night together, but most of them, and sleeping alone the last few nights had been hard for him.
Waking up, he realized, was even harder.
He drank the coffee black and hot before drizzling honey over a piece of peanut butter toast, the only energy he’d need for a long day in the surf. There was no need for a shower before he traded his baggy boxer shorts for baggies, red with brown stripes down the side to match his favorite board, ready and waiting for him on the back deck.
He grabbed his backpack, hanging on a peg like always, complete with a few crumpled bills if he wanted a beer or two at Shucker’s later, a half bar of surf wax, a T-shirt and a towel – his only requirements for his meager existence. Flip flops flip flopping, Derek padded through the backyard gate and down the street, not a car in sight as he crossed from pavement into sand at his favorite beach access.
The restaurants on either side of the boardwalk we
re empty at this hour, dark and shuttered like his cold, aching heart. He stepped out of his flip flops and dropped his pack next to his towel and strode, confidently, into the surf just as the sun rose, no better time to heal. The water swallowed him with a welcome embrace, lukewarm from the summer heat, wrapping around his ankles, then his thighs, until he dove beneath the first wave and emerged on the other side, drenched and, for the first time all morning, hopeful.
The waves were low and plentiful, giving him a gentle workout to start the day before the tide shifted and they crested higher, and crashed deeper, challenging him more and more.
He welcomed the challenge and the diversion the bigger waves brought and, by mid-morning, found himself embracing the day at last. Duty called though and by noon, he needed sustenance if he was to keep going.
His skin was already bronzed from the summer sun and a quick dab of sunscreen from his pack would protect him for another few hours. Stepping into his flip flops and dragging on a tank top, he finger combed his sun bleached hair and walked up to the to-go window of Shucker’s, he and Sage’s favorite oceanfront raw bar.
He grabbed a soda and a banana and sat down on his blanket, enjoying them as well as the pleasant tingle of exertion that throbbed through his every muscle. The sun was warm on his drying skin, the soda sweet and cold in his empty belly, the banana surprisingly filling and the view wasn’t bad, either.
By now the rest of Seaside, Florida, had risen to greet the fine summer day, and with it a bevy of scantily clad surf hotties wrangling their sticks in the surf. He sat, easing back onto his towel and drowsing, gently, after a sleepless night and surf-filled morning.
He awoke to water dripping softly on his skin, blinking his eyes in the sun until he shielded the bright light with his hand. A girl was standing over him, long and lean, in a skimpy bikini bottom and a damp top that clung to ripe, full breasts. Her skin and hair were wet, dripping onto him as he finally sat up, blinking his eyes in disbelief.
“Colby?” he chuffed, hardly able to hide his irritation. “You’re the last person I’d expect to see today.”
“Why?” she asked, kneeling on his towel and using his t-shirt to dry herself off.
He looked back at her sea blue eyes incredulously. “Because you screwed everything up for me, that’s why.”
“Me?” she asked, sitting cross-legged across from him and revealing the glistening wet skin of her inner thighs. “How?”
“By flirting with me at my presentation the other night, that’s how.”
“I did nothing of the sort,” she said, and Derek couldn’t exactly call her a liar. “I was just really, really interested in what you had to say, Derek.”
“Yeah, well… you could have fooled me.”
She finished drying her hair, tossing his wet shirt back at him with a playful flick of her wrist. “Okay,” she said, smirking and putting her hands on her knees, leaving him no room on the towel if he didn’t cross his legs and sit facing her, picnic style, knee to knee. “Maybe I flirted just a little, but… you didn’t do anything about, so what’s Sage’s problem?”
“Sage’s problem is we’re going out,” he huffed, before reconsidering. “Or, at least, we were… until you came along with your… your…”
Colby caught him checking out her magnificent melons and leaned back on the towel, pressing them forth so that her thick, ripe nipples dotted the clingy fabric of her barely there bikini top. “You were saying?” she said, licking her lips and making it hard for Derek to concentrate, despite his best efforts.
“Nothing,” he said, finding that their knees were touching. Suddenly, the warmth of her young, tender skin made his whole body tingle, his cock thickening despite itself against the front panel of his wet baggies. “I just, well… you have really nice breasts.”
“Nice of you to say so,” she said, hardly insulted. Nodding toward the bulge in his baggies she purred, “You have a really nice package yourself.”
He blushed and said, “What’s with you, Colby?”
“What do you mean?” she challenged, her eyes drifting up his bare torso to meet his own.
“I mean, it’s like no one ever taught you how to speak in public or something.”
She shrugged. “I just want what I want, Derek. And with a guy like you, words are the only way to get it.”
“But why me?” he said, waving his hand toward the shoreline, studded with younger, hotter guys who would be more than willing to show her their package without all the hassle, drama and blowback. Then again, he thought, maybe that’s what made him so attractive in the first place.
“I’ve had most of them,” she said without following his gaze. “Now I want you.”
Derek sighed as Colby stood, dusting the sand of her tender young body. “Where are you going?” he asked, standing as well. “We’re done now?”
“I hope not,” she purred, looking ripe and shapely and still surprisingly damp.
“Then… what’s up?”
“My parents have a condo on Eighth Street,” she said, nodding toward the row of glittering high-rise condominiums just past Shuckers Raw Bar and along the ocean. “They’re on a cruise all week and I’ve got the place all to myself. Wanna see the view?”
He nodded, enjoying the “view” all the more as he walked behind Colby, realizing her bikini had been a thong all along. Her cheeks, ripe and round, were dusted with beach sand and rippled provocatively with every step. By the time she slid a key into a white gate at the end of a long, twisting boardwalk, he was vaguely disappointed that her parents’ condo wasn’t farther away. Say, somewhere in Miami!
The thoughts were stupid, of course. Selfish, piggish and juvenile, but he couldn’t help himself. Just like the other night, gawking at Colby’s smooth, velvet tits in the middle of Sequels, he’d given himself over to the joy of simple adoration.
And why not? Sage had dumped him for not doing anything. He might as well do something to make it worth all the effort, right? Even as he smirked to himself, following Colby silently into the elevator, Derek’s face burned with shame. He knew what he was doing was wrong, and yet he wanted to do it anyway. Wanted to do it, and would do it.
Probably; maybe…
She lived on the top floor and the elevator ride was smooth and silent. She wriggled in the corner, a towel slung over her shoulder, her hips wide, her belly flat, her breasts heaving and threatening to spill from the clingy top that barely held them in.
The doors opened and they lingered, just gazing at each other, Derek’s heart pounding with excitement, anxiety and anticipation. He knew he shouldn’t be doing this. He knew Sage could be convinced he was a good guy if only he let her cool down for a few days, kept his hands to himself and just focused on his surfing.
But Jesus, Colby was hot, wet and damp and oh, so willing. And maybe Sage was right: Maybe he was never going to be faithful, after all. Would a faithful guy ogle Colby all the way to her place? Would a faithful guy even come back to Colby’s condo in the first place?
He wondered these thoughts silently as he followed Colby inside her parents’ condo, spacious and lush and sparsely furnished with low, white leather furniture and colorful prints on equally white walls. The main feature was the wall facing the ocean, nothing but floor to ceiling sliding glass door as far as the eye could see.
“Wow,” he said, drifting toward them as he heard the fridge open and close behind him. “What a view.”
“I agree,” she said, but something in her tone made it sound like she wasn’t talking about the ocean. Sure enough, when he turned, Derek saw Colby standing, ogling him with a beer in each hand.
“Cut it out,” he said, blushing slightly as she held out his beer.
They slipped onto the deck and sat, sipping their beers in deep, wicker chairs with soft white cushions. The beer was rich and cold on his parched throat and empty belly, and halfway through he was more relaxed than he’d been in days. Even that made him feel guilty, and he hadn’t even done anythin
g yet.
Colby sat across from him, ripe and tempting, peering at him wide-eyed. Twelve stories below the ocean crashed and fizzed so faintly, it might have been one of those relaxation CDs people put on at night to fall asleep. The day had grown gently overcast, a gray pall making the light weak but dramatic as it bathed Colby in soft, sexy shadows that only made the moment seem even more surreal.
Truly, it was all too good to be true. Girls had thrown themselves at Derek before but, Jesus… never like this. She wouldn’t even speak to him, maybe couldn’t even speak to him, just sat there, peering back at him, her smoky blue eyes telling him everything that could happen, that would happen, if only he’d nod his head.
Smirking, as if reading his thoughts, she stood to grab two new beers and, when she returned, sat a chair closer. He could feel the heat roll off of her in waves but, knowing what the future held, for now Derek was content just to ogle her and let the beer, and her affections, wash all his troubles away.
She had put on some reggae on her last trip into the house and now soft, trippy music oozed onto the deck, joining the waves in a perfect soundtrack to a lazy afternoon.
He looked up at one point, to find her watching him curiously. “What?” he asked, voice sounding distant and faraway and unrecognizable. It was better that way, he figured. A strange place, a strange girl, a strange day, and a strange feeling that made him not quite himself. That way, he lied to himself, none of this really counted.
“Nothing,” she said, toying with her beer label. “I’m just waiting.”
“For what?”
“For you to decide whether you’re going to fuck me or not.”
“Jesus, Colby.”
“Well,” she said, taking a long, slow drag off her beer before putting her empty bottle down on the small table beneath them. “I’m basically giving it to you, Derek. Free and unattached. How are you going to pass that up, playboy?”
“Bullshit,” he chuffed, finishing his beer as well. She started to stand for more but he stilled her with his hand and padded inside himself. He was dry now, bare feet on tiled floor, baggies whispering with every step, his tank top vaguely damp from where she’d used it to dry herself. The fridge was full of beer, and little else, making him think Colby was just getting started on her week-long break from parental supervision. So, was he just an appetizer? The full course? Or dessert?
Waves of Romance: Contemporary Romance (Holidays Beach Read Book 2) Page 4
