“I wish,” he mumbled to himself following her around and opening her door.
“Nice car.”
“Not mine,” he said.
He got her settled, settled himself in the old hot rod his Dad had let him borrow for the trip down, and started the engine with a roar.
“I thought we’d hit the beach in front of my uncle’s place. Nice lounge chairs already set up. The ones on the pool deck have cushions. We can stake a claim and watch the moon cross the ocean. The fringe benefit is having clean rest rooms close by. Oh, and a stocked liquor cabinet, in case we’re there at midnight and you become old enough to drink.”
She laughed at that as they pulled out onto the main road. “Apparently, I still won’t look old enough to drink. That bouncer was really giving me a hard time.”
“Because you definitely don’t look twenty-one. You don’t even look nineteen. You look eighteen, maybe.”
“And you look just as old as those guys in law school.”
“I’m big,” he shrugged. “And hairy, as you’ve vividly illustrated.”
“You’re not that hairy,” she said, laughing in apology. “You’re just very…masculine.”
“And you’re very, very feminine,” he said, picking her hand up and bringing it to his lips. “Christ, that bow on your bathing suit took my breath away, but seeing you tonight, haggling with that bouncer in this fluffy little dress-”
“Fluffy?”
“With your hair all down and curly, and then I got you in the moonlight and saw that pink stuff on your lips and those long-long eyelashes and man. Yeah, you’re a girly-girl to beat all girls.”
“I’m not that girly,” she protested.
He snorted.
“I’m not.”
“How long did it take you to get ready tonight?” he asked.
Silence.
Lane looked over at Sleeping Beauty, all wide awake and staring straight ahead. “How long?” he coaxed. “‘Cause anything over twenty minutes makes you a girly-girl.”
“Of course, it took me longer than twenty minutes. I can barely shower in twenty minutes with everything I have to wash, condition, exfoliate, and shave. It’s hell being a girl.” She reached over and touched his hair. “What did it take you? Ten minutes? Shower, shave, run a towel over your head, brush your teeth, and throw on some clothes?”
“I shaved for you,” he grinned. “Wouldn’t have bothered if I hadn’t planned on seeing you.”
“Yeah,” she sulked back into her seat. “Well, why do you think it took me so long to get ready?” she admitted.
“For me?”
“Maybe.”
“I just admitted I shaved for you. The least you can do is pretend you did all this,” he said, pointing up and down her pretty little body, “for me.”
“I’m not admitting anything,” she said, smirking. “But I will say I would have been disappointed if we’d missed you guys. The restaurant was busy, and it took forever to get our large table served.”
“It worked out.”
“I still can’t believe you told the bouncer my I.D. was fake.”
“I wanted to get you alone.”
Silence.
Lane glanced in her direction. “Am I scaring you?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Why aren’t you talkin’?”
Silence.
“S.B?”
“I’m starting to feel a little woozy.”
Chapter Five
Thank God, I’m single. The thought kept running through Vivi’s brain as Lane drove them through the slow-moving traffic. “Mind if I type a quick text message?” she asked him.
“Go right ahead,” he said.
Of course he wouldn’t mind. He’s-like-perfect.
She pulled out her phone and typed in Kevin’s name and texted her in-the-moment thoughts.
“Thank you for telling me when you did. You are completely forgiven. Sorry I was so mean.”
She hit send and let it go. Then she turned off her phone.
“Everything okay?” Lane asked.
“Everything’s perfect,” she said without thinking.
“Perfect?” he said, quirking a brow at her as he came to a stoplight.
“Yeah.” She smiled right at him, not hiding a thing. “Pretty perfect.”
He cleared his throat. “This afternoon you told me your life hurt.”
“I did?” she asked, reflecting back. “Mmm. Yeah, it pinched. A little bit.”
“Vivi, I gotta tell you that the guys were talkin’, and it seems your sorority sisters shared a little bit about what you’ve been through recently.”
“Oh.” Her heart sunk and embarrassment crept in. She dropped his serious green gaze and looked out her window, rubbing her hands over her knees and rocking a bit to soothe herself. “I suppose everybody’s having a good laugh at my expense.” I probably need to get used to that.
“No. Ya know, it’s titillating gossip. That’s all. And I wouldn’t have mentioned it except…”
“Except what?” She swung her head around and gave him a deadpan stare.
“Well, my best friend is gay. We’ve been next-door neighbors since we could walk, and he came out to me a couple years ago. Besides the obvious shock, it didn’t really change anything between us. Which I’m grateful for, because he’s a good friend. We can talk about anything. Clearly. And after I heard your story, I started thinking about Lam and the struggle he has trying to fit in socially. He’s not blatant about his preferences, and he’s gone on dates with some real nice girls. I don’t think he’s trying to deny who he is. I just think he’s trying to enjoy life one day at a time.”
“So, he’s not openly gay?”
“No. Not yet. Working on it.”
“Yeah, I think Kevin is like that. I think graduation is probably his stepping stone into living his truth. I just…you know, didn’t see it coming. At all.”
“I’d introduce you to Lam and you’d never know with him either. Your perspective on this would be valuable information, if you’d let me share it with him.”
“My perspective?”
“How finding out he was gay made you feel.”
“Hmm. Is he leading some poor girl on?”
“There’s a girl who is kinda crazy about him. He has mentioned to me more than once he’s concerned about her reaction once she finds out.”
“Oh, well, I’m a wreck.”
“A wreck?”
“On the beach today, when I saw you, the first thing I wondered was if you were gay. Because after finding out about Kevin, I no longer trust my instincts. Kevin’s a great guy and a lot of fun, but I truly thought we were romantically involved. I thought he was hot for me, not hot for the guy dating my roommate.” She felt herself getting angry. “You know, he may have shown me a good time, but I wanted it to be true. Be real. He would kiss me, for God’s sake. He’d touch my boobs. I had no clue he was gay, and I don’t mind admitting that this has really thrown me. I thought I was somewhat intuitive. Shouldn’t I have been able to sense something like that?”
“You’d think so-Wait! He touched your chest?”
“Yes,” she exclaimed. “And when I asked him about it, he said he liked women’s breasts. Does your friend like women’s breasts?”
Lane rubbed a finger over his lips, thinking. “I don’t know. I never thought to ask. I would assume no, but…” He shrugged.
“Exactly.”
Lane turned into a parking lot leading to an underground garage. He pulled into a numbered spot and shut off the engine. “Okay,” he said, staring over at her expectantly.
“Okay, what?”
“So ask me.”
“Ask you what?”
“Ask me if I’m gay.”
She could feel herself blush. “I know you aren’t gay.”
“Really?” He smirked. “How can you be so sure? I mean, if your intuition is not what you thought it was?”
&
nbsp; “Because,” she leaned toward him, lowering her voice, “when you were kissing me, I felt a very heterosexual response.”
That made him blush. His smirk turned into a shy smile, and he glanced away.
“And Lane, trust me on this. Under the circumstances, that was definitely the best part of my day.”
He burst out laughing. “Come on,” he said, opening his door. “Let’s go check out that moon.”
“I mean,” she said, getting out of the car. “It was very…self affirming,” she joked.
“Yeah?” he asked, taking her hand and pulling her along with him. “Well, for me, too.”
As they entered an elevator she said, “Thanks.”
“For what?” he asked, hitting button number five.
“Helping me make light of it.”
He gave her one of his crooked smiles.
“I’m serious. Yesterday this all felt like pretty heavy stuff. And now…” She shrugged.
“A day at the beach will do that for you.”
Yeah, a day at the beach with a testosterone-laden hottie who couldn’t stop looking at my ass. One who saved the day like Superman by picking me up and carrying me into the water. That kind of day at the beach will sure do it.
The doors opened and Lane headed down the hall with purpose, a key in his hand. “I’m just gonna grab two beers. You think you can handle a beer, right?” he teased. “And maybe put a little tequila on ice. Just in case we make that midnight toast.”
“I thought you were worried about getting me home before curfew.”
“You’ll be twenty-one in a couple of hours. Screw the curfew,” he said over his shoulder.
Vivi stood just inside the doorway on a small, tiled foyer area. She could hear Lane opening the refrigerator and messing with some ice. Her eyes scanned the space, taking note of all the open duffle bags and masculine stuff lying around. But underneath the law student clutter, she could tell the place was large and furnished beautifully. “Does your uncle rent this out?” she called.
“No,” Lane said, coming back around the corner carrying a small cooler. “He doesn’t. It’s too nice. Doesn’t want any riffraff messing it up.”
“I don’t blame him. It’s really beautiful.”
“Four bedrooms and a pullout couch, so it sleeps plenty. You should see the view from here too. Right on the ocean. Five stories up. There’s a nice-sized balcony. Oh, hold up,” he said. He left her standing there for a moment and came back with two beach towels. “Just in case we need ‘em,” he said. Vivi took them out of his hands.
“Have you stayed here often?” she asked as he locked up the door and they headed down the hall to the elevator.
“A couple family vacations. Never with a bunch of guys before. This has worked out pretty well though. One of Tray’s buddies is in culinary school, so he cooks brunch, which tides us over until happy hour. Today he pulled out an antipasti platter when we came in from the beach. I’m not a wine drinker, but a couple of the guys are really into it. They opened some fancy Italian wine and we all hung out until it was time to head to dinner.”
“Wow,” Vivi said. “It’s a whole other scene down at our place. Pop Tarts, protein drinks, cheese and crackers if we’re lucky. No culinary classes at Wake Forest.”
They exited the elevator and made their way across the pool deck and down the steps to the beach. Vivi took off her flip-flops and carried them once they hit the sand. It felt cool, almost cold, on her feet. A significant difference in temperature now that the sun wasn’t beating down on it.
Where the pool deck had been softly illuminated, the beach was unlit except for the moon, which seemed a little smaller but just as bright as it had been a short time ago. A tall shadow indicated a stack of lounge chairs off to the side, but Lane headed past them, toward the water where a couple of chairs had been left scattered on the beach.
A gentle breeze blew off the ocean, catching the ends of Vivi’s hair and tossing them around her shoulders. She unfolded one of the towels and tucked it in at the top of the lounge chair. Lane took the other towel and laid it along the bottom part, saying they only needed one chair.
Her heart fluttered.
She stood perfectly still, watching Lane work. He smoothed out the towels, opened the cooler, took out a longnecked bottle, twisted the cap off and then handed it to her. Cold, a little damp, she took a sip as she watched Lane open another bottle for himself and then step out of his flip-flops and sit down. He put his beer down in the sand, let his gorgeous, muscular legs straddle the lounge chair, and then patted the spot in between. He looked at her expectantly.
A chill ran up her spine.
When she didn’t make a move, he reached out and tugged at the hem of her dress, pulling her closer. Then he put a hand on each hip and guided her into his lap, pulling her snugly against him so her back rested against his chest. He picked up his beer and clinked their bottles together before taking a long sip. She sipped, too.
“Good?” he asked, returning his beer to the sand.
She nodded.
She felt his hands in her hair, playing with it, gently stroking it, combing his fingers through it, appreciating it. He pressed his nose into the back of her head and breathed deep. “You smell good,” he whispered. He gathered her hair and stroked it all over her left shoulder. “Is that okay?” he asked, as he wrapped his arms around her, shifting her further against him so that the back of her head was snuggled below his left shoulder. She could easily look up to the right and see his handsome face peering down at her.
“You’re quiet again,” he said.
“Mmm,” she murmured, turning her face back toward the ocean.
“Most girls I know are much chattier than you.”
“I’m fairly chatty,” she assured him. “I’ve also been accused of being bossy on more than one occasion.”
“You were a little bossy this afternoon when you told me to put you down.”
“You didn’t listen.”
“Nope. I like to be my own boss.” He pulled one arm from around her long enough to take a sip of beer, but replaced it as soon as he was through. Vivi sat there in the comfort of his arms, holding a beer she didn’t really want, enjoying the breeze off the ocean, the rumble of the surf, and the brilliant full moon.
She turned her head and said, “This is really nice, Lane.”
“Better than boring, loud music and overpriced drinks?”
“Yeah,” she said, turning back toward the water. “Way better.”
“I think so, too,” he whispered against her ear. “You cold?”
“I’m pretty perfect,” she said, relaxing into him and the night.
“You are indeed,” he said.
She smiled into the dark.
“So what’s Sleeping Beauty’s plan for the rest of her life? What’s your big dream?”
“Hmm,” she said on a sip of beer. “What a compelling way to ask that question. I bet most of my friends aren’t considering their big dream as they scramble to find a job. Most haven’t figured out what their dream is yet.”
“But you have.”
“I figured out my dream when I was six years old and asked for a whiteboard for Christmas. I’ve wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember.”
“A teacher?”
“Yes.” She laughed. “Not very chic or inventive. But I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’m looking forward to having my own classroom and working with students.”
“So that bossy streak is going to come in handy.”
“My personality is well-suited to the profession,” she admitted.
“What grade?”
“Originally, I wanted to teach high school. Had thoughts of becoming a college professor. And I still might. But my student teaching took place in an elementary setting, and I just fell in love with those young ones. Eager to learn, eager to please. They look at you like you have all the answers.”
“Well, who wouldn’t like that?”
> “Exactly.”
“What’s your favorite subject?”
“Math. I double majored in education and math, thinking that’s what I’d be teaching.”
“I thought I kicked ass in math, until I hit Calculus. That course kicked my ass back. Hard.”
“Mmm,” she said, turning to her side so she could look up at him. “I made good money off of guys like you,” she quipped. “Being that Wake is a liberal arts college, there is a math requirement,” she said, running a hand over his chest. “I started tutoring my second semester and built up a nice fat bank account to show for it. Which I’m going to need since teaching jobs seem to be scarce at the moment.”
She tried to turn back around, but Lane stopped her. He pulled her a little sideways, up against his chest, keeping his arms circled around her. “I like to see your face when you talk,” he said. “You comfortable?”
She nodded, feeling shy. Again. Lane did that to her in a way no guy had ever done. She didn’t feel like her bossy self around him. She felt…pretty? Feminine? Yes, both of those. Plus a little overwhelmed. He was forthright in a way Kevin obviously hadn’t been. And Lane seemed somewhat romantic. Taking her I.D away from the bouncer was forthright and suggesting a walk on the beach was romantic. Carrying her into the water today was heroic and romantic. This was romantic.
At the moment, she was really digging on romantic.
“Any job prospects?” he asked.
“Lots of resumes out. I’ve already had an interview with a school system in Atlanta. I won’t know if there’s an opening until July sometime.”
“Is that where you’re from? Atlanta?”
“No. I’m from a little town in North Carolina.”
“Me, too. Where?”
“Henderson?”
“No shit?”
“What?”
“I’m from Oxford.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” she said, sitting up.
“Nope. Our hometowns are fifteen minutes apart.”
“Wilson High School?” she asked.
He nodded. “Henderson High?”
She nodded back.
“So we’re arch rivals,” he said.
“I guess we are.” She grinned at him. “What?” she asked when he just sat there grinning back.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 61
