by Nella Tyler
We got our burgers and fries and while we ate, I said, “So, what’s this about a boat hitting you?”
“Oh yeah, man, I can’t believe I never told you. It was about nine years ago, I guess. I was living out of my Kombi back then, following the coastline from one end to the other. I’d been in San Diego for a few weeks and was thinking about pulling out that night, but I went in for one last midnight run before I did. I was paddling out to the break and these little bastards in daddy’s speedboat barreled past me. They had some girls on the boat, and I could tell they’d been drinking. They were in a part of the cove they weren’t even supposed to be. I remember thinking that last run wasn’t worth dealing with the little punks, so I turned around. That’s the last thing I remember until I woke up in the hospital. I was in a coma for a couple of weeks and there was an attorney at my bedside when I woke up. He sued their daddies and that’s where I got the money to open my place. I put the rest in the bank for hard times.”
I shook my head. That story explained so much. I met Kobe when I was seventeen. We’ve been friends for four years and this whole time, I thought his problems functioning in society were all related to how much weed he smoked. “Damn, Kobe! I can’t believe you never told me that.”
He grinned and I could barely see his white teeth through his gnarly black beard. He really needed a haircut and shave. “Maybe I did and you forgot.”
“Yeah, maybe that was it,” I let it go at that and we finished our lunch. Kobe let me pay like he always does. It’s how we’ve done things since we met, and I don’t mind. On our way back to his shop, we stopped in at Flanagan’s, a little Irish pub on main. We had a couple of beers and bullshitted with a few of the locals. I’d been in Hawaii for a competition for the past month and in Australia for a couple of months before that. I just came home for this Laguna competition and then I’ll be off to Bali. It was good to see everyone. It always seemed like nothing around here ever changed while I was gone. If my father has his way, Bali will be my last competition. I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do about that yet, but I have some time. We’d been away from the surf shop for almost two hours when I pointed at the clock and told Kobe,
“Hey, maybe this is why you’re not making any money.” He laughed and gave me the finger, but we settled the tab and headed back to the shop. I saw him glance towards the homeless girl’s corner as we walked by. He looked disappointed that she was gone. I was hoping she’ll find a new spot and he’ll forget about her. Kobe’s the kind of guy that would be really easy to take advantage of. He unlocked the shop when we got there and suddenly, we heard the sound of a girl’s voice behind us,
“Hey, Kobe!” We turned at the same time. I saw Kobe’s homeless girl, but only for a second before my eyes landed on her… She was a tiny little thing with long blonde dreadlocks interspersed with braids and beads. I was shocked at myself for finding it so sexy, that was new for me. One of her small hands was twisting and twirling one of the braids and her dark green eyes were looking directly at my face. They are surrounded by dark, thick lashes, and the rest of her features are small and delicate. Her skin looks like sun-kissed silk without a stitch of make-up on it. She can’t be over five foot two, but she was wearing cut-off jeans and a tight blue t-shirt that showed off delicate womanly curves that begged to be caressed. She has colorful tattoos on both of her arms and at the shapely tops of both of her tan legs. I wanted to trace them with my tongue…
“Hey, Phoebe…and friend,” Kobe said. “Come on in.” I stood back to let Phoebe follow Kobe inside. Her little friend looked up at me again as she passed and I smiled. She didn’t smile back, but that didn’t stop the swell of my parts down south.
Once we were inside the shop, Phoebe and her friend followed Kobe up to the counter. “Kobe, this is my friend Summer.” Summer smiled then, and it was like finally having a piece of that perfect cake, with the icing on top. Fuck…she’s gorgeous.
“Hi, Kobe,” Summer said, sweetly. She glanced at me again and the smile fell off of her face.
“Hi, Summer, you’ve been in here before, right?”
“Yeah, a few times,” she said.
I wanted to talk to her so badly I said, “You surf?”
She turned towards me and looked me up and down. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but I liked her eyes on me. In a tone that said she wasn’t impressed, she said, “Yeah,”
“Sorry, man! Girls this is my friend Spence…Drake Spencer. Drake’s a world class surfer and we should all be honored to be in his presence.” I rolled my eyes at Kobe and noticed the cute little imp rolling hers, as well. She turned her back on me again. I smiled – this one would be a challenge if I decided I wanted to go for it. She doesn’t look homeless, so why the hell not? It had been a while since I’d met a challenge.
I went around behind the counter and perched on one of the stools Kobe kept there. He and Phoebe were making eyes at each other over the counter and Summer had started looking around the place. As she sifted through the racks of surf wear, it gave me a chance to look at her without her catching me staring. I was glad the bottom half of me was hidden behind the counter because my body was responding to this girl in a way it hadn’t responded to any woman in a very long time.
I have plenty of sex, but it’s usually a quick fuck at a party or on the beach. I’ve never had a girlfriend and I’ve never wanted one. I don’t take girls back to wherever I’m staying and I try not to go home with them, if there’s another choice. I don’t want to give them the chance to think we’re going to cuddle or talk. I’m satisfied with as many random hook-ups as I can get…usually. I suddenly found myself wanting to take this girl home with me and spend the rest of the day and night exploring that sweet, feminine little body.
She turned back towards us suddenly, and those green eyes settled back on my face long enough to send a rush of heat all the way to my toes. She wasn’t smiling at me, but she wasn’t scowling, either. I have no idea what she was thinking about me and surprisingly, that kind of turned me on, too. She looked from me over to her friend and Kobe and said,
“Is there a bathroom I can use?”
“Sure,” he said, “in the back.” He didn’t even look up as the little woman pushed herself through his hippie beads and into the back room that was filled with tens of thousands of dollars in surfing equipment. Phoebe was leaning towards him even more and she had her arms pressed into her sides so that her big boobs swelled up over the top of her tiny tank – she was going to be lucky if she didn’t end up with Kobe’s slobber on them. I got up without either of them even noticing and went towards the back to see what the cute little imp was up to.
CHAPTER THREE
SUMMER
My body was shaking by the time I got to the back and it wasn’t because of the plan. I hadn’t been expecting to get blindsided by a hot surfer guy.
Jesus, my heart nearly stopped when he looked at me with those crystal blue eyes. He looked at me like he saw all of my secrets in that one glance. It was sexy and unnerving all at the same time. One look at him and you can tell he’s one of those surfers using daddy’s money to finance his lifestyle. I see a lot of those around here and I usually despise them at first sight, but this guy, there was something different about him. Either that or my hormones are just raging. He’s really, really hot. His dark hair is curly and looks like he’d spent the morning in the water. It has that “just drug my fingers through it” look and it made me want to put my own in it. He has to be, like, six foot three and he’s got on this dark gray, expensive-looking Australian t-shirt that says, “Insight” across the front of it. The muscles showing underneath it are enough to make any woman’s head spin. His board shorts are baggy, but there’s a nice pair of muscular legs coming out of them. He has a tribal tattoo around the bicep of his right arm and some kind of foreign writing down the back of his left calf. I shivered now just picturing them.
I gave my head a hard shake to clear out my perverse thoughts and g
lanced back towards the curtain. The thick set of blue and gray beads were all in place. There was no way anyone up front could see me. Bennie would be waiting out back by now, so it was now or never. I looked at the boards. There was a rack on the far wall that started with the smaller ones up front. I grabbed a red and yellow one and hauled it over to the door. I held my breath as I pushed it open because in spite of what I told Bennie, I really wasn’t sure if it had an alarm or not. When I saw Bennie’s anxious face outside, I was so relieved I almost kissed him. I handed him the board and as soon as he had it in his hands, his eyes went wide. He wasn’t looking at me any longer but at something over my shoulder. I felt the presence of the hunk before I turned around and saw those crystal blue eyes judging me.
The big, gorgeous bastard smiled. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Go, Bennie!” The big guy stepped around me, and I kicked him right in that sexy tat on the back of his leg. It was like kicking steel – my toes hurt and he didn’t even flinch. He went after Bennie, and I went after him. I saw him reach out and take Bennie down, board and all, with one hand just as poor Bennie reached the end of the alley. “Let him go!”
“It’s okay, Summer,” Bennie’s voice sounded out of breath and I realized it was because his sexy captor had his knee in his back. I grabbed the guy’s massive arm and tried to pull him up off of my friend. He looked amused as he wrapped the other one around my waist and pulled me down against him. I wondered how sick it was that I was enjoying the way his body felt against me. I started trying to squirm away, but he only held me tighter. I heard Bennie grunt and realized we were probably killing him.
“Be still!” the sexy dickwad snapped at me.
“Let him up and I will!”
The big guy looked down at Bennie and said, “Fine, I’m going to get off of you, but unless you want to hit that hard ground again, I’d suggest you don’t go anywhere.” Bennie grunted again. The big guy took that as consent and stood up, taking me with him. I started twisting and kicking again. “I thought you were going to be still,” he said, tucking me more tightly underneath his arm.
“Let go of me!”
“Not until I’m sure you’re not going to run.”
I looked down at poor Bennie, who was still on the ground trying to catch his breath. “I wouldn’t leave him here, now let go of me!” I felt the wind rush back into my lungs as he sat me down. I was also cold as soon as he let go of me. His body was not only as hard as a rock, it was literally hot. “We weren’t stealing the board,” I said, foolishly.
The hunk raised an eyebrow as Bennie groaned. “Really, this guy was going to take it around front and pay for it?”
“Yes,” I folded my arms. He couldn’t prove we weren’t, could he?
“Show me the money.”
“What?”
“Show me the cash or the card you were going to pay for it with.”
“Fuck you!”
“You’ve got some mouth for a little bitty thing,” he said. “Let’s see if it’s still working overtime when the cops get here.” He pulled his fancy iPhone 6S out of his pocket, and I felt a surge of anger burn so hot inside of me that I could only sputter, I couldn’t even form words. Proving he was a dick, the big guy said, “What was that? I didn’t hear you?”
I sucked in a hard breath and tried to still the anger as I said, “Please don’t call the cops.”
He looked back down at Bennie and then at my face. “Why shouldn’t I?”
I didn’t have an answer for that, except that I didn’t want to go to jail. That was probably not good enough so I said, “At least, let him go.”
“No, Summer, I-”
“Shut up, Bennie!”
“Why should I let him go? I caught him red-handed with the board.”
“You saw me hand it to him. He didn’t know I stole it, right, Bennie?”
“Summer-”
“Jesus, Bennie, just tell him you thought I paid for the fucking thing!”
Big and sexy laughed. I think he was having fun. That only served to piss me off more. “So, this guy thought you went in there, bought a surfboard, and handed it out the back door?”
“You can’t prove any different. He never stepped inside of the store. You may as well just let him go.” He was looking at me with those blue eyes. It was taking every hot fiber in my body to hold still and not shiver again.
“True, I didn’t see him in the store, but you, I saw.” He started to press numbers into his phone. I did shiver then, not because of his sexy eyes, but because the anxiety was rolling through me in waves.
“You go to jail, so do I, Summer.” Bennie just wouldn’t let well enough alone. The big guy looked back down at him like he’d forgotten he was there.
“You’re quite the gentleman,” he said.
“Fuck you,” Bennie said. “You’re quite the dick if turning this girl over to the cops is going to make you feel like a man.”
He raised a dark eyebrow again. He seemed torn between shock and amusement that Bennie was still mouthing off after taking a one-armed beat-down. He obviously has never known a street person. “I was actually being serious,” he said. He looked at me and said, “You should appreciate a good friend like him…or is he your boyfriend?”
“No,” I said, a little too quickly. I gave Ben an apologetic look. Later, I’d just tell him I was so adamant because I thought he’d use that against us. For now, I said, “He’s a very good friend. Please, I’ll do anything. Just let him go and don’t call the cops.”
“What’s the board for?” he asked.
“Summer, just let him call the cops-”
“Hush, Bennie! It’s for me. I’m going to enter that contest and win that ten grand.”
“The contest Ruckus is putting on for amateurs?”
My mouth never rests. “I may be considered an amateur, but I could out surf you any day, rich boy.”
He laughed. “Do you know who I am?”
“Narcissi?”
He threw his handsome head back and laughed. “You’re something else. I tell you what – I’ll give you a chance to prove that. Let’s have a little competition tonight, shall we?”
“Summer, just let him call the cops-”
“Hush, Bennie!” The big guy and I said that simultaneously.
“When and where?” I asked.
“Meet me at Black’s Beach at-”
“No fucking way!” Bennie shot up then all the way to his feet. “She’s not meeting you out there-”
“Bennie, I can speak for myself.”
“Summer, you don’t know this creep. He could rape or kill you up there and toss you in the ocean.”
The big guy laughed. “She’s so small, I could throw her over my shoulder and take her anywhere and rape or kill her right now if I wanted to. No, this is about whether or not I should call the cops. I’m torn. I really think I should; it’s the right thing to do. But I like a little healthy competition-”
“It’s not going to be a competition! Summer can’t surf!”
“Bennie!”
“I’m sorry, Summer, but you can’t.”
A slow grin spread across dark and sexy’s face as he said, “How about a handicap?”
“What kind of a handicap?” I asked.
“You surf naked.” He ran those ice blue eyes across my body. I shivered hard as his smile grew wider. Trying to keep the quiver out of my voice I said,
“How in the hell would me being naked give you a handicap?”
He ran his tongue across his lips. My panties were suddenly so damp that I was afraid I’d let my bladder go. “I won’t be able to concentrate on the waves,” he said. I agreed without even giving it any thought, anything to keep from going to jail at this point. I’d think about it later and figure out what to do.
I heard Bennie ask, “What do you plan on doing when she doesn’t show up?”
The big guy smiled and jerked his head towards the shop. “I always know where to find your little friend
in there. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to send the police home after her one day.”
“Fuck,” Bennie muttered as I watched the surfer god collect the surfboard, wink in my direction, and head back into the shop.
CHAPTER FOUR
DRAKE
The water was frickin’ freezing. It was times like this that I longed for Australia or Hawaii or even Istanbul. California’s ocean is always cold, no matter how much warmth and sunshine we have during the day. I came home for the tournament at Laguna – and to appease my father. He’s not going to be happy when I leave again, but I doubt that anything I do will ever make him happy.
I kicked at the sand underneath my flip-flop and wondered what the hell I was doing here. I was convinced that Summer wasn’t going to show up before I took that long hike down the cliff carrying two surfboards to get here. I was also scared to death that if I didn’t come, she would show up. After she and her friends took off today, Kobe turned the tables on me. I told him about catching her taking the board, but even Kobe could hear the sound of excuses in my voice as I did.
“Weren’t you the one who was just telling me I had to be wary of these homeless people?”
“Summer’s not homeless.”
He laughed. “What makes you think so?”
“If she was homeless, wouldn’t she be out there panhandling with your girl Phoebe? I’ve never seen her before, have you?”
“I’ve seen her in here; she was probably casing the joint.”
I rolled my eyes. “Have you ever seen her working the streets?”
“No.”
“I was really close to her, and she smells really good, too. She’s clean and her hair looks professionally done-”
“Lots of street people wear dreads. It’s easier for them to take care of.”
“Whatever, she’s not homeless.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince, him or me. I wasn’t sure why it even mattered. She’s clean and she’s the hottest girl I’ve ever laid eyes on…so as long as she’s at least eighteen, it’s on. I wasn’t planning on taking her home to meet the family, anyways. “I’ll give you the money for the board. Don’t call the cops, Kobe, okay?”
