Identical Disaster (The Sterling Shore Series Book 8)

by C. M. Owens

  Her eyebrows go up, but when I wink, she starts laughing, getting my meaning. Her face turns red, which blows my mind. After all we did, how can she still be shy?

  I’m almost positive my mouth has touched most of her body. Her mouth could have explored a little more. In fact, her mouth hasn’t gone lower than my waist yet. But that’s my fault, since I got impatient and kept fuc—

  “Jax?” My mother’s voice shatters every ounce of sexual tension in the room as she knocks loudly. Very loudly. And very insistently.

  Bo squeals and ducks back inside the bathroom, while I jerk the covers up to my neck.

  “Yeah?” I call, even though I feel like a little kid after what happened with the spank room from hell.

  “We’re going into town. Do you need anything?” she asks, fortunately not bothering to open the door.

  Can’t say I blame her.

  I open my mouth to tell her no, when suddenly Dustin’s voice is chiming in.

  “Says he needs magnum condoms,” Dustin tells her flatly. And very fucking loudly.

  I’m going to kill him.

  Silence descends on the other side of the door until I hear the click click click of her heels as she walks away. For once, I feel sorry for my mother.

  “Really?” I groan, knowing Dustin is standing on the other side of the door and barely containing his laughter.

  Snorts and smothered laughter is the only reply I hear before the sound of him running down the hallway lets me know he’s going to erupt out of earshot of my mother. How thoughtful.

  Rolling my eyes, I toss the sheet off me, no longer interested in spending the day in bed.

  Mood has been annihilated.

  Bo peeks her head out the door, tears in her eyes from holding back her laughter.

  “I think you’ve seen me at my lowest,” I grumble.

  She doubles over as her body shakes with the suppressed laughter. Wearing nothing but my boxers, I walk by her and head into bathroom to shower. Ten minutes ago, I would be inviting her in here with me.

  Now? I need time to regain some man points.

  ***

  Bo is on the deck, wearing nothing but her bikini, as she stares over at Jane, who is setting up some equipment on the beach.

  “What’s she doing?” I ask, coming up behind Bo and wrapping my arms around her waist.

  She doesn’t stiffen at my touch for once. She melts against me as though this is the most natural thing in the world, and I try not to think too much about it.

  “Dad is setting up for a photoshoot. Jane wants to be a photographer, and he has a magazine spread coming up. Dad’s helping her get her foot in the door by choosing her as his photographer for the spread. The magazine wants the shoot, so they’re rolling with it,” Bo answers.

  Dustin’s voice cuts through the relaxing atmosphere, as he sidles over and hops up on the deck railing to watch the show. “Paradise equals hanging out with a rockstar in a multi-million dollar home, girls wearing nothing but bikinis all the time, and having awesome five-star meals every night. Best. Trip. Ever.”

  Bo shakes her head, but she’s smiling. At least she’s warmed up to Dustin. Cody… I still don’t know what happened there, and neither of them want to speak about it, apparently.

  Mom and Dad are walking up with Viv, all of them eyeing Jane as she starts taking a few shots of the sand. Vince is probably planning to make a grand entrance or something.

  Just as my family steps onto the deck, Vince pops out, and my mother almost falls. Fortunately, my father catches her.

  “For fuck’s sake,” my father grumbles as Vince struts by in a cowboy hat, shirtless, and wearing—

  “Please tell me those aren’t assless chaps,” Bo groans, turning toward me with her eyes screwed shut.

  “Those are definitely assless chaps,” I say immediately, wishing I could scrub the image of her father’s ass from my brain.

  That man is on a mission to ensure my dick never works again.

  “All chaps are assless,” Viv says, keeping her usual condescending tone as Vince winks at her and heads down the deck steps.

  “You know it’s annoying when you do that, right?” I ask my spongy sister, but she just shrugs, still staring at Vince’s ass.

  “Why is a rocker wearing cowboy stuff?” Dustin asks, completely unaffected.

  “I can’t watch this,” Bo says while looking up at me and not daring to turn around.

  “I can,” my mother quickly interjects, fanning herself.

  My dad cocks an eyebrow at her, and she clears her throat before turning around and heading inside. “I think I’ll go check to see how lunch is coming along,” she says as she crosses the threshold, never turning back around.

  Dustin is grinning openly at me. “Dude. Your mom so has the hots for Jaggons.”

  Dad scowls at Dustin before stalking inside.

  “If Dad wears chaps because of that remark, I’m so beating you to death with your own arms after I rip them off you,” Viv sneers, glaring at Dustin.

  “Kinky,” he says, still grinning as he leers at her.

  “Pig,” she mutters, but her lips twitch.

  I don’t want to stand here and listen to my best friend flirt with my sister any more than Bo wants to see her Dad model in assless chaps.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I tell Bo, but she shakes her head.

  “I can’t turn around because I’ll see that.” She shudders dramatically, and I glance up as Vince slaps his own ass for the camera.

  Rolling my eyes, I lift Bo, and wink at her. “Legs around my waist.”

  She hesitates for only a second before doing just that, and her arms go around my neck. When she realizes I’m about to carry her away from this, she shuts her eyes and buries her face against my neck.

  Yeah, I definitely don’t want to think about how fucking good it feels when she starts kissing the side of my neck. I also lose track of how long I’ve been carrying her along the beach.

  “I have to be getting heavy. As long as you’re walking with your back to him, I can get down now.”

  “Not heavy. Keep your eyes shut. You’re facing him,” I tell her, snickering when she shudders again.

  After walking for about five more minutes, she starts wiggling, which reminds my cock how to work as all thoughts of her father flee. Reluctantly, I let her slide down my body before I’m at full attention and struggling to walk.

  She keeps her eyes shut until she’s facing away from her dad, who is too far behind us to really see clearly, and she blinks rapidly while shielding her eyes from the sun as her other hand finds mine. Until today, she hasn’t sought out my touch, and I realize more than ever that she’s finally comfortable with me.

  I had to fuck her brains out to make her comfortable with holding my damn hand. Unbelievable.

  “So that’s what you grew up with?” I ask as we head toward… I don’t know where we’re heading, to be honest.

  “Yep. The entire band is that way. Fortunately, they held modesty to a higher level until I was eighteen. After that, they stopped giving a damn what I saw as long as it wasn’t a frontal shot.”

  I’m still trying to wrap my head around the way she grew up. On her own at sixteen, for the most part. A father like Vince? A mother who drifts from place to place?

  “How are you normal?” I ask before I can stop myself. “Better question… How are you shy?”

  She laughs lightly while shrugging. “We met because I was breaking things off with you for my sister. I came to Hawaii with you without even knowing you at all. I’d say I’m far from normal.”

  I think on that for a second before nodding. “Good point.”

  Damn, I love it when she laughs. Her smile is so free and unrestrained, as though nothing else matters to her right now.

  “As for shy, I don’t know. Always have been. Too much attention makes me squirm. Dad always had a big group of people around him, everyone bidding for his attention… It got to where I was just sick of
it. It’s not like I get anxiety or something. It’s just that every little thing makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like big crowds unless I’m really comfortable with everyone there. I really don’t like new people at first. I’m quiet, meaning people tend to talk over me, anyway, so it’s not like I’m adding to a group function.”

  “You’ve done well here.”

  “I adjust when I have to,” she says, looking around as though she’s searching for something.

  “I thought I was laidback until I met you,” I admit, smiling when she laughs again.

  “I’m not usually quite so go-with-the-flow. I’m blaming it on Hawaii brain.”

  My eyebrows go up, and she grins when she sees my quizzical look.

  “Like any other form of paradise, it makes you act differently. You get to relax, be more like your real self, and just live instead of rushing around. If we were in Sterling Shore and all this was happening, I wouldn’t be so laidback.”

  Sterling Shore… Nope. Not going to think about the future just yet.

  In the moment. Stay in the moment.

  “There it is,” Bo says, shaking me out of my thoughts. My eyes move to where she’s pointing, and I follow her toward a large set of rocks that do not look too promising.

  Looking around, I notice we’ve moved away from the beach, and now we’re headed into the mini jungle-type area.

  “Barefoot,” I remind her, glancing down at the sand that is now mixing with grass.

  “They keep a trail cleaned out,” she says, brushing off my concerns. Sure enough, there’s a trail right in the middle of the growth, and I put a hand on her back, making sure I don’t lose her as I look around at the massive jungle growth that seems to come out of nowhere.

  Vivid colors are all around me, almost looking like a painting as opposed to real life. Thankfully, no animal sounds—besides some birds—are around. That wouldn’t be okay.

  Bo smiles over her shoulder at me just as I quit scanning the scenery around us, and I pull her a little closer, keeping my hand on her waist.

  “Where are we going?” I ask her, but she just laughs lightly while turning back around.

  “The sex cove,” she finally says, causing me to trip over my own feet like an idiot.

  She laughs again, but I’m too mesmerized to care that my mouth is hanging open in awe. Paradise is an actual place, and we just found it. Stepping onto another section of beach, I turn a circle, trying to figure out how we got here.

  I stop spinning when I start feeling like a cartoon character.

  Bo is smiling at me and walking backwards, and I glance over her shoulder to see this cove she’s talking about. It’s not a beach, per se. I mean, there’s sand, but no crashing waves.

  It’s like there’s a mini version of the ocean back here with nothing but privacy. Rocks are staggered and sticking up, making a perfect cave type area, but they’re smooth stones instead of jagged, volcanic rocks. It almost looks like the perfect nook to escape the rest of the world.

  Land is across from us, encircling the water. It almost looks like a pond, but I can see the large canal type area where the ocean is connected.

  “It really is paradise,” I murmur to myself.

  “It’s like a small bay, and the waves don’t crash in this part. The stones feel like they’ve been sanded down to make the perfect place to relax. Dad always called it his favorite enigma.”

  She walks into the water that is moving more like a lazy river than an ocean, and sits down on a rock hidden in the shade, leaving her feet dangling in the water.

  I wade out into the water, feeling my feet hit a drop off, and suddenly I’m waist deep. Bo smiles down at me and scoots over on the rock just as I reach her. Without even giving it a thought, I grab her hips and slide her into the water until her legs wrap around my waist and her lips brush mine.

  “Why is this the sex cove?” I ask, sliding my hands over her ass.

  “It has mystic powers. Can’t you tell?” She grins before biting that damn lip of hers, and I try to ignore my painful erection.

  “Not at all,” I lie, smiling when her grin broadens.

  Her smile slowly falls, and it’s like she drifts into her thoughts. Apparently they aren’t good thoughts, since she’s no longer smiling at all now.

  “What’s on your mind?” I ask, pushing her against the rock a little more as I dip my head to kiss the side of her neck. Her breath hitches and her fingers slide into my hair, something I love for her to do. It means she needs something to cling to.

  “What are we doing?” she finally asks.

  I stop kissing her neck, but I don’t lean back to see her eyes.

  I’ve been around girls long enough to know she doesn’t mean what are we doing right this moment. That’s a loaded question I’m not ready to answer, so I keep it light.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” I ask, smiling against her neck and hoping she drops it.

  “Is this a vacation fling, or… What happens when we get to Sterling Shore?”

  I’m not even sure how many days we have left, but it doesn’t seem like too many. And I’m not ready to think about all the madness I’ll have to face when I get back from such a long absence.

  “Can we worry about what’s happening now instead of worrying what will happen then?” I ask hopefully.

  She doesn’t speak for a second, and we remain fixed in our positions.

  “I just want to know how attached to get,” she says softly.

  Yeah, that definitely makes me feel like an ass.

  Leaning back, I study her eyes, and see that insecurity there that I usually don’t deal with. She’s nothing like I’ve ever wanted before, and yet she still seems a little too good to be true.

  “I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. “I’ll be slammed and crazy busy when we get back. I’m sure you’ll be even busier. And… I don’t know. I wasn’t looking for a relationship when I stumbled onto you, but I like being with you. Can we not worry about labels and what’s going to happen? Let’s just see where it goes.”

  Chapter 33

  BO

  Let’s just see where it goes.

  I can do that. He’s right. I’m certainly overanalyzing things. And he’s definitely right about the fact I’ll be swamped when I return home. There’s no use in drowning myself in all the possibilities right now.

  When he starts kissing my neck again, I abandon the thoughts of the future, pushing them into a far corner in the back of my mind where all those other forgotten thoughts stay covered in dust.

  In no time, we’re a tangle of passion, desperate kisses, and grinding bodies. When Jax groans a tortured sound into my mouth, my hand moves between us, slipping inside his board shorts and finding exactly what I want as my fingers curl around him.

  His kiss gets hungrier, and he makes another strangled noise as I grip him and stroke him, holding him to me and wishing I had more room to move easily. But he has me in a death-grip now, almost bruising me as his fingers dig in and pull me closer.

  I love it.

  “Please tell me you’re a boy scout,” I murmur against his lips, but the words are muffled because he’s still busy devouring me.

  He grins briefly against my lips, then I feel him dropping his hold on me as his hands disappear from my ass. I’m too busy kissing him to even realize he managed to get the condom on without pushing me away, until he slides my bikini to the side.

  In one smooth motion, he’s thrusting up, and I’m forced to break the kiss when I almost bite down on his lip. He doesn’t fuck me with reckless abandon this time though.

  The water slows his movements, restricting his pace. Our eyes stay locked, leaving me feeling exposed and open. I’m almost worried he can actually see inside my mind, because everything I’ve been holding back seems to crash to the surface, making what we’re doing so much more intense.

  One of his hands holds my ass, but his other comes up to my cheek and slides into my hair, holding me just tight enough to control
my movements. It’s so intense, but I force my eyes to stay open as he continues to rock in and out of me.

  When my orgasm strikes, I feel it vibrate throughout me with more power than I’m expecting, but I hold his eyes even as I whisper his name. Something silent passes between us, and his lips come down on mine as he continues to own me, chasing his own release.

  I’m unable to stop myself from falling for him, and he doesn’t even want to think about a future.

  ***

  “And his ass was hanging out of his pants the whole time,” Dad says through guffaws of laughter, wiping tears from his eyes as everyone around the table laughs. “Best ass story to date.”

  I barely laugh, because I’ve heard this story far more times than I care to count.

  “No, no,” Jax says, still laughing as he puts his beer down. “I have a better ‘ass’ story than that.”

  We’re outside on the deck, all of us sitting around the outdoor table, enjoying the ambience of the waves crashing in the background. Well, not all of us are here. Cody and Dustin went into town, thankfully. They’ve yet again been ditched by Jax who has elected to hang with me and his family. And my dad.

  “When I was seven, we went to this little amusement park—”

  Mrs. Marshall’s loud gasp and wide eyes has Jax bursting into laughter, and his father snorts as Viv chuckles lightly.

  “Don’t you dare tell that story!” Mrs. Marshall hisses.

  It’s too dark to tell if she’s blushing, but I swear I can feel heat radiating off her.

  “Oh he has to now,” Dad says, grinning wickedly as he leans up.

  Mrs. Marshall covers her face with both hands, and Jax continues speaking.

  “So we found those little cutouts where you stick your head through character heads and take pictures,” Jax goes on, smiling and teetering on the edge of laughter again. “But they were meant for kids only. No adults.”

  “Why are you telling this?” his mother groans, still covering her face with her hands.

  Mr. Marshall snorts, barely holding in his laughter. Dad and I lean forward, wondering where this is going.