She giggled and I treasured the sound and sight of her happiness. I let her down once my feet hit the blanket but I did it slowly savoring the feel of her curves sliding down my body.
“Sit,” I prompted when she didn’t move and started to look uncertain. She lowered herself onto the edge of the blanket facing the ocean, tipping her chin into the ocean breeze the way she often did. I sank down beside her, tugging the hem of my tee that had ridden up from the waist of my Volcom cargo shorts all the while watching her, my body already mourning the loss of contact.
Now that I had her here I didn’t know where to begin. Ash had cautioned me about mentioning Kit but I didn’t like leaving that hanging between us.
“I missed this.” She turned to look at me, her smile wistful and her eyes a little sad. “And you.”
“I did, too.” I scooted closer and took her hand curling my fingers around her. “Everything I said, everything I wrote is true.”
“I know that now.” Her eyes brightened. “I’m sorry for the way I reacted. Sorry for misjudging you. I’ve got no right…”
“You have every right,” I cut in. “If I had seen another guy kiss you. When someone suggested that you and Ash might be…” My fingers tightened on hers. She winced and I brought our joined hands to my mouth and brushed my lips across her knuckles in apology. “I would have reacted the same way,” I concluded.
Her lips parted as if in awe of what I had confessed. I reached for her, the surface of my palm skimming her soft cheek and my fingers threading in her silky hair.
“What do we do then, Linc?” Her voice was low and emotion filled. “I leave for school again soon and you leave for Fiji even sooner than that. I don’t see how it can work for us. I’m not grounded anymore but my dad…” She trailed off and I filled in.
“It will work if we both want it to. It worked tonight.”
Honeyed eyes wide, she nodded.
“So we’ll be committed,” I confirmed.
“We’ll have to keep our relationship secret. You’ll get tired of sneaking around. You said yourself that I’m not the type of girl you’re used to. I’m not experienced. I’ve only been with two other guys.” Out of excuses, she looked away withdrawing from my touch and untangling her hand from mine. I could see the sheen on her eyes. It wasn’t the type of bright glaze I wanted them to have.
I moved placing myself in front of her so she had to look at me, had to see the sincerity blazing from my steady gaze. “I will never get tired of being with you.” I thought it best to alleviate that concern first. “And I believe that what I actually said to Ramon was that you weren’t the type of girl to be interested in his kind of shit. The temporary get laid without any emotional attachment type of crap. I’m glad that there have only been two other guys for you.” That meant there were only two murders I had to plan. “Now that I’ve met you, I wish that there had been no others for me. I don’t want my past to hurt you or come between us. I can promise you that there hasn’t been anyone else since the day I met you and that there won’t be anyone else as long as we’re together. Honestly, I only want you, Mona.”
I framed her face and her lids fluttered closed, the tension in her face relaxing as if my touch and my words soothed her. “I want all of you. I want to know everything about you. I want to make you smile. I want to hear you sing again.” I brushed my mouth across her soft lips. Her eyes opened though they were a little hazy. “And I want you naked.” My voice lowered an octave as I imagined it in my mind. “I want to caress every single sexy inch of you. And I want you to touch me, too. But that will come.” My eyes burned with certainty. “I promise you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
* * *
Simone
I wanted everything he did and then some. I opened my mouth to tell him but I think he already knew. He could taste the surrender on my lips as his slick tongue traced and glided between them. He could hear it in the soft moans he greedily swallowed slanting his head to deepen the kiss before feeding me a long hot male groan of his own. He could feel my need for him in the tensed arc of my body and the way my fingers explored every hard male contour I could reach while he rained warm showers of desperate kisses across the exposed surfaces of my skin on my cheek, my neck and collarbones.
His breath began to sound ragged matching my own. My breasts rose and fell with every one, the nipples tight points that ached for his touch.
“Mona, we need to stop.” He drew back and framed my face again his thumbs stroking my cheeks his eyes as dark as the night beyond our island of candles on the sand. “I want you. Right now. So badly. If you could feel how fast my heart is racing, if you knew how hard my cock is, you wouldn’t even believe it.”
Curious I moved my hands from his forearms. One palm I brought to the center of his chest and felt his rapid rhythm. The other I slid lower fingertips savoring each ridge of his abdomen holding my breath, biting my lip in anticipation as I went lower.
“Mona.” He said my name on a shuddering breath. “Stop.” He snagged the lower hand first then peeled the other one from the perspiration dampened cotton clinging to his chest. Covering mine with his own he brought them up to his lips and kissed each while staring at me. “Not tonight, babe. Soon like I promised. Not because I don’t want to is the point I’m trying to make. Because I want to too much. You are special, Mona. More important than any other woman I’ve ever known. Worth waiting for.”
He released my hands and laid back on the blanket, placing one arm behind his head for a pillow. “Come here.” He crooked his fingers and gave me that charming one dimpled grin. “I want to hold you for as long as I can before you have to go in.”
“My sandals,” I protested bending at the waist to unclasp the straps. “I’ll get grit all over the blanket.”
“Leave them on,” he commanded. “I don’t care, and I don’t want to waste the time it would take for you to get them off when I could already have you here by me.” He raised a brow. “I don’t want to waste any time that I have with you.”
I turned and crawled toward him, the sandstone cool beneath the blanket but he was warm, a virtual inferno of heat as he drew me closer my body aligning to his. He threaded fingers into my hair cradling the base of my skull and bringing my head to rest against his chest.
“Tell me what you did this week.”
“Didn’t Ash tell you?”
“Sure. But I don’t think he pays the same attention to the details as I would when it comes to you.”
I grinned against his chest. I was pretty sure he could hear the smile in my voice as I began to share. No one had ever been as interested in the mundane details of my life. He not only told me how important I was to him, he was showing me. “I re-supplied inventory with my dad in the mornings, balanced the books at night. Hostessed some. Managed a bit.”
“Sounds tiring.”
“It is. It was.” I yawned to prove it. “What did you do?”
I listened to the rhythmic rise and fall of the tide as he shared how much he looked forward to taking the pictures for me, finding the right words. How he had surfed. How he and Ash had spoken each evening about me.
Safe and secure in his arms I started to get sleepy and closed my eyes. I felt his body twist before he kissed the top of my head. His arms tightened around me. “Rest, Mona. Sleep a bit. I’ll wake you before the sunrise.”
Chapter Thirty
* * *
Linc
Dawn was just starting to turn the world from black to grayish half-light as I walked her up the stairs and back toward her place kissing her once more before reluctantly letting her go.
I hated being parted from her.
From my position several houses down from hers, I watched her sexy hips sway as she continued on the sidewalk and climbed her porch steps. Key inserted in the front door she turned back to wave, her lips lifting in a melancholy smile.
I dipped my head to acknowledge it waiting as she entered, wanting to be sure that she w
as safe. The lights remained off in the foyer but I wasn’t leaving until she made it to her room.
On the walk from the beach she had shared how she’d gotten caught after Dominic’s party and it troubled me more than I let on how her father had treated her. It was more than just being separated from her that bothered me about bringing her home.
I couldn’t protect her when she was in there and I was outside.
A soft glow illuminated the second story window on the side of the house. The blinds opened and I saw her silhouette in the frame.
Taking my cue to leave, my heart a tight lump in my chest, I turned away forcing my feet in the direction of my home, the ache of separation from her growing more painful with each step.
I was going to have to do some serious planning. She was right about the time we had together being short. I resented the daylight for stealing her away. I wanted each minute of it to go by faster so I could see her again, hold her again and maybe a bit more.
Day by Day.
Night by Night.
Hour by Hour.
I was determined to treasure every single moment that she was mine. The future was never certain. But that future was coming toward us as surely as the waves inevitably reached the shore.
• • •
Simone
I stood at my window watching him walk away, his strong shoulders hunched, his head bowed and his hands shoved deep into his cargo short pockets. A chill that felt a little like a premonition tiptoed up each individual vertebra of my spine. I wrapped my arms around myself to ward it off. I wasn’t going to just hope for good things to happen with Lincoln. I was going to make certain they did.
I didn’t like him being sad.
I knew I could make him happy.
I wanted to show him just how committed to us I was. So I held off sleeping or showering the residue of dew and sand from my skin. Instead hugging my arms around myself I replayed every word from our night together until the clock on my nightstand hit a less egregious hour.
Popping the cordless phone out of its charger I punched in Karen’s number as I headed into my bathroom, locking the door. I took off my sandals with it cradled between my shoulder and ear.
For Linc and me to work with my father against us, we were going to need support.
Plus a little creativity.
After filling Karen in on the details of my night with Lincoln, she was more than willing to help. The cloak and dagger aspect of my relationship with him resonated with her for some reason. Plus she hadn’t been totally out of the loop. I hadn't been grounded from talking with her on the house phone this past week. She had pretty much swung back to being pro-Lincoln after he had publicly brushed off Kit at the party and initiated the love note campaign.
After we coordinated our plans I jumped into the shower and feigned surprise when my mom yelled for me to pick up the phone as I was blow drying my hair.
Karen went through the whole spiel just in case anyone was eavesdropping. The story was that she was heading to the community pool and was inviting me to join her. I held my hand over the receiver and obtained permission before agreeing to meet her there.
“Don't forget you need to come in early for your shift,” my father reminded me at the base of the stairs. “I need you to start training Ash tonight.”
“Sure, Daddy.”
“He's a real hard worker. A nice boy.” Ash was totally nonverbal at the restaurant besides the occasional whispered words to me and a consistent yes to everything my dad asked him to do. And no surfing talk. No wonder my dad liked him.
I shrugged. “He's alright.”
“He's your age. He's taking classes at City College. Maybe you two could go out some time? Wednesdays are usually slow.”
A night off with Ash as an alibi? Hallelujah the surf gods were shining their golden rays of approval on Linc and me.
“I'll think about it,” I told him trying not to sound overly eager. I didn't want him to get suspicious. I twisted the latch and opened the door hefting my swim bag up higher while calling out over my shoulder. “See ya later, Dad”
Flip flops snapping excitedly against the pavement, lips curved in anticipation of surprising Linc at the beach I headed to Karen's house a couple of street further from the coast than mine. We would do a U-turn and go the other way once we met up. It was a little extra walking, but whatever I had to do to facilitate the ruse.
Turns out he surprised me, instead.
Wearing only a pair of long black and white swim trunks and a black Volcom ball cap that was slightly askew, his arm draped over his surfboard, taking my breath away and my heart already though he didn't know it yet, Lincoln smiled his dimpled grin and my expression turned into something else entirely. Something he seemed to understand. Something that meant he was the only one for me and probably always would be.
“C'mon gorgeous,” Lincoln picked up his surfboard and opened his other arm for me to step into. “I wanna teach you how to surf.”
Chapter Thirty-One
* * *
Simone
At the beach we met up with the rest of the crew. Each had their own reactions to Linc and me. Karen seemed practically euphoric as if she had single-handedly orchestrated my reunion with him. Ash seemed reserved though pleased. Ramon only smiled. Dominic took it in stride as if things were how they were meant to be.
We threw our towels and bags in a pile and stacked the boards together. Karen and the others complained about the heat and decided to head into the surf for a swim. Lincoln had other plans for us. He began running me through the steps to pop up on the board while it rested on the shore.
Karen’s laughter and a chorus of male shouts drifted back to me over the sound of the waves lapping the shore and my labored breathing. After what seemed like my hundredth attempt on the maneuver that was a lot like doing a pushup and then jumping to standing, Linc nodded his approval.
Finally.
I stood still toes sifting sand while Linc crouched beneath me fastening the tether from his board around my ankle. His masculine fingers lingered on my lower leg. His eyes were hot and I got that way, too, just looking at him.
My arms felt like lead and trembled with exhaustion as we paddled out together. We moved into a position on the other side of where the waves were breaking. Lincoln gave me some more advice and information about the sport that mostly went in one ear and out the other. I didn’t really care at this point about any of that and I didn’t care that I had been up all night either.
What I really cared about was him. I had been on a total high since the moment he had placed his warm fingers on my skin his hands practically spanning my waist plucking me out of the water and depositing me on his board.
Now I was laid out on my stomach in position ready to paddle and pop up while he bobbed in the water beside me. He shook out his mane of wet hair and the droplets cooled my sun heated skin. The blond highlights faded into a more uniform brown when drenched by the ocean water. We stared at each other as we floated both a little tipsy on one another it seemed.
“I could stare at you all day, gorgeous.” Linc’s sculpted lips curled. When I assured him I could do the same his dimple appeared to wink at me. “But if we do that,” his expression turned stern, “you’ll forget what I just taught you and we’ll have to start all over again. You need to immediately put what you learned into practice.” He nodded his head thoughtfully. “Trust me. I remember from when I was first starting out.”
“Who taught you?”
“My old man.” He frowned. “It’s the one good thing he did for me. The only thing we ever had in common really. I practically killed myself learning new maneuvers hoping if I got good enough I might win his approval. And then maybe he’d quit drinking and knocking me around. But it was never enough.”
I gasped tears filling my eyes as he so matter of factly shared the terrible details of his upbringing. Leaning toward him, I grabbed his hand and brought it to my chest near my heart that ached for
him, for the boy who had tried so desperately to please an unloving father.
“Don’t feel sorry for me.” His gaze grew hard.
“I don’t, Linc. I just…” My lip trembled. “I just wish things had been better for you, that’s all. I’m so glad you have your aunt and uncle and Ash. I know…” I trailed off afraid to share.
“Tell me,” he prompted.
“I’m not saying it’s exactly the same but I think I understand just a little bit of how you must have felt. Things aren’t so great with my parents, either,” I began.
“I know, Mona.” He squeezed my thigh.
“Everyone knows how they are,” I whispered. “People feel sorry for me. I hate that. That’s why college is so important to me. I have to get my degree so I can finally break free from all of that.” I pleaded once again for him to understand what I’d never properly explained.
“I don’t feel sorry for you.” His clear blue eyes glistened like the surface of the water all around us. “The fact is I’m damn proud of you.” His voice thickened. “Beautiful and brave. I’m falling for you hard. You know that. Right?”
I nodded though I wondered who was falling harder.
Chapter Thirty-Two
* * *
Linc
I wanted to nix the surfing lesson, paddle us in and kiss her breathless. The only thing that kept me from doing so was knowing that I wouldn’t be able to stop at just kissing, not when I so desperately wanted to take her and make her completely my own.
“Hand on the rails and get ready to pop into your stance.” I tweaked her toes where they dangled in the water beneath my board.
She nodded and did as she was told. I nearly swallowed my tongue watching her tits nearly fall out of the tiny purple triangles that barely covered them.
(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5) Page 12
