by Holly Renee
There wasn’t a thing about me that was calm.
There wasn’t a thing about me or the ocean that was calm.
“So there’s no point to this?” I looked over my shoulder, and he was right there. His mouth was so close to mine. I would have to stand on my tiptoes to reach them, but I could do so easily. I could kiss him, and I knew I wouldn’t regret a thing.
“There is definitely a point.” His hand tightened around mine, and his gaze dropped to my lips.
He was going to kiss me. I didn’t know anything about this boy or who he was or what he wanted, but I knew that. We didn’t need to know anything about each other to know that I felt desperate for him to kiss me.
I licked my bottom lip, and he tracked the movement like a hunter.
“Josie!” I could hear my name being called in the distance, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to end this moment, this trance I felt like I was under. I wanted Beck to kiss me before he thought better of it and turned away.
My name was called again in the distance, and Beck lifted his head toward the sound, but I was already moving. I let my hand fall from his, and I twisted against him as I wrapped my hand around his neck.
My heart was slamming against my chest, and my lungs felt like they were crashing into me with the same force of the ocean. I wasn’t this girl. I didn’t make bold moves or kiss a guy I didn’t know.
But no one here knew who I was.
I was no one to them. A brand new face, a girl who was nothing but a mystery. I could be whoever I wanted to be here. I could create the girl I wanted them to know.
He looked back down at me, the sound forgotten, and he didn’t wait for me to close the gap between us. He leaned down, the muscles of his neck straining beneath my fingers, and he pressed his lips to mine.
At first, it was gentle, his lips moved against mine, and I tried to breathe even though it felt impossible. Beck tugged my bottom lip with his teeth, and I couldn’t hear a thing except for my harsh breath and the sound of his growl.
We didn’t know each other, and somehow he wanted me as much as I wanted him. His hand pushed into the windblown strands of my hair, and he tilted my head backward just as his tongue hit mine. He tasted like wintergreen, and I couldn’t get enough of him.
I chased his tongue with mine, and he tightened his hand in my hair. There was an edge of pain under his fingers, but I didn’t care. It only made me want to get closer to him. We were practically surrounding each other, and still, I felt the urge to climb closer and closer until there wasn’t a breath left between us.
I heard my name again, this time closer, but I still kissed him. I didn’t want to stop. I didn’t want reality to hit and for him to remember that I was some stranger that didn’t matter to him. I wanted to live in this moment, and I refused to allow anything to ruin it.
Even if it was just this one kiss, this one touch between us, it was perfect and messy. His teeth hit mine as he pulled me closer, and I clung to him as my lips moved faster and faster against his.
I had very little experience when it came to men, but I knew that this kiss wasn’t a first kiss I would ever get again.
This would be it, then I would have to let it go. Beck would be the guy I compared other first kisses to for the rest of my life, and a twinge of fear ran through me at the thought.
He pulled away from me as my name was called again, and I bit down on his lip before slowly letting him go.
He lifted his head, but he was still staring down at me. I was wrong before. His eyes were much more golden than they were brown or green, and the moonlight seemed to flicker off the specks that I felt lost in.
Beck blinked away the fog that he had fallen under with me before turning toward the beach we had just come from only moments ago. I followed his gaze, and I didn’t even have time to catch my breath before Lucas and some guy I didn’t know came into view.
Beck’s body went stock-still beside me and his hand slid from my hair. I quickly dropped mine away from him and stepped toward my stepbrother.
His face was flushed and his eyes looked murderous, but I had no idea what his problem was. I didn’t even know the guy, despite his mother’s marriage to my father, and he had no right to act like the protective older brother.
Even if he was technically about eight months older than me.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Calm down.” I crossed my arms, but he wasn’t talking to me. He and his anger were headed straight for Beck.
“What the fuck does it look like I’m doing?”
I spun around to face Beck. His voice sounded so different. He sounded so angry and irritated, and honestly, cold. Nothing like he was with me only moments before.
“Do you two know each other?” I looked back and forth between them, but neither one was looking at me. They were staring each other down in some sort of pissing contest, and I had no damn clue what the hell their problem was. “Hello.”
“Yeah.” Beck nodded and looked over at me. His eyes now felt as cold as his voice. I would have given anything to go back to being in his arms before Lucas interrupted us. I liked that Beck. That Beck felt intoxicating. This Beck was something different.
This Beck scared me a little.
“How do you know Lucas?”
I looked back between them because I was clearly missing something. “He’s my stepbrother.”
A harsh laugh fell from Beck’s lips, and I watched as he clenched his hand at his side. Lucas moved toward me, and I jerked away from him as he reached out for my arm. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t need him trying to be some knight in shining armor.
“Don’t act like you didn’t know who she was.” The way Lucas said it made my gaze snap up to Beck. He knew who I was this entire time?
But Beck wasn’t looking at Lucas anymore. He was glaring at me, and he no longer looked like he wanted any part of me. Those feelings washed out to sea the moment our kiss was over. The only thing Beck’s face held now was pure disgust, and it was directed entirely at me. While his eyes glared, his mouth curled into an evil smirk. He looked like a threat no one would ever want.
He barely knew anything about me, but as soon as Lucas appeared and he learned of my connection to him, everything was forgotten and I became enemy number one.
He hated me. Instantly.
Whatever his reasoning was, Beck hated me and the way Lucas reached out for me again. He stared at his hand as if he could set it on fire with his stare. He was furious, and I had no idea what I had done.
“That’s why you wouldn’t tell me your last name.” He laughed, and there wasn’t an ounce of humor. “What did you do, Vos? Send your whore sister out here to seduce me?”
I jolted back as if he had slapped me. I felt his insult to my very core. Every part of me that felt alive under his kiss now felt like it was burning with embarrassment.
I had been such a damn fool.
“Fuck you, Clermont.” Lucas pulled me closer to him, and I let him. I had no idea why he was so angry over me being out here with Beck. Why he was so protective.
Lucas barely knew me, but we were family. Even if we didn’t know each other yet, he was all I had.
And he wanted me nowhere near Beck Clermont.
Clermont. Beck Clermont. As in Clermont Bay.
As in the family, this town and everything inside it was named after.
“Let’s not compare whore sisters.”
Beck lunged toward Lucas, but whoever the guy was that came with Lucas stepped in his way.
“Fucking move, Ben,” Beck growled at him, but Ben stood his ground.
“That’s not happening. We have summer training tomorrow.”
I turned away from all of them and moved down the beach. I didn’t want to hear another word of what either of them had to say. I felt so humiliated and dirty, and I wanted to get away from them as fast as I could.
I wanted to jump in the ocean and wash away his words and his touch and th
e way the taste of him still lingered in my mouth.
“Don’t go near her again.” Lucas was as mad as Beck, and I was suddenly thankful that he was here. Even if him being here had ruined everything, I didn’t want to give Beck another second of myself.
He had more than I should have allowed already.
“I’ll go near her if I want to.” Beck’s reply stopped me in my tracks. “There isn’t a damn thing you can do to stop me. If I want to fuck her, I will.”
I turned back to look at him. He was out of his damn mind.
“I could have fucked her right here on this beach if I had wanted to. I hadn’t realized your sister would be as fucking desperate as you are.”
I started toward him. I wanted to rage, to slam my fist against his chest, to demand he stop talking about me as if I wasn’t right there, but Lucas was already beside me. He pulled me away from Beck and his evil fucking laugh that echoed behind me.
He was wrong. I would have never let him do that. I wasn’t desperate or a whore, and I refused to be treated like one simply because I let some asshole kiss me on the beach. Because I had practically begged for it with my body.
“Fuck you, asshole,” I yelled over Lucas’s shoulder, and Beck’s anger finally morphed into a smile. This one was nothing like the others he had given me earlier. Nothing about him was anything like that guy.
This was the real Beck Clermont, and I didn’t like anything about him.
“I can’t fucking wait, princess.”
Chapter Two
Beck
What the fuck was I thinking?
I had no idea who the hell she was when I stepped out onto the quiet beach. Parties in this town were shit most of the time, sometimes they served their purpose of getting laid, but if I turned up, it was for a reason. And when the people at these parties annoyed the hell out of me, I went to the beach. It was my place. My escape, my solitude, mine. The warm sand and damp ocean air. Mine. I had claimed it as my own long before she ever stepped foot on it, and now it was tainted with her.
The salty air reminded me of her hair whipping around in the strong breeze, the damn rocks made me crave the feeling of her hand in mine, and the spray of the ocean hitting my lips set my fucking soul on fire with thoughts of devouring that pretty little mouth of hers.
If I had known who she was, I would have sent her ass packing the moment I found her sitting there. If I had known she was related to that piece of shit, I wouldn’t have given her a second glance.
But I hadn’t known. And she was so damn gorgeous. Even in my anger, I could admit that. Her long brown hair was full and fell just below her breasts. Those were perfect too, along with her ass, but it was her deep brown eyes that I couldn’t seem to forget.
There was a smattering of freckles across her nose that made her look so innocent. She looked so pure and sweet, and nothing like her fucking stepbrother. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw the similarities between her and her father.
I knew of Joseph Vos. Everyone in this town did, and I hated him as much as I hated his stepson.
And Jesus Christ, seeing Lucas act like he was some sort of fucking savior was beyond a joke. He was as far from a savior as I was a virgin.
The Lucas I knew was the most self-centered asshole. I hadn’t realized that before, but I knew that now.
I knew that with a certainty that I wish I didn’t.
The thought of him caring for her felt almost as shocking as knowing she was his sister. Lucas had never mentioned having a sister before, and I most certainly had not heard Mr. Vos talk of a daughter. I would have remembered it if I had.
I used to consider Lucas my friend, but just thinking of his betrayal made my stomach ache and my hands dig into my chair.
Josie was a Vos.
That was the only thing I needed to know.
It didn’t matter that she was gorgeous or even a bit charming. It didn’t matter that I had wanted to fuck her the moment her soft lips touched mine.
She had looked up at me like she wanted me, like she didn’t even care or know who my family was, but that was all a lie.
The only look I cared about now was the one she had given me when she left. She was so angry, her face had fallen, and she looked like she hated me as much as I hated her.
Good.
I wanted her to hate me.
I wanted to ruin her and her smug fucking brother. But most of all, I wanted to ruin her damn father, who thought he was untouchable.
He was the one who kept Lucas protected from what he did. He had money and power, and he wielded it like a sword.
It didn’t matter that my father had the same advantages. He would never allow me to get away with what Lucas had.
I looked over the people still drinking and trying to get laid, and I clicked on my phone. I searched her name on Instagram, and she quickly pulled up. She only had a few followers, and I found Lucas’s name at the very top.
I clicked off her followers and scrolled through her photos. She was gorgeous in all of them, and that only served to piss me off. There were no pictures of anyone else. Not Lucas, not her dad, not any sort of boyfriend.
“What was that about?” Cami sat down on my lap, and I quickly tucked my phone in my pocket.
“What?”
“That.” She waved her hand toward the door Lucas had left through only moments before. I had followed him back to the house as he had stormed down the beach with Josie’s hand in his. She had jerked her hand from his as soon as their house came back into view, and she disappeared through the gate as if she had never been there at all.
Lucas kept walking though. His expensive car and his stupid friends were still back at that party. But every bit of the party was forgotten to him as he jerked his keys from his pocket and stormed out the front.
I was thankful. I didn’t have any more energy to give Lucas tonight.
He was pissed and everyone knew it, but I didn’t give a shit what they knew. I didn’t care if they thought I fucked his sister out on that dark beach like she was nothing but a whore.
Cami ran her fingers through my hair, and I pressed the back of my head against the chair and looked up at her. I used to feel something when I looked at her. There used to be a rush of attraction and the thrill of thinking about what she would do with her mouth.
But those feelings were gone. The urge to push her away from me was overwhelming.
“That girl.” There was a tone of jealousy in her voice, but I knew it was all for show. Cami didn’t care about me. She didn’t care for much of anything but herself. But that wasn’t really fair. She had cared for Frankie after everything happened. When no one else was there, she had been the one my sister could turn to.
Because Frankie had refused to turn to me.
“That’s Lucas’s sister.”
Her eyes rounded in shock. “What?”
I tightened my hand around her waist and tried to make the feel of her body make me forget the feel of Josie’s.
“I didn’t know he had a sister.”
“Neither did I.”
Her gaze snapped to mine at my tone. Cami knew how much I hated Lucas. She knew what kind of toll it took on me to even be in the same room as him.
“What happened with her?”
“Nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing.”
My hand tightened further, and I wanted to throw Cami from my lap. She had no right to judge me or act like a jealous girlfriend. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought or what we made them believe.
The two of us knew where we stood.
The two of us together had been unstoppable. No one ever fucked with us, but I still had the freedom to fuck whoever I wanted.
Cami pretended we were still more than what we were, and I let her. She used me to keep her freedom from her parents who would never approve of the real choices she was making, and I had used her to make my sister feel like she was alive again.
We had both nee
ded each other once upon a time, and that need had morphed into something different. Cami was using me to hide her secrets, and I was now using her for her perfect pink mouth.
It was the best of both worlds for me. I got to be with Cami or any other girl I wanted, and no one had any real expectations from me. None of them were expecting a Prince Charming, thank fuck, because I wouldn’t give that to any of them.
Not even Cami.
“Did something happen between you all?” She smiled as another girl walked by us and toyed with the chain around my neck.
“Nothing worth noting.”
“So, I shouldn’t be worried about this?” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. “You’re shaking, you’re so angry.”
She was right. I was. My grip on her and the arm of the couch was brutal and bruising, but I felt like I couldn’t relax.
“I’m going to destroy her.” I was honest with Cami for the first time in a long time.
“His sister?” She searched my eyes, and her blue ones didn’t seem nearly as vibrant as they used to.
“It seems only fair, right?” I cocked my head and moved my hand farther up her side. Cami had the most amazing tits.
“This isn’t a good idea.” She shook her head, but she wouldn’t be able to talk me out of it. I had stopped listening to what Cami said the moment I found out her secrets.
“I don’t need your approval.”
Her body jolted under my hand, and I knew that I had hurt her. But right now, I didn’t care. “I know you don’t.”
She stood from my lap and reached her hand out for mine. “Let me take the edge off.”
I thought about telling her no, but she was right. I needed this. I needed to stop thinking about Josie Vos and let Cami make me remember who I was.
I let her pull me into a bedroom, and I grinned as one of the guys catcalled. These people were far too easy to impress. They thought because I had Cami on my arm and in my bedroom, I was some sort of god.
