by Tess Oliver
Within seconds his arm snaked around my waist. He pulled me against his hard chest, and I kicked helplessly in the air as he carried me toward the water. “No, no, it’s too cold!” I screamed with laughter. His feet were in the water but I lifted my legs up high. “Please, I’ll give you anything, just don’t drop me.”
He laughed, carried me back to dry sand, and lowered me to the ground. “That’s all right. I’ve seen you in a wet bikini. With a little imagination, I can picture exactly how you’d look in a wet t-shirt.”
I marched ahead of him. “We should head back. I still have work to do in the shop. It’s easier to walk on the path.”
He caught up to me. “You put in long days at that bakery, don’t you?”
“Yes, but I love it. And my grandmother needs the help. She’s ready to send me off to college in fall, but I’m thinking of staying here. I don’t want to leave her alone. We’ve only got each other.”
We reached the houses and he took hold of my arm. I stopped and looked up at him.
He moved closer. “I seem to remember being promised anything for not dropping you in the water.”
“I could save you a cinnamon roll in the morning,” I said.
His face neared mine, and his lashes drifted down as he gazed at my lips.
“As tempting as that sounds, there’s something I’ve been craving even more.”
“Is that right?” I asked on the last breath I was able to take before his mouth covered mine. My fingers clutched at his massive arms as he lifted me onto my tiptoes to bring my mouth harder against his. Riley barked once and we drew apart, but our gazes held.
“Darn it,” I said.
“That is not the response I was hoping for.”
“It’s just I was kind of hoping that your kiss would be crappy. Then I’d have a reason not to like you.”
“Sorry to disappoint . . . or I guess to not disappoint. Not sure. I’m kind of confused by the whole thing.”
I reached up and wiped some sand off the side of his chin. “Don’t be.” I turned to continue down the path.
“And I wasn’t even trying that hard,” he called to me.
I waved a hand back at him. “Don’t flatter yourself. All I said is it wasn’t crappy. I didn’t say it was earth-shattering.”
His footsteps sounded behind me, and he grabbed my hand and pulled me down an alley between two houses. Halfway down the path, he pressed me against the wall. His mouth slammed down over mine, and he kissed me until little lights swirled in my head and I thought I might sink to the ground from weakened legs. By the time he stopped kissing me, we were both breathless.
“That time I was trying,” he said once his breathing had slowed.
“Uh huh, I sensed that.” My fingers were still clutching his shirt as he released his hold on me and took my hand.
He walked me to my house and kissed me lightly before I went inside.
I was just about to shut the door when he called to me. “I’m glad you let me come along.” He headed back to the path.
Chapter 12
Jamison
It was still dark in my room when I heard the glass door slide shut. “No surf. I’m going back to bed,” Reeve said then slammed shut his bedroom door.
I flipped over on my mattress relieved that the waves weren’t good enough to get up for. I’d had every intention of heading to the Rainbow’s End for a cinnamon roll, but I drifted back into a comfortable sleep and woke two hours later. I slid out of bed. I wouldn’t get a cinnamon roll, but there was something at the shop that held a lot more interest than its baked goods.
The closed sign was hanging on the door but the lights were on inside. I could see Echo wiping the counters. She glanced up and walked to the door to let me in. Her long hair was tied up in a pony tail exposing the long, sexy curve of her neck, and I badly wanted to plant a kiss on her smooth skin.
The fragrance of cinnamon and sugar clung to her. “You missed out this morning.” She smiled at me. “Couldn’t get your sorry butt out of bed, huh?”
“Yeah, my covers were holding me hostage. Besides, the water was flat today.”
Her thin, toned arms moved along the metal counters as she rubbed them to a brilliant silver shine. “I noticed. I guess it will give me time to catch up on some reading.”
“I was hoping you’d want to take a drive. I wanted to head back to Emerald Beach. I was going to take a few pictures.”
Her eyes widened as she looked up from her task. “What for?”
“Just thought it might be a better place for a hotel.”
Her lips, those lips that I couldn’t stop thinking about, turned up on one corner. “You don’t need to try so hard. You already got a kiss.”
“Well, I’m working toward the second one.”
She blushed lightly beneath her tan. “Actually, you already had the second one too.”
Her grandmother poked her head around the corner. “Hello, Jamison. Coco, don’t forget to sweep the sidewalk.”
“I won’t.” Echo dropped her rags in the sink and reached back to untie her apron. She struggled with the knot for a minute then walked in front of the counter and turned her back to me. “Can you get the knot out? I seem to be making it worse.”
I took longer than I needed to release the knot. Her nearness, the smell of her hair, the curve of her neck and shoulder were taking their toll on my senses. I let the ties of her apron go then trailed my fingers up her back to the base of her neck. I could hear her soft intake of breath as I lifted her ponytail and pressed my lips to the soft skin on her shoulder.
She turned her cheek and laid it against the top of my head, and I trailed a line of kisses along her arm until the back screen door slammed. Her friend called her from the kitchen. Reluctantly, I pulled my mouth from her skin.
“I’m in the shop, Zach,” she said sounding slightly out of breath.
Zach walked to the store front and made it clear that he was pissed to see me standing there with Echo. “Why is he here?”
“I invited him in, and how’s it any of your business?”
I touched her arm both to get her attention and because I badly wanted to keep touching her. “Echo, if you get me a broom, I’ll sweep the sidewalk so we can take that drive.”
Zach’s frown twisted to a scowl. “You’re not hanging out with this guy, are you, Coco? He’s a player just like his brothers. Don’t tell me you’re falling for his act.” He lifted his chin in the air like he was ready to take me on. It was pretty damn impressive considering I outweighed him by at least a hundred pounds.
Echo shot him a harsh look. “You and I need to talk.” Then she brushed past him and returned a moment later with a broom.
I took it from her and then turned to Zach. “I don’t blame you, Bro. If I were lucky enough to have her as my best friend, I’d be overprotective too.” I lifted my fist and after a long pause he lifted his and bumped mine.
I carried the broom out to the sidewalk and peered inside a couple of times. At first it looked as if she was laying into him pretty good, but after a few minutes, she was smiling. She even reached over and hugged him at one point.
A few minutes later Zach walked out onto the sidewalk and grabbed the broom from me. “Let me finish that. You’re doing it all wrong. You two go on that drive.” He pushed the broom a few strokes then looked up at me. “You do anything to hurt her and you’ll be answering to me. I might be small but I’m tough.”
“I promise to treat her right. Thanks, Zach,” I said. Echo was watching me through the glass, and I stopped and stared at her for a second like I was watching a picture, a picture of an amazing girl who had completely taken hold of my heart. She smiled breaking my trance.
I opened the door. “I’ll be back in fifteen with my jeep.”
Matt was sitting at the kitchen counter lean
ing over a bowl of cereal. Reeve was draped over the couch watching television. He peeked up over the back of it as I walked in. “Did you bring any cinnamon rolls?” Matt’s face popped out of his bowl with the mention of the rolls.
“Sorry, not today.”
Reeve sat up. “But you went to see her, didn’t you?”
“None of your damn business.”
Reeve flopped back down, and the entire couch jumped slightly with the weight of it. “I don’t give a shit if you see her or not. She’s nothing special.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that before. You’re also full of crap.” I found my keys and grabbed my wallet.
“Where are you going now?” Matt asked between mouthfuls.
“For a drive.”
“Sounds exciting,” Reeve said. “By the way, everyone’s coming out in two days, so we’re going to throw a couple of parties. Dad sent us to stir things up, so I invited a bunch of people out here.” He lifted his chin so he could see me over the back of the couch. “Maybe you can bring the cinnamon wench. She seems pretty damn frigid. Maybe a party will thaw her out.”
I slammed the front door behind me.
The soft, white material of Echo’s sundress danced against her long, tanned thighs and her hair, now released from its pony tail, billowed around her thin shoulders as I pulled up to the Rainbow’s End. Riley sat next to her with a rubber ball in his mouth. She walked to the jeep and leaned into to the window. Strands of golden, brown hair trailed across her cheek and mouth. She reached up and held her hair back as her large, hazel eyes smiled at me. Nothing special, my ass. And Reeve knew it too.
“Do you mind if Riley tags along?” she asked.
“Not at all.”
The dog climbed into the backseat, and Echo slid into the front.
Her nearness immediately wreaked havoc on all my senses, and I consciously had to slow my breathing. Never had a girl had this kind of impact on me. I focused on the road in a pathetic attempt to get my mind off the long, sleek thigh dangerously close to my shifting hand.
“So was Zach all right with this?” I asked hoping conversation would ease the heated energy coursing through me.
“Probably not. But I assured him he was making a big deal about nothing.”
Definitely not the words I wanted to hear. She seemed to sense my disappointment.
“Maybe nothing was too strong of a word. I mean I know there is something between us. But we don’t have anything in common, Jamison.”
“We both love the beach,” I said lamely.
“A lot of people love the beach. And you’ve forgotten that it’s Angel Beach that has driven a wedge between us.”
I turned onto the section of highway that bordered the coast, and we drove in silence for a few miles. She reached down and unlocked her seatbelt then leaned toward me to look over the side of the road to the coast below. The shitty turn in conversation had done nothing to cool my senses. A silky strand of her hair brushed my arm, and I gripped the steering wheel to keep myself from touching her. She’d basically stepped into the jeep and thrown cold water into my face and yet every inch of me burned. She rested back against her seat but my grip was still tight on the wheel.
“The sea lions must be out hunting. There were only gulls on the rocks,” she said, completely unaware of the effect she was having on me. She was thinking about sea lions, and I was thinking about how badly I wanted to drag her into my lap and kiss her.
“There’s the empty lot overlooking Emerald Beach,” she said.
My enthusiasm for the entire idea had been dampened completely. Truthfully, there was little chance that Dad would go for my plan, and even if by some miracle I could get him to consider Emerald Beach for his resort, it probably wouldn’t help my chances with Echo. I was still a Freely and that hideous reality was always going to stand in my way.
I turned the jeep off the road and stopped the engine. She hopped out immediately and pushed the seat forward for her dog to jump out. I watched her walk to the edge where the lot dropped off to the steep hillside with the rickety stairs. The strong breeze pushed the thin material of her dress against her, highlighting every sweet curve of her body. I swallowed back the tightness in my throat, and I wondered how I was ever going to wash her from my mind. I climbed out of the jeep and walked up behind her.
“It really is a million dollar view from up here,” she said. She looked back at me over her shoulder. Sunlight highlighted every perfect angle of her face. “Should we go down the steps? They’re kind of sketchy, but I’ve been down them before. It’s fine as long as you watch where you’re putting your foot.”
“Sketchy is definitely the word for those stairs. I walked down them once and I have to confess that I sort of took out the hand railing on one side.”
“Your first mistake was trusting that railing at all.”
“True.” I followed her to the steps. Riley shot ahead of us and raced down the steep stairs like he was flying over them. “Maybe we should try to go down on all fours. Riley makes it look so easy.”
Echo stopped and looked down at the steps. “They look even worse than they did last time I came.” Her dog bounded onto the sand then turned around and wagged his tail wildly and barked once. “Nobody likes a show-off, Riley.”
“Do you want me to walk in front of you?” I asked.
She seemed to assess the descent once more then stepped aside so I could go first.
I started down the creaky, splintered steps. Echo was right behind me. “I apologize in advance if I trip and take you out on my way down,” she said. We silently concentrated on every precarious step.
I reached the sand and turned around just as her sandal caught on a shard of wood. To avoid falling down the remaining steps, she flung herself forward and landed in my arms. I held her against me as she peered up and smiled. I lowered her feet to the ground but releasing her was another matter altogether. In fact my grip tightened around her.
She laughed softly. “I just realized how ridiculous it was for me to think that if I tripped I’d take you down with me. I’m pretty sure I’d just bounce off of you.”
I lifted my hand to the side of her face, and my palm pressed against her cheek as I leaned down to kiss her. Her lips parted but I stopped myself, dropped my hand, and released my hold on her. Her lips closed and pursed to a pout of disappointment.
“I guess if this is going nowhere and we have nothing in common, I should stop kissing you,” I said.
“I suppose . . . or you could try and convince me otherwise.” Her eyes glittered in the sunlight as she leaned toward me, threw her arms around my neck, and kissed me. Then as quickly as she’d walked up to me, she dropped her arms and walked away.
“You are a puzzle,” I called to her as she headed to the water. And something told me I was going to be agonizing until the last piece was in place.
I caught up to her and we sat to take off our shoes.
“So what are your future plans? I mean once you’ve completed your father’s evil biddings.”
I stood, offered her my hand, and pulled her to her feet. We walked toward the water. “You’re not going to give me a break, are you?”
“Sorry. So are you joining the family business, or are you off to an Ivy League college?”
I laughed. “Well, those would be my father’s choices. Of course, throughout junior high I was sure I’d become a pro surfer, but that delusional plan never panned out. Then once I got to high school, my dad told me I’d be going to a top college and I would get a degree in finance and then join the family business.”
“So he had your future mapped out whether you were on board or not?”
“Yeah. So, naturally, I jerked around in my expensive private high school, failed most of my classes, and even got suspended a few times. Hell, I tried like crazy to get kicked out, but I soon discovered that hefty
donations make school officials and board members extra lenient.” Frigid water rushed over our bare feet.
“Sounds like you’ve played the part of decadent rich boy pretty well. I suppose your father has found a way to get you into a prestigious college despite your lack of qualifications.”
I shrugged. “Even if he has, it won’t matter. I’m heading up to Alaska in the fall. I’ve got a job on a fishing boat.”
She stopped. “You are kidding, right?”
“Nope.” I reached up and brushed strands of hair off her face. “Why? Do I seem like such a pampered, rich boy that I couldn’t make it out on a fishing boat?”
She wrapped her hands around my arm and we kept walking. “No, that’s not it. It’s just that I’ve always wanted to work up there on a fishing boat.”
I laughed. “Come on, you’re joking.”
“No, really. I’ve always thought it would be cool out there on the open seas.”
“Well, you should come with me then. We could share a bunk.”
“Yes, Mr. One Track Mind.”
“You’re right. That was bad.” I pulled my arm free from her hands and put it around her shoulder, pulling her against me as we walked. “I guess I’d have to settle for sharing really tight quarters.”
“With half a dozen other smelly fishermen.”
“I guess that would sort of mess up the romantic notion of sharing close quarters.” Riley dashed down the sand to chase off some sandpipers. “This is a great stretch of beach. Even the waves look better here.” I looked back at the ridge where the jeep was parked. “What I really want is to be an architect. But my dad doesn’t want to hear about it. We don’t talk much these days.”
“What does he think about you going off on a fishing boat?”
“He doesn’t know yet. In fact, I don’t plan on telling him until I’m walking out the door with my duffle bags.” I dropped my arm and took hold of her hand. “What about you? Now that you’re out of high school, where are you headed? Assuming you haven’t already joined a fishing boat crew.”