Keeping Mr. Right Now: A Kisses in the Sand Novel (Entangled Bliss)

by Robin Bielman

  Except for maybe this beach.

  She waited. If he didn’t want to tell her what was up, she’d let it go. She had no right to ask him. She had a feeling it stemmed from his father, though. Last night she’d done some more research and read about their strained relationship.

  He cupped her cheek and she leaned into his touch. Nerves skittered down the back of her neck. A swallow worked its way down his throat.

  Oh, how she wanted him to kiss her so she could kiss him back.

  “Come on,” he finally said, dropping his hand and jumping out of the car.

  Disappointment swamped her. She put her hands on top of the passenger door so she could push off and jump over and out. If he didn’t need to open the door, neither did she.

  Only her flip-flop got stuck on the windowsill and—“Oh snap!” Her knee hit the side of the car hard, her arms flailed. She reached for something to gain purchase on before she landed in an embarrassing heap on the ground.

  Oomph. She landed against something solid. Warm. And delicious smelling.

  “I’ve got you,” Zane said, pulling her body against his before she smacked the dirt.

  She clambered up his body until her arms went around his neck, and he held her so her feet were off the ground. She looked up, and the top of her head hit his chin.

  “Ow,” he said, his hands loosening their hold on her waist as he gently put her down.

  “I’m sorry!” She took a step back. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

  He rubbed his jaw and then he laughed. “I may have to rethink my klutz remark.”

  The one about his sister being worse. Sophie sighed. Even with all her understanding of neurobiology, her limbs still didn’t always get the right message. “Sorry again.”

  “No worries. I’m glad I was here to catch you.” He grabbed the towels out of the backseat and started toward the sand. His steps ate up the pathway, and she had to hurry to keep up.

  Which alerted her to pain in her knee. She stopped and bent at the waist to check it out. Bright red, but nothing more.

  “You okay?” Zane knelt so they were eye level.

  “Yes.” She straightened.

  Zane’s fingers pressed along the top of her kneecap left to right, moved down, then continued right to left, leaving no spot untouched. His gentle manner made her legs shake. “It feels okay. Probably just bruised.” He stood.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Turning, he looked over his shoulder and said, “Hop on.”

  “On?” Her heart stuttered. He didn’t mean—

  “My back. Come on, the water’s calling.”

  Her feet didn’t move, a funny thing considering every cell in her body moved at warp speed, making her skin buzz.

  “Piggyback? Let’s go, sweetness.”

  She blinked herself back down to earth. Wrap her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck? Press her front to his back? Sweetness? This was not her reality.

  So she’d better hurry up and take advantage. She put her hand on his shoulder. He dropped a little lower and stretched his arm behind him to help her latch on. Once her bottom sat atop his forearm, he started walking.

  Since his other arm was carrying the towels, she held on tight, thinking to help him with her weight.

  “You can relax the death grip,” he said. “I’ve got you. You weigh, like, nothing.”

  “Sorry.” She eased up and let herself enjoy the ride. His waist narrow, his shoulders broad, she felt the solid muscles in his back working and wondered how he felt about her soft front flattened against him.

  Then, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, she put her chin in the crook of his neck so she could watch where they were going. He smelled like soap and man and she wanted to bottle the scent to take home with her.

  Driftwood logs and curlicue tree limbs lined the short silt path until they reached the wide expanse of pale sand. The open beauty seemed otherworldly, like the backdrop to a one-of-a-kind painting. Up ahead, two giant rocks loomed in the water like creatures from another planet. Light danced off them, yellow kaleidoscopic swirls drawing a delighted smile from her.

  “Is that common here?” She lifted her chin toward the rocks.

  “The rocks? Not really. The one on the right is Lady Face, named because the protrusions resemble a forehead, deep-set eyes, and a nose.”

  She bounced a little. “Oh, I can see that. And the other one? It looks like a spire.”

  “Yeah, centuries of waves have carved it to look like that. It doesn’t have a name.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “I don’t think it minds.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes even though he couldn’t see her and slid her gaze down the beach. A handful of seagulls squawked and coasted along the shoreline. A woman wearing a big floppy hat, her white pants rolled up to her knees, strolled away from them at the water’s edge.

  A slight breeze rippled the back of Sophie’s shirt just as Zane stopped where the sand turned hard and tossed the towels behind him. She relaxed her hold and he let her down.

  “Thanks for the lift,” she said, bending her leg with the sore knee back and forth.

  “Anytime.”

  He was such a good fibber. She knew he’d only done it to be considerate. Which was very nice, but for a guy who was endlessly on display, she wondered what was for show and what wasn’t, even with no one watching. Muscle memory and all that.

  “You ready to get your feet wet?” he said, breaking into her thoughts.

  She nodded and kicked off her flip-flops. She loved that he wasn’t planning to rush her into the water full steam ahead.

  He toed off his black flip-flops and pulled his T-shirt over his head. That left him in a pair of yellow board shorts that hung low on his trim waist. Her eyes went to those sexy indentations at his hips that disappeared under the trunks. She had no idea what they were called but they overwhelmed her. Not to mention his golden glow and incredibly hot abs. Muscled chest. Nice neck. Tan, strong arms. He took her hand and towed her down to the water.

  They waded into the surf with care. The first wave that approached froze her ankles and shivers raced across her shoulder blades and down her arms. When the water foamed away, she looked down at her feet, lifting her toes to see the imprint welled in the wet sand.

  After the fourth wave, she let go of Zane’s hand and backed up to slide her shorts off and lift her shirt over her head. She wore the same modest black one-piece she’d worn for their surf lesson, but a thrill sped through her at Zane’s undisguised perusal.

  He reclaimed her hand and they moved deeper into the water. Each step they took started with her. She giggled when the waves reached her waist. “This is the best day ever.”

  “I’m glad,” he said, almost knocking her off-balance with his unerring smile.

  “I want to go as far as Lady Face so I can touch her.”

  “I’m stoked you want to do that. You’ll have to swim some, since we won’t be able to touch the bottom, but the surf is pretty mellow today, so it should be easy.”

  “You’re looking at Lake Myrtle’s water-treading champion.”

  The corners of Zane’s eyes crinkled. “Oh yeah?”

  “Two years in a row. My mom and dad took me to the lake every summer growing up. We met my cousins there and rented a cabin for a week. Over the Fourth of July there were always lots of games and competitions for kids.”

  “Sounds nice.” He let go of her hand, the sea at her shoulders, but stayed close.

  “It was.” She used her arms and kicked her feet to keep afloat now. Those weeks at the lake were the only times she felt somewhat accepted growing up. Her cousin Emma—popular, pretty, and outspoken—saw to it. “I had my first…” She pressed her lips together. She really needed to stop talking, but around Zane she couldn’t help herself. Something about him made her comfortable and willing to open up.

  Zane swam beside her with ease. “Your first what?”

&nbs
p; “Nothing.”

  “Come on. It’s not nothing.” He paddled in front of her and floated backward, his foot tapping hers with one of his kicks. Blue eyes trained on her, he waited for an answer.

  “I had my first kiss there.” Again, thanks to her cousin who had set her up with one of the boys for outdoor movie night.

  “Was it any good?”

  Her mouth dropped open at the ease with which he asked that question and water poured in. She spit and sputtered. Zane chuckled, so she splashed him.

  “That’s none of your business,” she said, rubbing her lips together to rid them of the salty sensation.

  “That means no.”

  “It was fine.”

  “Fine isn’t good. Fine isn’t even decent. Was it sloppy? All tongue and no finesse?”

  Despite her embarrassment at his questions, Sophie found her pressed lips lifting at the corners. She liked that he didn’t hold back and was curious.

  She’d never told anyone but Emma about the kiss and the awful way it had made her feel afterward. “He…he shoved his tongue down my throat, and yes, it was sloppy and too aggressive and I hated every second of it.”

  “I guess he didn’t get a second kiss, then.”

  She smiled, happy that Zane didn’t pity her. And the way he spoke, like the guy was a bonehead for kissing her like that, made her light-headed. “He most definitely did not. What about you? How was your first kiss?”

  The water ebbed and flowed, the current moving toward Lady Face, bringing them closer to the massive rock with minimal effort. She wished they could stay out here forever.

  He cocked an eyebrow and pursed his mouth in a far too self-satisfied smirk.

  Figured. He probably knocked some girl into another orbit with his first kiss.

  “Awesome,” he said. “But then I kissed an older woman, so she knew what to do with me.”

  “You were nervous?”

  “Isn’t everyone?”

  “I just thought—”

  “You thought because I’m Zane Hollander I don’t get anxious or worry like everyone else? I’m not that special, Sophie. Just good on a surfboard.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. I thought first kisses didn’t matter as much to guys as they did to girls, so they didn’t really get nervous. A girl dreams about it. Thinks about it constantly. Wants it to be perfect and go on for hours. Boys want to rush through it so they can get to other things.”

  He drifted closer. Tiny dots of light danced in his eyes. His stares always ratcheted up her heart rate, but this time she heard the beat pounding in her ears. “What other things are we talking about?” he said.

  A really nice ache stretched up and down her inner thighs that had nothing to do with treading water. “You know, things.”

  The dimple in his left cheek appeared, and Sophie crushed harder. She couldn’t pull her eyes away. So unlike her past infatuations, where she easily diverted her gaze to save herself from being discovered.

  “Oh, I do know. I am one of these boys you speak of. But I’m wondering if you could say one of those things out loud.”

  “Why?” she breathed. No way was this flirting going anywhere. He had models and actresses and beach bunnies to pick from. Not this week.

  “Because I— Ow. Hell.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Thanks for the warning,” he teased.

  “I’m sorry!” Her cheeks heated. She’d been so preoccupied with her eyes on his that she hadn’t noticed they’d been swimming the whole time. How she missed the giant rock proved how preoccupied she was.

  She swam around him and touched Lady Face. “Wow,” she whispered. Cold and smooth, she rubbed it like it held magical powers.

  “You’re shivering,” Zane said. “Let’s head back.”

  They swam toward shore, practically shoulder to shoulder. “Thank you for bringing me here,” she said.

  He didn’t answer until her toes touched sand, and they slowed their pace, the ocean floor helping to keep them afloat. “There’s something I should tell you before we see my mom and sister.”

  “Okay.”

  His chest rose and fell. He stopped slogging against the tide. “My sister, Julia, has thyroid cancer. She went to the doctor this morning, so I wanted to see her. They caught it early but…”

  Sophie spun around to face him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed. She’d heard the lump in his throat and, without a second thought, needed to comfort him. “Treatment works extremely well, Zane. I’ve done a lot of volunteer work with cancer patients. She can beat this.”

  He blinked and nodded his thanks. Seeing this larger-than-life man out of sorts pinched her heart in a way it had never been before.

  “I don’t have any brothers or sisters, but I imagine you want nothing more than to fix this.” She glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of a larger wave rolling at them. Her legs tensed.

  Zane picked up her hand and jogged to shallower water as if he sensed the wave behind them. As soon as it crashed at her back, he slowed to a walk.

  “You’re, like, one with the ocean, aren’t you?” she asked. A few more strides and they’d reach the shore.

  “I like to think so.” He bent his neck to the side and then back so his hair flopped out of his face. “Thanks for the pep talk.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  They walked up onto the dry sand, and he spread out one of the fluffy yellow-and-white-striped towels for her. She collapsed onto her stomach.

  “Tired?” He sat right in the sand, legs bent at the knees, and ran his towel over his face and head for all of two seconds.

  She laid the side of her head atop her arms so she could look at him. “If I say exhausted, you won’t think I’m a wimp, will you?”

  “Nope.”

  “I think I just got a better workout than my kickboxing class.”

  He rolled onto his side and propped up on his elbow. “You kickbox?”

  “Thanks for sounding so amused.” She dug her toes into the sand.

  “You just keep surprising me, is all.”

  Her eyelids grew heavy. The warm sunshine on her back combined with the soft sand underneath her was a killer combination of comfort. And if she closed her eyes, she could dream about Zane and all the things she wanted him to do to her.

  “Huh. No one tells me that back home,” she muttered.

  “You’ll have to change things up, then.”

  “Good idea,” she whispered, lids halfway to closing. She probably shouldn’t have stayed up until two in the morning last night watching Blue Crush on the movie channel. Things had gone so well at the film festival and she’d gotten back to her room around eleven, happy and pumped up. She’d ordered a hot fudge sundae from room service and, because she obviously hadn’t watched enough surf movies the past few days, needed another fix.

  “I hope you had fun in the water this morning. I know I did.”

  “Me…too…” Her eyes shut. She’d just take a ten-minute nap and then wake up ready to go and meet Zane’s mom and sister. She hoped they liked her.

  Because the biggest surprise of all was Zane and how sweet he was. How thoughtful. How funny and humble. And with what little time they had together, she wanted to make a good impression. That way maybe he’d remember her as much as she knew she’d remember him after they said good-bye.

  …

  Sophie was dangerous. Zane couldn’t get out of his head how good it had felt to have her wiggling against him when she fell out of the car. He also couldn’t stop thinking about her up to her neck in his world, the place where whatever emotional heaviness bogged him down fell away. The ocean always made him feel lighter. Took his troubles and carried them away.

  And hell if every word out of Sophie’s lush mouth while they were out there didn’t make him feel even better.

  Less alone for the first time in his life.

  Bryce and Danny had tried over the years. Even Julia. But whenever they went in the water with him, h
e shut them out, preferring silence to conversation. Out of the water, they dragged shit out of him, sure, but he didn’t share willingly. They’d witnessed the humiliation his dad doled out, so there was no reason to rehash it.

  And for as long as he could remember, the only thing women wanted from him was a piece of his fame, five minutes in the limelight. Which suited him just fine. The less talk, the better. No woman seemed to honestly want to get to know him as a person. They only wanted what was on the outside.

  The beautiful, sweet brainiac lying next to him saw through him and seemed to like what she saw.

  Why did he care what she thought?

  Caring, even for a few days, was a bad idea for a guy who lived out of a suitcase and kept his guard up. A guy who couldn’t shake the crap his father had said to him. If he ever found someone he liked enough to have a relationship with, she wouldn’t be someone who’d skipped grades in school and graduated from college early. How would he keep her interested for the long haul?

  Sophie was unlike any woman he’d met before, and it messed with his head, that was all.

  “What are you doing?” her soft voice asked, pulling him from his thoughts. Her green eyes stared up at him, her lips parted slightly.

  “Watching you sleep.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “About an hour.”

  “An hour!” She bolted up. “Whoa, head rush.” She covered her forehead with her hand and cast her gaze to the shirt that had slipped off her back.

  He put his hand on her arm. Her warm, soft skin set his body on fire. He’d fought the urge to touch her while she slept, his willpower truly put to the test. “Slow down. There’s no rush.”

  Her long, dark lashes fluttered. “But your mom and sister are waiting for you. I’m super sorry I slept so long. You should’ve nudged me or something.”

  Several somethings came to mind. “We’ve got all day. No worries.”

  “I don’t have all day, Zane. I need to be back by three, four at the latest, for the concert tonight.”

  He’d forgotten she had a job to do. That she had a new career she seemed to love and worked hard at. His schedule was unique, and he couldn’t expect that she’d fit into it. He couldn’t expect anyone to. “That’s right.” He got to his feet and put out his hand. “We’d better get going.”