by Maree Green
Taking a deep breath, I tried to remind myself of who I was, and the kind of person I wanted to be. I would go down to the beach wearing what I was comfortable in—whatever I would wear if I was just going down there to read my book.
Grabbing my new white cotton beach dress out of my closet, I ripped the tags off and threw it on over my bikini. Finishing with a little lip gloss, I checked my appearance in the large full-length mirror and nodded. My hair was a mess of incurable waves from the salty air, but I liked it that way. It looked kind of boho in an unplanned, untried way. It worked for me anyway.
Grabbing the beach blanket Aunt Jenny had loaned me, I made my way down to Josh’s house and sat in the sand to wait for him. It was only a few minutes later that I heard his voice from the deck above, calling out to someone that he’d be back later. Turning, I watched him stride down the path toward me, trying to stay cool, but failing to gain any control of my pulse whatsoever.
He smiled as he drew closer, making it so much worse. “Good morning.”
“Hey,” I said, returning his smile. Nodding up toward his house, I gave him an inquisitive look. “Everything okay?”
His gaze flashed back up at the house before it fell back on me. His eyes twinkled. “Everything’s fine.”
I smiled at him, but my mind was in a bit of a whirl.
“So,” he said, “are we walking again?”
I climbed to my feet and brushed the sand off my butt, deciding to leave the blanket where it was. “Sure.”
We fell in to step beside each other and walked for a little while in silence. When I saw him gazing out at the ocean, I smiled. It seemed to draw him in a lot. “How long have you been a surfer?”
His gaze met mine, and a tingle rushed down my spine. “I got my first taste of it when I was thirteen. I got this small part in a Disney movie, where I had to surf in the background while they filmed the main characters on the beach. I kind of got hooked after that. I find it therapeutic now. It’s the way I de-stress.”
“I could see that. I used to surf before we moved to Uganda. I was just getting the hang of it when we moved.”
All his attention was suddenly on me. “Why don’t you come out with me this afternoon? I’m sure it’ll all come back to you. I’ll help you.”
I knew my expression mirrored exactly how I was feeling. Horrified.
He laughed. “Come on. It’ll be fun. I promise I’ll look after you. I’ll be lonely if you don’t.”
Remembering his three friends that’d been out with him the day before, I knew that would be highly unlikely. I smiled. “Isn’t that the whole point? Serenity and all that crap?”
He laughed softly, the sound sending tingles over my skin. “Most of the time, but I’d really like you to come out with me. Come on, just once. I promise I’ll make it fun.”
Just the look on his face made me want to say yes, but there was no way I could remember what to do. It’d been six years, for crying out loud.
“Please?” he begged.
The puppy dog eyes did it. “That’s not fair,” I mumbled. “No one would be able to say no to you when you were looking at them like that.”
He laughed again, this time louder. “I’ll have to remember that for when I’m working.”
Intrigued, I halted my steps and studied him. “Show me some of your other expressions you use when you act.”
I watched him pause, his face in contemplation. “Okay, how’s this one?”
All of a sudden, Josh looked seriously pissed. In fact, he looked so angry, my heart immediately jumped with panic. “Okay, stop. You’re scaring me.”
Josh laughed. “What about this one, then?”
Even though I’d never seen anyone look at me the way he suddenly was, I instinctively knew the expression Josh was showing me was made of deep intimacy. The intensity of his gaze made my nerve endings spring to life. My breath started to deepen before it seemed to stick in my chest completely.
Lust poured from his eyes, and even though I knew he was just acting, I couldn’t stop my body from reacting. His gaze fell to my lips as though he wanted to kiss me, and before I could stop myself, I sucked in my bottom lip and released it in response.
Tension seemed to hang in the air between us, and just when I didn’t think I could stand it any longer, Josh smiled. “Directors love that one.”
I blinked, my mind still in a haze. What the hell? I took in a shaky breath and closed my eyes for a few heartbeats. “Yeah, I think that look was scarier than the other one . . .”
Josh’s light chuckle brought me the rest of the way out of the haze. I grinned shyly, knowing exactly what I must’ve looked like.
We continued down the beach, and when we reached the end, we climbed the rocks and continued down the next stretch of beach.
Conversation was easy. I’d never felt more relaxed with another person in all my life. In fact, I thought I’d never talked so much. He seemed to have this way of getting me to open up about things I’d never even thought to talk about before, but the look of intrigue and admiration in his eyes as I spoke confused me.
“So, you enjoy acting?” I asked, trying to take the conversation away from me for a while.
Josh nodded, his expression turning serious. “I love it.”
“Do you get a lot of work? I mean, isn’t it hard to get enough to earn a living from it?”
He sucked in a slow, deep breath. “Yeah, it can be a tough industry to crack. I don’t do too bad. Lucky, I guess.”
“That’s good. It’s kind of the same for writers, I guess—hard to make a living out of it. Maybe you can rub some of your luck off on me.” I nudged him softly with my shoulder and threw him a teasing grin as we reached the end of the beach.
He turned to face me with a slow, easy smile. “I have a feeling you’re not going to have any trouble making your own luck.”
An underlying intensity seemed to burn in his gaze as it held mine. A little of that passion he’d displayed in his acting abilities earlier stared back at me. Was he acting with me again, or was the desire I could see real? Either way, I was as helpless now as I had been when I had watched it transform him earlier.
His deep intake of air drew me out of my haze again, and I blinked to try to clear my head.
“Do you want to head back now?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, trying to keep my voice light. It was a lot harder to do than it should’ve been.
We walked close to each other on the way back, my shoulder almost touching his arm. Josh kept the conversation going, while my mind slowly caught up again, but it didn’t take long. Within a few minutes, we were back in a constant stream of chatter.
When we reached the rocks, I followed him over them again as I thought about the whole process of dating. Josh was obviously a very attractive guy. I’d be stupid to think he wouldn’t have girls running after him everywhere he went. I thought about the girl’s face that had appeared on his phone the day before.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” I asked before I could think to stop myself. I stumbled a little as mortification set in.
Josh looked up at me with a tiny smile on his lips. My cheeks heated. “No. Not right now.”
I tried to cover my gaffe, feigning general curiosity. “You must meet a lot of pretty actresses.”
He nodded as he climbed down toward the sand. “Yeah, I guess so. They’re no different than you or me, though. Well, some can be pretty arrogant and bitchy and think the world should bow at their feet, but in general, most are fairly normal.”
“Do you know many famous people?” I wanted to watch his reaction, but I had to keep my eye on my footing.
“A few. Is that important to you?”
I looked up, a little surprised by the sudden stoniness in his voice. “No. Not at all. I was just curious. I mean, I would’ve thought the more famous people you know, the more work you could possibly get.”
His expression softened, and stupidly, I forgot to look where my fe
et went as I stepped, and the next thing I knew, I was slipping.
If truth be told, I did go down gracefully. Well, as gracefully as possible under the circumstances. I managed to regain my footing and grab one of the bigger rocks with my hands at the last minute, but unfortunately, my hip caught a protruding rock before I could stop it.
“Ouch!” I grabbed at the place that was now stinging and jumped down to the sand.
“Are you all right?” Josh asked, coming to stand in front of me. His hands reached out to move mine so he could see the damage. “Show me.”
I lifted up my dress at the side to reveal a slight red mark. Blood was drawing to the surface of the scratch, but it wasn’t dripping. It wasn’t too bad, really. It could’ve been worse, and I was just about to say as much when Josh’s fingers suddenly made contact with my skin either side of the mark.
My whole body went still. He ran his thumb over the red blotch so softly, I only felt the tingling effect of his skin on mine. Oh, God. I looked up at his face, but he was looking at the mark.
“Does it hurt?” His voice was soft like his touch. Low and tender.
His gaze swept up to meet mine, and all I could do was slowly shake my head in denial.
It was a few moments later before either of us spoke again. Josh’s fingers were still touching my skin. I could feel the warmth of them resting near my lower back and across my stomach. They seemed to be sending sparks of electricity straight into my nerve endings.
“We should put some ice on that.” His fingers disappeared, but before I could start to miss his touch, his hand clasped around mine. “Come on, I’ve got an ice pack in the freezer.”
He had an ice pack. In his freezer.
Oh my God.
Chapter 16
Josh
She’s too innocent, Josh, I told myself as I escorted her up the beach.
My fingers still tingled from where they’d been touching her skin. I’d never had to exercise so much control in my life. Knowing she was so inexperienced made it a little easier, but not much. The way she looked at me with that expression that practically begged me to kiss her was almost my undoing. I doubt she even knew she was doing it.
She was quiet as we walked up the trail to my house, and I knew without looking that she’d still have that dazed little look about her. Knowing that didn’t help my control at all.
Taking her into the living room, I gently guided her to sit down on the sofa. Her eyes were wide with all that virtuousness I was trying so hard to protect. “Stay here. I’ll just get the ice pack.”
I watched her head nod a little before I moved off toward the kitchen. I was glad the guys were all down in the games room. I wasn’t ready to have them grill her yet, and the last thing I wanted was for any of them to unknowingly give away my celebrity status.
Opening the freezer, I grabbed the ice pack and a cloth and hurried back to Liv. She sat exactly as I left her, her eyes still wide with nerves. I almost smiled. She was too cute.
“Here, lift up your dress a bit.”
She did as I asked, but she bit her lower lip as she did it. I guessed that was also caused by nerves, but it only served to draw my attention to her very soft, very full lips. I crouched down in front of her, strangely unwilling to just hand over the ice pack for her to hold herself.
I knew I was going a little overboard with the whole ice pack thing. Her injury wasn’t that bad, but it gave me a reason to be close to her.
She leaned to the side a little, giving me better access to place the pack on her. Knowing I had no right to, but completely unable stop myself, I slid my index finger under the waistband of her bikini bottoms and pulled them a tiny bit lower to expose the red mark fully.
Her breath stopped the second my fingers touched her skin, and if I hadn’t been concentrating to keep my breathing level, mine would’ve too. “It doesn’t look too bad. You’ll probably end up with a nice bruise, though.” I placed the ice pack on the mark and grinned when her body jerked in reaction to it. “Sorry.”
I looked up at her face, ready to break the tension by teasing her a little, but when I saw her eyes closed and her lips parted as she tried to catch her breath, all thoughts of teasing left my head. I swallowed hard. “How about you hold this, and I’ll go get us something to drink.”
Liv’s eyes flashed open and she nodded slowly, her hand sliding over mine as she took hold of the pack. “Thanks,” she murmured.
Escaping back to the kitchen, I placed my hands on the counter and hung my head. What was wrong with me? I had thousands of girls throw themselves at me every time I set foot out in public. Why was this one girl playing havoc with my senses? Was it just the old case of wanting what you couldn’t have?
Forcing myself to get my emotions under control, I straightened and reached for a couple of glasses out of the cupboard. I could do this. She was just a girl, one I could be myself around.
Ah, who was I kidding? I wanted her more than I’d wanted any other girl for a very long time. Hell, ever. Why was that? Was it just because she liked me for the person I really was and not just the celebrity status all the others seemed to be after? No, I didn’t think so. The attraction was there before she’d even breathed out that little ‘hi’ to me the first day I saw her.
I smiled, thinking about that little ‘hi.’ She didn’t realize it, but that one little word, coupled with that shy little smile, hooked me like a childhood crush. I sighed. Okay, I wanted her, but what was I going to do about it? I thought that might’ve been a six-million-dollar question.
Filling the glasses with some fresh juice Corey had made that morning, I walked back out to the living room.
Liv looked up at me as I walked in, and I instantly knew the answer to my question was not going to be ‘nothing.’ Placing both glasses of juice on the coffee table, I turned and crouched in front of her again.
Trying not to meet her eyes, I took the ice compress off her and inspected her hip. Forcing a smirk onto my lips, I looked up at her. “I think you’ll live.”
Her eyes took on a slight glint. “Oh, thank goodness! I was beginning to wonder . . .”
All the tension in the room seemed to evaporate with her smile. I laughed. Yeah, ‘nothing’ wasn’t anywhere near the confines of my vocabulary at that moment.
Standing up, I tossed the ice pack on the coffee table, then passed her a juice. Taking up my own glass, I sank down on the couch, making sure I left a generous gap between us.
“You haven’t told me how long you’ll be enjoying your aunt’s hospitality.” Of course, Daniel had already told me, but I needed to keep her talking as much as I could.
I watched her take a sip of her juice, her eyes closing as the cool liquid slid down her throat. She licked her lips, making my insides tighten. “My parents are flying back mid-August. They’ll probably take a day or so to catch up with Aunt Jenny before we head into LA to meet my new roomy.”
“So, a couple of months or so, huh?”
She nodded, a slow, easy smile on her lips. “Uh-huh.”
“Nice.”
I watched her sigh as she settled farther back into the couch. “What about you? How long are you here for?”
I inhaled slowly. How long was I going to stay for? My initial plan was to leave the guys to do their own thing for a few days while I headed up to spend the day with my family for Mom’s birthday. We didn’t get that much time, usually. I knew Mom was looking forward to it.
Looking over Olivia’s face of innocence, I was now wondering if a few weeks were long enough for me to have with her? Strangely, I wanted to take as long as I could to enjoy the simplicity she had about her. “I haven’t really decided yet. I have commitments I have to get to by the second week of August, but that’s about it. Have you been enjoying spending the time with your aunt?”
She smiled. “Yeah. This is the first time I’ve spent this kind of vacation with her in seven years. I’ve learned to not go near any shops with her, though. She keeps saying s
he’s got years of occasions to make up for.”
The condemnation in her eyes was amusing. But then she was smiling serenely and shifting on the couch, tucking her feet underneath her and resting her head back in complete relaxation.
That one small action confirmed everything I’d been thinking about her, and why I was considering sacrificing some of the time I’d promised to spend with my family. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen someone just let go like that in my company—especially a girl. Usually they were all wide-eyed and wound so tight—either with nerves or lust—they just couldn’t sit still.
“Well, if we’re going to share the beach over the next few weeks, maybe we should get to know each other a little better. It’d be a nice change to have some company,” I said.
Liv didn’t lift her head when she looked at me. She just rolled it to the side, a contented smile sitting on her full lips. “I think I’d like that.”
Chapter 17
Olivia
How the hell did Josh convince me to do this again? I thought as I trudged down the sandy path with my board under my arm. Firstly, the water was going to be cold, and secondly, I was so going to make a fool out of myself.
It didn’t help that his friends were sitting on the beach, obviously ready to catch the entertainment. This was going to be so embarrassing. I had to tell him no.
Josh smiled when he caught sight of me, and my arguments went straight out the window. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t say no to this guy, no matter how much I wanted to avoid surfing.
His grin widened when I reached him, and he stepped a little closer to me, taking my board from me.
“Olivia, I’d like you to meet my friends. This is Corey, Lance, Cain, and you’ve met Daniel.”
I smiled at each of them and shyly muttered a hi to them as a whole. The looks they gave me ranged from friendly and welcoming, to suspicious and cool. It kind of confused me, especially the one he’d called Lance. He didn’t look friendly at all.