He was surrounded by a knot of admirers. The playboy was back in full force. He already had a blonde and a brunette on each side, though they were flanked by managers and event coordinators in turn. Sean lifted one hand in a fist above the shoulder that could have taken him out all together, and the crowd roared. They loved him. He was the hero of the moment.
Her heart was a crumpled, crumbled disaster zone.
She was such a fucking idiot.
Turning away from the triumphant scene at the other end of the room, she pressed her fingertips to her eyes. Her sockets burned. Her neck felt so tight, it ached.
He didn’t even miss her, and how fucking juvenile a thought was that? She tugged the hem of her T-shirt. It wasn’t that she wished he’d have lost or anything like that. He’d been the best. He’d deserved to win. But the tiny, petty, childish part of her wanted him to miss her while he won. He hadn’t even looked for her across the crowd. He’d just had on his front, the shiny happy kind of look that made it seem like everything was fine.
Well, for all she knew, everything was fine with him.
“It’s a swizz, ain’t it?” Gloria sidled up next to Annie, leaning one arm on the bar. Her gaze was trained over Annie’s shoulder, though, toward where the cheers in the room started. “He’s not half of what he’s cracked up to be.”
“What?” Annie rubbed the dip of her temple, where the burn in her eyes had traveled and twisted itself into pain. If she wouldn’t let herself cry in public, her body seemed determined to give her a headache instead.
“Sean.” Gloria had the stem of a cherry and worried it between thumb and forefinger, making it spin and spin. She nibbled the knot at the end. “He’s decent, that’s true. But there’s no fucking way he’s better than my Nate.”
“There’re five judges. It’s not possible to cheat.” Annie narrowed her eyes at Gloria.
“Not that way.” She was a bundle of cynicism. She lifted her brows and cocked her hip. “You think Sean’s perfect? I thought you’d have figured out the truth. Everyone knows he’s been staying with the junior Coyote team. The very idea of Sean bunking with nineteen-year-old kids who’re practically frat boys . . .” Gloria snickered. “It’s been kind of a pick-me-up the last few days.”
“Sean and I hit a rough spot.” She took a sip of her soda, but it didn’t do anything to wash the nasty taste from her mouth. Gloria was quite the piece of work, but Annie hadn’t realized exactly how bitter she was. “What’s that got to do with his surfing?”
“Apparently nothing.” Gloria gave her a faux-innocent smile. “But then, considering where he’s come from . . . what he’s risen above . . . he’s no stranger to adversity.”
Annie’s spine became something made of wire and blades and knives. “What are you implying?”
Gloria laughed. “Oh, come on. You can tell me. I already know. Or did he not tell you that we dated?”
“He mentioned it.” She looked at the taller woman. “But he also said you couldn’t take a hint when things were done.” He hadn’t said anything of the sort, but Gloria didn’t have to know that.
“Whatever. He liked me well enough at the time, and Nate’s moving up in the rankings.” Gloria edged closer, her body language closing them off from the rest of the room. Annie wanted to step back, but there was a chair behind her and she didn’t want to make it too obvious that she was freaking out. The air was leaking out of the open room. “Look, everyone knows you’ve split. And I know there’s something going on with Sean. If you give me any kind of information, I can pass it on to the people who need to know.”
“What the hell?” Annie shook her head, leaning back as far as she could. She needed air that was scented with the salt of the ocean, not Gloria’s light but cloying perfume. “There isn’t any information to give.”
“Why would you defend him?” Gloria’s voice hit a near screech, but she pulled it down again, taking deep breaths to get herself under control. “Look, maybe you just don’t know. I’ve followed this sport for years. Practically my whole life. I know Sean’s hiding something major. He was when we dated, and he still is now.”
“So you think you have a right to know? You’re the one who’s been talking to Ackerman, aren’t you?”
Gloria’s expression turned cagey. She cast a quick look back over her shoulder. “I didn’t say that. I haven’t done anything.”
Annie set her soda down on the bar. The glass didn’t make a sound against the roughly polished bamboo, but the condensation immediately drew a circle on the wood. Annie licked her bottom lip and watched a bead of water drip down the side of the glass, past the bubbles and dark liquid. Separate and still connected. “I’m not really sure what’s wrong with you, Gloria, but you’re way too invested in this sport. It’s their job. Not yours.”
The other woman laughed. “Oh, you’re cute. If you think Nate would have gotten half as far as this without me, you don’t belong in this world. They need our devotion. They need us to be there supporting them. They think they’re superheroes, but they’re not.”
“No, they’re not. They’re human beings.” Annie looked up at the other woman. “Humans who make mistakes and who deserve forgiveness.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Gloria’s brow wrinkled with confusion.
“I’m . . . not exactly sure.” Except this was a very, very strange conversation to be having revelations in the middle of.
But when a dark, deep voice sounded from behind her, she didn’t flinch. “When you figure it out, I’d like to be the first to know.”
Part of her had realized that Sean was behind her before he spoke. It felt like every cell in her body was aligned with his. She was focused on him. Couldn’t look away from the other half of herself, after all. It would be like ignoring her own legs. They’d get in the way if she tried.
She turned slowly. He looked good. So good. The five days of competition had deepened his tan another fraction. The blades of his cheekbones were tight with tension, and there were little wrinkles that she hadn’t seen before, fanned out from his eyes. Maybe she was messed up, because she liked knowing that truth. He’d been affected by their distance.
She breathed his name. He didn’t answer, not in words. But the way he looked at her . . .
There was still hope. Maybe. If she could get her brain out of her heart. This stuff didn’t have to be all mind over matter. There was something to be said for instinct and only listening to the way she felt.
Nate stood behind him. As the second-place contender in the competition, Nate would have been giving a handful of interviews with Sean. He was taller than Sean, and Annie realized that the only other time she’d seen him had been in the water, on surfboards. She had to crane her neck to look up at him, and Sean had already made her feel short.
“Gloria?” He put a hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. Gloria’s entire attitude immediately changed. Her smile turned into something gentle and real. Her eyes softened. She tilted her head slightly. “Everything all right?”
“Sure, sugar.” She was everything sweetness. “Annie and I were having a bit of a chat. She let me vent a little. Gonna be sad she won’t be coming around on the circuit anymore.” She aimed a deliberately saccharine smile at Annie, who knew exactly what the other woman was really saying.
Sucks to be you. Ta-ta and see ya!
Annie snorted. “Sure. If that’s what you want to say.”
Sean didn’t touch her. Not directly. But he came so close, they could have been breathing the same air. He wanted to hold her. She knew that all the way through her, but she didn’t know how to start it off. If she touched him first, she’d probably shatter into a million pieces. She was barely being held together by a smash of surf wax. If she was put out into the warmth of Sean’s sun, she’d melt. “Is there something you want to tell me, Annie?”
She flashed her own sac
charine, faked-out smile at Gloria. “Just that Gloria here is probably the one Ackerman is citing as his source. If I had to lay money on it, I bet she probably dropped a word about your record to the ASP as well.” Oh, fuck it. If she was in for a penny, she might as well be in for a pound. “And I love you, Sean. Gloria and I weren’t talking about that, not in so many words, but the way she talks about you . . . I couldn’t stomach listening to it.”
Sean’s jaw had been tightening while she talked about Gloria, but as soon as Annie made her awkward segue, his gaze jerked around to her. “What?”
She laughed, because suddenly she felt as light as air. As high as a kite, like she had been the first time he’d taken her surfing last month. “If you’ll let me, I want to say I’m sorry. For everything. Because I love you.”
Chapter 36
Sean’s win that afternoon had been pretty sweet, but he’d had a strangely detached feeling. Like maybe he’d popped into a parallel universe where things had an odd tint. It started with his waking up in a shared bedroom at the Coyote team bungalow, and Matthew Medina snoring. Badly. It hadn’t helped that Matty had stumbled in past three in the morning. He’d been knocked out of the competition two days earlier and had been drinking it off.
Even the ten-point tube ride he’d had in the final had been something Sean did. Not something he felt.
Now, though, with Annie’s face turned up to him, her dark eyes confused and filling with a gleam of hope at the same time, he had a full grasp of the moment. His blood charged hard. Shocks of sensation rocked down the backs of his legs and through his arms. He was as light as air, and he could bounce on the balls of his feet to get the energy out.
But she’d lobbed two bombs in his lap at the same time, and one of them was about to go off with the sputtering, protesting Gloria. That had to be dealt with. Since it was a woman he was facing, for once he couldn’t deal with the problem with his fists.
Sean needed to touch Annie, though. He brushed the backs of his knuckles across her jaw, soft as white-water mist. She didn’t pull away. His breathing froze for a second.
He hadn’t thought he’d be able to touch her. Not ever again. It had been a literal ache in the pit of his stomach. He’d lain in his borrowed single bed, staring at the ceiling.
She reached up and folded her hand over his, holding it to her face.
A disgusted sigh echoed behind them. “Come on, Nate. I have no idea what that psycho was talking about, but they’re obviously being drama queens. Let’s go.”
“No.”
“What?”
Sean couldn’t remember the last time Nate had actually said no to Gloria. The dude was so easygoing, he usually didn’t get up in the middle of anything. Not even his girlfriend. But she’d turned away, holding Nate’s wrist, only to freeze when he issued the simple declaration. She twisted her shoulders toward him. Nate stood with his feet set hip-width apart, steady as a mountain.
Gloria jutted her chin out. “No? What?”
Sean wrapped his arm around Annie’s shoulder, halfway expecting her to pull away again. When she didn’t, his heart took a strange little leap. They had a pile of shit to deal with, but maybe . . . Maybe there was something worth dealing with. He could work with that. “No, you’re not going anywhere. Is Annie right?”
She gaped at Sean. “What the hell, Sean? You’re going to take that little bitch’s word over that of someone you’ve known for years? She dumped you right before the biggest heat in your competition. You and I have had a positive relationship since we broke up!”
“That’s not an answer,” he said flatly.
“And why are you trading on how many years you’ve known him, Gloria?” Nate folded his arms over his chest. “You’ve never made any secret of thinking Sean’s more player than surfer.”
“So?” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “That doesn’t mean we aren’t friends.”
As far as Sean was concerned, once they weren’t in a relationship, Gloria could have disappeared. But she’d stayed in his life because of the quick way she’d taken up with Nate. “Answer the question, Gloria. Did you influence that documentary? Are you the one who told Ackerman about—” Sean jerked his words to a halt, before he could drop the truth. They knew part of the story. That was enough. He hated that enough.
“God, no,” she said, propping her hands on her hips. “Fine? No, I didn’t. I shouldn’t have to answer that at all, but I didn’t.”
A dark expression shuttered Nate’s eyes. His mouth pressed flat. He had a bold nose, but in his stress, it seemed to get even bolder with strain, making the skin around it go white. “That’s a lie,” he said in a voice barely more than a rasp. “She always says it three times if she’s lying.”
Anger whipped through Sean like a monsoon. He squeezed Annie’s hand too tight, until she squeezed back in return. “I’ve never done shit to you, Gloria.”
“God, it’s not even that big a deal,” she squealed. “So you grew up in a shitty place. You ought to be thanking me. Between the publicity for all that and your win today, you’re on top. You should pull in three new contracts for this!”
“That’s not how I want to make a name for myself.”
“Then you’re an idiot.” She crossed her arms over her ample chest, her chin coming down so that she looked like a three-year-old in a full-on pout. “I just don’t know how you could have won today after your damn shoulder anyway. Nate should have had it. This should be his year.”
“Congratulations,” Annie said in a fake-chipper voice that sounded more like Gloria’s normal tones. “You’ve probably screwed up his head game for the rest of the season. How’s he supposed to get his confidence together when his girlfriend’s a lying harpy?”
“Thanks for that,” Nate said dryly.
Annie shrugged. “Sorry, but if I were you, I’d be wondering about myself.”
“I want you out, Gloria,” Sean said.
“This is a team party. You don’t get to make those choices.” She tossed her blond hair again.
“Try me.” Sean lifted a hand in the air and snapped his fingers.
In near moments, two porters and the Coyote team manager were at his side. “Something wrong?” asked Greg Tamiya.
“I need Gloria taken out. Don’t make it a big deal as long she doesn’t make a fuss.”
Greg’s gaze jumped from Sean to Nate to Gloria. “Look, if there’s some kind of disagreement that needs to be worked out, we can sit down and talk it out. . . .”
Sean held on to his barely leashed temper. His teeth ground together. “Not the time, Greg. I’ll tell you about it later. But trust me. It’s better for the brand if she goes.”
“Come on,” said Nate. He latched his grip around Gloria’s slender wrist. “We need to talk this out at home anyway.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she protested. “He’s a bullshit surfer.”
“He won fair and square, Gloria. It was legit.” Nate didn’t give her any more room to protest, only herded her away. He wasn’t being mean, but he wasn’t brooking any disagreement either.
Greg watched them go. He turned a concerned expression to Sean, his mouth disappearing into a flat line. “Look, if this is going to have blowback, we’re going to have to talk about it.”
“I think this might actually solve problems.” Shit, he needed to get Greg fully up to speed. Sean could call his manager and figure out where things needed to go for cleanup. But he looked back at Annie. Business faded when compared to the other thing she’d said. She loved him. He wanted to hear more about that.
She could have been reading his mind. Her mouth was bent in a soft smile, and she lifted up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Deal with her. It’s a problem.”
“But . . .”
“I’ll be waiting for you at the bungalow, okay?”
“Promise?”
&
nbsp; Her gaze flitted over him, and he could feel the air burning in his lungs as fiercely as it had a week ago, when he’d burned out at Cloudbreak. But her eyes softened. He could get lost in that dark for a long, long time. “I’ll promise lots of things, if you’ll let me.”
* * *
It took Sean about an hour to wrap everything up. Greg was brought up to speed, and then they had a conference call with Max in California. Thank Christ for the age of Skype. The higher-ups at Coyote were worried about the tabloid stories, but they’d be pleased to hear that there would be no more. Combined with his win, they were happy with him. The ASP wanted Sean to invest some time in positive press, just to cover their ass, but Sean had no problem with that. He was fine on the press junket so long as they had a shiny new win to ask him about.
By the time he walked into the bure he’d shared with Annie, he was exhausted. He’d been sitting in a little room, shouting into a computer screen because the connection was mediocre to crappy, and the stress had ridden him for months.
Despite that, he felt like he could have run full tilt through the door. Only to come to a screeching halt when the living room was empty. The bedroom had no sign of Annie either, beyond her open suitcase. At least she hadn’t gone too far. He kicked his shoes off at the back door.
He stepped through the archway to the lanai, and at first he still didn’t see her. She’d seated herself at the high-tide line, folded up into a small ball. Her knees were practically at her chin, and she had her arms wrapped around them. Her hair had been skimmed into twin ponytails.
She’d changed clothes since he’d last seen her. Then she’d been wearing a T-shirt with a video game icon on it, along with navy shorts. Now she’d switched out for a bright blue bikini. He liked the splash of color.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
She gasped and launched to her feet. Her hands flew to her stomach and her throat, and she started panting. “Jesus! Jesus, you shouldn’t sneak up on me like that.”
He slung his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his bare heels. The sand was hot under his feet and between his toes. He’d always loved that feeling. “Didn’t sneak. Not even a little bit.”
Ahead in the Heat Page 24