Waves of Passion: Contemporary Romance (Holidays Beach Read Book 3)

by Lori Ann Mitchell

  After countless delays at her stopover in Texas – a surprise frost overnight had delayed her for an entire day – her phone had finally run out of juice. Not having heard from him in nearly twelve hours, she wondered if he was frantic with worry or, given her behavior over the last few weeks, disgusted with her radio silence.

  Sage fixed a smile, seeing the number on Derek’s door. He had mentioned his building and unit number, in passing, shortly after his arrival and combing through her old text messages like a detective, Sage arrived at her destination feeling hopeful and full of holiday spirit.

  Seeing Derek’s writing, a youthful and always sloppy scrawl on a sticky note told Sage that she was at the right door. She leaned closer and read, “Happy Thanksgiving. Dinner at Angel’s! If you’re here, you’re at the wrong place. (Turn around, the door’s right behind you.) If you brought me a treat, feel free to leave it here – the door’s open! Gobble, gobble, Derek!”

  Sage chuckled and tried the door. Sure enough, it was unlocked and she slid her rolling bag just inside the door before inching inside. The place smelled like incense and cologne, a heady mix, but adulthood stopped there: Sage smirked at the pizza box on the counter and empty beer bottles lined up beside it, with T-shirts and boxers dangling off every available piece of furniture.

  She chuckled, clearing off the little table in the corner of the tiny kitchen and putting down her massive Hamburger Hut shopping bag. Sighing, she reached in the fridge and grabbed a beer, sipping it carefully before straightening up the kitchen.

  She was tired from her trip, but too antsy to sit still. All that time cooped up on the plane, waiting in the airport for her connecting flight too afraid to rent a nearby hotel room for fear of missing it, had left her with a bad case of “cabin fever”. Now, sipping her beer, munching on a Broccoli Bite – or two, or three – Sage set to work.

  She found a radio on the old alarm clock and discovered a station already playing Christmas carols. Cranking them up, she straightened up the living room, tossing his dirty and half-clean clothes on a chair in the bedroom and fluffing up throw pillows on the couch and love seat. She cleaned the kitchen and took out the trash, the campus quiet and cold and stark, but somehow comforting.

  When she returned to Derek’s dorm suite it looked and felt a thousand times better, and even more so when she lit a few jar candles he had lying around. Satisfied that her work was done, Sage stepped into the bathroom and stripped off her clothes, wrinkled and stiff from the work and the travel. The hot water felt good on her skin as she rinsed off the grime and the goo from the road, lingering in the hot, steamy spray and hoping Derek would return, unannounced, to find – and ravish – her.

  She thought of how long it had been since they’d last made love, discovering that the details were beginning to fade. All summer long, they had been hot and heavy, ridiculously so, to the point where the days without sex stood out so much they doubled up the next time!

  Now she had been so long without Derek’s touch, or even his voice, she felt like a stranger. While they’d spoken almost nightly after he first got to Southern California, the time difference and his odd hours had made it easier to text than speak. They soon fell into a pattern that shifted, unalterably so, after her brief flirtation – okay, kiss – with Craig.

  Since then the texts had dwindled to a trickle, on both sides, and she wondered if Derek would be upset with her for showing up like this, unannounced. She wondered if he knew about Craig somehow. Not the specifics, but if he sensed the distance between them, the wall she’d thrown up because of her own guilt. She’d known when Derek had strayed, had sensed it even before she got the facts.

  Was he the same way? She dried herself off and fixed her face and hair, being careful to work out of her makeup bag and suitcase in case he expected her to get a room for the Thanksgiving weekend.

  She’d thought about booking one, just in case, but Colby had warned her against it. “Where’s the romance in that?” she’d warned and, stupidly, Sage had listened to her – again!

  Now she stood, pampered and alone, wearing a slinky plum dress with spaghetti straps and matching heels, the Christmas music crackling on the old radio, candles flickering… and no Derek in sight. She sighed and glanced at the alarm clock. It was after ten now, more than enough time for any self-respecting dinner party to break up. Or maybe she was just getting old.

  She stood in the living room afraid that if she sat down, she might never get up. Then again, the place looked spotless and the only other thing she could do was pace and wait, wait and pace.

  Instead she opened the door a crack, peering at the yellow sticky note, a hand-drawn turkey in the border. Standing in the silent hallway dim with fluorescent lightings, she noted the door across the hall halfway open, and light of flickering candles and smooth jazz pouring out. She followed the arrow Derek had drawn on his note and saw it was the right place.

  “Screw it,” she murmured, standing in front of the door. She listened, hearing the music inside but… more. Not quite party sounds, but two people talking – a woman chuckling and Derek saying something. Sage would have listened more but she’d grown so intent in her eavesdropping that she leaned close enough to push the door the rest of the way open.

  She gasped, eyes widening as Derek stood, dancing with the most stunning creature she’d ever seen! “Sage!” he said, but too late, she had already fled across the hall.

  Chapter 12

  Derek

  Derek stood, Angel at arm’s length, Sage in the doorway, already turning. “Sage!” he called out, turning back to the stunning hostess.

  “What…” she said, eyes still glassy from the wine. “That’s Sage? What’s she doing here?”

  “She… she must have surprised me,” he said, extricating himself from Angel’s long, shapely arms. “I have to… she probably thought…”

  “Go,” she said, waving a hand and slinking down onto the couch. “I’m fine, honestly. Go to your lover!” She was reaching for a wine glass, half empty, when Derek nodded and slipped through the door.

  “I knew I was wrong to surprise you!” Sage was saying, struggling with a rolling suitcase he’d never seen before. “This was… God, what a fool!” She paused, the suitcase banging into an end table as she slumped, wearily, against the door jamb of his bedroom suite. “And here I was, feeling guilt. Guilty? Can you believe it?”

  “Sage, I didn’t…” Derek took the suitcase she was struggling with and gently pushed it to the side, watching her flinch visibly when he went to touch her – so he stopped. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “I can’t, Derek,” she said, slumping down onto the armrest of the couch. “I can’t go through this again.”

  “There’s nothing to go through,” he insisted, pacing in front of the kitchen counter. “You just have, like, incredibly bad timing.”

  “Do I?” she snapped, shaking her head. “Because I just spent Thanksgiving Eve in Texas, trying to sleep on two chairs pushed together, waiting to catch my flight to surprise… to surprise… you.”

  The tears came fresh and hot, leaking and glistening on her flushed cheeks. His heart broke as he inched closer, voice cracking as he cried out, “Sage, please, I… stop!”

  She waved him away as he stood, in mid-step, wanting to help but frozen in place. “Don’t, Derek, please. I just… it’s too much right now.”

  Derek paused, shaking his head as Sage sniffed and dried her eyes. He took in the scene: Flickering jar candles, Christmas music playing softly on the radio, a bag from Hamburger Hut on the kitchen table, his clothes hid away.

  “How long have you been here?” he asked.

  “Only a few hours,” she snorted, throwing up her hands. He’d never seen her like this; so frantic, desperate and depressed, all at once! “I was supposed to be here yesterday, that was the plan, but they had frost in Texas and you’d think it was the first time they’ve ever had to de-ice the planes. We had to get off and wait and it took forever, and t
hen the backups created backups, and… maybe if I’d shown up yesterday, I wouldn’t have caught you in such a compromising position.”

  He paused, reaching into the Hamburger Hut bag, the tone of her voice – the accusation – striking him in just the wrong way. “You know what, Sage?” he blurted, turning to face her. “I can’t tell you how incredibly good I’ve been while I’m here. And I don’t even care if you believe me or not. I’ve spent every night alone, and every day as well. My bed’s been empty, because I’ve been faithful to you.”

  “You could have fooled me, Derek.”

  “We were dancing,” he huffed. “She was buzzed, lonely. Okay, sure she duped me into a ‘private party’ but I didn’t fall for it, Sage. I stuck around, had a glass of wine, talked her down off the ledge and, on my way out, she asked for a dance. A single dance. That’s when you walked in.”

  “Likely story,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest like a petulant child.

  For his part, Derek waved his. “You know what, Sage? I fucked up with Colby, I get that. I was stupid, young, naïve, horny, whatever. I made that mistake, I owned up to it, and you agreed to stay with me.”

  “That’s because I thought we were done with this shit, Derek.”

  “We are,” he growled. “I am, anyway. It’s you who can’t leave the past where it belongs.”

  “How can I, Derek, when every time I turn around you’re with someone else?”

  “I’m not with her, Sage!” He huffed, and paced, and turned toward her, waving his hands at the shopping bag full of food, the suitcase, the flickering candles. “Is that what all this is about, Sage? You flying all the way out here to... to... check up on me?”

  Her eyes widened. “The thought never occurred to me,” she gasped. “I came… I missed you,” she said, voice weak and soft. “I knew this was a mistake.”

  “It’s not a mistake, Sage,” he said. “And I missed you, too. The girl back there? You can ask her when you’ve cooled down, you’re all I’ve talked about since I got here.”

  “Bullshit,” she huffed, but there was a begrudging tone to her voice now, something that wasn’t there a minute earlier. “I just want to trust you, Derek.”

  “You can,” he insisted, joining her on the couch. This time, she didn’t flinch – or throw anything! “I wish you’d believe me so that we could do this Thanksgiving over and start from scratch.”

  She nodded, biting her lower lip. “I want that to, Derek. I didn’t come out here to ‘check up on you’. I came… I came…”

  “Yes?” he asked, sensing there was more to Sage’s impromptu visit than a romantic surprise.

  She hung her head, sighing so loud he could feel the vibrations at his end of the couch. “I came to tell you something, in person…”

  Chapter 13

  Sage

  Sage took a deep breath and sighed. “Derek, I lied just now,” she said, standing and pacing.

  “What… what do you mean?”

  She paused, their eyes meeting. “I mean, I did come out here to see you. I have missed you, but… there’s more. Something happened at home, and I can’t… I can’t live with myself if I don’t tell you about it.”

  “Okay,” he said, and already he looked – and sounded – hurt. Sage could hear Colby’s voice in her head, shouting, “No, don’t do it, no!” But she had to. Better to hurt Derek now when he was already angry at her than drag it out and live with the guilt – and the lie – for the rest of her life.

  “What… what is it, Sage?”

  “I… I kissed someone, while you’ve been out here.” The words flew out, hard and fast, leaving Sage half-relieved, half-anxious. Derek remained impassive, as if waiting for more. So she gave it to him: “You know Fiona, our regular waitress at Shuckers? She’s on maternity leave and a new guy, Craig, replaced her. It was a few months after you were out here and I was really lonely. That’s no excuse, Derek, I just…I certainly wasn’t looking for trouble, but I found it. We like the same book series, and it just so happened there was a movie version of the first book playing at the Drafthouse Theater. So…”

  She was up now, pacing, as he sat, slumped in his chair, still silent, face impassive. She walked back and forth in his tiny living room, waving her hands, voice high, heart pounding as she raced to finish her tale, “We went to dinner, nothing fancy, and a movie, just innocent. Then he dropped me off at Sequels and I stupidly invited him up. I knew better, and he did, too, but there we were. A glass of wine, a balmy night, the ocean crashing, candles flickering and… it just happened.”

  “It can do that,” he said, gravely, from behind her in the kitchen. She whirled at the other end of the room surprised to hear him speak. “It happens so fast, your body takes over. And you reach a point of no return, where it’s almost impossible to turn back.”

  “Yes,” she said, lingering where she was, still uncertain as to how he was reacting. He sat, calmly, peering back at her in the dimly lit room, face impassive, body at rest. “I just, I knew better, but I didn’t do better. I didn’t want to tell you, Derek, and I certainly never wanted to hurt you. But it happened and I came here, I suppose, to take the consequences.”

  He chuckled, dryly, humorlessly, a new sound for him. Until this trip, Derek had always been happy and light, cheerful and upbeat. She feared that being away had zapped him of some of that. Or maybe it was just her. Either way, she was ready for whatever he said at that moment. She was prepared, either to walk out of his life forever, if that’s what he wanted, or to stay and fight and fix it.

  “What consequences?” he asked, their eyes meeting across the flickering expanse of his dorm suite. “We’re not married, Sage. I cheated, and way worse. And look how well you and Colby get together. You didn’t understand then how I could do something like that. I didn’t understand then how much it could hurt. Now we both know, and can move on.”

  Sage heard the words, and felt the appropriate relief, but his eyes didn’t share the same level of forgiveness. “Sounds nice,” she said, inching closer. “The words, I mean, but it doesn’t fix things, I suppose?”

  He chuckled and reached for a bottle of wine. “No, Sage, it doesn’t.” He sounded sad, but resigned. He opened the wine and poured them glasses and they sat in the living room, Christmas music playing, candles flickering, the food growing cold. She’d been so hungry and, now, she felt flat-lined and unemotional; drained.

  They sat in silence for a while, sipping their wine, listening to a scratchy rendition of “I’ll be Home for Christmas”. It reminded her that Derek would indeed be home for the holidays. That is, if he ever returned to Seaside.

  “So what now?” she sighed, crossing, then uncrossing, her legs.

  “You’re asking me?” he chuckled. “As you’ll recall, Sage, this is all new territory for me.”

  She sighed, sipping her wine. She had come so far, and been through so much, and now that she was here she was already tired of feeling miserable. She thought of what she’d seen in the room across the hall and smirked.

  “We’re being honest, Derek. Completely honest, so tell me… you really haven’t done anything with that beauty from next door?”

  Derek peered back at her teasingly. “Oh, should I try and make you feel better now?”

  “Derek,” she pouted.

  “No, Sage,” he sighed. “I haven’t done anything with Angel, and don’t think she hasn’t tried.”

  “I guess you could have,” she sighed. “I mean, if only you’d known what I was doing back in Seaside.”

  “You know what, Sage,” Derek said, pouring them more wine. “I didn’t want to do anything with her. I mean, physically, yes, but in order to do that you have to want that person, and the only person I want, Sage… is you.”

  Her heart swam and Sage sat back against the armrest, stunned. “You mean that?”

  “Jesus,” he clucked, shaking his head. “You really don’t get it, do you? I love you, okay? I loved you when we met, and you wanted
nothing to do with me. I loved you after Colby, when you again didn’t want anything to do with me. I loved you all summer, when you did want something to do with me, and I’ve loved you the whole time I’ve been here, which was your idea by the way. I loved you every time Angel put the moves on me all semester and yes, Sage, I even love you now that you’re a low down, dirty, sneaky, harlot!”

  The laughter poured from her then, Derek’s confession and vigor so refreshing she nearly spilled her wine. And then an idea. “I have been a harlot,” she said, putting her wine glass down next to his and leaning forward so that Derek would be sure to get a gander at the way her new dress showed off the small, boyish breasts he’d always loved. “Haven’t I?”

  He nodded, licking his lips. “A total skeezer tramp,” he murmured, eyes falling to her chest as he wiped his big, warm hands on his slacks.

  “A very bad girl,” she teased, leaning back provocatively as the day’s earlier tension washed away and, in the glow of flickering candles and a belly full of wine, she embraced the promise the night held. “Someone should punish me.”

  “Hell yeah someone should,” Derek agreed. “You need a good and proper spanking.”

  Sage literally gushed at the suggestion, her special black panties ruined in an instant as her gash wept and she grew short of breath. “I wish there was someone here to punish me.”

  “Me too,” he teased, before their eyes met and he smirked. “Oh yeah… I’m here!”

  She nodded, no more toying or flirting. She was hungry for it, desperate for it after so many months alone in her room, her fingers a sore replacement for Derek’s young, tender body. “Tell me what you want,” she said, and the desire in her voice was almost as moist and wet as the front panel of her black silk panties. “Tonight, I’m yours, Derek.”