by Len Webster
“And I’ll never regret you. Now, let’s go down to Chelsea.” Noel winked as he stood, taking Clara’s hand and helping her up from the picnic table seat.
“Ready to go relive some of our childhood memories?” The grin on his face made Clara smile.
I promised I wouldn’t fear love. But with Noel all my fears never came to light; when I was with him, I simply had no fears.
"You bet I do!”
“I haven’t been here in forever,” Clara breathed out. Noel watched as the warm wind took with it her hair. Using her right hand, Clara attempted to hold her hair in place, trying to stop her loose curls from taking flight. Noel squeezed her hand and walked her down the sand dunes and onto the beach. After having a quick shower and changing into his board shorts and a T-shirt, he’d driven Clara to Chelsea beach. He had parked her Lexus in the parking lot a short distance from the lifeguard house.
“Me neither.”
Clara stopped, halting them both, and raised her eyebrow at him.
“You live in Boston, remember? You’ve been out of the country for like five years. I don’t really have an excuse. We used to come here a lot when we were kids, didn’t we?” A bittersweet smile crossed Clara’s lips.
“Come. Let’s place our stuff near the lifeguard house. That way if you start to drown, the lifeguards can come and rescue you,” Noel teased. Clara pulled her hand away. He chuckled at the look on her face.
“So you’re just going to let me drown? You know that this beach isn’t patrolled until the school holidays, right? There isn’t a lifeguard here to save me!” Clara’s nostrils flared in annoyance as her body tensed. Noel smirked and nodded his head.
“You’re such a jerk.” Clara jabbed his chest and stormed off towards the direction of the lifeguard house. Noel couldn’t stifle his laugh as he watched her stomp her feet into the sand, not looking back at him.
Taking his towel off his shoulder, he held it in his hands and ran after her. When he reached her, Clara had already laid out her towel and sat in the middle with her arms crossed. He’d apologise to save her pride. But he loved the way she got annoyed easily. It was one of many things he loved about her. Noel sat on the sand next to Clara, not caring about laying a towel down or not. He watched her as she looked out towards the clear water.
“You have no idea how frustrating you are!” She huffed.
“Is that so?”
Clara turned to face him and replied, “Yes.” Her eyes met his, and he could see the flicker of want and desire in them. His lips twitched and he knew Clara saw it. Her devilish smirk made his palms sweat and his heart beat faster.
“You can be frustrating, too, Clara. Especially, when you look at me like that!” Noel’s throat went dry. He could tell what they did last night was still fresh on her mind.
“I’m frustrating? Me? You are the most frustrating person I’ve ever met! Well, since you want to label me that, I’ll show you just how frustrating I can be!” she challenged. He furrowed his eyebrows at her. Clara’s eyes filled with determination.
“Clara, I was kid—” Noel stopped as he watched Clara stand up, grab the hem of her yellow sundress, and lift it up over her head. Noel’s eyes slowly trailed over Clara’s toned body, her creamy skin beautiful against the striking red of her bikini. He swallowed the lump in his throat and his gaze made its way back up her body to her eyes. Licking his lips, he looked at hers, a smirk filled with utter satisfaction.
Damnit!
“Frustrated?” she asked innocently, her hands on her hips and her head slightly tilted. Clara had a body that could put all the women he had ever seen naked to shame. She was modest, but when she did unleash her body like that, she could literally drive him insane with an achy need and desire.
“Unbelievably,” he sighed out.
He needed her near him. Noel wanted Clara’s arms around his neck and to never let her go. Standing up, his body almost touched hers. Clara’s chest rose and fell at the nearness of him. He inhaled the scent of her floral perfume, and the smell of it drove his thoughts into incoherent piles of useless words.
“Clara.” His voice was like a breathless whisper as he lightly trailed his fingertips up her left arm. She held her breath and a shiver vibrated against his touch. Taking a small step forward, Clara gasped as Noel placed his hands on her hips and pressed his body against hers. Her eyes were wide with surprise and lust. He couldn’t help the satisfaction on his face as he played Clara out of her own game.
“Frustrated?” he mimicked. Clara placed her hands on Noel’s chest and glanced at his lips.
“Unbelievably.” The lowness of her voice sent him on edge. It didn’t help that Clara kept glancing at his lips. Who was he kidding? He was doing the exact same thing. He couldn’t take those pretty big brown eyes looking at him, almost begging him to kiss her. Noel removed his hands off Clara’s hips and wrapped his arms around her lower back, bringing her even closer to him.
He blinked once before he slowly inched his lips closer to hers. Noel closed his eyes as his lips were just about to make contact with Clara’s. Each second until their lips touched made his heart beat out of time.
“Frustrating, isn’t it?”
“What?” His eyes shot open as Clara pushed off his chest with her hands and turned for the beach. She looked over her shoulder and smiled before she ran into the clear water. Noel’s feet planted in the loose sand as he watched her hips sway with every step she took.
He found himself staring as she submerged herself under the water and reappeared, her curls almost straight from being wet. He stood there mesmerised at just how naturally beautiful Clara really was. She wrung the water from her hair before she walked towards him. His lips curved into a smile at the sight of her. She was his.
Her wet hair stuck to her skin, the droplets of salted water running along her body. He couldn’t take his eyes off her body, the exact body that was under his the night before.
She placed her hands on his hips and stepped closer to him. Her touch ignited the fiery desire in him. If she’d let him, he wanted Clara for life. He brought his hands and placed them on each side of Clara’s smooth cheeks.
“You seem to have too many clothes on, Noel.” Clara’s big brown eyes glistened as they stared at him, and just the way she looked at him brought him almost to his knees. Noel closed his eyes and breathed in before opening his eyes, trying to dispel the urges inside of him. Clara bit her bottom lip as she looked up at him.
“Jesus, Clara! We’re at a public beach. Did you forget that? Please control what you say, because trust me, baby, I won’t be able to help myself. I don’t need a reminder of what we did last night because every time I look at you, even for a second, it all flashes back. And all I really want to do is pin you under me and feel those nails of yours digging into my back again. It’s taking every ounce of self-control not to take you back to your apartment and continue what we started. So please, baby, you need to help me out here by not doing the things you’re doing. You are driving me unbelievably…” He trailed off as she smirked.
“You’re frustrated, I see.” Clara let out a laugh.
“No… well… yes. But what I was going to say is, you are driving me unbelievably crazy, because all I want to do is touch you, and I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Noel let out a heavy sigh.
“Noel.” His name like a soft whisper on Clara’s lips caused a shiver to run down his spine.
“I meant you’re still wearing your shirt. If you’re going in the water with me, you better hurry it up! I’m going to shrivel up if I keep waiting for you.”
Noel breathed out. Trying to calm himself down was getting difficult, especially with Clara’s body so close to his.
“If it helps…” Clara said, breaking into his thoughts. Noel blinked at her and that smirk was gone. Instead it was replaced with a shy smile. “I want you to touch me,” Clara said quietly.
Maybe it was the explosion in him, or some kind of animal instinct, but
those words from Clara’s mouth caused a frantic feeling inside of him.
“Jesus. Fucking. Christ!” he cursed out loud, taking her by surprise. Noel could taste the salt from the water on her, each brush of her lips causing the tight grip on his heart to return. As much as he loved to kiss Clara, withholding how he truly felt about her hurt him. Every touch of hers reminded him of what he needed to declare, reminding him of his utter need for her. Clara fisted his shirt before slipping her hands underneath the material. He groaned at the feel of her soft fingertips slowly moving up and down his back.
The feel of Clara’s lips and hands contributed to his rising body temperature. He guided her down until she lay underneath him on her beach towel. Her damp hair mixed with the light golden sand. There was nothing soft and gentle about it. He just needed to feel her entire body on his. Clara widened her legs and Noel settled himself there. She giggled at his hunger for her, and then she let out a soft moan. Noel didn’t care that they were at a public beach. For weeks he hid his pent-up frustration and tension when it came to her. He wasn’t giving up her lips and her touch that easily. Clara pushed his chest off her and removed her lips from his.
“Noel, there are small children around.”
Noel opened his eyes and saw the redness on her face; her chest rose rapidly as she panted. Clara’s eyes told him that she wanted him just as bad as he wanted her. He turned his head to see a few children to his left playing only metres away.
“Clara, you should have thought about that before you said you wanted me to touch you.” He breathed out as he untangled his hands from her hair, removed himself from her body, and sat next to her. Clara sat herself up and wiped her lips with her hand.
“Baby, you’re a fucking frustration. I can’t help but want to touch your body and have you breathe out heavily because I’m the one kissing you. I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first day, and now that you’re letting me, I really don’t want small children to be the reason stopping me.” His eyes never left Clara’s as she scooted in front of him and sat on her knees. Without even giving it a thought, he raised his hand and placed it on her cheek. Everything he ever wanted was right in front of him.
“I don’t care that they see us kiss. That’s not the problem. I just don’t want them to see us practically having dry sex. And well, I don’t want to get escorted off the beach for indecent exposure or something. Those poor kids don’t need to learn about the birds and the bees just yet. Could you imagine if their parents saw us?”
Clara turned her head and looked at the children’s parents, their backs faced them. She breathed out in relief, and he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his lips. Clara’s squinted her eyes at Noel, and he stopped his laugh immediately.
“What?” he asked.
“If we are going to enjoy the sun and this day then you need to take that shirt off… now!” Clara ordered before she stood up and looked down at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What have you done with my Clara?” Noel sarcastically asked as he, too, stood.
“Yours, you say?” Clara tilted her head and a smile spread across his face. He wrapped his arms around Clara’s waist, bringing her closer as she circled her arms around his neck.
“Yes, but you should know that it’s you who completely owns me. Clara Lawrence, you own the one thing no woman has ever come close to holding and that’s my heart. I may have been with other women before you, but they don’t matter. You should know that if you take off, I won’t make any promises about watching you walk away. I plan on running after you and making you change your mind. I plan on begging you until my very last breath to stop running from me.
“I don’t want you to feel another inch of sadness again. Not when I’m around, because I intend on making you happy for the rest of your days. I promise, Clara, I’ll count every grain of sand on this beach if it makes you happy. I’ll do what it takes, because it was always you, and it took me a stupid amount of time to realise it.” Not a single lie came from his mouth.
She looked stunned at his words. Her eyes filled with unshed tears. Clara removed her arms from his neck and placed both hands on his cheeks, running her thumbs along his cheekbones.
“What happened to the jerk?” she asked. Clara’s unshed tears glistened her big brown eyes. She blinked, and they fell freely.
“The jerk?”
“Yeah, the jerk that stood at my front door and called me a brat. Said he’d rather swim with sharks than be around me, who teased me and pranced around my apartment naked. I kinda miss him. What happened to him?” Her teasing smile had Noel smirking.
That stupid jerk fell in love.
“Is that so? You miss me being a jerk?”
“Correction, you’re still a jerk, but you’re a sweet jerk,” Clara teased, and he let go of her waist.
“That’s it!” Noel yelled as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted it over his head, dropping it on the sand. Clara’s eyes made their way down his solid chest before returning to meet his; he could see the anticipation shining through, but then Clara frowned.
“You wouldn’t.” She cocked an eyebrow.
“You better run.” He watched her contemplate if he’d deliver on his unspoken warning of throwing her in the water, like when they were kids. When Clara looked at Noel’s smirk, she bolted towards the lifeguard house and away from the water.
He counted to three before he ran after her. It didn’t matter how many seconds he’d give her. He’d always catch her; he’d never stop until he did. Noel reached out and grabbed her by the waist to stop her running. He pulled her in close, bent his knees, and swept her in his arms.
“No! Please, Noel! Don’t!” She fought in his arms and started to squirm. When she realised that he was going to dump her in the water, she wrapped her arms tight around his neck. He carried Clara closer to the shore; she breathed in and out as her arms tightened around him. When his feet touched the water, Clara’s eyes widened. Noel let out a chuckle.
He concentrated on making sure he didn’t lose his balance with each step he took. Clara squeezed her arms around him and her lips touch the spot on his neck just below his earlobe. He tried to ignore the feel of her ghosting kisses up and down his skin, but they were hard to ignore. Each small kiss igniting the fire inside of him, and each one felt like little shots of electricity that raced through his veins.
It didn’t take long until the water reached just under his ribcage. The water had darkened, and he couldn’t see the sand below. Trying to concentrate while having Clara kiss his neck was extremely hard, considering all he wanted were those soft lips on his. It seemed like Clara knew what he wanted as she maneuvered herself in his arms and placed a lingering kiss on his lips that sent his balance flying out the window.
“Noel!” Clara squealed before the both fell into the water. The coolness of the water washed over Noel’s body and provided him with the relief he desperately needed. Even when they fell in the water, he didn’t let go of her; in fact, he held her tighter and emerged from the water still holding her.
“You okay?” he laughed. Noel set Clara on her feet and watched droplets of water shimmer against her hair and skin.
“You didn’t lie when you said you’d chase me,” she replied, trying to dry her face with her hands.
“Not a promise I’m willing to break.” Noel winked and slowly swam around to Clara’s back. He stood up in the water, wrapped his arms around her waist, and placed a kiss on her cheek before resting his chin on her shoulder.
“I believe you,” Clara replied as she tilted her head slightly and snuggled into his embrace. The sound of children laughing and the busy beach slowly started to fade away as he held Clara in his arms, lost in their own world.
Noel stood in the elevator as it made its way towards the sixth floor. He leant on the steel wall as he opened the envelope and sifted through the photos he printed. He smiled at the last one. It made him believe a relationship was possible for them.
Looking at t
he wallet-size photo, he reached into the pocket of his rain-drenched jacket and took out his wallet. Placing the envelope under his arm, he glanced at the photo of Clara kissing his cheek while at the beach. With a content smile, he placed the photo in a free card slot in his wallet as the elevator opened. He returned his wallet back in his pocket. All the photos had him hoping that the glimmer in Clara’s eyes was love and adoration directed towards him.
Stepping on to Clara’s floor, he made his way to her apartment. Noel had met up with Rob and Max at PJ’s before he took a detour to the printing shop. Things between Rob and Max didn’t seem to change even though they were keeping his secret. He reached Clara’s apartment and opened the door, aware she’d leave it open until he came home.
Placing Clara’s car keys and the photo envelope on the hallway table, he ran a hand through his wet hair. The smell of vanilla hit his nose. He walked into the lounge to see Clara sitting on the window seat with a recipe book in her hands. Her curls tucked behind her ear as she continued to read intently. Clara’s natural beauty always struck him as pure perfection. The way she studied the pages with a content smile on her face had his stomach forming knots. Noel walked over and knelt in front of her. The way she looked down at him was disarmingly beautiful. The sight of her angelic smile and those shiny brown eyes always made his heart clench; she was someone he didn’t deserve. But he’d prove to her and to Alex that he was worthy of Clara.
“How were drinks with the guys?” Clara placed the recipe book down next to a plush toucan and a plush penguin. He had never noticed them sitting there before. He was the one that showed her toucans when they were kids.
“It’s PJ’s, nothing but banter and Guinness. What’s with the vanilla smell?” Noel asked as he looked around the apartment for some sort of candle being lit.
“Vanilla and lavender cupcakes are baking. Thought I’d try my take on them. You’re wet.” Clara inspected his wet hair and jacket. It was in that moment that an idea sparked into his thoughts.