by Holly Renee
I can’t stop thinking about you on your knees.
I watched as the message went from delivered to read, but there was no response. I wasn’t surprised.
I tucked my arm under my head as I stared at my phone.
Have you thought about it too?
The three little dots danced across my screen before they disappeared. She was reading my messages and thinking about what to say. Even if she hadn’t said a word, that thought alone made my dick strain against my shorts.
What you would look like with my hands in your hair as I fucked your mouth?
I pulled my cock out of my shorts and rested my hand against it.
I want to know what you would taste like after I came in your mouth. I wonder if I could still taste the sweetness of you beneath the taste of me.
It was only a second later before her text chimed on my phone.
Stop.
But I wouldn’t stop.
God. You would be so wet.
I pushed the bead of precum over the head of my cock as I thought about it. Josie tried to act like she was innocent, but I could just imagine how turned on she’d be.
Her lips would be swollen from me and her pussy would be begging me even if she was too stubborn to.
Are you wet right now?
I imagined she was. Her small hands were probably shaking as she timidly slid them into her panties and felt her own arousal against her fingers.
I wondered if that would shock her or if she already knew how badly she wanted me.
Move that wetness around. Smear it over your clit and imagine it was me.
There was a long moment with no answer, and my cock felt like it was going to explode in my hand.
Are you doing it?
Are you imagining it was me?
Beck, stop.
God. It was like I could hear her whispering my name.
Whatever you’re doing right now, I would do it better. I would be rougher.
I wouldn’t stop even when you begged me.
My breathing was coming out in harsh bursts, and I imagined my hand was hers.
I was so fucking close.
Why are you doing this?
Why? Why? She knew why. She knew exactly how I felt about her and her fucking family.
Because I want you to beg for it.
A bolt of pleasure shot through my lower back and into my thighs.
I want to hear you beg me for everything I give you.
I won’t.
Her response was immediate, and it was a dare.
She would beg me, and then I would make her regret it.
She would regret ever coming to Clermont Bay.
You will.
Pleasure crashed through me, and I came all over my fingers and on my stomach in a rush. I could barely control myself as I came to the thought of her.
Chapter Seven
Josie
I had no idea how I let her talk me into this.
I had no business going to a party, but Allie had assured me that this would be different.
It would be different than the last party I attended and different from every other time I had any interaction with Beck.
Allie and I had both worked a long shift, and I just wanted to relax. I didn’t want to think about Beck, his hate, or the way I couldn’t stop thinking about the text messages he had sent me the other night.
I wasn’t even sure how he had gotten my number, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. I was far too concerned over his filthy mouth and how I had done exactly like he told me and slid my fingers into my panties as I read his words on my phone.
Shame prickled every part of my skin, but it hadn’t stopped me.
No one was there, and Beck had no idea what I was doing. He probably thought that I was angered by his texts, and I was. I was angry and hot and frustrated.
And his words washed over me as if he had never been anyone except the guy I first met. I imagined what it would be like if Beck didn’t hate me, and I let myself pretend my hand was his.
Every time I had told him to stop, I was begging him for more in my mind, and it hadn’t taken long.
I came so quickly as I imagined his hand, and the shame I had been pushing away was the only thing I had left to feel.
He was cruel and brazen, and I shouldn’t have been turned on by anything he did or said.
Allie threw me my bag, and we both changed clothes in the front seats of her Honda. I chucked my black dress pants and dress shirt in the back seat and slipped on a pair of ripped jean shorts and a simple white t-shirt. Allie looked far dressier than I did in a short yellow sundress that made her look absolutely incredible.
I fluffed my long brown hair in the sun visor mirror and tried to calm my nerves as she slid lip gloss over her lips. Tonight wasn’t about Beck or what he wanted or didn’t want. Tonight was about having fun. Something I hadn’t done in a really long time.
“It’ll mostly be Clermont High students here.” She nodded out toward the beach as she dropped her lip gloss in the cupholder. “Prep students are usually all off vacationing for the summer.”
I chuckled and twisted my mom’s ring on my finger. I hated feeling so out of my element.
Although I didn’t even know what my element was anymore. I didn’t know where the hell I belonged.
We walked into the sand, me a step behind Allie, both of us in search of the light of the bonfire. There were dozens of people standing around the fire, some of them in bathing suits as if they had spent the entire day on the beach. Others looking like they had spent the entire day drinking.
But this party already felt so vastly different from the last one I attended.
While it was still a bunch of teenagers who had no sense of responsibility or self-preservation, this party was much more laid back.
It was just them, the beach, and a tall keg full of beer.
Allie reached back for me, gripping my hand in hers just as we reached the crowd.
“Hey, Allie.”
Allie waved at some girl and kept pulling me forward.
I didn’t dare let go of her hand as we walked together. I barely knew Allie, but I knew that she was the closest thing to a friend I had.
Honestly, it felt like it had been forever since I had a real friend.
Not since my mom died.
It was my fault too. I had shut my friends out when my mom got sick. I couldn’t stand their pity or the way their parents looked at me when I was around. Like I was some charity case because my mom had cancer.
It was how the whole school had looked at me. Most of them had gone to school with me for as long as I could remember, but suddenly I became different. I could see it all over their faces. I heard it in their whispers, and as much as I hated being in Clermont Bay, I was glad that I was no longer there. Especially without her.
“This is Josie.”
I looked up at the guy she was talking to. He grinned at me as he pushed his floppy light brown hair out of his face.
He reached his hand out to me, and I couldn’t help but stare at his abs that were clearly on display. He wore nothing but a pair of boardshorts and based on the deep tan of his skin, I’d bet anything that he spent the majority of his days on this beach.
“It’s nice to meet you, Josie. I’m Will.” He gripped my hand in his, his skin as warm as the setting sun, and I tried to think of a coherent thing to say back to him. My own skin warmed as I stared at him.
“You too.”
He grinned, and I had a feeling that look rarely left his face.
“You new here?” I watched as his eyes looked me over subtly, but I noticed. Allie did too. She tried to hide her smile as she dropped my other hand.
“I’m going to go grab us a drink.” She walked away from me, and I almost reached back out to stop her. I wasn’t good at this.
This small talk with people I didn’t know.
I looked back to Will with my stomach fluttering and finally answered his ques
tion. “Yeah. I just moved here.” I could have told him more. He probably knew who my dad and my new stepbrother were just like everyone else, but I didn’t want him to know.
I didn’t want him to treat me differently when I could do nothing to change it.
I didn’t want him to treat me like Beck had.
“What do you think so far?” He took a step closer to me, away from his friends at his side.
“It’s okay.”
“Okay?” He chuckled. “Allie must be a terrible tour guide.”
“She’s not too bad.”
“I don’t know about that.” He nodded out toward the ocean, and there was a sense of awe that smoothed out his features. “Do you have this kind of view where you come from?”
I followed his gaze and took in the sun dipping just below the farthest edge of the water. It seemed so impossibly beautiful. I hadn’t even paid attention to it once since we got here.
“No.” I shook my head. “Nothing like that.”
“You been swimming yet?”
I looked over at Will, who seemed even closer than he was before. “No.”
He reached out for my hand, his fingertips barely touching mine as he turned his back to the water. “Come on. Let’s dip our toes in.”
I knew this was nothing like when I had been on the beach with Beck, but I still hesitated. My heart raced as I looked over my shoulder for Allie, but she was talking to a group of girls who looked like they probably went to school with her. “I don’t know.”
“It’s just your toes.” I looked back at him as he spoke, and there was something about his smile that calmed me just the smallest bit. “What are you scared of?”
He was teasing and I knew it, but I hated what he said. I wasn’t scared. I refused to be. The girl I left back in Utah was scared.
Not me.
I took a step toward him, my fingers hanging loosely against his, and a dimple popped out on his cheek.
He led us to the edge of the water, and I kicked my shoes off in the sand. The water was cool as it lapped at my toes, and I tried to remember the last time I had touched the ocean.
Not just the damp sand or the spray of its waves.
Truly just jumped in.
It had to be close to five or six years ago. Before my mother had gotten sick.
“Is that really as far as you’re going to go?” He trudged into the water without an ounce of fear, and I watched as the waves splashed against his legs.
I took another small step, and he laughed.
“You’re a risk taker, aren’t you?”
“You could tell that already?” I pushed my toes into the sand, then watched it disappear with the push and pull of the water.
“From the moment I saw you.” He smiled and moved farther into the water. He beckoned me in, but there was no way I was getting in the water with him.
I had just gotten here, and I didn’t know this guy.
It didn’t matter that his smile put me at ease or that the look in his eyes dared me to do something more. I had learned my lesson about trusting boys in Clermont Bay. The first time was a mistake I wouldn’t soon forget.
I shook my head just as he reached into the water and splashed me playfully.
“No.” I held up my hands, as if that would somehow help me, and laughed.
It felt odd. I hadn’t laughed in a long time. Not like this. Not so freely.
“Get in or it’s happening.” He was teasing me, but I didn’t want to risk it.
I took off back toward the beach, but Will wrapped his arms around my waist and spun me back toward the water.
“No.” I was laughing as he dropped me into the ocean, the water only hitting my knees. My stomach flipped, and my breathing was coming out in bursts.
“I warned you. You can’t move to Clermont Bay and not experience the ocean. It’s a sin, really.”
“I’m experiencing it.” I held my arms out to the sides and looked around. “Isn’t this enough?”
“No.” I wondered if Will looked at everyone the way he was looking at me.
If he had the power to make every girl feel special as soon as he met them.
He reached for me again, and I let him. I didn’t know a single thing about this boy, but something about him made me feel like I could trust him. I knew how stupid that sounded. I was in the ocean with a guy I had never met, surrounded by more people that I didn’t know, and I felt safe with him.
I felt like this moment, smiling with this boy, could somehow make me forget Beck.
I could forget the way he made me feel and the way I had given in to him without him even knowing.
Will lifted me over his shoulder and acted like he was going to jump into the water.
“No!” I screamed and laughed, and I heard others laughing from the beach.
“You sure?” he asked and I pushed against his back to raise my head.
“Yes. I’ve seen enough of the ocean. There are sharks in there.”
He gently set me back down on my feet, my blood rushing away from my head, and I knew that I still had a stupid smile on my face.
“There.” He was right in front of me, and he pushed some of my hair out of my face. “There’s the smile I wanted to see.”
“I was smiling at you earlier.” I laughed because there was a good possibility that he was insane.
“Yeah, but that one was fake.”
I couldn’t stop smiling because he was right. My thighs were covered in saltwater and sand, and small splatters of water dotted my clothes. I hadn’t felt this carefree in a long time, too long to remember, but it felt good.
It didn’t feel forced at all.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as a wave crashed into my calves, threatening to knock me over, and I could have sworn he smelled like the sun. He smelled like that moment when you had been out on the water all day and your skin still felt the heat of the sun. When you were tired but perfectly content.
His hair tickled my face as I breathed him in, and for a moment, I forgot. Where I was. Who I was. What I was supposed to be. I just forgot it all and let him hold on to me as he laughed around the sound of the ocean.
Then I looked up, and I saw him.
I didn’t know where he had come from. But Beck stood next to the fire with his hands in his pockets and his callous eyes on me. Had he been here all along and I just missed him?
There was no way.
I would have noticed him. He was impossible to miss.
And it was clear that he hadn’t missed me.
He didn’t hide the fact that he was staring at me, even when my gaze met his, he didn’t look away. He held my gaze, his anger hitting me as harshly as the waves, and I suddenly felt foolish in Will’s arms.
And the fact that he made me feel that way heated my blood far more than Will’s warmth ever could.
Beck Clermont hated me, that much was perfectly clear, and I didn’t give two shits why. I hated him too.
He had forced me to hate him, and he was successful.
He looked like a king standing there. All the people on the beach vying for his attention, but he didn’t move his gaze away from me. Not for one second.
I pushed away from Will, steadying myself on my feet, and I pulled my own gaze away from Beck long enough to look up at him.
“You okay?” He was still smiling, and it was so carefree and easy. It was the kind of smile that made you fall for someone. The kind of smile I should fall for.
But I couldn’t help looking back over his shoulder at Beck.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I ran my fingers over my shorts, but Will was already looking back to where my attention kept wandering. He looked back to me, his smile faltering slightly, but I noticed.
He reached his hand out for me, and I let him pull me toward him and to the dry sand. “Let’s go get you a drink.” He put his arm over my shoulders as we walked, and I let him. He was a complete stranger, but I somehow felt safer there under his arm when I had no id
ea what faced me.
I avoided looking back toward Beck as we made our way over to a giant trash can that was stuck down in the sand. A keg was floating in ice, and Will let go of me as he started pouring me a cup. I didn’t dare tell him that I didn’t like beer. Instead, I gripped the plastic cup in my hand with too much force and I took a deep drink of the bitter liquid.
“It’s cheap-ass beer.” He chuckled when he saw my face. “But it does the trick.”
I nodded and wiped the edge of my mouth with the back of my hand. I didn’t really know the difference between cheap beer and expensive beer, but I knew it tasted awful.
Will was looking back toward the fire, but I was looking anywhere else. “You know Beck Clermont?”
I tensed as the name left his mouth. “Not really. Why?” It wasn’t a lie. I didn’t know anything about him. Not in any way that actually mattered.
“He’s staring at me like he wants to rip my head off.” Will chuckled and looked down at me.
I chanced a look over my shoulder, and he was right. Beck was staring Will down as if he hated him as much as he hated me. Maybe he did.
Maybe he hated everyone.
But according to Allie, that wasn’t true.
According to her, she had never seen him act toward anyone the way he did me.
Lucky me, I guess.
“Did you do something to piss him off?” I asked Will, even though I knew that hatred was probably directed at me.
“Not that I’m aware of.” He chuckled again and pushed his hair out of his face. “I hope not at least.”
“How do you know Beck?”
“Everyone knows Beck.” Will looked at me like I was crazy. “He’s the best player on the Prep baseball team. He’s been offered a dozen college scholarships even though he doesn’t need any of them.” There was a hint of irritation or maybe jealousy in Will’s voice, and I couldn’t say that I blamed him.
Guys like Beck getting a scholarship was like a slap in the face to those of us who couldn’t afford it.
“You play?”
“Yeah.” He nodded and his signature grin was back on his face. “I’m not half bad.”
“What’s up, Hollis?”
I tensed as I heard his voice far too close to me. Will looked up with a smile on his face, and I continued to stare straight ahead as they slapped hands. I couldn’t see him, I didn’t dare turn in his direction, but I could smell a hint of his cologne. It somehow was so much darker than Will’s. Where Will was the sun, Beck was smothering.