Lag (The boys of RDA #2)(8)
The hum of Trey’s machine is my only clue before he passes me. We spend a few minutes riding alongside each other as we work our way out to open water. The spray from his machine and splashing of his man-made waves on the side of mine have taken my hair from damp to wet in a few passes. I have to keep wiping the water from my eyes and forehead to see. I stop to re-band my hair and Trey pulls up next to me.
“Are you having fun?” He leans over his handlebars and I track a few trails of water as they work their way down his face from his hair line. If we were closer, I’d reach out and follow one with my finger. This is vacation Simone after all.
“Yes!” My smile is huge from my excitement. A few sail boats come into view a little past the mouth of our bay. The bright white sails and bobbing of the boats are a sight I’ve only seen in pictures. “Can we go check out the boats?” I point to where they’ve congregated over the last hour we’ve been riding.
“Sure.” Trey’s hands go back to his handlebars as he sits on his seat, the orange color on the Sea-Doo clashing against the dark tan of his legs.
I follow him toward the boats as they bob in the water against the ocean waves. Other various colored jet skis with riders, some with life jackets and others without, race back and forth in the same area as Trey and I, but we’ve managed to maintain our own private space for most of our ride.
As we near the boats, three bright blue jet skis circle around each other, each catching the waves created from their companions and causing their machines to jump higher as they hit each wave.
Trey moves ahead on his jet ski and holds up a thumb pointing to the cluster’s right. I follow him and we both turn to go around the rowdy group. Trey moves farther ahead of me and I squeeze my gas harder to try and catch up. In that moment one of the other riders shoots his jet ski in front of mine.
I pull my handlebars to the right, but hit his wave. The force between my turn and the wave hitting my jet ski sends me tumbling over the side and into the water. The cold Atlantic water rushes over my head chilling me after the last hour spent under the warming sun. My mouth opens to gasp at the cold contact and water rushes in. I throw my arms out and push up to force my head above water again, spitting out my salty mouthful.
“Simone!” Trey’s voice is a whisper over the hum of the other riders still circling their friends.
My orange and black machine bobbles in the water beside me, no longer running. The emergency rip cord hits my forehead as I bring my hands up to wipe the water from my face. Trey’s jet ski stops next to me and the splash created when he dives off sends more waves up to battle against my efforts.
He splashes in the water until he’s next to me. “You didn’t answer me. Are you okay?” His eyes stretch over my face searching for my answer while his hands grab me by the shoulders. “Can you swim?”
I look at him puzzled. “Yes, I can swim.” And even if I couldn’t, the life jacket would keep me up.
His face relaxes after he determines I’m fine. “That guy’s an *. You might have been seriously hurt.”
I laugh at his concern. “Are you going to go beat him up for me?”
“For you? Totally.” He pulls me closer so our life jackets bump against one another. His large hand cups my cheek for a second until he traces the curve of my lower lip with his thumb.
I wait for a kiss I’m sure is coming, but it doesn’t happen in some wild passionate moment like I expected. Trey leans in slowly and his lips press delicately on the corner of my mouth before the water pulls us apart. “So gorgeous.”
The words make me blush, and I cast my eyes downward. A thick emotion stirs in my chest and tightens my throat. I guess even vacation Simone can’t handle compliments from tall, hot, barely clothed men.
CHAPTER FIVE
My butt sinks into the dark blue thickly woven blanket covering us from the sand and I slip off my flip-flops before I lift my feet onto the blanket. The blanket is similar to the one I used last night. The one that’s sprawled across my bed back in the room. The one I'll be discreetly packing with the rest of my stuff unless Trey asks for it back outright. Even then there’s a chance he’ll have to rip it from my fingers. Apparently vacation Simone is sentimental. Who knew?
“Order anything you want.” Trey passes a long thin laminated menu to me from his place on the blanket while he looks over his own.
The selections are for lunch at one of the resort restaurants. There aren’t prices on the sheet, but I remember the name, The Sea Shell, as one of the higher end options from the brochure.
It fits with what I learned about Trey earlier. I fell into bed after Elena busted us in the hallway, too tired to research him at the time. With my new blanket wrapped around me under the sheets, I spent the night full of dreams starring Trey.
This morning I had more energy as I ran around with nervous jitters getting ready. Elena and I ate an early breakfast, but rather than follow her to the room, I snuck into one of the small hotel computer labs. A few quick searches later and I had a mini encyclopedia of information on Trey Good, Raven Digital Arts, and Dragons Reborn.
Pages of results came up, but most relate to the 2.6-billion-dollar record breaking sale of Dragons Reborn. The number made my mouth drop open. What kind of video game is worth billions? Trey even has a wiki page, but it was pretty boring stuff. The man lacks personal scandal. The few short paragraphs on his personal life were… normal. I might even go as far as to say boring.