Frayed (Connections, #4)(46)

While she fumbles through her bag, I take a moment to pull myself together. When I agreed to this friends thing, I knew I was agreeing to take it slow, but it feels like utter torture with her standing in front of me practically naked and I can’t help blurring the lines a little. In the past if a girl I was interested in had ever thrown out the friend word, I would have deleted her number from my phone. But there’s just something about S’belle . . .

She lifts her arms and pulls her hair up off her shoulders. She smiles at me as I watch her. Yeah, there’s something about her. Everything about her is sexy as hell—the way she moves, the faces she makes when she’s concentrating on something, even the way she stands.

“Ready,” she says with a small bounce.

Does she have any idea what that does to me? I scan her body again as I pick my board up, and this time I notice the hint of a scar peeking out from her bathing suit bottoms.

I point to it. “What happened?”

She glances down and quickly adjusts her bottoms.

She blows some stray pieces of hair out of her eyes. “Are we going to start this lesson today or what?”

I laugh and toss my board to the ground. I sit on it and pat the empty space beside me.

She stares at me.

“Sit down.”

She does but makes sure our bodies don’t touch.

I smirk over at her. “Let’s go over the guidelines.”

She blinks at me without speaking.

“The guidelines of surfing.”

“Surfing has guidelines?”

“More like generalities, things you should know. But I’ll call them guidelines.”

She rolls her eyes.

I grin and raise a finger. “Number one, the instructor must always be respected.”

She laughs and shoves my shoulder. Again her skin against mine feels anything but wrong.

I raise an eyebrow.

“Go on, I’m listening,” she says.

“First, do you know what a rip current is?”

She shakes her head.

Five minutes into my guidelines, it’s apparent she has no knowledge whatsoever about surfing and there’s no way I’m letting her go out there on a board today. When she asked to come surfing, I assumed she knew how—but she doesn’t even know how to stand on a board or which end is which.

We need to start with the basics. I find a stick to draw in the sand. She pays attention and her eagerness to attempt surfing does nothing but fuel the fire between us. I point out to the water. “She’s in charge out there. You have to respect her. Know what you can handle and what you can’t. No two waves are ever the same.”

An hour of Surfing 101 later, we both need a break. She takes a sip from the water bottle I hand to her, and some spills from her mouth down to her chest. Immediately I have a vision of licking the drips up for her. When she bends over toward her giant purse, I follow the lines of her body and notice the sand sticking everywhere and think I should wipe it off for her. But she stands with a cup of grapes in her hand before I get close enough.

I bite down on my lower lip instead. “Do you have a picnic lunch in there too? Because if not we need to take a break and eat.”

She pops a grape in her mouth. “No.” She laughs. “I stopped and grabbed these with my coffee this morning, but I think I should have picked up some sandwiches too. I didn’t know it was going to take this long to learn to surf.” She blows some hair out of her eyes.

I can’t help laughing at her. “I’m only kidding.”

She extends her hand, offering me the cup. “Want some?”

I flash her a boyish grin. “Yes, I want some.” I move closer and tuck that same strand of hair back behind her ear before curling my hand around hers and pinching a grape from the container.

Our faces are so close that it’s hard to tell whose breathing is louder. But I’m sure it’s mine when she lowers herself to the ground and brushes against me before she takes a seat. She wipes her face and drinks thirstily from the bottle.

“You all right?”

“Yes, I think I just need a breather. This is hard.”

I plop down beside her. “Want to go grab some food? Call it a day?”

“No. I’m having fun.” She buries her toes in the sand and I mimic her action.

“Okay, but let’s take a short break.”

She nods.

We sit on the shore in comfortable silence for a bit and both watch the way the waves break. I assess the wind conditions as she studies the current rolling in. But I also find myself glancing over at her and thinking about how much fun I’ve had with her over the past few weeks. And even though we haven’t had sex, I’ve enjoyed her company. I seem to want her near me all the time. It’s not a feeling I’m used to. But sex or not, things have definitely progressed between us since our first date. And I haven’t pushed her. I’ve let her set the pace for the most part. And the fact that she joined me this morning in something she knows I love triggers an odd feeling in my stomach.





CHAPTER 14


I Choose You

Bell

It’s a beautiful day for the beach. The sun is shining, there’s just a slight breeze, and he’s here sitting next to me.

He leans in close and startles me. “Look over there. Watch what he does.”