Full Tilt (Full Tilt #1)(80)

Jonah brushed his hand over my cheek. “You’re pretty fair for a beach lover.”

“Big hats and SPF 1000,” I said. “And I preferred swimming or body-surfing in that big ocean. Big and endless. If you think the stars were spectacular at Great Basin, wait until you see a moonrise over the Pacific.”

He nuzzled my ear. “Sounds like you’re planning a trip.”

“I really want to take you to San Diego. Walk on the beach and hang out at all the cool spots I used to love.”

“And see your parents?”

I shuddered. “No. God, no. It would just be awkward and uncomfortable…”

“I can handle awkward and uncomfortable. If you want to see them, you should.”

“I don’t. I want to be with you, at the places I used to love best.” I lifted my head to look at him. “Can you? Two days. Flights are pretty cheap and I still have some Rapid Confession money—”

“You should save it. Don’t spend it on me.”

“I want to spend it on us. But if you can’t spare the time from the hot shop I understand.”

“I can.”

I caressed his face. “Really?”

“If it’s important to you, I can.”

I let out a little cry of excitement and kissed him. “Let’s go next Monday and Tuesday. So we don’t take time from your parents. Of course, Theo will have a cow…”

Jonah laughed. “He might, but how beautifully happy you look right now is more than worth it.”





Theo’s flight safety demonstration lasted half an hour. From what to do if the cabin pressure in the airplane dropped, to making sure we brought all of Jonah’s meds and stored them properly so they wouldn’t get confiscated by the TSA. And of course, where the nearest hospital was to our hotel. But I never took Theo’s concern for Jonah for granted. I patted his cheek and told him I’d take good care of his brother.

I’d booked us into a place with the most San Diego name ever: the Surfer Beach Hotel on Pacific Drive. Its proximity to the beach made it a little pricey for my budget, but I wanted us to be able to walk along the ocean at night, in the morning, or any time the urge struck us. The price was worth it.

At the airport rent-a-car, Jonah led me to a black Ford Mustang convertible.

“You didn’t think this entire trip was on you, did you?” he asked, holding the door open. “I’ve got savings. Between the two of us, we can make these two days pretty damn awesome.”

We put the top down, cranked the music up, and Jonah gunned the engine with a whoop of laughter. Singing loud, we cruised along a post-morning commute stretch of freeway and arrived at the hotel around ten. We had the entire day ahead of us.

“What do you want to do first?” I asked, tying on the top of my black bikini.

“What do you want to do second?” he replied, throwing me down on the bed.

“Yes,” I whispered, as he trailed kisses down my neck, his hands working the knot on the back of my bathing suit. “This first.”

It was after eleven when we made it out to the beach.

We set up near the shore, and I kicked off my flip flops to bury my feet in the hot, soft sand.

“You smell that?” I asked, inhaling deeply.

“Seaweed?” Jonah asked, eyeing a clump that had washed ashore and was buzzing with sandflies.

“The ocean,” I said.

His arms slid around me from behind. “I want to smell it in your hair after we swim,” he murmured. “And on the bedsheets later…”

I turned and kissed him, my hands sliding over his chest and arms. His skin was hot, slippery with sunscreen. I tugged him to the water.

The cold of the ocean bit down hard, taking my breath before it relaxed into a soft coolness. I dove under the foam of a wave, just as I used to do when I was a kid. The cold water on my face and the pull of the ocean were just as I’d remembered, and the nostalgia was so strong, I had to get my bearings for a minute. But there was Jonah. My here and now, and the moment felt as big as the ocean.

Jonah flopped backward into a cresting wave and disappeared beneath the surface. He came up out of the water, the sun glistening in the beads of water along his chest. Water arced off his head as he whipped the hair out of his eyes. I bit my lip as a shiver went up my thighs.

Jonah swam up and kissed me. God, he tasted so good. Like himself—clean and warm—but with the tang of saltwater mixing in. He groaned into my mouth, then broke away with a gasp.

“Holy shit,” he said. I could feel his erection straining against his swim shorts. “You taste like salted caramel.” He kissed me again, and pressed my hips to his. “We’re going to have to live here.”

“Oh yeah?” I said, ringing my arms around his neck.

“Literally right here in the water. I’ll be arrested if I come out.”

I laughed and walked backward, deeper into the ocean, shielding the front of his body with mine. I fell back, taking him with me, and we kissed above the surface and below it, before coming to rest in the water, neither of us speaking.

Jonah held me as I floated on my back, my head in the curve of his shoulder, and I had the fleeting wish that we could live here. Not in San Diego but in this day, these moments, over and over again, forever.