After quickly retrieving the sunblock, I return to the back of the car to find Felix pulling on the bottom of his shirt like he doesn’t know what to do with it.
“Are you okay?” I ask, worried that the beach really wasn’t a good idea after all.
“Oh, uh, yeah. I’m fine,” he announces with a plastered on smile. “It’s, um… well, I didn’t know it was going to be so warm. Long sleeves weren’t the best idea.”
“Shit, sorry.” I wince, also regretting my choice of thick leggings, a black t-shirt, and my red hoodie. “I only wanted the sun to be out, but I’m still having issues trying to be precise when casting spells. I thought of a sunny day, and, well, sunny days for me tended to also be hot days when I lived in Arizona.”
“You made a beautiful clear day in February, I’m not complaining,” he states and then rubs the back of his neck.
With a critical eye of his awkward posture, it dawns on me that he’s hesitating about taking his shirt off when the day obviously calls for it. Hoping I’m helping by going first, I surmise with a chuckle, “Fortunately, I can take off a few layers before people will start to complain.”
“I doubt anyone would complain,” he insists, his gaze flicking to my chest then back to my face.
Well, that’s a good sign. Granted, Nolan was also more than interested in the girls and he still turned me down. Lust does not equal love, but interest beats nothing.
Feeling dumb but hoping I look even remotely sexy, I put the sunblock down in the trunk and tug my hoodie and shirt over my head. To my delight, they don’t get stuck on my thick hair that I tied up into a messy bun. Discarding my clothes into the trunk, I now stand before him dressed in nothing but tight leggings and a black sports bra.Okay, now we flirt. I can totally flirt to distract him. Yup, look at me go! Seductress extraordinaire.I mentally groan.To any deity that might be listening, please don’t let me look like an idiot.
I pick the lotion back up and hold it out to him. Batting my lashes, I request, “Would you mind rubbing this onto my back?”
The short circuit expression that takes over his face fills me with feminine satisfaction. A coy smile teases at the corners of my mouth.Go team me! Iamthe sexy vixen.
“Yeah, uh, sure. Totally,” he stammers, fumbling to retrieve the lotion from my hand.
“Be sure to get it under the straps,” I instruct while flashing him a pair of innocent doe eyes.
Turning away from him and using one hand, I hold up some of the flyaway strands that the ocean breeze snagged from my bun. There are the sounds of the lotion squirting and Felix rubbing his palms together, and then a shiver shoots through me when he finally touches my skin.
His hands freeze on my shoulders for a moment, the warmth of his skin heating the lotion against my flesh. My nerve endings light up under his careful touch, tingles zipping along my skin as he rubs my shoulders, neck, and down my back. His touch turns into a mini massage, and an unexpected moan vibrates in my throat when he gets to a knot in my lower back.
Felix is abnormally quiet during his task, as if to speak would shock us back into our awkward reality. He grows bolder in his thoroughness, encouraged by my pleased hums, and extends past my back to lotion my stomach, arms, and upper chest. Desire builds into a molten heat that makes my body heavy, and I want to lean back against his chest. To my dismay, he finishes, taking a step back and handing the lotion back to me.
Turning around, I notice his entire face is flushed, and he has his hands buried in his pockets. My fingers itch to touch him, and in a husky voice I don’t recognize as my own, I ask, “Do you want me to do you now?”
“What?” he squeaks, his straight brows climbing up his forehead and his mouth gaping open.
Realizing yet another innuendo has popped out of my mouth, I feel my cheeks turn several shades of red. Waving the sunblock, I stammer, “You’re hot… I mean, like, the temperature is hot, so I thought you might want to, uh… take your shirt off?” I wince because it sounds like I want him to strip in front of me. Which, if we weren’t in a gravel parking lot in front of a public beach, I’d certainly not object to.Focus, Callie.“Anyway, I wouldn’t want your back to get sunburnt, so…”
“Right! Right. Sunblock to protect against the… uh, sun,” he yells way too loudly considering I’m standing in front of him.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” I offer, feeling extremely awkward now, when only moments ago I was ready to climb him like a tree. Hormones are so annoying.
“No, you’re right. It’d be weird not to, so yeah, I’ll, um… I’ll just take my shirt off now,” Felix replies, his tone growing in octaves throughout the sentence.
Before I can think of anything to respond with, he spins around and, in a hurried movement of limbs, tugs the shirt off. I’m not proud of it, but a few seconds pass in which I marvel at his strong back, his muscles rippling with each deep breath and roll of his shoulders.Oh yeah. I’m a first-class hussy and so don’t care.
Clearing my suddenly dry throat, I chirp, “You ready?”
“Yup,” he blurts with several nods of his head.
Damn it. Can I make this any more embarrassing? Get your shit together. It’s sunblock, not erotic massage oil… or chocolate sauce.
I’m much brisker with my ministrations, the seductive vixen I was before now replaced with extremely awkward normal me. Despite feeling like a fumbling idiot, my lotion-covered fingers end up with minds of their own, and I can’t help but run them along the indents of muscles, my thumbs digging a little deeper than necessary. He shivers while I work the lotion into his neck, shoulders, back, and arms. Gooseflesh springs up all over his skin, which I promptly blame on the ever-present breeze off the ocean.
Quickly, I hand the lotion back to him and mumble, “You can get your, er, front, while I gather our stuff.”
His head bobs up and down in agreement, and then he gets to work, his breath oddly uneven.
Shoving my sweater and his shirt into my backpack along with the keys, water, towels, and snacks, I heft it over my shoulder and paste on a bright, totally not self-conscious smile. “Let’s go find a place to practice.”
