AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“To newfound friendships.” I attempt a smile. Only, I’m starting to lose sensation in my upper lip. “I’m smiling, I swear.”
Brandi cackles as she lies her head back on the lounger we snuck away from the beachfront hotel behind us. I tried to point out the sign that said Hotel Customers Only and another in bold red: NOT FOR USE ON THE BEACH.
But one doesn’t say no to Brandi, especially when margaritas are involved.
“Shh!” Brandi says, grabbing her floppy hat and yanking it over her face. “I hear someone coming.”
I twist in my chair. “Aw, hell.”
A very official-looking man on a bicycle is flying down the beach, headed straight for us.
“Who rides a bike on the beach?” I squawk, grabbing my drink and readying myself to bolt.
She gasps when I rush to stand. “Don’t you do it, Kate.”
I’m laughing my ass off, margarita slushing over my hand as I sprint away from her and the hotel guard.
“You bitch!” she hollers, but she’s laughing too, and for the tiniest moment, every little nuance in my nuance-filled life just might be alright.
Until I collide with something solid.
My precious drink goes flying, my breath leaves my lungs, and then I’m flat on my back, gasping for air in the wet sand.
“Jesus, Kate.” The sand beneath me gives way with a crunch as I try to regain my bearings.
When they do, I blink to find Damon deftly running his palms over my arms and legs. I moan in pain. “We’ve… gotta… stop doing… this,” I pant. The bruise he’d me on the volleyball court just started darkening this morning.
“Do I need to take you to a medic?”
“No, I’m fine,” I protest. “I think.”
I do a mental check.Head’s still there. Limbs? Still attached.
I rotate my forearm through Damon’s mothering hands.
“Will you stop moving?” he grumbles.
And then the big lug is cradling me as he kneels deeper into the sand before standing.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I say into his bare chest.
I swear I hear muffled thunder in the distance, but I may also have a concussion, so.
How is he somehow more delicious than the first time I saw him without a shirt on?
Definitely concussed.
Damon lifts me up in a mostly swift motion, and when he huffs a laugh across my face and neck, I nearly convulse.
“You’re impossible. Do you know that?”
His dark hair flits in the wind, brushing over his forehead. He watches me so intently, I’m convinced he can see every firing synapse in my mind.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
Like a horny teen, I stare at the soft shape of Damon’s mouth. There’s a fullness to both his top and bottom lip that his days’ old scruff tries to hide. But I bet they’d feel amazing pressed against my—
“I was walking the beach with Chuck when I heard a pair of obnoxious laughs.” His lips twitch. “The kind that spell trouble.”
