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Besides, Kirill is probably too busy flexing in his bathroom mirror or oiling his pecs or… doing whatever else he does when he has his house to himself. He won’t notice my car parked behind his house for a couple hours. We’ll be in and out before he even realizes we were here at all.
I herd the kids up the beach a little ways, trying to put some distance between us and Kirill’s backyard. But Lily and Brady are like curious kittens. They keep wandering off in opposite directions, ignoring my every command.
“Come on, let’s go set up next to that rock.” I point towards a boulder further up the beach with my toe, but Lily and Brady are bent over a shell in the sand.
“Is there a crab inside?” Lily asks.
“Crabs don’t live in shells like this,” Brady tells her. “Those are hermit crabs.”
She groans. “Well, is there ahermitcrab inside?”
Brady turns it over, squinting into the dark opening. “No.”
Lily snags the shell out of his hand and shoves it into the large front pocket of her swimsuit cover up.
“Hey!” Brady yells. “That’s mine. I found it!”
Lily takes off running in the opposite direction. Ducking his head, Brady takes off after her.
“No, wait!” I drop all of our gear and cup my hands around my mouth. “Come back this way!”
But neither of them are hearing a word I’m saying. Lily’s blonde hair is whipping in the wind as she runs with the shell held over her head. And Brady is chasing after her at full speed, which, unfortunately for him, isn’t nearly fast enough to catch up to Lily. A sore subject she brings up as often as she can.
“Lily! Give it back!” Brady screams.
Lily is getting way too far now. They’re smart kids and they both know how to swim, but I still don’t want them getting too far out of reach. Plus, they woke me up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. At this point, their antics have moved well beyond cute. So, for just a second, I lose my shit.
“Enough!” I yell as loud as I possibly can.
Instantly, Lily and Brady freeze. They turn back to me, shocked to be hearing Auntie Rayne yell for what might actually be the first time.
“Lily, share the shell! And Brady, we’re at the beach. There’s a gazillion shells here. Look around and find a new one.” I sigh loudly. “Now, if you two don’t get it together and start having fun, I’m taking you both home right now. Do you hear me?”
I wait for the shell-shocked twins to say something. But they’re just staring at me. Actually, Brady might actually be staring past me.
Then another voice cuts in from behind me and I understand why.
“I think the entire neighborhood heard you.”
I spin around and face my worst nightmare: a dripping wet Kirill in nothing but a pair of low-slung swim trunks.
Like any human would, I drink in the sight of him. His chiseled abs and tapered waist. The golden glow of his skin—skin I had my hands on less than twenty-four hours ago. I allow myself the small pleasure of admiring something extraordinarily beautiful…
And then the horror sets in.
“Okay, kids,” I say, circling my hand in the air. “Change of plans. Let’s go back to the car. We’re out of here.”
23
KIRILL
The two children with Rayne start to whine and pout instantly.
“No, Auntie Rayne!” the little blonde girl whimpers. “We just got here. I have to build a sandcastle.”
“And I haven’t found a shell,” the scrawny little boy says.
Rayne doesn’t take her eyes off of me. It’s like she’s worried I’ll attack if she dares to look away. Considering she’s dressed in nothing more than a red bikini and lacy cover-up, maybe her worries are well-founded.
