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Nothing. That’s what. It was time to have a talk with this dude. “I’ll take care of this.”
“Don’t bother,” Shay said, tugging the Chargers hat back on. “I’m sure I tempted fate enough up on that balcony. I should go.”
Unstrapping his ankle leash, Luke planted his board in the sand. “No. You should stay.Heshould go.”
“Luke.”
But he was already striding away. Once Luke made up his mind about something, there was very little that could be done to persuade him to change course. Especially when it came to issues like this.
Women being harassed.
It was a major trigger for him stemming from a messed-up childhood with an abusive drunk for a father. One who’d regularly beat the crap out of Luke’s mother. Until the day she’d fought back, that is.
Coming up alongside the little creeper who’d invaded his beach, Luke felt a spike of adrenaline.
“Alright,” he said, growling out the word as he advanced, “I’m gonna need you to hand over the phone.” Then he cuffed a palm none too gently on a scrawny shoulder.
At which point, the guy jerked away from Luke with a distinctly feminine cry and fumbled his phone.
What the hell?
As the kid lunged forward to retrieve his cell from the sand, Luke lunged forward and yanked the hood from his head.
Blonde hair tucked behind an unpierced ear caught the wind, sending honey, wheat, and flaxen-colored strands whipping about a delicate profile. A distinctly feminine — distinctly frightened — profile.
Fuuuck.
Luke stepped forward, littering her towel with clumps of wet sand.
She abandoned her phone, hands flying to her ears in distress. “Don’t!”
It wasn’t the word that stopped him so much as the eyes that locked on his when she said it. They were uncommonly big. Not just because she was scared, but also because she had the kind of irises that seemed to encroach on the whites surrounding them. The kind of bold blue orbs that were like a monster wave breaking over you. The kind that sucked you in, sucked you under, and rattled you about for a bit.
And that’s exactly what Luke felt at the moment. Rattled.
Maybe she did too because she glanced away quickly, the panic in her eyes giving way to a flash of irritation as she caught sight of the sand he’d kicked all over creation.
“Can you please get off my towel? You’re messing it up.”
Any residual guilt Luke might have felt about scaring the crap out of her was immediately squashed. The chick had been lurking about his beach for weeks, he’d just caught her peeping on him with Shay, andthiswas what she was leading with right now?Get off my towel?Like he was some delinquent teenager she needed to boot off her lawn?
Crossing his arms over his chest, Luke dug his heels in. “Can you please delete the photos you took of my girl?”
“What?” She looked confused for a moment. Then her wandering gaze found Shay and understanding dawned. “No. I didn’t,” she said, tone growing defensive. “I would never take pictures of your girlfriend. I was taking pictures of—”
Snatching up her phone, Luke sputtered out a laugh. “Kyle. You were taking pictures of Kyle.”
She peered past him towards a spot in the water. A spot that happened to line up with where Shay was sitting. A spot where Luke’s boys were still floating about as they waited for the next big set to roll in.
Jesus. The girl wasn’t interested in Shay. She was just another beach bunny obsessed with his model-worthy best friend.
“Kyle,” she whispered, confirming her crush with a goofy grin that made her appear all of about twelve. “That’s his name.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Since he hadn’t yet been locked from her phone, Luke immediately began deleting photos.
It took her a minute to stop mooning over his boy long enough to realize what Luke was doing. Then she let slip another feminine cry. This one more of a pissed-off shriek. “What are you doing?!”
