Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ashley
The beach was starting to help. The new day was already sunny and warm, while the waves crashed easily and almost methodically. I listened to them for a long time and tried to clear my mind.
The sand that was finding its way around and through my toes as my feet sifted into it was beginning to warm up and the sounds of the ocean were beginning to be drowned out by families arriving for a day of fun.
I didn’t mind though. I was used to the crowds and the people. This was how you lived your life if you had a beach house that backed up to the beach. There was no true privacy and even though there were moments when you felt like you had the whole world to yourself, the majority of the time you were never really alone.
Still, I felt far more at ease here than I did inside the house. At least I could think and wasn’t expected to be social.
However, my feeling of freedom was fairly short lived when just a little while after the tourists arrived, I felt someone come up behind me and sit next to me.
“Good morning, Sunshine.” I heard the familiar voice before I saw who it was and already, I was rolling my eyes.
“Please, go away,” I answered, narrowing my eyes at Tyler before I turned my attention back toward the ocean.
“Oh, come on! What the fuck?” He exclaimed and then lowered his voice as he reached his lips in closer to my ear before he added, “What happened to the attitude you had last night. You couldn’t get enough of me then.”
Disgusted and embarrassed, more because he insisted on spelling it out then of what I had actually done the night before, I glowered at him. “I don’t want to talk about it!”
“Well,” he said as he leaned his muscular arms back behind him and stretched out, so that I could see the virile man that sat next to me in all of his sexy, alluring glory, “I wasn’t going to mention it, but since you seem so bothered I didn’t think it was right to ignore your distress.” He beamed at me, ignoring the fact that I continued to scowl at him.
Tyler was only wearing a bathing suit, which seemed wrong to me, even though we were on the beach in the middle of summer.
Yet, his body called to me and I felt as though the small amount of clothing that he was wearing was only tempting me to do what I was sure by now that we should never do again; regardless of how much I wanted him.
I tried my best not to look at him, but even the small glances that I couldn’t help taking made me feel hot and nervous.
Shaking the thoughts of pouncing on him right this very moment out of my mind, I looked away from him and thought about what he had said. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Tyler. I am not bothered by what happened last night. It was…” I made it a point that he saw me roll my eyes, “Whatever. It was all right.”
“That is total bullshit and you know it,” he answered instantly. At least my comment was enough to wipe that stupid grin off of his face.
I shrugged, trying my best to seem convincing. “I know that you had a great time, but that doesn’t mean that I did. Frankly, I don’t think that we should do it again…ever.”
He laughed at this which caught me off-guard. I felt his lips close to my ear again while he replied, “Cut the shit, or I will stand up and confess my love to you in a way that is so loud and so unbelievably sweet that we will have a crowd surrounding us; all of them wishing that they were us.”
I felt my eyes grow wide and I gasped. My heart, which had just calmed down began to beat quickly with fear. However, I knew that I couldn’t give into him, or he might just do it out of spite. So I mustered up enough courage to answer, “You even try to do that and I will scream so loud that you will be arrested before any of that sweetness that you claim to have inside of you is even able to see the light of day.”
Tyler reared back and squinted his eyes. “What the fuck is wrong with you, woman? I was going to do something nice.”
“No, it wasn’t nice. The intention was cruel and mildly psychotic. At least my threat had sensibility behind it.”
“Mine was just more inventive,” he answered, raising his eyebrows before he added, “No, but seriously. I want to know what’s up with you. Why is it such a big deal? The parental unit doesn’t even have a clue. They’re just happy were staying out of their hair so that they can be unending fuck buddies.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah, but what happens when we do get caught?”
“Are you kidding? My mother and your father are too far into the honeymoon stage to notice that anyone is having sex besides them.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I answered. “And besides, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Not here.”
“But we should talk about it?” He asked, once again raising his eyebrows as though he expected to gain some kind of assurance from the assurance that we needed to talk.
“Sure,” I answered. “I guess it couldn’t hurt anything.”
He nodded. “Good! So, you were full of shit?”
At this, I couldn’t help but laugh. I had finally caught him in a moment when I could tease him for once. I cocked my head to the side and narrowed my eyes before I answered, “Oh, wow…Do I sense a touch of insecurity under all those muscles?” I giggled and squeezed his arm affectionately, but I could tell immediately that Tyler was not the least bit amused.
Now it was Tyler who was glaring at me. He swiftly tugged his arm out from my grasp and answered, “Fuck no. I know what I have. I don’t need anyone to assure me of my capabilities.” Then, he smiled and answered in a softer, yet sarcastic tone, “Although, I can understand that having a real man for the first time can be overwhelming on many levels.” He shrugged and added, “Coming to grips with the fact that you will never be able to get a screw that good from anyone ever again, unless of course, you decide to cozy up to me again, can be a hard thing to get past.” He bowed his head as though he was paying some kind of respect before he added, “I will give you all the time you need.”
At this, I rolled my eyes and shoved him until he fell over onto the sand. He laughed as his body slid into the soft ground, but I was too concerned with the feeling of my hand against his bare skin. The warmth of it, even though the touch was small and not the least bit intrusive, was electrifying.
I didn’t understand why, but as my hand pressed against his shoulder and I pushed, I felt a strong, overwhelming sensation of need, allure and excitement overtake me.
Flashes of notable fragments from the night before bounced in and out of my memory, almost as though I had tried to block them out and they were now coming back.
However, consciously, I had made no attempt to block him out…block us out, for as wrong as I knew our actions were, I still couldn’t bring myself to completely accept that I shouldn’t do it again. And that was what made me so fearful of what I might do next.
When Tyler turned to look up at me, he stopped and gazed heavily into my eyes. I allowed him to do this, but not purposefully in the least.
I didn’t want to look at him and I certainly did not want him to give me the sense of uneasiness and allure that I felt in my stomach as he gazed back at me.
Without breaking this intense eye contact, Tyler sat up and I thought that he was going to reach out his hand, but I recoiled.
Finally, I was able to blink, which broke the hypnotizing stare that he held on me. “Well, it’s settled then, I guess. We should talk about where to go from here, but now is not the place and frankly, I’m not sure when I will be ready to talk to you about it.”
If I didn’t know Tyler as well as I thought I did, I would have sworn that I saw a glaze of disappointment haze over his eyes before he answered, in a cocky fashion, “So, I guess that means you’re not going to be staying here with me?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t think that I can. Not now, at least.”
He nodded, but answered, “Sucks for you. Days at the beach with me are fucking awesome!”
I smiled at him, almost wishing that I could stay, before I nodded once and answered, “Yeah, Tyler. I know.”
I got up and walked away, before I gave myself half a chance to change my mind.