Chapter 10
Melinda
“So how was your day yesterday?” Emma flopped down on a pool lounger and sighed. The guys were surfing, and since it wasn’t her thing, we were hanging out by her pool.
“It was nice,” I smiled softly as I remembered my day with Aaron. We’d spent all day on the beach, and then parted ways when the sun began to set. Emma and Brock had come back, and my manners got the better of me. I knew I needed to spend time with her since she was the one who invited me.
“Just nice,” her head rolled in my direction and her lips curved into a smile. “Not great? Or awesome? Please tell me you at least got a kiss,” she grumbled.
“Nope,” I shook my head. There were moments when I thought he was going to, but he kept backing away. It was almost like he was afraid to.
“Wow!” she gasped under her breath. “What the hell happened to him?”
“What do you mean?” I shifted on my lounger.
“He must really like you,” Emma giggled. “I don’t think I’ve ever known my cousin to spend the day with a girl that he didn’t end up spending the night with. He never takes his time.”
“See,” I sat up. “This is what worries me. Why is he doing this?”
“Doing what?” Aaron’s voice sounded from behind me.
I jumped at being caught. I didn’t know they’d made their way up onto the deck, and now I was worried that he’d heard me.
“Nothing,” I stammered as I refused to look at him. I could see his shadow, and he moved closer, standing almost beside me, towering over both Emma and I.
“Didn’t look like nothing,” he muttered. I watched his shadow as his arm rose and his hand ran through his hair. I tried, I really did, but I couldn’t stop my head from lifting and my eyes from trailing up his body.
He was standing there in a bright blue wetsuit. It was unzipped, and the top half was pushed to his waist. Water droplets fell from his hair and ran down his chest. My eyes slowly scanned him, watching the droplets run down his abs and disappear. A towel was clutched in one hand and a surfboard was under the opposite arm.
“It was nothing,” I cleared my throat and fought to get control of myself.
Right then, Brock and Ryan came bounding up the steps. They were laughing, but came to a halt when they saw us. Em shook her head as she and Brock had a silent conversation, but Ryan apparently didn’t understand it. He was the typical sixteen-year-old boy.
“Is she why you kept biting it today?” Ryan pointed at me.
“Biting it?” my eyes swung to his as Aaron’s shoulders tensed.
“Yeah,” he laughed as he pointed at Aaron. “This dumbass kept standing up late and taking a nose dive on the waves he actually attempted.”
Aaron slowly turned toward Ryan, “If you’d like to keep surfing on that pretty board of yours, I suggest you shut the fuck up.” His hands balled into fists as he dropped the towel and let his board clatter to the deck.
“Oh yeah, this is definitely why you bit it,” he laughed harder. “Just do it already so you can get back to normal,” Ryan rolled his eyes.
I watched as Aaron slowly turned and stalked over to where he was standing. “I warned you,” he grabbed Ryan’s board and lifted his knee, laying the board across it. When he started to bend it, Ryan flipped out and shoved him. My eyes went wide as Ryan scrambled away, shouting something about Aaron being nuts and needing to get laid. “Fucking asshole,” he muttered as he turned and began stalking toward me. “Come here,” he grabbed my wrist and tugged me up.
“Where are we going?” I squeaked as he jogged down the deck steps to the soft sand below, practically dragging me behind him.
“Somewhere private,” he mumbled.
“Why?” I tugged at where he was holding my wrist, trying to slow him down.
“Because I don’t really want to do this in front of all those assholes,” he pointed up at where Emma, Brock, and Ryan were shouting above us. Emma was lecturing Ryan, and it sounded like Brock was trying to calm her down.
“Do what?” I pushed for an answer as he spun me around in front of him.
One arm wrapped around my waist as his opposite hand cupped my cheek. The ocean breeze was blowing my hair around, and Aaron brushed it back with his fingers. “This,” he whispered as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. His head tilted to the side as his tongue put pressure on my lips, begging for entrance. When I opened to him, he groaned and tugged me flush with him. The coldness of his wetsuit made me shiver, but he continued his assault. The tentative swipes of his tongue soon became insistent, and the hands that had been stationary began to move. He slipped them down my back and cupped my ass as he pressed his hips into mine.
He groaned when I answered his movements, and when my hands ran up his back and tugged at the short pieces of hair at his nape, he released a deep growl. I can’t remember the last time I was kissed like this. It was like he was drowning, and I was his only oxygen supply. Our tongues dueled for dominance, but I was no match for him. Aaron was a master when it came to pleasing women, and I was getting firsthand experience at how.
“Geez, get a room,” came Ryan’s voice, causing us to jump apart.
“I’m not warning you again,” Aaron stabbed his finger in the air in Ryan’s direction. “Go call Jess, or Brinley, or whomever you’re messing around with this week.”
“You need to mind your own business,” Ryan growled.
“Pot, meet kettle,” Aaron chuckled before pecking me on the nose. “Wanna swim?” he grinned at me.
It took me a minute to get my bearings after that kiss, but then I remembered what he said. “I don’t have a wetsuit. The water is freezing,” I mock shivered.
“Pool is heated,” he stepped closer, “and I’ll keep you warm,” he moved to stand behind me and pressed a kiss to the top of my shoulder.
“I bet you will,” I murmured on a sigh. I couldn’t let him get too close. I needed to remember that. If he got close, he could break my heart, and my heart couldn’t be broken again.
“Please?” he pouted.
“Fine,” I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t really planned on swimming. I didn’t want to get chlorine in my hair, but the look on Aaron’s face made him irresistible. I was slowly seeing why women never told him ‘no’.
Aaron
Finally. We were finally getting somewhere. She let me kiss her, I mean really kiss her. The way she pressed up against me and kissed me back, said she felt some of what I was feeling. She was trying to hide it, but I could tell… she was starting to give in.
I grabbed her hand and led her over to the stairs to get up to the deck where the pool was, but instead of holding her hand, I lifted her and threw her over my shoulder.
“Aaron!” she squealed as her hands hit my lower back.
I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Yes?” I began climbing up to the level the pool was on.
“Put me down!” she demanded just as we reached the pool. “Put me down now!”
“Ok,” I shrugged, causing her to jostle around. “If you’re sure that’s what you want.”
“Yes! Put me down!” she pounded her fists against my back. I have to admit she’s strong for a little thing, but she couldn’t hurt me if she tried.
“Hold your breath,” I shouted as I jumped into the pool on the deep end. We sank below the surface together, and I released her so she could swim to the top. She shoved at me before breaking the surface and coughing.
“I can’t believe you did that!” she snapped as she splashed water in my direction.
“Oh, believe it,” I grinned as I watched her. She swam to the side, and gripped the edge as she coughed and sputtered the remaining water out of her lungs. “Don’t ever doubt me,” I swam over to her, caging her in against the side of pool. “I always keep my word,” I lowered my voice as I leaned in right next to her ear. She shivered as she kicked her feet around, but just as I was about to kiss her again, a giant splash interrupted us.
“Brock Foster! What the hell was that for?” Emma screeched from somewhere behind me. “You are so dead,” she grumbled.
I turned around just in time to see her surface, and push her hair out of her eyes. Mel’s eyes swung up, bringing my attention to a grinning Brock.
“You cooled off now?” he snickered.
“Uh huh, you better cool off, too. You might not be grinning like that later,” she taunted as she swam toward the steps.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he walked over to the edge and dove in.
When he surfaced, Emma laughed, “You’re on your own tonight.”
My head swung back and forth between them as I watched them volley threats. “Don’t threaten me,” Brock warned.
“Or what?” Emma taunted.
“I’ll just have to torture it out of you,” he snickered as he dipped below the surface and swam towards her.
“We’re not having any of that in the pool,” I waved my finger at them as Mel sidled up to me.
“It’s my pool. Go somewhere else then,” she giggled as she wrapped her arms around Brock’s neck.
“Seriously, guys,” I growled as Mel giggled.
“Ignore them,” she whispered as her hands settled on my shoulders. “I mean… if you can’t beat ‘em, then join them,” she leaned in and pressed her lips against mine, causing me to forget why I was disgusted in the first place.
“Who are you?” I pulled back after a few seconds, breaking the kiss.
“What do you mean?” her hands dropped and she put distance between us. I could feel the cool water widening whatever space she was creating.
“I don’t know how to say this without sounding like an ass,” I sighed as I shook my head.
“So try,” she nibbled her bottom lip.
I watched as the plump flesh slowly slipped from between her teeth and a small crease appeared right between her brows.
“Fine,” I sucked in a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “I like that we can talk to each other, so I want to be honest with you. I like you, a lot. I think we’ve established that. I’ve been trying to get you to loosen up since we met. Last summer I thought I was getting somewhere, but then you shut me out.” I watched as she scowled. “I know, I know that was my fault. We’ve already discussed that. Anyway, every time I try to push things further with you, you pull away so I’ve been going really slow. Painfully slow at times,” I grimaced. She didn’t know that every night after we got off the phone I had to go rub one out. I hadn’t gotten laid in months because of her, and it was slowly killing meThere, I stopped; now it was her turn.
She swallowed before glancing around. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, and I’m not ready to share it yet either. Let’s just say that I’m a different person now. I went to Eastman to get away from the me I used to be, and now I’m not sure who I am. I thought I could change everything, be someone new, someone that was respected, but you mess all that up. You make me want to be the girl I was before, the one that didn’t care what other people thought of her, and was willing to do whatever it took to get what she wanted. She wasn’t very nice, and she didn’t respect herself.”
It was all starting to make sense now. All the times she pulled away, but looked longingly at me. The kiss that had heated up only to burn out just as fast. The embraces that she shoved herself out of. The way she seemed so skittish at my apartment yesterday. They were all signs of her battle within herself.
“Yes, I am,” she shook her head as she pushed up on the side of the pool and hoisted herself out. She sat on the side with only her feet in the water. “You’re exactly the guy that could drag me back to the place I worked so hard to escape from. Can’t you see that?”
“Ouch,” I leaned back away from her. “Tell me what you really think of me.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you, but like you said… I’m not like the girls you “date”,” she used finger quotes. “I can’t be like them, and I don’t see you changing for me.” She slid back and stood up, leaving me there bobbing in the pool. I watched as she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around herself before walking to the beach.
My mouth dropped open as realization that she was walking away sunk in. “Damn it!” I punched the water as I growled in frustration.
“Go after her,” Emma called from the other end of the pool. When I turned to snarl at her, she pointed at the direction Mel had gone. “If you like her as much as you say you do, go after her. Don’t give up now. If she’s worth it to you, you need to keep pursuing it.”
“Stay out of it, babe,” Brock warned from beside her.
“No,” Emma shook her head. “I’ve been watching them. She likes him, she’s just afraid of him. He needs to show her that she can trust him. He’s changing for her. I’ve seen it.” She looked back at me, “What are you waiting for? Go!”
I quickly pushed up on the side of the pool, grabbed my towel, and followed the path Mel had taken. It didn’t take long for me to find her. She was sitting on the sand with her towel wrapped around her. Her knees were pulled up, and she was shaking as if she were crying. I felt like an ass for doing this to her. This was my fault, but I didn’t know how.
I quickly jogged over the sand, coming to stop beside her. Her head lifted as she stared out at the water. One hand wiped at her eyes before a strangled whisper came out. “Please don’t break my heart.”
I swallowed the lump that had formed from her plea before sinking down beside her. I tugged lightly at her chin with my thumb and index finger, begging her to look me. “I won’t,” I promised. “I swear, I won’t.”
She nodded before leaning into me and placing her head on my shoulder. How the hell would I keep that promise? How could I promise to never hurt her? I’d been hurting her since we met. Every time I thought I was making progress I’d screw up. I had to try harder. She was worth it, and I was going to prove that to her if it was the last thing I did.