CHAPTER EIGHT
JAKE
†
NICOLE.
These days, she was Nikki. Not Nicole, Brandon’s little sister, the one who was a little annoying, pestering us to drive her to school or take her to the mall on the weekends.
Nikki. A beautiful woman and someone I definitely wanted to see more of.
We spent all of the early hours of Wednesday morning sitting up near Kalalau Point, and it felt like we’d only just sat down before the sun came up, and it was time for me to take her home. Any other time, if she was any other girl, I’d have taken her up to my room, slipped that little orange number off her body, and spent the whole day in bed.
But she wasn’t just any other girl, and this wasn’t just any other time. She was still Nicole Thomson, my best friend’s sister. I cursed that fact as I lay in bed after those hours we spent together, especially when sitting up on that rock.
Look, don’t get me wrong, if I want to be with a woman, I’ll be with her. I don’t need anyone’s permission. And, I’d already made up my mind about Nicole; she wouldn’t be leaving this island before I’d tasted that sweet mouth of hers, at least, that was for goddamn sure.
But, I’d just met her, again, and I needed to remember why I was here in the first place. It was about Brandon and Clea, not about me or Nikki. The last thing I wanted to do was create a situation that might potentially lead to unnecessary drama. I was sure as hell not going to mess up his wedding weekend; I wasn’t that fucking inconsiderate.
Even so, if anything did go any further with Nikki beyond this week, well, let’s just say Brandon would need to get over it once he eventually found out. I love my friend, without a doubt, but we’re all adults here.
I got up to get some water as sleep eluded me, my mind trailing back to Nicole. The thought of her body against mine kept me from relaxing enough to get some much-needed rest.
God, would she taste as sweet as she looked?
I groaned as I fell back onto the bed again, turning around and propping my head up with one of the pillows. My cock was so damn hard, throbbing with want for her; making me regret that I didn’t take what I wanted earlier that evening.
†
I didn’t see her at all the following day even though I made a point of walking down to the beach via her villa. I figured she was out with the family because, when I went down for dinner in the restaurant that evening, she was still nowhere to be found. The day was cloudy, overcast and dark, and I felt it reflected my mood a little, disappointed that I did not see her the whole damn day.
Thursday morning opened to the bluest skies imaginable without a single cloud to obstruct the sun. I took my notebook and pencil when I went down to the beach. It was still early, around seven. I settled myself in a hammock and lazily wrote in my journal. Nothing beats a piece of crisp paper and something to write with.
I then made a few sketches of the beach, and I had my camera on me, as always, so I snapped a few exotic birds in the tree above my head and got a couple of good frames of a stray dog that wandered over and sniffed my hand.
It was as I had the camera to my face and was looking down the beach through the lens, that I saw her. She was walking on her own along the surf, kicking playfully at the sand. I knew immediately it was Nikki, knew the shape of her body from only a few hours with her, only this time her hair was pulled back. I thought about how it had looked so much better when it was down, softly draped over her shoulders.
She wore a sarong around her slim waist with large sunglasses that shielded her eyes from the light, which was already bright at barely eight in the morning. She bent down to pick up what I could only think were some pebbles, before she turned and tossed them back into the water.
She was oblivious to me watching her through the lens. Maybe it was a little weird for me spying on her like that, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Shit.
The other morning I could see that she wouldn’t have resisted when I lowered my head and I could see she thought I was going to kiss her, my mouth only inches away from hers. But, for some reason, I wanted her to not just want me to kiss her, but crave me to do so. There was just something different about her I’d not experienced before.
What was even more disturbing was that we’d only spent a few hours together and she was already having quite an effect on me.
She took off her sunglasses and untied the sarong from around her waist and threw it down onto a towel that was already laid out on the sand behind her, drawing me from my thoughts. I held my breath. She was stunning.
She wore a white bikini that looked incredible against her tanned skin. Her limbs were long and lithe, and just the sight of her round ass in the tiny white briefs made me hard. I had to shift my weight in the hammock and turn over a little; the last thing I needed was for someone to walk past and see me spying on her, pitching a tent and breathing heavily. I’d have looked like a real creep.
The sight of her was too much for me to resist and I snapped a couple of shots of her as she stood gazing out over the ocean, kicking at the waves lapping at her feet.
She brought her fingers to her lips, slowing tracing them across her mouth while she closed her eyes. That was the last photo I took of her before returning the camera into the padded camera bag.
What, or, more importantly, who was on her mind just then?
Call me smug, but I had a pretty good idea, and I couldn’t help but smile.
As I turned around to look at her again, she sat back on her towel for a little while, looking at her phone, before placing it in her beach bag and walking to the water. She waded in until it was up to her waist, then placed her hands together over her head and dove into the blue waters. She must have been a strong swimmer because her head bobbed up again quite a way away from the shore, and she began to swim back and forth around thirty yards from the beach.
I wanted to see her, talk to her. So, I slung my camera bag over my shoulder, notebook, and pencil in my hand, and got out of the hammock. I walked over to her towel and placed my things next to hers.
Nikki hadn’t seen me; she was concentrating on her swimming. But, as I walked into the water, she sensed someone was there and turned around in time to see me slowly swim out to her. I smiled. “Good morning,” I said.
“Hey,” she smiled back, seemingly happy to see me. “Careful, there’s a drop, right about… now.”
She wasn’t lying. Suddenly, there was no sand beneath my feet, and it took me by surprise, because I plunged into the deep blue water, my head disappearing beneath it. I resurfaced, coughing, and saw that she was laughing.
“Oh, so you think that’s funny?” I spluttered before making fast, strong strides toward her.
“No!” she squealed, giggling, trying to get away, but I couldn’t resist looping my arm around her waist and pretending I was going to dunk her. I’d never have done that, of course, but I liked the way she threw her hands around my neck and begged me not to let go of her.
She didn’t have to worry. I didn’t want to let go of her.
No matter how good she’d looked in that bikini, I can assure you, she felt a thousand times better. My hands were on the base of her back, and I could feel the beginning of the curve of her ass, my hands itching to go lower. She was still holding on to me and she seemed to notice it, too, because she smiled shyly and then backed away.
“Come over here, there’s a sandbank,” she invited me and I followed her.
“Damn. It’s beautiful out here,” I said, as my feet touched the soft, drifting sand, not taking my eyes off her, but she didn’t notice that I was not really referring to the view.
“I come out for a swim every morning before everyone wakes up,” she said. “It’s either that, or I’m tempted to get the laptop out and do some work.”
“You brought your work with you?” I asked. “You’re on vacation. You’re supposed to be relaxing, not working.”
“I’ve done plenty of that already,” she smiled. “I’ve never been away from work this long.
She motioned towards my things on the beach. “Besides, look who’s talking. You seemed to have done exactly the same!”
“My work is all play, didn’t you know? And by the way, that tan looks great on you,” I said, winking, changing the subject, not wanting to talk about work at all. “You really should take more vacations because it obviously suits you.”
She sure was a sight, the water droplets on her skin glistening as they reflected the sunlight beaming down. What were the chances of me meeting someone so beautiful out here in Hawaii? Through the crystal clear blue waters I held out my hands to her, and she took them without hesitation. I slid my arm around her waist again.
“What are you doing?” she asked as I pulled her against me.
“What we should have done the night before,” I said, smiling down at her.
She frowned and I knew she thought I was alluding to the kiss that never happened.
“What do you mean?” she almost whispered.
“Well, I should have danced with you,” I said, enjoying the heat clearly building between us. She laughed, flashing me a perfect set of white teeth.
“Okay,” she giggled, putting one hand around my neck and holding my hand with the other. “What are we listening to?”
“Well, I would say something slow and sexy; something to sway to.”
And so we were. In the beautiful clear water, swaying together, slowly dancing when there wasn’t any music save for the melody of the waves slowly rolling against the shore.
I could feel her body trembling slightly. She was suddenly nervous, stiffening noticeably under my touch.
“Can I ask you something?” she started, pulling away a little. Not what I had anticipated happening, though, but I went with it. She clearly had something bothering her.
I looked into her beautiful dark eyes. “Sure.”
“Well… uh…do you think Brandon’s acting a little weird?”
Fuck. Why would she bring him up now?
It snapped me to my senses and I moved away from her so we were no longer touching. The moment was lost.
“Weird?”
“Yeah. He spends all his time with Clea and barely has time for anyone else. My mom’s really upset and, even though she’s trying to hide it, I can see it in her face. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
She looked sad, and I took a deep breath and ran a hand through my wet hair and over my face. “It’s a tough time, I guess. In a lot of ways. Clea’s been looking forward to this day all her life, and Brandon is just doing everything he can to make her happy.”
“So you’ve noticed it, too?” she frowned.
I suddenly felt irritated. Not with her, but with the whole damn situation. Maybe I should just step back; my timing was clearly shit. This was not the best time to be thinking about my libido when my focus should be on being there for my best friend. Maybe I was crossing a line.
I needed some space, time to think and, although it killed me to leave her, I looked back at the beach. “Look, don’t stress about it too much. He’s just a sap in love trying to do everything to please the woman he loves during the most important week of their lives. I’m sure he’ll come around as soon as this is all over.”
With that, I made an excuse that I had to call into the office and turned to leave. I lied, of course, but I was suddenly annoyed as fuck.
“Catch you later?” I said as I turned to make my way back to the shore.
It was a shitty thing to do, I know, but I was only seconds away from kissing her, and then she reminded me of what this trip was really about.
So, I swam back to the beach, dripped onto the sand and picked up my camera kit and notebook. I walked slowly away from the beach, back up to my hotel room where I took a cold shower.
†
Sitting at a table in the outside restaurant a little later, enjoying a strange breakfast of fried pork and pineapple skewers, which were surprisingly good, I caught sight of Nikki again, only this time she was dressed in a light shirt and jeans. She saw me and waved, then came over to the table. “Are you okay?” she asked. “You left kind of… quickly, earlier.”
“Yeah,” I shrugged. “I just forgot all about the call with work.” I cringed inwardly at the lie I was perpetuating.
“Well, I’ve… uh… been having trouble thinking of a wedding gift for Brandon and Clea,” she said. “Want to help me out? Maybe have some dinner… tonight… you could help me throw some ideas around?”
God, I just resolved not to walk down this path this week, and here she was, dragging me back down it again. But, how on God’s green earth would I say no to her, standing there, looking like that?
Shit!
“Sure,” I said, sighing. “Here?”
“Um, I was thinking about maybe going for a ride on your bike again?” she asked, a shy but hopeful smile playing on her lips.
The motorcycle gets them every time, I thought, grinning. “Of course. Meet me at nine in the hotel lobby,” I said.
She smiled and turned around, and I wasn’t able to stop myself watching the beautiful curve of her ass moving as she walked away.