Page 65 of This Could be Love

I took him up on his offer and undid the zipper.

“Um…I probably should have mentioned,” he began, a little bashfully, and I looked up at him, prepared for the worst. “There isn’t anywhere for you to change down there. Just in case you’d rather put your bikini on here.”

“Oh, no problem. I’ve got one on underneath.” I tugged at the strap of my turquoise triangle bikini, and he stared at the spot where the fabric snapped against my skin for a second longer than necessary.

“Ah…gotcha. Of course. I should’ve noticed,” he mumbled, and reached for the handle of the cooler.

I zipped the bag shut again and swung it over my shoulder.

“Hold up, it’s heavy.”

“Not when you’re used to carrying around eight tennis rackets,” I trilled, and set off.

The trail led us to the rocks Vince had talked about. They were rugged but not slippery, so we didn’t have any problem getting down to the sandy beach in our sneakers. It was indeed tiny, not even thirty feet long, and deserted. The fine, white sand was spotless. As if no one had been here for ages.

“Wow,” I gasped as I scanned the spectacularly blue water.Even at a distance, I could see how clear it was. When I turned back to Vince, he was taking off his T-shirt. Suddenly my mouth grew dry even though I’d seen his upper body several times already. The flat stomach, the defined V, the fine line of hair that disappeared into his swim trunks. I reached for the hem of my top and pulled it over my head. Undoing the button of my jeans, I noticed that Vince was looking at me. It wasn’t a stare. But he was definitely looking. When our eyes met, a tingle ran down my spine. Then he blinked and turned away.

“Could you pass me the sunscreen?” I asked as Vince continued to dig about in the sports bag.

“In a sec.” He sounded agitated, but maybe I was just imagining things. Without turning around, he handed me the tube over his shoulder. Our fingers touched and once again that tingling feeling shot through my whole body.

“Thanks,” I gasped.

Vince went on looking through the bag, as I covered myself in lotion.

“You looking for something?”

“I’ve got it.”

“Could you do my back?”

I saw him stop.

“Of course,” he said after a brief pause. “I’ve just got to…”

The rest was too garbled for me to understand. Turning to face me, he looked tense.

“Everything okay?”

“Hmm.”

He took the tube out of my hand so quickly that all I could do was blink, utterly baffled. What was going on? Up until a few minutes ago, everything had been totally relaxed between us. Okay, we’d stared at each other a bit, but that was no reason to… I flinched when I felt the cool cream on my back.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

Then he put his hands on my shoulder blades. When he began to move his hands across my back, massaging the cream into my skin, it took all I had not to gasp. As rough as his hands were, his movements were soft. When he lifted the clasp of my bikini slightly to glide his fingers underneath, I held my breath and prayed not to break out in goose bumps. Then his hands wandered on from the middle of my back to my sides and down toward my behind, accidentally touching the hem of my bikini bottoms, I lost the fight. Tons of little hairs on my arms stood up, and I could feel my nipples growing hard. Thank goodness he was behind me and didn’t notice.

“That okay?” he asked once he was done.

Seeing as that every word had gotten stuck in my throat, all I could do was nod. To be on the safe side, I folded my arms too.

“Should I do yours?”

“No,” he shot back. He cleared his throat and added, “It’s already done.”

I gave him a questioning look. “Is everything really okay?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”