Between Us: Sex on the Beach (11 page)

He laughed. “Fine, I’ll allow it. You were saying?”

I shot him one last dirty look at his slight on my home state. “I was
saying
, I haven’t been back there in years. My mom still lives there, but I don’t go there to visit her. Like, ever.”

He looked at me for a moment, then slid out of the car without a word. For a second, I thought he was going to ignore what I’d said. But when he opened my car door for me, his brow was furrowed. “Wasn’t there a messy divorce between your parents?”

I took a shaky breath. I hated reliving that part of my life. I’d been young and so trusting. I’d been too young to know better. Too young to fight back.

My dad had fought for me, thank God.

“Mac?” he asked, his voice low. The fact that he’d started using the name only my friends used wasn’t lost on me. Did he know that? “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to. I didn’t mean to pry. It’s not part of our deal.”

I cleared my throat and forced a bright smile. “You’re fine. Sorry. I zoned out for a second. It’s not exactly my favorite memory in the world, but yeah. That story, unfortunately, was true.” I widened my smile even more, determined to look as if I didn’t care that the one person who was supposed to protect me had betrayed me. “It was a horrible custody battle that involved lots of money. I’ve tried to forget that portion of my life, though. Lots of bad memories.”

And that’s all I was going to say on that matter.

He nodded, throwing an arm over my shoulders. “Yeah, I get that. I have a few things I’ve purposely forgotten, too.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “Some of the memories I probably shouldn’t have let go of, and others were good moves. It’s always hard to tell which is which, though, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “It is,” I agreed softly. I hesitated. “Are you still in touch with your parents?”

He rubbed his forehead. “My mom is gone, and my dad killed himself. So, no, I’m not in touch with them.” He looked down at me, his jaw tight. “Like I said, it’s not a pretty story. We both have fucked-up pasts, I’d say, so how about we leave them there?”

I bit down on my lip, trying to swallow my reply. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was. Show him some sympathy, but I had a feeling that’s the last thing he would want. So I didn’t. I nodded. “Okay. Sounds good. No more doom and gloom talk.”

His fingers flexed on my shoulder, and he smiled at me. I could tell it was forced, though. “Sounds good. So…when’s your next tour?”

“Over the summer.” I wrapped my arm around his waist. I thought it would feel awkward, but it felt right. Like it was meant to be this way. My stomach did a little flip. “I just finished recording an album. I took a light course load this quarter so I’d have time to work.”

He led me toward a small shack. It had a sign up that stated the cost of snorkeling, the rental fees, and a disclaimer that the company wasn’t responsible for the safety of the snorkelers. I swallowed hard. It looked awfully…shady.

“You stopping in Florida?” he asked, his fingers running over my shoulder absentmindedly.

“I’m sure we will,” I answered distractedly. An old guy with no teeth and a tropic shirt stood in the shack, playing a game of cards with himself. “Margaritaville” played in the background. “Is this place safe?”

“Huh?” He let go of me and pulled out a wad of cash, thumbing through it and not looking up at me. “Yeah, of course. Frank is the best in Key West.”

I eyed him skeptically, dropping my hand from his waist with no small amount of regret. I didn’t want to stop touching him. It felt too good. “Uh, are you sure? He misspelled
peril
.”

He laughed. “Lighten up, sweetheart. It’ll be fun, and we’ll have the place to ourselves. If we went to a more commonly used place, we would have company. And eyes on us.” He looked at me meaningfully. “And by
us
? I mean
you
. I wanted you to be able to relax and have fun without worrying about cameras and videos.”

I released the breath I’d been holding. So he’d brought us here to allow for some privacy? That was both thoughtful and sweet. He kept surprising me. I liked that about him. “Thank you for being so understanding. I’ll pay my half of the fee.”

“No, you won’t. Today’s on me.” He shrugged. “And it’s not a big deal. I get wanting to stay out of the spotlight.” He smiled at Frank, leaning down and resting his elbows on the counter, if you could call it that. It was technically a piece of dirty plywood. “Hey, Frank. We’d like to go snorkeling today.”

The old man grinned a toothless smile. “Why, look what the cat drug in. I thought you swore off snorkeling the last time Rachel got stung by a jellyfish.”

Rachel? Who the heck was she?

Austin stiffened. “Yeah, well, I changed my mind,” he said evenly, not looking my way. “I’m here with a friend, and she’s never been out in the water before. We’ll need two kits and some uninterrupted privacy.”

Frank looked at me, smacked his lips together, then set down the deck of cards. “That’ll cost you, of course. Today’s been busy.”

He looked out in the cove for snorkeling. It was as empty as the parking lot. “Of course it has,” Austin said dryly, exchanging an amused glance with me. “How much do you want?”

Frank named a ridiculous price. I opened my mouth to bargain him down, but Austin beat me to it. “Make it half that amount, and I’ll throw in a few free drinks at the bar for the next month.”

“Deal.” Frank cackled and flipped the OPEN sign over to CLOSED, then held out his hand. “Cash only, please.”

“I’ve got it right here,” Austin agreed. When I reached into my shorts pocket, he glowered at me. “Don’t even think about it. I told you this one’s on me.”

I didn’t think I could accept that. I always paid my way on dates. I could certainly afford it. “But—”

He handed his money over to the greedy old man. “My date suggestion. My money.” He looked at me and crossed his arms, the stubbornness in his eyes clearly said he wouldn’t budge. “Unless you’d rather go home…?”

I gritted my teeth. The way he took over without even letting me voice an opinion was so infuriating and yet so hot at the same time. He was so very alpha male. I hadn’t thought I was into that type of thing, but judging from my primitive reaction to his arrogance? I was. I
really
was.

“I don’t want to go home. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

He stepped closer, dropping his mouth to my ear level. I could feel his hot breath fanning over my skin, making my stomach clench tight. “Good. Because I plan on doing a lot more in that private cove than snorkeling, sweetheart.”

I shivered and silently thanked God for small favors, because I was ready to explode if he didn’t touch me soon. “We’ll see about that.”

“Indeed, we will.” He traced the curve of my hip with his pinky. The soft touch did crazy things to my body. “Now follow me.”

I was starting to think I’d follow him anywhere he asked.

I
KICKED
through the crystal clear water, watching Mackenzie as she swam up to a school of bright blue fish. The brilliant corals and anemone surrounded us on all sides, and she looked so damn beautiful with them as her backdrop. She held out her hand, letting the fish swim around it, and then wiggled her fingers animatedly.

Maybe I could have joined her in that moment. Extended my fingers, too. But I was too busy watching her to join in the fun. She mesmerized me more than any God-given creature ever had, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that. I wasn’t sure what to do with her at all. This was a fun fling with an expiration date.

We both knew it. Yet…

I was kind of sad I knew it.

For the first time in my fucking life, I felt a real connection to another person. She made me want to open up to her. To talk about things I’d never talked about, not even with Rachel. Hell, I even told her that my dad committed suicide. I never talked about that shit with anyone.

Again, not even with Rachel.

We acted as if it never happened, even though we both still had nightmares about that night. Shit like that tended to stay with you.

Mackenzie turned to me, her green eyes shining through the mask. She pointed up, and I nodded. We stuck our heads out of the water, I freed my mouth from the snorkel and took off my mask. She did the same. I swiped my hand over my mouth, my eyes on her the whole time.

I couldn’t stop fucking watching her.

I felt like a teenager all over again. And the best part about this outing was that I’d get to spend all day with her. I couldn’t be happier about that. Rachel was at a friend’s house for the night, so I was free and clear to do what I wanted.

And I wanted Mackenzie.

“Oh my God, this is so much fun.” She swam up to me and threw her arms around my neck, pressing her warm body against mine. She was so soft and smooth in all the places I was hard and rough. “Thank you for suggesting this.”

“You’re welcome, Mac.” I pressed my hand against her lower back, fingers splayed, and slid my hand down to her legs. I hauled her up against me, urging her legs around my waist. “But I can think of an even better way for you to thank me.”

Her eyes went wide, but then she hooked her ankles behind my back. “Oh?” she asked breathlessly, her lips pursed. “And what would that be?”

“A kiss wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, that’s for sure.”

She played with a piece of hair on the back of my head, tugging enough to set my blood to boiling. “I might be able to arrange that…if you ask really nicely.”

“I don’t ask nicely,” I said, slipping my hand between her legs. “But I do know how to get results.”

She laughed. “I—”

I growled playfully and crashed my lips to hers, cutting her off. She tasted like salt water and Mackenzie—sweet and salty at the same time. Like perfection. Her teeth pressed into my lips, and her tongue dipped inside my mouth. As she swirled it around mine, making a small sound in the back of her throat, I cupped her ass, holding her against my cock.

Holding her just because it felt good.

I deepened the kiss, spinning so I kind of rested against the sand bed behind me, supporting our weight easily. Her nails skimmed over my shoulders and down my pecs, digging in just enough to hurt so fucking good. In the back of my mind, I knew we should stop. Even though this was a private cove, it was far from secure.

I ended the kiss. “Anyone could be watching, and with a public face like yours, you can never—”

She slid her hand between us and cupped my cock…and I forgot all about being cautious. All that mattered was us. This. She trailed her fingers over the length of me, then closed her hand over the tip of my cock. As she squeezed, tugging with the perfect amount of pressure, I sucked my lower lip into my mouth, biting down gently.

She might have been a virgin when we met, but damn, she was good.

When she let out a breathy moan and repeated the motion, I slipped my hands between her thighs. I pressed the pad of my three fingers into her, rolling them in slow circles over her. “
Austin
,” she breathed, pressing closer to my fingers. “More.”

I loved when she whispered my name like that, all breathless and sexy. I could play that on repeat for the rest of my life and die with a smile on my face. I captured her mouth with mine, increasing the pressure on her clit with my fingers. I wished I could go down on her right here.

Bury myself inside of her.

But we didn’t have protection, and we definitely didn’t have privacy. So I had to content myself with this. With some grade school, third base shit. With my free hand, I rolled her nipple between my fingers, breaking off the kiss to bite down on her shoulder at the same time. “You drive me fucking insane,” I said, nipping the spot directly over her pulse. “You’re so damn sexy, sweetheart.”

She threw back her head. The graceful arch of her neck captivated me. Hell,
she
captivated me. She was getting her grips on me, deep and painful, and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do to stop it. I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t hold her off. Hell, I didn’t even want to try.

I was a train wreck waiting to happen.

Her fingers moved over me more insistently, and I did the same to her. Our heavy breathing matched perfectly, as if we were in tune with one another without even trying. And the crazy thing was, I did feel that way with her.