Summer Dreaming (Hot in the Hamptons Book 1) (3 page)

But she didn’t. Either some slick playboy got to her or Kelsey was playing hard to get. Hard to get I could work with. I could play that game with the best of them.

Kelsey

M
y eyes opened
to the sun streaming through the window. Making a mental note to draw the shades tonight, I rolled over and pulled the covers over my head. My muscles ached from the long drive, a day at the beach, and then partying all night. I felt guilty for abandoning Sean, but he was on the job and I wanted his full attention. There’d be plenty of time this summer to explore the depths of his blue-eyed gaze, unless he had found someone else last night. I whipped off the covers. Maybe it was time to call him. Reaching for my cell phone on the nightstand, I groaned at the time. 7:00 AM. I guessed it was a little early so I flopped to my back for a long, lazy stretch. A girl could get used to this life.

A long run on the beach would get my blood pumping. Ever since the volleyball season ended, I’d been running to keep in shape. Maybe there was a 5k I could enter to satisfy my need for competition. Growing up a tomboy, it was never about how could I look pretty, but how I could I win.

I hadn’t even worn makeup until my senior year in high school when my younger sister had held an intervention of sorts. It was embarrassing.

I slid out of bed before the comfortable mattress lulled me back to sleep. I knew better than to attempt to wake up Storme or Leigh this early, never mind ask them to go for a run. I was on my own, which was okay with me.

Dressed in peach-colored shorts and a t-shirt, I hit the sand running. Thoughts raced around my mind faster than my feet were carrying my body. When the summer was over, so was playtime in the Hamptons sandbox. Was it time to grow up and get a job or follow my heart and further my studies in architecture in Europe? Or something else entirely? After four years of college I should have had it all figured out, but I was just as confused as ever. I wondered what advice my Dad would’ve given me and if I would’ve listened. It’s not like I ever listened to my mother’s. What daughter does?

I don’t know if it was the salted air or the sound of waves but I hit that zone, and all my worries flew away on the ocean breeze. Or maybe, I was simply in denial.

Not used to running on the wet sand, my legs began to burn and I slowed up. My Fitbit read 3 miles. I hadn’t planned on going so far. I was about to turn around for a nice easy stroll back to the house when farther down the beach I spotted a group of shirtless guys in red shorts. Lifeguards? Sean?

I found some extra fuel in my tank and casually jogged over. As I approached, I angled off to the dry sand and sat at a discreet distance, yet still close enough to ogle Sean and the other lifeguards performing sprints, pushups, and jumping jacks.

Too bad there wasn’t some male revue music to go along with my private show.

The guys were all in great shape, but Sean stood out. It was more than the tattoo of an eagle inked across his back or his shorts riding a little lower on his hips giving me a glimpse of oblique’s that my hands itched to claw at. Okay, it was a lot of that, but he also wore a look of determination like he was training for something more.

“Want to volunteer as our practice victim?” A cute guy with surfer-long blonde hair called up to me.

Did I ever!

“Sure.” I sprang up to dust the sand off my bottom then I walked to the group of guys and five women. Did I forget to mention them?

“It’s too cold for her,” claimed Sean.

Was he trying to ruin my fun? Was he jealous? “I can handle a little cold water.”

“You don’t have a bathing suit on,” said Sean.

“Yes, I do.” To prove my point I stripped off my shirt, baring a lime green bikini bra top that held my girls in place. I could give Kate Upton’s boobs a run for their money. The whistles I heard proved it but my eyes were all for Sean, who did not drop his gaze to my rack.

Keeping eye contact with me, he said, “Sorry, Blake. This one is mine.”

Did Sean mean as a practice victim or as his girl? I shimmied out of my shorts to reveal a matching bikini bottom.

“I’m the one who asked,” said Blake.

“Too bad.” Sean touched my arm, leading me down to the water’s edge. “You can swim, right?”

“Like a mermaid,” I said in a flirty tone, drawling out my accent. I wasn’t about to say like a fish because even though fish symbolized concepts like fertility, they were not sexy.

“You got a great set of seashells.”

His smile made me feel reckless. “Aren’t mermaids topless?” I feigned reaching for the hooks of my bikini top.

“Let’s not start a riot.” Sean thumbed to the group of lifeguards watching on as if we were the entertainment for the day.

I looked out to the ocean. “What do I do?”

“Swim out past the breakers.”

“And then what?”

“Then let me do what I do second best.”

Second best?
The freezing water shocked my body numb, but cooled my heated thoughts of Sean’s first best. I stumbled as a wave crashed into my mid-section. Navigating the Atlantic Ocean took some getting used to. Growing up near the Gulf of Mexico, I was used to warmer waters and calmer seas.

I heard a whistle. “That’s far enough,” called Sean.

I turned to face the shore and embraced the part of drowning woman. “Help! Help! Oh save me!”
And hurry because I’m freezing.

Sean’s shark-like smile before he dove into the surf had me gulping like I’d taken in a wave full of seawater. I struggled for a breath, feeling like I was drowning for real. Maybe, I was.

Sean

B
lake was a
dead man for asking Kelsey to play the victim, but I couldn’t blame him for trying. Any lifeguard would consider her the catch of the season, never mind the catch of the day. Luckily, I’d already hooked Kelsey. I just had to play it cool to reel her in.

Normally, the lifeguards practiced on each other so I wasn’t used to practicing on a hot babe. I reminded myself to act like a professional. I preached the safety rules and regulations like it was the Ten Commandments. I had to set a good example, especially for the younger lifeguards.

With each stroke I prepared myself for the save, even if it was a mock one. Each rescue involved a series of decisions. In rough water, Blake and I would have tag-teamed it, one swimming out with a torpedo buoy and the other using the line to pull the victim back to shore. If a swimmer was farther out, we’d use surfboards. But since practice rescues weren’t on the morning workout schedule I had none of that.

On a perfect
white flag day, like today, I was doing it old school. There was no need for Blake or any of the other guards to get involved.

Surfacing, I swept the water, even though like a dolphin’s radar I knew exactly where Kelsey was. With ten more feet to go, I ducked my head in the water.

As I zeroed in, I fought the urge to take her into my arms and kiss her.

It didn’t matter that’d I’d seen hundreds of hot babes on the beach before. Kelsey was… different. I couldn’t explain it. Not yet.

I surfaced in front of her. “I’m here to save the day.”

“Gee, I was hoping for that Hoff guy.”

“This ain’t
Baywatch
, babe.”

My training kicked in. I grabbed her right arm with my right hand, and in one motion pulled her to me as I turned her around. Ignoring the tinge of pink on her shoulders, I hooked my arms underneath her into the cross-chest carry and began to kick.

I was the fucking poster boy for lifeguarding. Until she moved. With my body beneath hers, her ass bumped my dick, sparking an arousal I wasn’t prepared for.

“Don’t help,” I said more sternly than I should have, but I was frustrated. All eyes were on us. This wasn’t the time or place to play ocean games even if the siren in my arms tempted me from my post.

“Sorry.”

Now I felt bad. If a victim was able, they could help kick to shore, but the thought of Kelsey, accidentally or purposely rubbing up against me, and I’d be the one in need of rescue.

I needed a distraction from the way her long hair floated in the water, exactly like the mermaid she’d claimed to be.

“So do you come to this beach often?”

“Oh, more lifeguard humor. Do you talk to all your victims this way?”

“I make conversation to reassure them.” Which was true, but I’d never used a lame line like that before.

Our limbs tangled as I let a gentle wave carry us the rest of the way to shore. I dragged her arm around my shoulder like she was any other drowning victim and helped her to her feet.

Blake jogged down to help.

“I got it,” I said and he wisely backed away.

Circling my arm around her waist, we stumbled to the dry sand. Without the water to cool me, my body heated and I was surprised not to see steam rising off me. I eased her to the sand and handed her my towel.

She blotted her face and I noticed a sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose. I hadn’t seen them yesterday. With her hair slicked back, her eyes seemed like twin setting suns. Being in her orbit made me feel dizzy, like I’d been out in the heat all day.

Still, I wanted to lick each salty droplet off of Kelsey’s skin.

She patted the towel just above the swell of her breasts. “What about your specialty?”

I smiled. There was nothing I’d liked better than to give Kelsey mouth-to-mouth. But I couldn’t trust her not to turn it into a kiss. Hell, I couldn’t trust myself. Not even with my co-workers watching on.

“With you chatting during the rescue I figured you didn’t need it.”

“Me?” She tossed a handful of sand at my feet. “You’re the one who wouldn’t shut up.”

True, I hadn’t. Talking kept me from thinking about how her body floated against mine. Kelsey’s soft, lush curves and me, totally the opposite.

“Well, thank you for saving me.”

“Anytime.”

She batted her eyelashes. “How will I ever repay you?” The drawl sweetened and thickened, like honey.

Man, I could think of a few things. A lot of things. “A date. Dinner.”

“Seeing how you just saved my life, I don’t know how I could refuse.”

I never expected anything from a rescue, not that I’d really saved her, but I liked where this game was leading. “Then don’t.”

“Tell me when and where to meet you.”

What was up with the cloak and dagger antics? Was she playing it safe? Or was she afraid her mother or friends would disapprove of her going out with a townie? It wouldn’t be the first time. What did I care, as long as I got to taste Kelsey’s skin? “Tonight, at seven. The Bar at Surf’s Lodge in Montauk.”

“See you then.” Kelsey leapt up.

“Can I get your last name?”

“No.” She tossed back my towel. Each time I used it that day I’d torture myself with the picture of her drying off her beautiful body. But my torment intensified the second she bent over to pick up her clothes. There were more freckles leading up her calves and thighs to the edge of her bikini bottom. I itched to play a game of connect the dots along her skin, first with my fingers and then with my tongue. Her perfect heart shaped ass begged for my hand to spank it.

Kelsey turned and smiled like she knew exactly what I was thinking. “Oh and next time, I expect the full lifeguard experience.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The long legs that had been entangled with mine now took her away from me. Tonight, I hoped they’d be wrapped around me, pulling me into her. Revealing her secrets.

“Ah, my mysterious Kelsey, maybe you are a mermaid after all,” I said to the wind. A long day on the lifeguard stand stretched out before me. Tonight couldn’t come fast enough.

Blake came up from behind and slapped my shoulder. “Bro, I’d like to obstruct that babe’s airway.”

My blood boiled at the thought of my friend anywhere near Kelsey. She was mine. I wanted to thump my chest and yell it to the world. Instead, I kept it light. “Sorry, Bro, the only whistle she’ll be blowing this summer is mine.”

“Lucky bastard.”

I certainly was. We bumped fists and got back to business.

Kelsey

W
hy was I
so nervous? Sean was just another a guy, I told myself for the thousandth time. So, yeah he was drop panty gorgeous, but I wasn’t wearing any. Performing a twirl in front of the mirror, the turquoise sundress, which hit just above my knees, did not reveal my secret. I sat at the vanity like a girly girl but I applied my makeup with a light touch. Some BB cream to hide my freckles, a stroke of waterproof mascara on each blondish eyelash, and a swipe of pink gloss across my lips completed a casual look for a casual date. Only my feelings didn’t feel casual when it came to Sean.

I looked up the directions to The Surf Lodge on my phone. Thirty minutes by car? Why so far from the hotbed of restaurants and bars in town? Was he afraid of running into his harem? A girlfriend? Upon further interrogation, Storme revealed that she had remembered him from a couple of bonfire parties a few years back and she warned me that he had always been with a different girl. Was he still the same way now?

Not that I cared but since I had ten minutes to spare before I had to leave, I decided to do a little cyber snooping on my date. Sean’s Instagram account revealed nothing shocking, and his privacy settings on his Facebook account prevented me from seeing any details. Going back to the search page, I scrolled down and found an article from last year detailing his rescue of a celebrity who had thought the posted red flags didn’t apply to him. Sean was declared a hero, but he probably made rescues like that all the time and this save had only made the paper because the victim had been famous.

The ten minutes passed quickly so I breezed out the door before my friends had a chance to ambush me with questions. Or before they could yell at me to wear panties.

As I drove my father’s car to my date, I wondered what my dad would have thought of Sean. Great Kelsey, just what you want Sean to see.

Tears and runny mascara.