Lorelie Brown - Riding the Wave

Something about Avalon drove every woman out of his head. Her energy, maybe. Her smile sent a liquid rush through him. “I peeked.”

“Like hell.”

“I was thirteen. You didn’t close the door all the way. Man, did she have a nice rack.”

His jaw dropped open. “No, you didn’t.”

“Did too. I didn’t stick around for long, but . . .” She lifted up on her toes, close enough to whisper in his ear. The sweet scent of her wrapped around him. “I always wondered what it’d be like to kiss you.”

That was an invitation if he’d ever heard one. He kissed her.

At first he’d meant to stay soft. A tease. Something to get his mind off the swelling voices downstairs. The party he wouldn’t be able to avoid forever. The weight of the stares might be easier to bear if he had Avalon’s mouth.

But it got away from him. She got away from him.

Probably when she licked her tongue over his bottom lip, then took it between her teeth. Tugged. The sharp bite went straight to his cock. He filled, hardened, and the flashover want had him walking her backward. His arms wrapped low around her ass, grabbing that curve.

His fingertips found bare, silky skin at the hem of her skirt as he pushed her back into the wall.

Sinewy arms wound over his shoulders. Her wrists latched behind his neck, pulling their torsos together as if one. Her soft breasts cushioned his chest.

The way she kissed went straight to his head. She took and took, as if every motion was worship. Every taste a gift she gave him. He knew without saying a word that she’d ask for exactly what she needed from him. No guessing. No secrets.

God, that sounded good.

He hitched her higher against the wall, one arm between her and the cool wallpaper. They could fuck like this and it would be epic. Amazing. But it wasn’t time for that. Not yet.

Maybe not until he’d put the San Sebastian Pro behind him. He had to keep his head about him. Once in a decade was too much to risk on a woman. But he’d have to make sure that she understood it’d be a temporary thing, nothing long-term.

Drawing his mouth away from Avalon’s was even more difficult than he expected, though. She kissed him back with enthusiasm that went all the way to his cock. The soft protest that dwelled in her throat stroked his ego. He pressed kisses over the line of her jaw, easing her back. She leaned her head against the wall with a sigh and looked at him from under her thick lashes, but said nothing.

He licked the last taste of her off his mouth. Something sweet, like oranges. “God, I needed that,” he breathed.

Her wrists tugged at the back of his neck. She laughed quietly. “That. Not me. Way to make a girl feel special.”

“You know what I meant.” Letting her down proved harder than he’d expected. He liked having a reason to grab her ass. It was a damn good one.

That ass twitched as she walked across the room. “What I do know is that you’re the last person in the world I should be fooling around with.”

“Funny, that felt like your tongue in my mouth, all right.” He wasn’t even sure why he was arguing his case. If anything, he ought to walk away and keep his energy for the next couple weeks of surfing.

But he’d rucked up her shirt somewhere in that kiss. It twisted higher on one side of her waist, revealing a silk-soft stretch of skin that ended to the left of her belly button. He wanted to drop to his knees and lick that skin. See if it tasted half as sweet as her mouth, or if she’d be all ocean salt.

“Oh, it was.” She picked up the camera. Her fingers curled around it with a particular level of affection. She flicked away a microscopic fleck of dirt. “People will say I got the gig because I was already in your pants.”

“No, they’ll be too busy saying you got the gig because you grew up with my sister. Won’t bother to look past their noses.” He shoved his fists into the pockets of his cargo shorts. His body was taking its sweet time calming down. Probably because every time he started to reel himself in, he looked at the tiny patch of skin above her waistband. “No one would have to know.”

“I’d be your dirty little secret?”

“Nah,” he said, drawing the word out. “I’d be yours. Totally different.”

She laughed. Throwing her head back turned her neck into a pale column. Scooping up her camera bag, she slung it over her shoulder, then adjusted the strap across her chest like armor. “I have no idea how you got the reputation of a ladies’ man.”

He shrugged. “Me neither.”

“Lucky for you, I’m an odd girl.” She stepped close, rising up on her toes. Her soft cheek skated over his jaw as her mouth lifted toward his ear. “I’ll think about it. If you quit ditching me to surf on your own.”

The smile rose from somewhere way down deep inside him, like a sunken ship rising again. Up through the depths this party had tried to drown him with. “You don’t mean that.”

“Nope. Not really.” She patted the center of his chest with one hand, but then snapped off a few pictures with the left. The damned camera was like an extension of her. She didn’t even bother with the viewfinder half the time. “But if you go surf on your own, I’ll toss every pair of your board shorts on a bonfire and you can swim naked. I don’t think I’d mind that much, but the tourist crowds might have something to say about it.”

Playing with fire was too damned much fun. That was the only problem with Tanner. She wasn’t going to be able to stay away from him. Avalon’s knees shook as she made her way down the stairs to the main level of the house. Her fingers left a faint trail of sweat over the wrought-iron banister while her heart was a wickedly thumping beast.

Holy sweet baby Jesus, could the man kiss. He’d turned her upside down and given her insides a good shake, like she was some kind of snow globe. A little play toy to amuse him and distract him from unpleasantness.

She’d be damned if she was going down that easily. As soon as he won, he’d be gone. Her penchant for emotionally unavailable men was bad enough. She’d realized her relationship limitations after Matthew. No need to add physically unavailable.

But going down at all . . . Yeah, that looked likely. She wanted more of those kisses. More of his rough, raw grip on her hips. The way he’d picked her up and held her against the wall had been amazing. She stuffed down a shiver as her foot landed on the bottom step. She needed more of that. More of him.

The years hadn’t seen her celibate exactly, not by a long shot. But Matthew had left her kind of raw. The problem hadn’t even been that he’d dumped her. It had been that he’d dumped her when she’d been so obliviously confident they’d made a great couple. Only after the fact had she realized where they’d failed. The signs she should have caught to make him happier.

There hadn’t been anyone lately. Tasty opportunities didn’t often present themselves while she did her best to scramble to the top of the photography world. This one was too good to pass up, really.

But she’d have to step carefully.

Weaving her way through the throng of bodies that pressed around her, she kept her camera up. Snapped a shot of the surf manager canoodling in the corner with an up-and-coming women’s champion. Another picture of three supposed rivals who were listening to a fourth telling a story by waving his hands above his head. Probably describing some epic air he’d caught off a wave.

This world was her home. The strange mix of the surfers’ laid-back personas swirled in with the cutthroat business of promotions and a healthy helping of athletic devotion and determination. But she needed her own entry. She’d spent four years collecting a bachelor’s in photography but she’d spent enough years in the surfing world. She’d earned her place.

The photos of Tanner would prove it. She’d have the same incisive eye as the rest of her peers, the same editing to get the right frame on the shot. Maybe, if she played her cards right, she’d have some brilliant orgasms to go along with.

The kitchen was relatively empty, the quiet bouncing off the tiled counters. Sage had staked out a place near the fridge, sitting at the right angle of two countertops and holding a beer.

Avalon snagged herself a drink out of an ice-filled tub set to the side of the room, then levered to sit next to her friend. “You making it?”

Sage nodded. Her mouth curved into a beautiful but wistful-looking smile. “I miss Dad.”

At a party like this, Hank Wright would have owned the room Avalon walked through. He’d have held court from the living room, but not in any bad way. People wanted to listen to Hank, wanted to impress him. He’d have corralled them into less smashing pandemonium, more of a chill vibe.

The soda flowed sweetly over her tongue, but it still couldn’t wash the taste of Tanner out of her mouth. “This wouldn’t even be happening if your dad were around. Not the same way.”

Not with Tanner here, being the unspoken portion.

“I know.” Sage pushed a sheaf of hair off her bare shoulder. “Which I think only makes missing him worse. He’d have loved it. Loved having everyone under one roof.”

“And it never happened.” She didn’t get it, didn’t get Tanner. It was for the best that she didn’t have time for anything in-depth with the man. A long-term relationship was off the table not only because he’d be leaving in a month, but also because Avalon hoped that she’d be able to understand any man she got involved with. At least a little bit. More than she’d managed before. She flicked at the tab to her soda with the corner of her thumb, over and over, making a tinny noise.