Lorelie Brown - Riding the Wave

Until Sage put her hand over Avalon’s. “Please stop, darling.”

She smiled weakly. “Sorry.” Too much churned in her head. Most of the time, she wished for Sage’s easy calm. Even when Sage was missing her father so badly, she seemed relaxed.

Avalon ought to give up and go take some photographs. It was her job, after all, which gave her a yummy little thrill. She was making it. Finally. But after the interlude upstairs, after Tanner’s mouth and the thrilling way he’d held her, she needed some calm. Some relaxation.

She’d never learned how to get there on her own. She always soaked it up from Sage.

Two men stepped through the open archway, their shoes ringing on the tile. One was vaguely familiar and the other was Jack Crews. Pretty boy of the world champions—in a way. He wore a perfectly pressed, pin-striped button-down shirt over slim dark trousers. Five levels fancier than anyone else at the party, but he pulled it off with ease. At his side walked a tall, slender Asian man with black hair, the same man who’d gotten Tanner riled at the bar.

Jack gave a wide, bright smile that creased the corners of his blue eyes. The smile almost outshadowed the faint bruise at the corner of his jaw. He’d been fighting again. “I heard I could find the sweet stuff in here.”

She grinned. There’d always been a soft spot in her heart for Jack. Hank had taken him under his wing after Tanner had flown the coop.

“You heard right.” She pushed off the counter and flew into his open arms. “You’re late enough.”

“Had to pick up a guest.” Keeping his arm hooked around her shoulders, he waved a hand toward the man at his side. “Avalon and Sage, this is Mako Wright.”

“How funny,” Sage said on a light laugh. “That’s my last name too.”

He gave a slight bow of his head, but the way he held his mouth was sharp. His eyes were dark shadows that gave little emotion away. “It’s a common enough name.”

Sage shrugged. “Sure is. Means you’re extra welcome around here.”

His mouth curled in a slightly devious-looking smile but his reply was polite enough as he and Sage drifted to the far side of the kitchen island. Sage was rambling on about the history of the name, all stuff her father had told her a hundred times. Avalon didn’t really like the way Mako kept watching her. In a way, he seemed as sharklike as his name. Nearly reptilian in his level of intensity.

Avalon held back a shiver under Jack’s linen-clad arm. He sent her a curious look out of the corner of his eyes. This close, the carefully scruff-covered jawline looked pettably sharp. Jack had to be one of the prettiest men she’d ever seen but still, she couldn’t think of anything but Tanner’s blunt features.

She looped her arm around Jack’s waist anyway and nestled closer. “Why didn’t we ever hook up?”

“Because you were clever enough to realize what a bad influence I’d be on you.” He tossed the words about lightly enough, but his eyes told on him. Jack’s childhood had been even more messed up than hers, though she didn’t know all the details. He hadn’t been lucky enough to meet the Wrights until he was in his twenties.

He played hard and fought harder. Somehow he was always rising to the defense of some poor—and usually female—bartender getting the sharp side of an asshole’s tongue. Or there was the time he’d taken on three men because they’d pinched a cocktail waitress’s ass. He had radar for damsel-oriented distress, and almost all of it ended up with him brawling in a back alley.

The upside-down look of his mouth, with its lower lip held slightly tighter than the top, had sent plenty of surfer groupies fluttering and squealing. There wasn’t a single heat where he didn’t have girls in bikinis waiting on the sand.

Avalon had never found herself pinned up against a wall being kissed by him. Or kissing back. Never wanted to, for that matter. “I don’t think that’s it.”

“Let’s ditch this pop stand and I’ll show you a good time, then.” His hair was so short-cropped that it was a bristly cap.

Nothing to brush back, no golden mess to tousle. “You’re lying again.”

He looked forward, catching Sage in his sights. His mouth pulled, the line of his cheekbones becoming a sharp blade. The corners of his eyes tucked deeper. “I am.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” He flashed another smile, but she shook her head. Tugged on the back of his shirt.

“Tell.”

“Because some people in this world are broken, and some are not.” The expression he turned on her made her want to pet him, tell him everything would be all right in the end. “Some of us have broken pieces and we need to find somewhere to fit them into. You and me? Our pieces don’t fit.”

Too much, too heavy. She had enough crap to deal with and maybe it made her a shitty friend, but she couldn’t take on his stuff at the moment. She grinned and rested her head on his shoulder in a coy gesture. “Boys and girls. Things fit. I promise.”

He laughed. “Wanna prove it?”

“With you? Not on your life.” Definitely not when she still had Tanner’s taste in her mouth. Or when her girl bits were still tingly and wanting Tanner’s bits. “You know what, though? Once I’m done with this WavePro contract, I’d like to do a shoot with you.”

He tugged lightly on her ponytail. “I was wondering when you were gonna ask. I was worried I wasn’t handsome enough for your lens.”

She laughed. Couldn’t help it. A rising level of confidence left her buoyant. “You so don’t think that’s the problem.”

“I’ll tell my manager you’re going to call. Work out the schedule.”

“Thanks, Jack.”

Sage laughed at something Mako said, then reached out to pat his shoulder. The gesture was entirely friendly, but under Avalon’s fingertips, Jack’s side went rock hard. His freaking side, over his ribs, as if Avalon needed any more proof of how fit he was. But there was something else about it. She tilted her head up, looking at the angular lines of his face.

Maybe there was another reason she and Jack had never hooked up.

Maybe they both had a propensity for Wrights. Wouldn’t that be a sad, sad idea?

From the other rooms, the general level of noise swelled. She sighed. “I need to get back out there.”

“Gotta find Tanner?” Sage grinned at her.

Jack squeezed her shoulder. “I can’t remember if I mentioned that I’m ridiculously proud of you.”

“What’s this?” Mako asked. Intonation gave his voice a foreign vibe, but Avalon couldn’t place it.

“Our Avalon has been chosen for the next WavePro photo layout. They’re known for making a surf photog’s career,” Sage said. The genuine pleasure in Sage’s voice was what marked her as good and pure all the way down to her toes. “She’s following my brother around.”

“Tanner, yes?” Mako asked. But something about the way he asked . . . Avalon was confident he already knew. “The one you mentioned, Jack?”

“Yes.” Jack took his arm from around Avalon’s shoulders, then smoothed down the front of his shirt. “And now come on. We need to hunt down the prodigal son. Gotta remind him how I’ll be taking the points right out of his hand once we’re in the water.”

“Tanner’ll mop the floor with you,” Sage said. Even when she was smack talking, she could only smile.

Jack shook his head with mock seriousness. “Hate to be the one to tell you, but your brother’s getting old.” He turned toward the entryway. “Isn’t that right, Tanner?”

Tanner stood there, but his gaze wasn’t fixed on Jack. Instead, he was all about Mako. Tanner’s hands had fisted at his sides, and his shoulders bulked into a deep, heavy line of muscle. He’d gone white, as if he’d never seen a day of sun in his entire life.

“Get out of my house.” She’d never heard his voice that low or growling. “Or I’ll throw you the fuck out.”

Tanner had always assumed the expression seeing red was something of an exaggeration. But the second he stepped foot in his mother’s kitchen and saw Mako’s smirking face behind the counter, his sight had literally washed red. The blood rushed in his skull with a sudden whoosh, like he was being held under by a hard-core slab, his board long gone and nothing but dark in his senses.

Every speck of air in the world had frozen and he’d choke on the shards.

Mako rocked forward on his toes, hands spreading wide at his hips in that universal sign. Begging for an ass beating. He had the audacity to fucking smile.

Sage set her beer down slowly and stepped forward, her eyes cloudy with confusion. But she still had her lips plastered into a smile. She lifted one hand toward Tanner and put the other in the center of Mako’s chest. “Come on, boys. Don’t let rivalries get out of hand.”

Jack eased between them, as if he were being subtle. He managed to smile too, but it didn’t go anywhere near his eyes. “There’s no trouble here, right?”

A fist-sized knot lodged between Tanner’s shoulder blades. His chest bowed out in counterpressure. Kill, hurt, fight. All he wanted. Everything he’d boiled down to for the moment. A claim on his space. “Don’t talk about shit you don’t know, Jack. And, Sage, this isn’t your place.”

Avalon’s mouth dropped open. Her hands fell to her hips, her elbows angled out. “Not her place? You’re insane. If you’ve forgotten, this is her house, not yours.”

The soothing noise Sage made went nowhere. “It’s okay, Avalon. That’s not exactly our biggest worry right now.”

“No, our biggest worry is this shitbag,” Tanner snapped. All he could think about was the magazine article that was probably already being printed. “And how he needs to get the hell out before I wipe the floor with him.”