Lorelie Brown - Riding the Wave

The way he was smiling at her certainly went a good distance toward calming her.

On impulse, she darted up the stairs. Her hands went right to the warm skin over his sides, the steady thump of his heart under her fingers spread over his chest.

She kissed him, hard and fast. Taking his mouth was like throwing herself into a huge wave and trusting she’d make it through. Exhilarating. His arms wrapped around her back and she felt as close to steady as she’d been in years. When she ended the kiss, she dropped her forehead to his bare chest. He smelled good, like a little bit of last night’s cologne but even more warm male.

She let out a shuddery breath.

His hands rubbed over her back. “You okay?”

Though she didn’t look up, she shook her head. “No. Not really.”

His touch rose, smoothing down the back of her hair. He nuzzled her temple with his chin. “Is it something I can help with?”

Considering that he was the problem? Not likely. “I’ll be fine.”

They stood there, wrapped together, for a long moment. Until Avalon felt almost like the version of herself she knew. The one who’d earned her place in the world. She didn’t trust extra gifts.

When the back of her eyes didn’t feel like they were burning with the pressure to cry, she pulled away. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

He looked deep in her eyes for a moment, his hand still wrapped around the back of her neck. The way he studied her, she could almost make herself believe he cared as much as she did. But that was virtually impossible if he didn’t even think of her when he was in the middle of life-directing changes.

But then he smiled. That quickly, he was all flash again. The gentle charm that had effortlessly seduced her was also shallow. Changeable. And a little more comforting because she knew it so well.

“I guess that’ll have to do,” he finally said. He tugged on a lock of her hair. “But if you don’t show up, I’ll come looking for you.”

She smiled. If only she could believe that. “We can’t have that. You’re too close to the Pro to be screwing around hunting me down.”

He winced slightly. “God, don’t remind me. There’s so much shit to do, still.”

She lifted up on her toes, the better to look him in the eye. “You’ll be fine.” If nothing else, she needed him to believe this. “All you have to do is keep your head in the game and surf the best you’re capable of. You’ll nail this and you’ll take the championship home.”

“You make it sound pretty damn easy.”

“You forget I’ve spent the better part of the last month doing nothing but watching you train and surf.” Her mouth brushed over his jaw. The tension there could almost be tasted. “You own this. It’s already yours.”

He laughed, the husky sound comforting her even more. Nothing got her out of her own head more than helping someone else. It was what she did, after all.

His touch ran over her back, reminding her she still wore the backless blouse from the night before. “You’re good for me, Avalon. I hope you know that.”

That remained to be seen. She brushed another kiss over the corner of his mouth. From this close, the scar over his lip was more noticeable. She traced it with one finger, half expecting him to pull away from the intimacy. “This was from that reef in Indo?”

He nodded, then licked the tip of her finger. She yanked it back on a giggle.

“Way too shallow a wave to spill out on,” he said, brushing off what had by all accounts been a pretty bad wipeout. Eileen had immediately flown out to Indonesia and Tanner had been in the hospital for three days.

He didn’t even realize the risks he took. The way he harnessed the ocean’s power was everything impressive. Obviously he’d swept away her heart.

She made herself smile again. “I’ll be back before your afternoon surf session.”

“You better be.” He kissed her again, this one long and lingering in exactly the kind of way she couldn’t risk. And couldn’t turn down, either.

Five minutes later, she was out the door with a gentle swat to her rear. When she turned at the street, she saw him still lingering in the doorway. In his boxers, for all the world to see because he was that self-assured.

And she loved the arrogant ass. She waved as she turned the corner.

God there’d be a mess to deal with later. But for now, she could ignore her feelings. She’d have to, or go nuts. If she was already sunk, she might as well enjoy the swim.

The soft trill of her phone jerked her from the task of busily compartmentalizing her life. She muttered to herself as she dug it out of her purse, figuring Sage had called to check in, but she didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

“Have you talked with him yet?”

That voice sent a cold frisson of fear over her skin, manifesting in goose bumps. Her feet stumbled to a halt, her ankles wobbling in the high heels. Uselessly, she turned to look behind her. But she was out of sight of Tanner’s house and even if she hadn’t been, it’s not like he’d have been able to hear who was on her phone. “I haven’t had a chance.”

Mako sighed and it sounded genuinely rueful. “Look, I know it was a lot to ask of you. If you can’t handle it, I’ll go—”

“No, no,” she spluttered, cutting him off. “You don’t have to do that. It’ll be fine. I’ll talk to them. Leave Eileen alone.”

“I can’t promise that.” He’d made that more than clear during their conversation. He was pushing for a meeting with Eileen, and if he didn’t get it, there was apparently more trouble he could make. “I bet SURFING would be really interested if I called them back and mentioned how the first time my mom met Hank, she was only fifteen.”

Avalon shuddered so hard that her stomach cramped. She didn’t know if the insinuations Mako made about Hank were true, but no one in the Wright family would want them to go public anyway. “I’ll work it out.”

She didn’t like this. Hadn’t liked it when she’d met with Mako and still didn’t now. Tanner had so much on his plate and Eileen was still reeling from the discovery that Hank was Mako’s father. They needed Avalon to act as intermediary, even if they didn’t know what she was doing. “Are you sure it can’t wait ’til after the Sebastian Pro? Tanner’s got so much on his plate.”

“You know what, Avalon?” Mako’s voice zipped over the line with perfect clarity, as if he were talking right in her ear. “I was never Hank Wright’s little bitch and I’m not going to be Tanner’s, either. I’m meeting Sage and Eileen one way or the other and I’ve got a flight out the morning of the Pro. I’ll leave this one up to you. Call me when you think he can handle it.”

The line went flat as he hung up.

Avalon blindly shoved her phone in her black clutch purse.

So yeah. This had become one giant clusterfuck. Somewhere she’d gone from the Wright family’s protector to the one who’d have to derail Tanner before his big moment.

It would be worse than saying I love you.

Two days left. Tanner could feel the weight of the upcoming Sebastian Pro like a two-by-four to the back of the neck. All his tension clenched down there in a heavy throb that he couldn’t shake.

The surf was thumping, big, heavy six-footers that would provide plenty of rail time and let him get his fins in the air. But he’d already spent four hours out there in the morning and then another hour at the gym after lunch. Tanner swirled the thick mass of protein shake in his iced glass. There was such a thing as getting too overworked before a big competition and he couldn’t put himself at risk of that.

Sitting on his balcony, feet up on the railing as he watched the surf, probably wasn’t helping. His head might still if he found some way to disconnect, but he couldn’t help but think that wasn’t what he needed.

So he studied the waves. The curl, the fronts. Looking for the pattern that would sink the championship or win it. The second and fourth waves out of each five-wave set were the best. For today. He’d keep scoping until the morning of the competition.

Hell, if he were honest with himself, he’d keep scoping until the moment he had to report in, pretty much.

Just the way he was built.

Nothing could be taken for granted in the face of the water’s strength.

The sliding glass door behind him wooshed open. Tanner craned his head backward to peer at Avalon. From the sort of backward, sort of upside-down angle, she still looked cranky. Her mouth had pulled down into a frown and her green eyes looked even smokier and darker than usual.

“Well?” he asked. She’d had an important conference call with the WavePro marketing, public relations, and creative directors.

She sighed and leaned back against the glass door, sliding her hands behind her ass along with her iPad, as if she were unconsciously trying to hide it. He tried not to notice the way the position pushed out her tits or made her stomach one sleek curve that he wanted to lick. Nope. No way. She was obviously having a moment and to notice such things would make him a shithead.

And he’d realized the night of the WavePro party that he didn’t want to be a shithead. Not to her. He generally avoided the designation, but he wanted to go the extra mile with Avalon.

“It went fine,” she eventually said. Or lied, probably. She squinted into the afternoon sun, looking at the water. Supposedly. If she were actually taking in anything, he’d eat his sunglasses.

The drooping line of her shoulders said it hadn’t gone the way she’d expected, at the very least.