Page 14 of Hot Stuff

But I had woken up hard and throbbing since I’d dreamt about her all night. I was already up and ready when she shot me a text. I’d told her to put on a swimsuit, and I was at her door no less than ten minutes later.

The day had been incredible. Karol loved the water as much as I did. I’d rented a boat, and we had taken it out, put the anchor down, and swum around. I had even stolen a couple of kisses. Who the hell am I kidding? I couldn’t keep my hands off her, and by the way her hand stroked my back as I pulled the boat up to the dock, she couldn’t either.

“This was so much fun.”

“Fun’s not over.” I winked.

We turned in the boat keys and picked up the basket I’d ordered for us at the diner, before we returned to the very spot I’d seen her the night I’d made a wish. We had a picnic on the beach. Went in the water to cool off and were back on the sand, sitting on a huge blanket. Her back was pressed against my front; my chin rested on her shoulder.

“This was such a great day.” She sighed happily. “Thank you.” She turned, her eyes dreamy and slightly hooded.

“Nothing to thank me for. I should be thanking you, beautiful. Today’s been…” I swallowed, and my Adam’s apple bobbed.

I had no words.

I did, but I felt like anything I came up with wasn’t enough.

“Yeah.” She smiled, and I lost sight of her as her head rested on my shoulder. “I know,” she whispered. She felt it, too. I felt it.

For a moment, I panicked. What the hell had I been thinking approaching her? Walking up to her like I was some kind of Casanova who had something to offer her. I mean, I had money, but that’s not what a woman like her needed or wanted.

She’d need a man. A solid, stable man, one who she could rely and lean on. Am I that man? Could I be that?

“Wanna go for a walk?” she asked, bringing me back to the present. A walk. All I wanted to do was keep her warm, almost naked body in my arms, since she was still wearing a bikini top and tiny denim shorts with frayed edges that were so short a good amount of her booty cheeks popped out and made my hands ache to squeeze. But it wasn’t just my hands that ached.

“Sounds good.” I nodded, thinking a walk might help clear my head.

But it didn't. If anything, it felt like I fell harder and faster. Like I was swept up in a hurricane and I never wanted to touch the ground. With every syllable she spoke, I fell deeper and deeper.

I’d never been the kind of man who believed in happily ever afters.

But after our first date and dropping her back off at her front door, I had a feeling I was no longer the man who had arrived in Poppy Beach a few days ago.

I stepped into the condo, already missing her, when my phone rang. I picked it up with a smile thinking it was Karol.

“Hello.”

“Hey!” a deep voice called out, and I frowned. “Finally, man! I was starting to get worried.”

“Abel?” I guessed gruffly.

“Who else would be calling you from my phone, brother?”

“Sorry, I just… I answered the phone without checking the screen.” The line went silent. I pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

“You didn’t look at who was calling you before you answered?” Abel asked slowly, and I rolled my eyes.

“Abe—"

“Oh, shit.” He whistled low, and I braced. There was a reason he was going to gang up on me. Abel and I had known one another since we were both new recruits. We were tighter than tight. We were brothers, and that meant he knew me.

I never talked on the phone.

I hated it. Not even back in the day when I’d been a stupid teen and my crushes called did I stay on the line longer than a minute or two. The invention of texts had been a godsend for me.

“Sheeeit!” he drawled slowly. “Who you talkin’ on the phone with?”

“Abe,” I said sternly, but I knew he wouldn’t give a shit.

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