Page 19 of Until We Kiss

But anyway, we’d talked about surfing and parasailing, and of course they should go, but I wasn’t sure where I’d be at with my knee, and I have to admit I was putting on a brave face. Although it’s not like Carter would have noticed and done this for me.

Right?

Carter’s already bounding to the building, almost knocking over a postcard stand and catching it at the last minute. Inside, the guy behind the counter is talking and pointing out the window toward the twin two-seater Waverunners softly rocking by the dock.

Jesus, I can’t be on that with Carter. My dick snuggling in his ass crack. Or him pressed against the back of me,hisdick nestled in mine? All that vibration. Rocking on the waves. I feel a pang of heat just thinking about it.

No way.

I nudge Dorian. “Wanna ride together?”

He blinks and glances over at Rory. I suppose that I always pair off with Carter, and he goes with Rory, but there’s nothing which says thathasto happen.

Then Dorian smiles, slapping me on the back and seeming to warm to the idea. “We’re gonna be scorchers out there. So fast the hair’s gonna strip off our balls.”

I laugh. “Sounds slightly uncomfortable, but I’m game.”

The guy shows us to lockers where we can keep anything we don’t want to get wet. As I shove my phone into the locker, a text comes in from Maxim.

I work all day, but I’m off tonight.

I slam the locker shut without responding, an uneasy twist in my stomach.

Regardless, twenty minutes later, it all disappears as I crank the throttle. The Waverunner slams against the waves, and I forget my knee. Forget my life. Football. Maxim.

That thrill that I’ve rarely felt since football feeding the adrenaline through my entire body.

It’sintenseout here. The sun is bright overhead, the salt from the water drying on my reddened shoulders. Dorian whoops behind me, and I turn, glimpsing the other Waverunner.

Rory’s driving with Carter on the back. Rory’s more careful than me, but Carter is making up for it. He’s standing, arms flung in the air, and laughing this big, mouth-wide-open laugh that bounces off the waves. There’s no chance that he won’t get bucked off, fuck if he seems to care.

He’s all in. Loud and euphoric and over-the-top. Chaotic and big and way too much.

Exactly who he should be.

I’m grinning at him when a sudden play of silver light behind him catches my eye.

Wait—not light. A fin? I squint against the sun. There are hardly any sharks around Clua, but possibly dolphins and sunfish. And whales. And it’s March—still close enough to winter for whales to be around here.

I slow and point toward it. Rory notices, turning them too.

We come to a stop, rolling on the waves. And all stare toward where I’d pointed, eyes peeled.

“I see it!” Carter yells just as a slip of silvery gray crests, then disappears, a shadow underneath the water.

My mouth tips open. Holy fuck, I know what’s out there.

“A blue whale.” I stand on the rocking Waverunner. “That’s a fuckingbluewhale.”

“For real? Guys!” Dorian shouts to Rory and Carter.

We’re bobbing on the waves, holding our collective breaths because the thing ismassive. Dark in the water and swimming toward us. My nerves ratchet, my pulse rocketing.

I glance over at Carter, and his eyes meet mine. A wave rolls between us. Our Waverunners suddenly seem tiny.

But I don’t want to stop looking at him.

I want to see his reaction to the whale. I want to see him break into that dimpled smile.

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