Page 22 of On The Beach

She shrugged, clearly still a little tipsy. "That would be your first mistake. I wasn't…you know,thinking."

I stroked her lower lip with a thumb because I couldn't resist them swollen and pouty, full of promise. She opened her mouth and licked. That's all it took for me to get hard.

I wasn't a teenager. I was a grown man. But this woman had some magic.

"Ever been arrested before?" I asked.

"Nope. Maybe it's because I'm drunk but I feel...free."

"All evidence to the contrary." I waved a hand around the jail cell.

She nodded, her eyes softening. "I…I work all the time."

I knew how that went. That used to be me.

"I've never had fun…well not in a long time. I'm always working and/or tired. Those are my two states of being. Oh, or dealing with my crazy family."

"You get your weirdness honestly then?"

"Oh, no. They'rewaycrazier than me."

I let out a deep breath. "Christ!"

"And they make fun of me for being a scientist."

I cocked an eyebrow.

"They're all medical doctors."

"And?"

"They save lives."

"So do you, just in a different way."

She smiled. "Who the hell are you, Mick Bottom?"

"I'm a beach bum, darlin'. A person who loafs on or around a beach."

"Do you like your life?"

"A lot."

"You don't get bored?"

I stroked her cheek. She looked so vulnerable, innocent, young. "No. I don't get bored."

"What did you do before you became Captain Mick, beach bum?"

I shrugged. "Does it matter?"

She sat up. "I don't think I could live like you. I can probably do a vacation…a getaway but all day every day? I'd miss my work."

"But not your fiancé?" I teased.

She made a face. "I'm sorry about that. I don't know why that slipped out of my mouth, but it did. I've been known to say things without thinking."

"You don't have to apologize to me for what you say," I told her. "I'm not gonna judge, Babycakes."

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