Page 52 of Follow Your Bliss

At the water’s edge, the foaming waves skimmed past our ankles. “See? Nothing to be afraid of.” I backed farther into the water, letting the waves break against my back and throw me off balance. “I’ll be right by you the whole time.”

She came in farther, and the first wave that hit her moved her back toward the shore. She squealed in delight, and it was fucking adorable.

I tapped her shoulder. “Tag! You’re it!” I slow-ran further into the water until it came up to my thighs.

She called my name and followed me deeper, squealing every time a wave came in. She reached to tag me, but she yelped and grabbed my shoulders, clambering up onto my back like a sexy spider monkey. “Something swam past my leg!”

I scooped her legs behind the knees and helped her hang on. “You’re okay.” Nothing in the water of concern, just generic fish I couldn’t name. Thrilled by her breasts against my back and her bare thighs wrapped tightly around my waist, I stayed where I was. “I’ve got you.”

“Bring me back to the beach!” she commanded, settling her chin on my shoulder.

I delivered her safely on the wet sand, and she took several steps back up toward the umbrella. I caught her hand and pulled gently. “No, don’t go. Come back! We were having so much fun!”

She dug her feet in the sand, laughing. “Noooo, I’m not going back where the fish are.”

“I’m bringing you back, feeding you to the fishes.” Throwing my arms around her waist, I picked her up from behind and started walking toward the water.

She squealed and wrapped her arms around mine. “NO! Jason, no!”

At the last minute, I set her feet down in the foam, and she fell against me laughing. A wave broke on the beach, bringing with it a dozen little fish swimming around our ankles. She screeched and ran back up the beach. I chased her, unable and unwilling to stop myself from falling for her.

Chapter 9

Playing with Matches

Rose

At this rate, the bedroom’s TV remote was never getting its batteries back.

After all the flirting and touching yesterday at the beach then cozying up to watch a movie at the end of the day, I’d had to give the Velvet Plum Marvel a spin in the shower last night. I tried to force Deck Daddy out of my mind, but he kept barging into my fantasy with his dimples and his giant cock. And ohhhh mama, did it get the job done. A few times. The rabbit vibrator truly was a marvel, and I was gonna have to name it soon.

And today hadn’t been less titillating. Even though we didn’t go to the beach because it rained most of the day, Jason psyched us up to spend the day wandering around Baytowne, eating good food, listening to live bands, shopping, and getting ice cream, and touching…oh my god, so much touching. I’d spent so much time up close and personal with him today—taking selfies, getting tickled, trying hats on each other, sitting so close together wherever we were that our thighs touched—that I’d abandoned my romance novel because real life was more exhilarating.

After dinner at the condo, I curled up on the sofa to read and return messages on my iPad. He was beside me, doomscrolling on his phone for news on his house. Thankfully, everyone we knew was safe. But because the interstate was still closed on either side of New Orleans, no one we knew had made it back home yet to let us know how his house had fared.

I was busy sending funny cat reels to Abby, but I couldn’t stop glancing over at how tense his whole body was, bent over his phone.

I put my iPad down and laid my hand on his knee. “Hey.”

His gaze snapping to me was a jolt of electricity zipping straight to my bottom.

“Let’s do something.”

His eyes flickered to my hand on his knee, and a muscle tensed in his jaw. “Like what?”

I smiled, enjoying the gutter his brain seemed to have visited. “I don’t know. Do you want to go see a movie? Or go on a late-night candy raid at the grocery store?”

“Yeah.” He set his phone down and put his hand over mine. “What about…have you ever been to the beach at night?”

“You know, I don’t think I have.”

He was smiling again. Mission accomplished.

“You’ll love it.” He stood and pulled me to my feet. “You don’t have to touch the waves. It’s absolutely magical to sit on the beach, watch the moonlight sparkle on the water and the stars break out overhead.”

“Then let’s go.” Anything was better than having him enumerate—again—all the trees that could’ve fallen on the buildings of his property.

We stepped off the walkway steps into the sand, and I started to understand what he meant. It was beautiful. The sky was as black as the horizon, and the incessant crashing of waves filled the air with shushing. No one was out here but us and a group around a bonfire maybe over a mile away.

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