Page 24 of Beyond The Break

“What?”

“Please don’t moan like that again,” he says in a rough voice, clearing his throat and readjusting himself in his seat.

As embarrassed as I am at his reaction, I decide to make light of the situation.

“Sorry, I thought it would help with the feng shui of the car the same way all that porn you were blasting last night helped with your room.”

He rolls his eyes, a small smile pulling at his lips, before he focuses on his burger. We both eat in a comfortable silence while staring off at the town below us, his radio playing country songs at low volume.

“Earlier, when I was driving fast,” he says, crunching up the foil wrapper after he’s finished his burger, “you freaked out a bit. What was that about?”

I finish chewing the food that’s in my mouth before I answer, buying myself time to think of what I want to say and how I want to say it.

“I was in a car accident a few years ago, so fast cars make me uncomfortable now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Were you the only one in the car?” he asks, picking up his milkshake and taking a long sip from it.

“No,” I answer abruptly, sensing the conversation heading into dangerous territory, “so, what’s the story behind your accident?”

The topic switch is obvious, but he doesn’t push, which I appreciate. He places his milkshake back into the cup holder and adjusts his seat so that he’s leaning back.

“I don’t think there’s much of a story. My mind just wasn’tfocused on the wave, and I made a rookie mistake that ended up almost costing me my career and my life.”

“What was the rookie mistake?” I press.

He doesn’t answer right away, seeming to consider the best way to answer.

“I didn’t wax my board,” he sighs, “which means I didn’t have much foot traction out in the water.”

“I know what waxing your board does, Griffin,” I roll my eyes, “why didn’t you wax it?”

“I told you already,” he lets out another deep sigh, “there were just too many things on my mind at that time.”

“Like what?”

He turns his head and looks at me with warning eyes as I realize I’ve pushed too far.

“Is your scar from the car accident?” he asks, switching the focus back to me.

“Yes.”

“Were you driving?” I return the same look of warning and he chuckles, looking away from me and out of his sunroof instead. “I guess we both have secrets we don’t want to share.”

“I guess so,” I mumble in agreement, picking up my milkshake for the first time.

EIGHT

GRIFFIN

I watchas she takes a sip of the milkshake I bought from Burger Shack. I’ve been going there since I was a kid and it’s a rite of passage to have a burger and milkshake after a bad day. She closes her eyes and lets out another soft moan that shoots straight to my cock.

Why does my body react so easily to her? Sure, she’s drop dead gorgeous but that shouldn’t be enough to make me hard from a simple moan. It’s infuriating how responsive my body is to her and it’s already proving difficult to hide. I clear my throat and shift in my seat, concealing my boner as I return my attention back to the stars twinkling brightly above us.

In our comfortable silence, my mind wanders back to Jason, the blond bastard from the bar. Although I would have done the same for any woman, I had punched him extra hard because it was Eliana that he’d tried his bullshit on.

The thought doesn’t sit well with me. I shouldn’t be feeling protective of this girl because she’s everything I’m trying to keep out of my life, yet here she is barreling through without a care in the world.

It must just be because she’s a new face, an attraction of theunknown. Regardless, she’s still a distraction, one I shouldn’t be entertaining. The last distraction I allowed into my life nearly cost me everything. I can’t allow anyone to have that opportunity again.

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