Page 32 of Beach Bum Billion-Heiress
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Sage
The week flew by, the paperwork and phone calls stealing all my time. I'd only made it out to surf once and I only saw Jax twice in passing when I was over at my property supervising the demolition. Between his schedule and mine, we were finding it difficult to secure alone time. That made our date this weekend all the more to look forward to. He'd told me we were going camping about an hour or two northeast of HB, at a place called Big Bear.
I didn't really care where we camped, I just wanted time with the lifeguard I was quickly falling for. My bed felt empty at night, needing his strong body in it to warm me up. Every time I looked at him, my body went into overdrive, heating several degrees and making me think dirty thoughts, the likes of which I'd never thought of before. It was like I was constantly turned on, our first night together awakening some slumbering part of me I didn't realize was there. I mean, I knew they said sex drive was in top form in your thirties, but this was ridiculous. If this trip didn't come soon enough, I'd have to surprise Jax one night at The Shack while he worked.
Friday dragged out, the clock mocking me with each tick of the second hand that took far too long to have been accurate. I was at my rental house, my backpack stuffed with clothes and toiletries, waiting for Jax to get off work. I packed as light as I could, knowing we'd have to haul in our stuff on our backs. Jax had told me he'd carry the tent and food, plus his own bag. I was responsible for the sleeping bag and my backpack.
Nervous energy was pumping through my veins. Partly because I was going off for the weekend with the man who wouldn't get out of my head, and partly because I wasn't sure how the whole camping thing worked. In theory, I'd hiked quite a bit in my life, but I'd never camped in a tent before. My family's version of camping required a state of the art log cabin mansion on a pristine golf course in the woods. Somehow I didn't think that's what Jax had in mind.
My doorbell chimed, startling me badly enough I dropped my bag and had to scoop it back up again and swing it onto my shoulder. I opened my door to find the hottest outdoorsman I'd ever seen, not that I'd seen a lot. Jax had let his beard grow out all week, leaving him with the start of a lumberjack look. A flannel shirt and dark cargo pants tucked into boots topped off the look and made my insides feel funny. I was completely out of my element and I couldn't think of a trip that I'd looked forward to more than this quick getaway to the lake. When you've been to most of the first world countries on lavish vacations, that was saying something.
"You ready for this?" Jax reached for my hand, pulling me out the door.
"Ready as I'll ever be," I responded with a bounce in my step as I locked the door and raced down the walkway to his truck.
"Here, let me get that." Jax took the bag off my shoulder and placed it in the bed of the truck, along with our other supplies.
We passed the time stuck in traffic by playing twenty questions. His wild guesses made me laugh, adding to my delight with the whole weekend. This was going to be great, I could feel it.
Once we were out of the city, the open road stretching out in front of us, Jax turned the conversation more serious.
"So, tell me about your childhood. Where'd you grow up? Go to school? Tell me everything."
I chuckled. "Well, that's gonna take some time."
He squeezed my hand, the one laying on top of his on my thigh. "Then get to talking. I want to know everything about you."
I took a deep breath. "Okay, well, I grew up in New York, out in the suburbs, not in the city. My father inherited his company from his own father. He was gone a lot working and my mother and my nanny raised me. My mother tries to be a good mom, but she's mostly there to back my father up. Whatever he says, goes. And my father wants me to take over his business one day. I'm sure he wishes he'd had a son, but it just wasn't in the cards. He sent me to all the best schools. I enjoyed college, which is why I went on to get my master's degree, but mostly it was to have something to do other than work for my father."
"You don't like commercial real estate?" Jax flicked me glances as I talked, looking intrigued. Guess I hadn't bored him yet. His hand kept tracing the lines of the henna on my hand. I'd finally used that bag of henna I'd bought at the street fair, designing henna tattoos all up and down my body. I may have gone a little wild. Jax hadn't said anything about it yet, but I was waiting for some sort of reaction. My father and his mini-me's that I'd dated had always had something to say...
"Not particularly. It's mostly just a bunch of assholes in suits throwing their money around to get what they want. I don't want to just buy and sell things. I want to grow something, from the ground up. I want to settle into a town and see that my work is valued and essential to the community. Buying a piece of property just to grow my bottom line doesn't appeal to me."
"And what does your father say when you tell him that?"
I rolled my eyes. "Ha! I've tried telling him how I feel ten different ways and he never listens. Just brushes me aside like my thoughts and feelings don't even matter. You heard him. He thinks I'm some sort of hippie floating through life without doing anything. He just can't fathom that I don't want to do what he does. Anything I chose would be ridiculous in his eyes."
"Whatdoyou want to do, Sage?" His hand squeezed me tight, letting me know he supported me in whatever I was about to say.
I sighed. "I wish I knew. I've never been allowed to explore what I like and what I'm good at. Although the restaurant I'm building does intrigue me, I must admit. We'll have to see how that goes." I looked around out the window, taking in the pine trees on either side of the road. "All I know is that I can't be cooped up in an office all day. I'm like a plant. I need sun and fresh air to thrive."
"You're a sexy plant." Jax was giving me the side eye, full of mischief.
"Keep your eyes on the road, mister!” But I pulled his hand higher up my thigh, his fingertips brushing just below the fringe of my high cut-off jean shorts. Mmm...not quite high enough.
Jax cleared his throat and I noticed his hand gripping the steering wheel harder than the driving conditions required.
"So, tell me about the guys you've dated in the past."
"Oh, so we're going there, huh?" I smirked at him, knowing there wasn't much to tell him from my end, but he had plenty to dish on himself. "Let's see...I casually dated a few guys in college. Lost my virginity one night my sophomore year to an overeager boy who didn't know what he was doing beyond aiming for the right hole."
Jax made a choking sound.
"What? It's true! The guy was terrible and my first time was one I wish I could forget. I guess that's true for most girls, but still, not a memory I like to look back on." I squirmed in my seat, remembering instead, how opposite my night was with Jax. He knew exactly what to do, his hands, tongue and cock seemingly made for pleasuring a woman. I froze for a moment when I realized that a person only got so talented after lots of practice. That wasn't a thought I wished to explore. Ever.
"So pretty much after that debacle, I just casually dated in college. My father set me up with a few men after that. All associates of his he was parading me in front of. I still don't know if he was trying to win their favor by trotting me out, or if he wanted me to be married off so I was someone else's problem instead of his. Either way, I wasn't interested."
