Page 9 of Beach Bum Billion-Heiress
I hustled after him and defended myself. "I wouldn't drop it! I got it out to the beach just fine." Ha! Had him there.
He just laughed and kept walking. "That was before you wiped out, repeatedly, in my ocean. It's okay to admit you have noodle arms."
"If I had noodle arms, I'd admit it, but I'm just fine." I finally caught up to him, just as we reached my Bug. I could have made further comment about his supposed ownership of the whole damn ocean, but I kept it to myself. One argument at a time.
Jax lowered the board to his side and heaved it into my startled hands. "Okay, you load it up then."
Of course, I wasn't expecting him to do that, so I almost dropped the board, but not because I had noodle arms. Before it hit the ground, along with my shattered pride, I managed to heft the board up. Jamming the edge of the board on my hip, I shuffled the remaining two feet to my car and wrestled the thing up high enough to rest on the side of the rack on the roof of my car. Thank God I rented a VW Bug, not a big, tall SUV.
"Give me that." Jax intervened and lifted the whole board onto the rack, placing it perfectly in the center with ease.
I glared at him, even though I was quite happy to not deal with that board any longer than I had to.
"Okay, I got it from here. Thank you." I nodded my head at him and proceeded to pull out the flat ropes I would snake through my car windows and loop around the board to keep it in place while I drove it back to the rental shop.
Another swallowed chuckle sounded from behind me, but when I spun around, Jax was looking at my car with no expression whatsoever.
"I gotta do a few things at headquarters. I'll meet you back at The Shack." And then he spun around and took off, leaving me to finish securing the board to my car.
After watching his fine ass retreat (my motto was Never Waste a Good Opportunity), I got to my task. Based on his comment, I guessed we were going to chat again. Maybe this time I could get him to sell that damn shop already.
* * *
I was starving after my near-death experience in the Pacific, so I stopped by a little burger joint further north on PCH. I ate my burger in my car, gazing out at the sparkling water, letting the gentle breeze dry my long hair. I briefly wondered why I bitched so much about doing this deal for my father. This was heaven.
When the dried salt on my skin got to be too itchy, I packed up the trash from lunch, tossed it, and headed back out to The Shack to return the surf board. I pulled into that tiny parking lot again and left the board on top of the car while I went inside. I was hoping the guy from before, Jonny I believe from what Jax said, would do me a solid and get the board off for me. The adrenaline high from surfing was leaving me wiped. I'd have to admit to Jax I had noodle arms.
Nah, just kidding, I would admit nothing.
I was standing in the shop, waiting for Jonny to help another customer, when Jax walked in. He gestured me over to him and held open the door.
"Come on, let's get that board."
I followed him out and tried to rub some of the salt off my arms and legs while I stood there watching his muscles flex as he grabbed my board. He walked it over to the side of the shop where we'd had our argument earlier today. A spray of water burst out of a shower head nozzle up high that I hadn't seen before. Jax cleaned off the huge board like he'd done it a thousand times before. When it was thoroughly rinsed, he leaned it up against the building and ducked under the water himself.
My mouth went dry and all the business conversation openers I'd planned left my brain as I took in the sight in front of me. He tipped his head back and used his hands to run through his thick, wavy hair before they wiped off his face too, the sound of his stubble scraping reminding my fingers they never got a feel.
Those hands dipped lower to the hem of his t-shirt and all my prayers, had I known to pray for such deliciousness, were answered. Inch by inch, more tanned skin was revealed as he pulled the shirt up over his head and tossed it to the ground. I'd already figured out he was strong, but I didn't really understand the extent of it until I saw the six pack, the bulging pecs, the bumps running along his hip bones, the way each muscle flowed into the next, like a perfectly tuned machine.
But this was no machine in front of me. This was all man, flesh and bone, covered by tan skin and a scattering of hair that begged for touching and tasting.
And I would volunteer as tribute.
A throat clearing brought my attention back to the world happening around me while I lusted after a man who didn't seem to like me that much. He was looking at me like he expected an answer.
"Wha--"
Oh, that was great. I was supposed to be showing him that I was a tough business person and he could take my offer seriously, and now I was drooling over him like a love-starved prepubescent. At least I wasn't falling over any longer. There was that.
He repeated himself, speaking a little slower, you know, to match my intellect. "Did you want to rinse off?"
Stepping forward into the spray, I turned my back to him and gave myself a quick moment to collect my words and remember why I was there and exactly what hung in the balance.
I finger brushed my hair, letting the fresh water rinse away the stiffness that came with the dried salt water. Next came the rash guard, also rented. I pulled it off, struggling to get out of the long sleeved shirt that clung to my skin. Audience forgotten, I almost laughed out loud that I'd showered in five star resorts around the world and yet nothing felt as luxurious as this shower on the side of a shack after getting my body tossed around by a force far more powerful than I'd given it credit.
I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with my life when this deal for my father was complete, but I was getting a feeling that any future of mine would have to include some warm weather and ocean water. I'd never felt so alive, and I was sure it had nothing to do with the sexy-as-sin man next to me.
