Page 43 of Skin Deep

Chapter14

Harrison

My eyes narrowed against the glare. The sun was bright, reflecting off the water and sand, and it beat down on my body, hot and relentless.

I wiped sweat from my brow, then took out my phone and snapped a picture of the scene to send to my family. The beaches were unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I’d been to Scotland and Ireland, but it had been a long while, and the beauty there was cold compared to the beauty here. Everything about it was warm.

The water was a clear shade of blue, with darker blue underneath the surface making shadows. The coastline was rugged. Boats were in the distance, either roaming around or bobbing up and down.

The beaches in Sardinia, or as Gigi called it, Sardegna, were packed, even though Gigi seemed to have a private cabana on lock on Pevero Beach. I could see it from the glass windows in her stone villa, but being this close, it was almost like something in books or magazine articles. Not entirely real because of how gorgeous it was.

Besides visiting Scotland and Ireland with my parents, I hadn’t been anywhere else but New York and Boston. The funds were never there, and family obligations took precedent even if a little extra cash was on hand. Before I was injured and my life came crashing down around me, I was supposed to go to Mexico with a bunch of my team. Our girlfriends were coming along.

Then life happened. I was injured. Lach was arrested around the same time. I had to cancel. My high school girlfriend broke up with me after she got back from the trip. She’d fallen in love with another guy on the team. His girl was heartbroken and came to me. We revenge fucked, but I was like glue, and the reprisal stuck to me.

They never found out about it, or if they did, they didn’t care—last I heard, they were married with three kids. The brokenhearted girl thought she was pregnant with my kid, even though I’d used a condom. It was the most uncertain few months of my life.

Mari happened after, and my priorities shifted.

All things had a place. I had a fucking plan. And I was checking each thing off my list.

Then Mac Macchiavello happened, and everything shifted again.

I felt like I was standing on the precipice of my life, and it was either sink or swim at this point. I didn’t feel like I was doing much swimming, just drifting wherever the tide took me.

This was an experience for me, something to enjoy, but the girl, as Gigi called her, still invaded my mind. I kept wondering if she would have liked it here. The colors of the water, the sun beating down on her face, even the food. Maybe that was why they were going to Gigi’s party. Mac wanted to show her everything she had been missing in New York. He wanted to sink his claws in good before ripping her heart out.

My foot retracted, then moved forward. A blast of sand lifted in the air, the wind taking it, and brought it right back to my face. I spit some out, while a little boy holding a younger boy’s hand gave me a nasty look as they headed toward the water.

“That’s life, kid,” I said. “Sand in your eye while you’re looking at the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. That’s how life works.”

He gave me a rude hand gesture and went back to paying attention to the kid with him.

The scene was so familiar, because that kid could have been me taking care of my brother. Except, I had no one to warn me of how brutal life could be. I thought it was all about making dreams come true until mine was crushed, and I realized sometimes they die and never come back.

When had I gotten so morbid? So miserable? They weren’t hard questions. I could pinpoint both occurrences. When my dream of being a pro ball player ripped with my tendon, and the moment Mac Fucking Mac slipped a ring on Mari’s finger.

Sighing, I checked my phone. It was hot from the heat, and I almost wanted it to melt. It was my connection to everything in life, and suddenly I wanted to sever it. Instead, I sent a quick text to my boss, also known as my brother-in-law, then sent the picture to my brothers and sister. I wanted to ask how the situation with Oran Craig and his son was going, with the pub, but decided not to. Plenty of time to ruin any fun I was required to have as part of this deal.

I sent the picture to Mari, too. I’d gotten a phone hooked up for her before she started seeing that asshole. Doubtful if she’d even check, but it wouldn’t hurt my cause, or the reason why I was still in Italy.

Feeling eyes on my back, as hot as the sun, I turned. Gigi was staring at me. She was lounging on a beach chair, out of the cabana, soaking up rays. Her skin had gotten even tanner, making her white bikini seem neon. It only enhanced the color of her eyes, making them pop like the sea.

Blue—a shade that reflected the deeper areas of the water.

The woman was fucking flawless, and if I wasn’t careful, my eyes and hands would never leave her body. Which was even more dangerous than the proposition she’d made me, if it came down to me or Mac. There was something about her that drew me in, made me forget.

She wanted me, and to my biggest surprise, I found myself wanting her. Thinking about her even when I was alone. Trying to figure her out. The ups and downs. The…erratic behavior. One minute she was fierce, flying down winding roads going at an obscene speed, and the next…she seemed almost vulnerable, like the sunflower in the field I came close to picking.

When we’d kissed in the field, I could taste the vulnerability on her tongue, feel her body melting into mine, but then the chili seemed even spicier in her mouth, and I knew she could burn me. The sweetness of her tongue hid a fire.

How deep the real her ran was yet to be seen. New York was filled with beautiful women, my high-school girlfriend included, and most of them ran only skin deep. As far as what they had to offer, what I saw was usually what I got. Mari, even as a young girl, had always been so deep. She knew what it meant to struggle. Her depth only enhanced her beauty.

“What the fuck?” I muttered to myself, as I watched Gigi sit up and remove the top to the bikini, setting it aside.

It was accepted here, but something about her doing it pissed me off. Like she was daring me to react. Before I could stop myself, I was. In a few long strides, I made it to her. I stood in front of the adolescent boys from Denmark next to us, blocking their view and cameras, and hauled her up from the chair. I pressed her hot tits against my chest, and she wrapped her legs around my waist, her arms around my neck.

“What are you doing?”

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