Page 58 of Raine Out (Grand Slam 2)

Alex

“Really?” She pulls back on my hand. Her eyebrows are raised when I turn around. “A place where we can get a little privacy? Is it your room?”

“It’s not my room,” I say, smiling. “Unless you want it to be my room, then it’s definitely my room.”

“I don’t want it to be your room,” she says as the line over her eyebrows deepens again. “Yet.”

“Yet, huh? Then it’s not my room—yet. Come on.” I grab her hand again and pull her toward the front of the resort. “I explored a little when I got here. There’s a private bay just through those trees.”

As I start to guide her through the narrow sand pathway, she squeezes my hand tighter. “I can’t see anything,” she whispers, pulling back a little bit.

“It’s only a few hundred more feet,” I say, crouching down in front of her, “but crawl on my back, so you won’t step on a snake.”

She jumps on my back so hard that I almost fall over.

“What kind of snakes are there down here?” she says, wrapping her arms and legs around me as I stand up.

“I don’t think there are any snakes down here. I just wanted you on my back.”

“That’s very sneaky,” she says, pushing my head. “Not funny.”

“Do you want me to put you down?”

“I didn’t say that,” she says, locking her ankles in front of me. “I’ll stay up here in case you’re wrong about the snakes.”

I wrap my arms under her legs and hoist her higher on my body as I continue to weave through the palm trees. We finally come to the opening.

“Look. All to ourselves,” I say as she straightens up and looks over my shoulder.

“Wow,” she says, inhaling quickly, “it’s so pretty. The moonlight makes it look like there are a bunch of sparkly diamonds on the water.”

“Do you want to swim out there and see for ourselves?” I whisper as she lays her chin on my shoulder.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I’m a little scared of swimming in the ocean at night.”

“What?” I nudge her head with mine. “That’s the best time to swim—floating in the warm water, looking up at the stars. There’s nothing like it.”

“Yeah, but sharks and stuff.”

“Sharks and stuff?” I say, laughing. “You know, sharks stay in the ocean around the clock. They don’t just get in at night.”

“I know, but you can’t see them at night.”

“What are you talking about?” I say, nodding out to the deeper water. “Of course you can. There’s Samuel right over there.”

“Samuel?” She starts pushing away from my body. “Really? That’s your shark’s name?”

“What?” I say as I set her down gently. “I didn’t name him. His parents did.”

She looks up at me and rolls her eyes. “Maybe we can just wade in a little bit for now and work our way up to swimming.”

“Sure,” I say, pulling my T-shirt over my head. “We can take it slow.”

When I look back at her, she’s staring at my chest.

“You good?”

“Yep,” she says. “I’m just not sure I want you to see my body now that I’ve seen yours. Good Lord, Alex, do you work out every minute of every day? Your chest is ridiculous.”

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