I roll lazily over and prop myself up on my elbows and look at Matt, whose entire perfect torso is above the water, the waves lapping against his back.“It’s so warm!”he says, flapping those arms around in the gentle swell.So casually handsome, such a sparkling smile of childish joy as he dives under and comes back up a little closer.“Come on, Chloe!”
“I’m good,” I say, grinning as he gives up and wades toward me.I settle back, sunglasses on, and close my eyes.When I hear his soft footsteps on the sand, I open them again to secretly watch him dry off behind my mirrored aviators, before he drops heavily down next to me.
“I could use a nap myself,” he says.
“Tequila and travel don’t mix,” I say, sitting up and reaching for the sunblock.“You think this is going to work?With Jasper?”
Matt hesitates.“Dunno.”
“We truly can’t afford anyone else.”
“Well then, it has to work,” he says, shrugging.
I squeeze out the cream and rub my legs down as Matt just stares ahead and out toward the sea.“Pretty happy waiting around here, though.God, the peace and the distance from everyone and everything.It’s great.”
“It’s definitely beautiful,” I say, feeling awkward suddenly, as I finish applying cream to my chest, trying desperately to reach round the top of my back.I’m glad Matt has his eyes fixed firmly forward as I apply my sunscreen, but equally, I’d love for him to offer to do my back.
I imagine his broad hands touching my oily skin and I shudder involuntarily.
He’d just be helping a friend out.Nothing more.
“It really is beautiful,” he says quietly, as he turns to me.
I narrow my eyes at him from behind my sunglasses, as he stares at the cream in my hand, and then up at the hand that’s currently hooked over my shoulder.
He hesitates, as though thinking better of it, but then asks, “Want me to do your back?”He smirks as though it’s exactly what I’m asking.
“It’s fine,” I say casually.
“I’d suffer through the chore if you wanted me to,” he says playfully.
“I wouldn’t want to force you.”
I laugh and he grins in return as I hold out the sunscreen and he nods for me to turn around, and I do, sitting cross-legged and pulling my hair forward over my shoulders.
“It’s a dirty task, Chloe Coleman,” he says, “but with skin this pale, it shouldn’t be ignored.”
I feel the cool sunscreen hit my back and then the light touch of his hands on my shoulders as he rubs it in, casually at first, then a little rough as his hands glide down my back and he reaches my waist.I flinch at his touch on my side.
“That tickles,” I say, a little breathlessly.His movements are slow, careful to stay precisely on my back.
His fingers run up the side of my spine and between my shoulder blades, turning into a half massage.I let out a long, deepahhhat the pleasure of his firm fingers against my tight muscles.
“I’m going to book a massage for when we get to Mexico City,” I mutter, almost slurring.
“A massage?”he says, his fingers hooking over my shoulder, his thumbs digging into the muscles at the back of my neck.
“Oh my god that feels so good,” I say, glancing back at the house, but there is no sign of Jasper.“But you really shouldn’t.”
“Lie down and I’ll do it properly,” he says.
“I somehow don’t trust you,” I say, grinning.
“It’s just sunscreen,” he says playfully, and I lie back down, face on my towel as Matt sits beside me, moving his hands expertly up and down my back.
“You need that sunscreen everywhere?”he asks, finally reaching the small of my back, as his hands slow and he slips just the tips of his fingers under the top of my bikini bottoms.
“Everywhere that isn’t under my bathers,” I say, laughing into my beach towel.
