Chapter Three
Hunter
Somehow, I managed to talk Rochelle into stopping and walking the strip on Main Street. Something which half an hour ago seemed nearly impossible. But every once in a while, the world surprises you and you get lucky. Rochelle walking just a shoulder’s length away from me in the warm evening towards the pier is proof of that.
Glancing to my right, I smile as she bites into an ice cream I convinced her to stop for. The chocolate frozen treat melts out of the corner of her mouth. Her tongue licks her lips, drawing it back in, drawing me in.
The visual has me in a trance. She stops walking for a moment to lick up her cone. I pause alongside her, captivated as her tongue licks its way up to the cold ice cream before her mouth closes over the top and she sucks it in between her plump lips.
Suddenly, she stops. As if sensing my eyes on her and what I’m imagining, she looks up at me through her sexy glasses and her eyes widen. Smiling, I reach out and brush some ice cream off her lips with my thumb. Without thinking, I bring my thumb to my mouth and suck the chocolate flavor off it. Her eyes widen. I step towards her, fighting the urge to taste more, and take her in my damn arms until I’ve sucked the flavor I just barely tasted right off her fucking tongue - but I don’t. A titillating shiver rushes up her spine, and I swear to God, if this energy between us ever dies, it’ll be only when my heart stops beating.
“Thank you,” she says quietly, so quietly I barely hear her before she nervously goes back to eating her ice cream.
Deciding I’m finished with my own, I walk a few steps over to a nearby trash can and throw it away. She follows and does the same.
“Do you want me to walk you home?” I ask. She shakes her head no. Picking up her hand, I wait until I have her full attention and then ask, “Want to walk with me along the beach?”
She doesn’t say a word at first. I can see a war building in her green irises. Eventually, she nods. Taking her arm and lacing it through my own, I smile down at her as she looks up at me through those beautiful, breathtaking eyes of hers, and then start to walk us towards the crosswalk that leads across the street and down to the water.
We walk in silence. I don’t drop her hand until we reach the sand and we start to take off our shoes. Hers are a little tricky. Dropping to my knees, I help her step out of them, and then carry them for her as we start to make our way towards the waves.
Rochelle breaks the silence.
“Are you from around here?” She asks, and for the first time since I met her, I notice a slow drawl to her voice.
“Yeah, I am.”
In fact, I’ve never lived anywhere else. Never wanted to. Leaving the Hollywood Hills and making my own way in Orange County seemed like a far enough venture from my childhood when I started college. Now, the question she asks makes me feel kind of sheepish. Like the vast concrete of Los Angeles is all I have to offer.
“Are you?”
She shakes her head no and waits a moment before answering. “I moved here when I was 15. Momma and I, We don’t have much family left from where I come from.”
“And where is that?”
She looks up a head at the water, pausing for a moment, as we continue to make our way to the shore.
“Georgia,” she sighs. “Grew up there my whole life…” She trails off and so much time passes that I think she won’t finish her thought, until, “There really isn’t much to tell. Nothing interesting at least.”
“I disagree, I find everything interesting about you, Angel.” She blushes, then smiles. “So, no family?” She shakes her head. “Where do you go to school? I know your boss said you were in training?”
“Goldenwest. It’s just a community college. I only attend classes there for cosmetology. It isn’t much, but when we had enough money, I would always try and buy the latest magazines and sit up late for hours and hours studying all the ways the girls on those pages looked, wishing one day I could be as pretty as them. Momma even let me practice makeup and hair on her once in a while after we moved here. She is the one who encouraged me to take classes,” she stops just as we make it to the water’s edge and turns to look at me. With a nervous laugh she says, “I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I talk a lot when I am nervous.”
“I make you nervous?” I tease. Her hands shake. If I wasn’t studying her so closely, I would’ve missed the wobble in her knees. “Just for the record, Angel, you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. None of the girls in those magazines could ever come close to your beauty. You’re stunning.”
Reaching out, I take her face in my hands and remind myself to breathe. Running my thumb across her bottom lip, I look down at her mouth briefly before anxiously meeting her stare. She leans into me, curious as to my intentions.
“You have no idea how breathtaking you are, do you?”
Her sharp intake of breath tells me she’s just as affected by me as I am by her. Stopping myself from taking what I want most, her kiss, I force myself to hold strong, back away, and deny myself the pleasure. She rocks back a little on her heels, stunned by our sudden loss of contact.
She clears her throat and looks out to the water. “So, what do you do? Do you go to school?”
“I do,” I say, as we stroll along the breaking waves. “Long Beach State. I grew up in the Hollywood Hills, not too far from here, but far enough to where I feel like I finally have my own life.”
I don’t include the part where the man who raised me, took me in after my parents died suddenly in a car crash when I was ten, is the President of one of the largest LA networks. Not because I think she will use me for it, but because the intimacy of this moment, just me and her, doesn’t need to be bothered by the weight of such things.
“I’m in my Junior year. Most people think I got in because of my… connections.” I give her that much and leave the rest. “But actually, I got a full ride playing catcher for their baseball team, the Dirtbags.”
