He was touching my ears for freaking sakes. If I didn’t know how sad my experiences with men were, I would have been more surprised at how pathetic I felt getting excited at him touching my earlobes of allthings.Lame.
I swallowed and waited until Aaron moved his hand to the center of my face, his thumb swiping across my chin slowly before pulling back and saying, “There.”
All I could do was manage to grind out a “thank you” that sounded like I was out ofbreath.
Aaron got to his feet and I did the same, rubbing some more cream under the seam of the bathing suit on my bottom. I was doing that when Aaron’s shirt fluttered to the sand.He was shirtless.It shouldn’t have been a big deal, because how many times had I seen a shirtless guy? A thousand?Thank you, Internet.I could be calm.Becool.
I made sure not to suddenly look up and ogle him or make him self-conscious as I kept rubbing sunblock into my skin. When it had been long enough, and I couldn’t think of anything else to stall with, I let out a breath and had a smile already on my face when I raised my eyes all casual and friendly. Standing under the sun, the difference between the almost bronze color on his face, neck, and arms, and the lighter, slightly tan shade on his chest, legs, and feet, was pretty apparent. I would never call it a farmer’s tan though. There was no hint of red or pink on his skin, like my mom or Tali would get if they were under the sun for too long. No matter how much those two tried, they never got tan. They were either white or red, there was no in-between.
Aaron was not one of those people. He was light gold and he was gold, there was no hiding it. But the main thing that there was no hiding from was that body under the three different shades of hisskintone.
Stick a needle in me, Iwasdone.
I saw the rest of my life in that splitsecond.
There was never going to be getting over Aaron. Ever. I was going to die alone. I accepted that as I gave up trying to be sneaky, taking in the way he was built. He wasn’t big and bulky, or barrel-chested in any way. Aaron was slightly thicker than a swimmer but had their physique, all abs and shoulders and long biceps. He was perfect. Absolutely perfect. That saying about God breaking the mold when they made someone had been written with Aaron’s birth in mind. Each muscle looked like it had been chiseled, each bone perfectly sculpted. Even his nipples were perfect.How?How?
How was I supposed to look at this for nearly an entire week and knowhe was just my freakingfriend?
The answer was: I had no idea how that was supposed to happen. I really didn’t. I’d lied to myself and tried to convince myself it was possible, but it wasn’t,wasit?
I swallowed and looked away, reminding myself not to be that person. I could do this. I could survive this week. Ihadto.
“Ready?” he asked, making me glance back at him, but that time, keeping my gaze onhisface.
There was a knot in my throat as I nodded. “Yeah. But if you want to go ahead of me and hang out with your friends, it’s fine. I don’t mean to take up all your time.” His mouth did that turn thing. “I can bealone.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Ru,” he said in that calm way. “I’d rather hang out with you.” And then, as if that body on display hadn’t been enough to remind me of how shitty of an idea coming here had been, he went on to add, “You don’t have to bealone.”
If my smile was tight and said “you’re killing me,” it didn’t reflect on his face. All I could do was make a sound in my throat that could have meantanything.
We were wordless as we made our way forward. The stretch of beach to the right and left was packed with people, but not so many that it felt crowded. Mostly, it was family after family in groups of every size, with kids running, sand castles in the process of being built, and cooler after scatteredcooler.
The water was warmer than I expected when I stepped into it. “Drag your feet through the sand, so you don’t accidentally step on a stingray,” Aaron warned over hisshoulder.
A stingray? In the water? That I couldstepon?
I’d been too busy trying notto stare at the smooth expanse of Aaron’s back and his small waist with two tiny dimples settled right at the base; I hadn’t really thought about anything swimming around in the water around us. I’d been to the Caribbean three times in the past with my family on vacation, and my mom, who wasn’t a fan of snorkeling, had always booked us at hotels with crystal clear water nowhere close to reefs. I’d never been snorkeling before. The water here was pretty darnclear,but…
It was fine. No big deal. There were probably hundreds of families just on the few miles of beach stretch by here. What were thechancesthat—
Ishrieked.
I could be woman enough to admit that I shouted at the top of my lungs the second something brushed my leg in thewater.
I could also be woman enough to admit that when whatever it was touched me, and I yelled in this high-pitched voice that could have made a dog howl, Ijumped.
I jumped intheair.
I projected myself at the closest thing to me despite being hip-deep in the water. That closest thing being six feet two inches of man named Aaron. Except at that point, Aaron hadn’t been facing me or had his back to me, we had been practically beside each other, and it was only his lightning-quick reflexes at hearing me shout that he managed to catch me right before I barreledintohim.
“Are you okay?” he asked quickly, his right arm winding around my waist instantly as he tipped that handsome face down to look into the mostly clear water below us. I wasn’t imagining the protective, worried expression that had taken over his features the moment I’d shrieked. It had been there,forsure.
“Yeah, yeah,” I gasped, looking down too, suddenly embarrassed that I’d…donethat.
“What happened?” he asked, still sounding worried as he turned us in a half circle to look at another area. “Did you step on a ray? Are you allright?”
I swallowed and tapped his shoulder so he could letmedown.
