“You know we were more than that.”
I froze, staring at her, the water bottle almost slipping from my fingers.
“I love my wife.”
I could feel my cock growing, pressing against the wet fabric of my board shorts.
“Of course,” she said, reaching forward to pluck the water bottle from my hands, then she slowly put it to her lips, right where mine had been, and drank, a long, deep draught.
Her lipstick was bright red, and there was a smear on it when she handed the bottle back to me.
The craving to taste even a bit of her overcame me, and my lips closed right where hers had been. I tasted the sweet tang of cherry.
“You’re quite the family man, aren’t you?” she said with a little teasing smile. “That’s why we never could have worked out. I’m too wild and untamed.Youare comfortable with the whole white picket fence thing.”
“I—” I began, but she shook her head.
“Just teasing you, Frankie. I want the same things as you do. If only you’d stuck around to let me explain.”
The hell?
Suddenly the game started again, and I shoved my burning fingers into my pocket, just before I ran them down her arm, pulled her closer.
Why hadn’t I stuck around?Shewas the one who had left!
God, I wasnota picket fence guy. Just because I was married and the Mayor. I was still the same daring wild guy I’d always been.
A little flare of jealousy built deep inside me as Christabelle put her hand on some meathead tourist’s arm.
She wasn’t doing it to taunt me, either. I just had entirely too much interest in her every movement for a married man.
She was sin and she was temptation.
Her comment burrowed under my skin.
I hadtriedto find her after we broke up, tried to chase her down.
Was she saying if I had, she would have wanted to get back together? Had she been thinking about me all these years?
I had a good life here in Ramshackle Bay, but of course it didn’t look anything like I had expected in college. Back then I had dreams of becoming a pro surfer, but an injury my senior year had sent me into a deep depression.
Jillian had been there through it all, helping me find a new purpose, get interested in new things. Politics became my new obsession.
She was my ride or die.
My wife and I had been together a long time. Almost ten years now.
She was faithful, she was loving. She was anangel.
And I definitely loved her.
When the game was over, Christabelle came up to me again.
“My flight was originally supposed to be in two days,” she said.
I didn’t like the way she glanced around. Like we were doing something wrong. Like there was something illicit between us.
My throat still felt closed, my chest tight.
