“Okay. Starting from the end of the board, yeah?” I point to the end of one of the surf boards. “You grab the sides, and then move onto your stomach. Then you lift yourself upward…”
“Oh, right.” She moves onto the board. “Like this?”
“Ja. Then you sort of turn your leg…” I show her on my board. “And slide your other foot forward. Then the hard part, which is having enough balance to stand on the paddle board.”
“Right. Got it.” She scrunches her face up. “I mean, I think I do.”
“Good. Let’s paddle out, then.”
We pad out to the sea, the sand stiff and crunchy, breaking away under our feet. When I step into the ocean and feel it swirl around my feet, I suck in a deep lungful of salty air.
Glancing at Margot to make sure she’s still with me, I put my paddle board down on the water.
“Don’t forget to attach your leash to your ankle,” I say. Balancing awkwardly for a second, I do as I said.
I look at her as she does the same, biting her lip as she attaches the leash. I can’t help the way my eyes dip down to her lush mouth, or the way they slide down to her tits.She’s taken off her cover up and is just wearing that little black bikini now.
I realize that I am as bad as a horny fucking teenager, filling in what I can’t see. But I don’t bother to jerk my gaze away this time.
She looks up and colors when she sees me looking at her. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “What?”
I grin. “Nothing. Are you ready to try to surf?"
She starts to move out into the water. “Ahhh. The water is cold!”
She jumps back, glaring at me like I’ve just endangered her well being somehow.
I pull a face. “It’s warmer than room temperature.”
“It’s so cold!” she disagrees. “You should’ve warned me.”
“So you give up, then? Because I count that as a forfeit.”
She wrinkles her nose at me. “No.”
She stomps back into the water, her movements obviously irritated. She likes to win; I should make a note of that. I wade out after her, carrying the paddles, and watch as her body disappears into the ocean. I shiver a little as I submerge myself up to my shoulders.
We both paddle out a little ways. The wind picks up a bit. I can feel the ocean sweeping us aside, which is unusual. When I have paddle boarded before, the sea was calm and placid.
That doesn’t stop us from trying to paddle board today, though. She flounders a little bit trying to get on top of the board and then pops up… only to fall back into the water. When she resurfaces, gasping, I can’t help but grin.
“You can give up any time you feel like it, you know.”
She splashes me and I laugh. She grabs her board. “I’m ready to go again. But I want to see you do it.”
A wave crashes just behind us, distracting me. I look over my shoulder and see dark gray clouds on the horizon. “Shit. Those weren’t there before, were they?”
When I turn back to look at Margot, she’s eyeing me suspiciously. “I don’t think you can do it.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course I can. We’ll do it at the same time,ja?” And look over my shoulder again. “I’d say we have about thirty minutes before we probably should get off the beach.”
She jerks her chin up at me. “Bring it on, Hagrid.”
“Who is Hagrid?”
“Less talking, more paddle boarding.” She grabs her board and steadies herself, struggling to get on the board.
I balance my own board, climbing on and standing up. I use the paddles that I’m holding to help keep myself from tipping over either way. Grinning, I turn to Margot.
