Chapter Thirty-Three
MARINA
PRESENT
I can’t help the smile that pulls at the corner of my mouth when I see the deep red bike leaned up against the side of the building. “Was this your plan all along, huh?”
Miles pulls a face. “No, no. I just brought it for you since you forgot it last time.” He’s right, I disappeared into the bar after our kiss, leaving the bike forgotten outside.
When I remembered about it a while later, I went out to see it gone from the spot where Miles left it, he must have taken it with him.
“But if you want to take it for a ride to our spot then by all means,” he gestures toward it, acting as if this isn’t exactly what he planned. “We’ll be ticking one thing off our list.” I don’t mention the fact that he just called it our spot.
I just shake my head, he’s an idiot. I walk over to the bike, ringing the bell and shaking my head again. “Alright then. Get in the basket.”
He coughs out a laugh. “If I get in that basket, I’ll break it, and myself—more than I already am that is.”
“Miles,” I give him a stern look, “you are not broken.”
“Just fractured,” he says .
“Okay, get on the seat,” I say, shaking my head at the way he’s making light of his injuries. I guess it’s better that way than the other. “I’ll just pedal while standing.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” he says, settling on the seat of the bike.
Of course it does, because he is going to have a first class view of my ass all the way to the beach. My eyes nearly roll all the way back into my head. He’s such a little shit.
I can’t help but feel a lightness in my chest in this moment. Everything feels so easy between us right now, but it always did, I guess.
I swing my leg over the bar. How am I going to take off without sitting down? I also haven’t ridden a bike in years, I’m not confident I can get us going without tipping us sideways.
“Here.” Miles must read my silence because his left hand finds my hip and he guides me to sit on his lap. “Just so you can take off easily,” he says in my ear and goosebumps skate down my spine.
Being this close to him sets off every nerve in my system, like my body is remembering how it feels to be near him, to be with him.
I just clear my throat and start to pedal. It’s wobbly at first before my muscle memory kicks in, and I feel Miles’s grip tighten as we veer sideways, but I quickly right the handlebars and have us going in a somewhat straight line as we head down Main.
“Atta girl.” I have to force myself not to jerk the handlebars when my heart kicks in my chest. Jesus Christ.
I pull myself from his lap and stand in the gap between the seat and the handlebars pedalling harder as the sea breeze pushes against us.
I let out a yelp as it whips a strand of my hair across my face and Miles’s hand jumps back to my hip to steady me, but when it turns into a laugh he relaxes his grip, but he doesn’t let go entirely. And I don’t complain about it.
We cruise around a bend and head towards the turquoise water that is glistening in front of us.
It’s moments like this when I realize just how lucky I am to call this place home.
I don’t know how people come to visit and don’t end up staying for the rest of their lives, because I get homesick when I’m away from the water for too long.
I pull on the brakes, bringing us to a stop just before the hidden path. I’m puffing by the time my foot hits the ground, and feeling exhilarated by the feeling of the wind against my face as we rode.
“So you like the bike?” Miles asks.
When I turn to face him, he’s got this gorgeous smile on his face. As if witnessing my simple pleasure was worth every penny he spent on the bike.
“Yeah,” I tuck my hair behind my ears. “I like the bike.”
“Good,” he nods before sliding off the seat. “Let me hide it somewhere safe so it doesn’t get stolen.”
“Nothing gets stolen here, Miles.” He doesn’t pay me any mind as he shoves the bike into the bushes. I just snort as he comes out, a leaf in his hair.
I turn to slip down the hidden path but stop in my tracks. “Wait. I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“Neither,” he says, walking past me and down the track, using his good arm to push back the branches in his path.
I just scoff before following him down the track. “Miles Beckett, did you just lure me into coming skinny dipping with you?”
He pushes back a big branch, clearing the way for me to go ahead of him, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lip.
I just shake my head as I come to stand in front of him. I’m trying so hard to hold back my own smile, not wanting to give him a hint of my entertainment. I pluck the leaf from his hair. “What were you going to do if I said yes to the others coming?”
He raises his eyebrows, nodding his head down the path, indicating for me to keep moving. I reluctantly turn and continue down the track. “The same thing,” he responds.
I whip my head to look at him over my shoulder. I see a whisper of a smile in his gaze, but I look back ahead of me before I can get a glimpse of it on his lips. “You have no shame,” I say.
“Should I? Have shame?” I stay silent. “Based on what you saw last time we were here, have I slipped behind on my upkeep?”
I tried to move quick enough when I was in the water that day, but the tone of his voice suggests that he saw me.
That he knows I was looking at his bare ass as he walked up the beach.
And part of me loves it. I should be embarrassed that he knows I was perving on him, but it only makes me feel like a giddy teenager.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say.
“No?” he teases.
“Uh-uh.” I shake my head vigorously as we continue towards the hidden beach.
“Okay,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “You’ll just have to tell me after today then.”
“Friends don’t usually look at each other naked,” I say just as I step down onto the sand, the water now glistening in front of me.
“Lucky we aren’t like normal friends then, huh?” he says in my ear as he walks past me and further onto the beach, those goosebumps making their second appearance of the day.
He moves to take his T-shirt off once he gets halfway down the beach. I watch as he discards his sling and manoeuvres his shirt carefully off his body before throwing it on the sand.
“I thought I said no funny business,” I say sternly, raising my brows at him when he turns to look at where I’m standing further up the beach, my arms crossed over my chest.
“Did you forget that you being bossy doesn’t intimidate me, princess? It only turns me on.”
A flush crawls up my neck. “I’m going first.”
He gestures his hand towards the water. “Go for it.”
I stride down the beach, narrowing my eyes at him as I pass him on my way to the water. I stop just short of the shoreline pulling my own shirt over my head.
I feel an intoxicating combination of nerves and anticipation roll through me as I reach behind my back and unclasp my bra, letting it fall onto the white sand.
Friends isn’t the right word for us. We might not be lovers, but we aren’t friends either. We sit in this dangerous middle ground. And it’s in times like these that I forget why I suggested being friends in the first place.
I should be fighting it, should be pushing us back towards the line of friendship, but I can’t give up this feeling.
I hook my fingers into the waistband of my denim shorts and push them down my legs, leaving me in nothing but a pair of black lace panties.
I pull the hairband from my wrist and fling my hair up into a loose bun, rogue curls bouncing free around my face.
It should feel sexual, standing here almost naked on the beach knowing Miles is only a few meters away, but it doesn’t.
It feels vulnerable, and intimate. Like I’m showing him more than just my body.
Like I’m showing him that the barriers between us have been stripped away, even if it’s scary, and even if it hasn’t been fully within my control.
I don’t move towards the water, I just stand here letting the waves glide over my feet as I wait.
Within seconds, I feel Miles’s presence behind me. “You okay, princess?” I feel the pad of his finger smooth over the skin between my neck and shoulder.
I nod. “Yeah, just thinking.”
I’m so used to having both of his hands on me, it doesn’t feel like enough just feeling one. “How is your collarbone?”
“It’s okay,” he says, his voice barely more than a whisper as his finger trails down my arm. “The mobility is getting better with every session. I might even be able to ditch the sling soon if I’m lucky.”
I lean my head back, finding the left side of his chest, I close my eyes. “I was so scared, Miles.”
His finger has reached its way to my hand, where he tangles his fingers in mine. “I know. I’m sorry. ”
I shake my head. “It wasn’t your fault Boulder had it out for you.”
He just chuckles. “Yeah, I’m not sure I’ll ever be fighting him again.”
“You better not.”
The palm of his right hand finds my waist, and I flinch, only because I wasn’t expecting it. The pads of his fingers trace over the freckle on the side of my ribs, the one he used to kiss.
“Is it okay to move it that much?” I ask.
“It’s good for it,” he says. “The water will be good for it too.”
“Then you should get in,” I say, even though my movements contradict my words as I stay leaning against him.
I haven’t felt him touch me like this in so long, my heart aches at the memories.
I finally step out of his touch, walking into the ocean. I let the water flow over my shoulders before letting my arms out in front of me to push through the small waves.
I spin around to see Miles watching me, an almost haunted look in his eyes that clears when I catch his gaze.
He’s standing in nothing but his boxers, and I can’t help but stare at the rigid plains of his body.
He has not slipped behind in his upkeep.
I don’t think I could even try to lie about that.
He dips into the water, popping up just in front of me
“Does the water really help?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says, moving his arm carefully under the water. “It takes the weight out of it, it makes it easier for me to move it around without using too much effort.”
“Hmm,” I mutter. Makes sense, I guess.
My eyes catch on the brown birthmark below his collarbone, on the left side. He must know what my gaze is stuck on because he says, “Now I’ll have one on each side. A birthmark, and a scar.”
I can’t tell by the tone of his voice what he thinks about that, if he’s worried about how it will look. “Two things that mark important moments in your life. It’s beautiful. ”
His eyes just search mine like he’s waiting for something. Like he’s waiting for the shoe to drop.
In a way, our future lies in my hands. I know Miles’s intentions, he told me that all he wants is to gain my trust back, and I know he’s just waiting for the day when I tell him that he’s got it.
But I suggested being friends for a reason. No matter how much I ache to be in his arms, no matter how much I care for him, building back that trust is going to take time. I can’t serve myself up on a silver platter, not this time.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he says. “Something I’ve missed.”
There are so many things I could say, so many things that have happened over the last year that I could tell him about, but only one thing comes to mind.
“I have to fight the guy who lives on a houseboat at the laundromat for my leather pants at least once a month. For some reason, he thinks they’re his, and at some point, I think maybe I should just give them to him, he obviously wants them more than I do. ”
Miles’s face splits into a grin as he laughs, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever heard. “Did I ever tell you that you’re remarkable?”
I bite my lip to stop my smile from taking over my entire face. “Once or twice.”