Chapter 4
Colin
“Um, just being alive,” she says while blushing. She glances at Malcolm, who isn’t paying her or us any attention as he devours his food.
“Nope. She’s celebrating telling her leech of a sister and her enabling mother to kiss her ass because boundaries are important,” Raven says. She lifts her glass and the three women toast.
To my shock, Malcolm raises his glass and toasts with them. “Not you, Ian,” Malcolm says. “You don’t know the definition of the word boundaries.”
I catch Brody’s eye from across the table, and he sighs and sits up, probably preparing himself to play referee.
“Get the fuck over it already,” Ian says. “I’m so sick of your attitude. You don’t like that I’m marrying your sister? Too damn bad. I wish you didn’t come.” Ian stands and storms out of the restaurant. Malcolm does the same but goes in the opposite direction as Ian.
The ladies look at each other, but no one asks questions, which is good because I don’t want to talk about their drama.
“I should probably go and make sure they don’t kill each other back at the house.” Brody leaves the table, and I’m left alone with the three women.
“Uh, so around seven tonight, then? Dinner and then we can all go out. Don’t worry about Ian and Malcolm.” I inch closer to Bee and make sure our knees bump underneath the table.
“Sounds good,” Raven says. “And I’m not feeling this buffet. Mimi, let’s go back to the house and order room service. We’ll see you later, Bee.” Raven stands, grabs Mimi, and practically pulls her out of the restaurant.
And I’m finally left alone with the only person I want to talk to.
She picks at her food but doesn’t eat any of it.
“So, you want to go for a walk?” I ask. I decide to be bold and throw my arm across the back of her chair.
She slowly drops her fork on her plate and looks at me. I hold her brown-eyed stare while she studies me, and when she tilts her head to the side, I do the same while smiling at her.
“You want to take a walk?” she asks.
“Yeah. By the beach. We can rent one of those scooters if you want.” Her eyes light up for a fraction of a second, but she looks away.
“I don’t know how to ride that. It looks dangerous. And I’m just here on vacation with my friends.” She eyes me again. “I’m not looking for a hookup.”
I raise both hands. “Me either. I don’t want to go back to the house with Malcolm and Ian at each other’s throats.”
She remains quiet while she studies me, and I wish I knew what she’s thinking. She’s not easy to read; I’m usually good at reading people. Other than knowing she’s attracted to me, she doesn’t give anything else away, and I’m not na?ve to think that her attraction to me will lead to anything.
She picks up her glass and slowly sips her water, then nods as she puts it down, and I think she’s made a decision. I don’t think the nod is a yes, but just that she’s decided. “Let’s go.” She stands and waits.
I toss my napkin on my plate and stand with her. I extend my hand, and she looks down at it for a few seconds before she says, “Fuck it,” and takes it.
I like the feel of it, the feel of her. We don’t speak again until we get to the beach. There are large groups of people close to the water, including several families, but we stay on the boardwalk, where it’s less crowded.
“Are you going to tell me what state you’re from?” I ask.
“Nope,” is all she says. She’s playful now and smiles wide while she shakes her head. “Are you married?” she asks, surprising me. I stop walking and pull my hand away. I lift the left one and turn it like I’m in the Miss America pageant.
“No ring. No tan line. I’ve never been married, and before you ask, I don’t have a girlfriend. I just got out of a relationship a year ago. Now, are you married?” I ask, turning the tables on her.
“Never been married. Never even come close.” I retake her hand and intertwine our fingers. “Haven’t had a relationship in a while, and I’m not looking for one.”
“Are you closed off to one?”
“No. I’m just not actively searching. If it happens, it happens.” She shrugs as she walks. “So, why did you and your girlfriend break up?”
“Oh, boy,” I say, shaking my head. “I’d rather not get into that.”
She stops and looks up into my eyes before dropping her gaze to look at my chest. When she licks her lips, I flex my pecs for her, and she lets out a giggle.
“You’re right. This is vacation, so no serious questions. I’m leaving everything in the real world out and focusing on having fun. I only have a few more days, so I’m going to enjoy all of it.”
We stop walking again, but I don’t let go of her hand. I lift my free one and stroke her cheek with my thumb. She looks down, and I sense a bit of shyness from her. I drop her hand, throw my arm across her shoulders, and pull her close. We stay like that and walk until we reach the area where we can rent scooters.
“Oh, no,” she says as she backs away.
“Come on. It’s vacation mode. I’ll drive, and you sit behind me.” I don’t allow her to reply and request one motorized scooter with two helmets. I help her put her helmet on and tap the tip of her nose with my finger.
“I’ll get on first, and you slide in behind me. You have to wrap your arms around my waist. I promise I won’t go too fast.” She looks around nervously but nods before getting on and wrapping her arms tightly around me. She pulls herself up, and I run my hands along her exposed thighs before I start the engine. “Hold on,” I yell and press on the gas.
“Whoa!” she says with a giggle. Right now, I’m cursing the helmet because I want nothing more than to feel her breath on my skin, but having her arms wrapped securely around me feels good. The wind whips around us as we ride off the boardwalk to the street.
“You didn’t say anything about going on the street!” she yells in my ear. Her arms tighten, and I speed up. She screams a little, but that turns to laughter.
The wind hits my face, and I curse not having my sunglasses, but I don’t focus on the negative for too long. I have a beautiful girl with her arms wrapped around me. Life is good. I take her away from our resort, but the entire area is filled with nothing but resorts. Ours just happens to be the most exclusive.
After about fifteen minutes, I see a man selling coconuts on the side of the road, so I pull over and park. After helping her with her helmet, I take her hand. I buy one for each of us, and we find a secluded area by the beach to sit. I sip the juice out of the straw, and despite having the exact same thing, I offer her some of mine. She takes it and gives me hers.
“Yours is sweeter than mine,” she says.
“I doubt that. You look very sweet, Honeybee.”
She chuckles, and I see a blush spread over her face.
“I’ve never had a nickname before,” she says. “I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that, huh, Killah.” She laughs at my nickname.
“Well, you have a nickname now. At least until I know your full name.”
“I don’t know your full name,” she counters.
“It’s Colin,” I say, reminding her of my first name. “Colin—” She puts her hand up before I can tell her my full name.
“Let’s just leave it at Colin,” she says. “Vacation, remember?”
“Yeah, vacation,” I say, playing her game. All I have to do is call my assistant, and I could probably have her name in ten minutes, but I’ll do this her way, at least for now. I do have some info. I know she’s in the Northeast, where I’ll be. I also know she’s single, and despite not knowing her well, I know she’s telling the truth about that.
“You know what?” she says. She stands suddenly and pulls her shirt over her head, revealing a bright blue bikini top. She takes off her sneakers and pushes off her shorts. “Let’s go for a swim. I bet I can beat you to the water.” She runs off, and I stand there for a few seconds to admire the bounce of her ass.
Then my competitive nature kicks in; I toss my Crocs aside and run behind her, catching up to her quickly. I grab her hand and pull her to me as she laughs and screams at the same time. After lifting her off her feet, I spin us around at least half a dozen times before dropping her. She stumbles and falls on her butt, all while laughing, and I run to the water and walk in. I’m waist-deep by the time she reaches the water’s edge.
I return to her, pick her up bridal style, and bring her into the water, where I drop her. When she gets to her feet, she splashes water on my face, and I do the same to her. Some seaweed gets stuck to her, and she screams like she’s in a horror movie. I slowly pull it off, lock eyes with her, and laugh uncontrollably. I wave the seaweed around, and she pretends to be scared of it. She screams again and tries to run away from me, but the waves make that almost impossible. I take her hand, turn her to me, and wrap my arms around her.
“You know the Black person is always the first to get killed in the horror movie,” she says as she looks into my eyes.
“Well, it’s good that you’re with me, isn’t it? I won’t let anything happen to you.” A huge wave crashes into us, and we stumble and fall, but I never lose my grasp on her. We end up in the sand, with her on top of me while the ocean water covers us. Once the wave retreats, I open my eyes to find her looking down at me.
“You didn’t let me go,” she says.
“I told you. I got you, Honeybee.” I tilt my head up and taste her lips. I expect her to pull away, but she doesn’t. She kisses me back, and it soon turns passionate. I lower my hands and rest them on her ass. It’s firm but soft all at the same time.
Neither one of us ends the kiss. I hear birds squawking overhead, but all I can feel right now are her lips on mine, her tongue in my mouth, and her firm ass in my hands. We stay like this until another strong wave pushes us out of the water. The kiss is broken against my will, and she rolls off my body. She stands on shaky legs, and I wonder if that’s because of the kiss or from the strength of the wave.
She offers me her hand and helps hoist me up. I pull her into my arms and kiss her again. She wraps her arms around my waist, and her soft hands caress my naked back. We’re away from the water this time and in no danger of being interrupted by a wave.