Chapter 6 #3
This part, at least, makes sense. I start paddling, feeling the ocean lift beneath me, that familiar rush building in my blood.
Salt on my skin, muscles waking up, and the board steady under my hands.
God, I love this. The drop, the speed, that split second where the whole world narrows to water, balance, and instinct.
Then I see them go.
Luca catches his wave first, all power and easy control, strong shoulders cutting through the spray as if he’s built for exactly this.
North is smoother, quieter about it, but just as solid, reading the wave.
And Ace is something else. Fluid. Unhurried.
The wave belongs to him, and he’s just being polite enough to share it.
Well, that’s irritating.
My wave comes in clean, and I take it. Pop up fast, knees bent, weight right. For a few perfect seconds, I’m in it. Flying. The board humming under my feet, water breaking cold around my calves, wind in my face.
Then I glance toward the shore where the two men are still there, and just like that, the whole calculation changes.
I don’t need to win. I want these three to definitely be walking off this beach with me. So I let my balance go on purpose, not enough to look fake. Just enough.
My board skids out from under me, and I hit the water with a splash, cold closing over my head in a rush of bubbles and sound. I come up sputtering, hair plastered to my face, laughing breathlessly.
By the time I shove my hair back and adjust my bikini, I’m with all three of them as I grab my floating board.
North pushes wet hair off his forehead, dark eyes already on me, checking.
Luca is grinning outright, enormous, smug, and far too pleased with himself.
While Ace watches me with that knowing glint that says he’s not buying what I’m selling for a second.
“Hm,” he says.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“The wave was weird.”
Luca lets out a laugh. “Right. The wave.”
North’s mouth twitches. “Tragic conditions.”
I glare at all of them. “You’re all being very ugly about this.”
Ace drifts a little closer on his board, still watching me in that way that gets under my skin far too easily.
The four of us drift back toward the shore with the last of the set, boards cutting through the water as the adrenaline slowly bleeds out of my system.
I look up toward the beach, and the two men are gone. I scan up and down, but there’s no sign of them.
The breath leaves me so quietly that I don’t think any of them catch it, but relief slides through me all the same. Maybe they got bored or they were never here for me. In truth, I’m spiraling and need to get a grip.
Except, I’d love for that to be true.
Beside me, Luca shakes water out of his hair, and I stare at him too long, the water sparkling across his bronzed body, those flexing muscles. “So,” he says, dragging me out of my dream, “lunch.”
I blink at him. “You move fast.”
“You made a bet.”
North glances over from my other side. “You did, yeah.”
Ace lets out a low laugh behind me.
Oh, I like the sound of that far too much.
“Did she?” he says.
I stare over my shoulder at him. “I stand by it. They were sitting there looking very pretty and not doing much.”
Luca barks out a laugh.
North’s mouth twitches. “Still mouthy after losing. I respect that.”
“I fell with dignity.”
“You fell on purpose,” Ace adds.
I study him for a long pause. “What a nasty allegation.”
His grin is slow, knowing, and deeply unhelpful to my pulse. “You’re not as subtle as you think you are.”
Rude. Accurate. Ruder for being accurate.
We reach shallower water and hop off our boards, walking them in through the wash.
The tide pushes around our calves, and I find myself between all three of them without making a thing of it.
It just happens naturally, Luca on one side, North on the other, Ace a step behind, and I hate how much I like the feel of their protection.
Temporary, I tell myself.
Meaningless.
Still, my skin feels too aware.
Luca is easy to read now that I’m closer. And bigger somehow, all shoulders and lazy confidence, with that rough-edged humor sitting permanently at the corner of his mouth with that almost grin. North is quieter, but not distant, which tells me he’s a deep thinker. And Ace…
Ace is the problem.
I don’t even have to touch him to feel as if he’s there.
I steal one glance back toward the beach, just to be sure, and there’s no sign of the strangers.
Thank God.
I should be focused on the relief of it and the fact that I might’ve imagined the whole thing into something bigger than it was.
Instead, I’m walking out of the surf with three Alphas who are somehow just as distracting in completely different ways, and all I can think is that running into Ace once on a plane was possibly fate.
Finding him again here could be the universe taking a personal interest in my life, and I still can’t stop staring at the other two, trying to figure them out.
Yet, one thing is for certain: Ace is already under my skin again.
Which is, frankly, the last thing I need.