Chapter 9
BLAIR
We’d just gotten down to the shoreline. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around, so this was ideal. Throwing caution to the wind, I slipped out of my dress, leaving me in my bra and underwear.
Tate’s eyes went wide. “What the hell are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
He looked around. “You can’t just take off your clothes.”
“Why not? There’s no one else nearby. I want to go for a swim.”
I turned my back toward him, unsnapping my bra and letting it fall to the sand.
Pausing for a moment, I contemplated whether to remove my thong but decided to leave the Tate torture at topless.
He watched as I ran into the ocean, lifting my arms toward the dark night sky and screaming in glee once I hit the water.
I stopped when submerged to just above my chest and turned to face him. Rather than begging him to come in, I simply bobbed up and down, patiently hoping Tate would loosen up a little and decide to join me.
For several minutes, he just stood there in place, rigid, with his arms crossed.
What a hardass.
But then, I finally saw him undo his pants and kick them off.
He lifted his shirt over his head, and even from afar, I could make out the ripples in his abs.
I’d only gotten quick glimpses of his bare body during the massage, and he’d been mostly on his stomach, but his carved back wasn’t for the weak, either.
He stalked toward the water, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. Excitement raced through me.
Tate dove into the water and swam toward me until we faced each other.
“Well, hello there.” I smiled. “What made you change your mind?”
“I was afraid you’d get eaten by a shark if I wasn’t here to protect you.”
“Seriously?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m the shark, actually.”
“Oh. I like the sound of that.” I winked. “Sharks bite, don’t they?”
“Sometimes,” he muttered, his eyes falling to my lips.
“Hmmmmm…”
He looked up at the purple-hued sky for a moment. “I really want to kiss you again, but I told myself I wouldn’t.”
“Well, that’s dumb.” I scoffed. “No one’s life will be saved by you depriving yourself, Tate. You’re depriving both of us.” I splashed him playfully.
To my surprise, he splashed me back with greater force.
We broke out into laughter and a frenzy of splashing until we were both thoroughly drenched.
When we finally stopped, I reached up and ran my fingers through his wet mane. Tate’s eyes fluttered closed as he bent his head back and let out a muffled groan.
And then I felt it.
The most excruciating pain in my left leg.
“Ow!”
Tate moved back suddenly. “What happened?”
“I just got stung by something!” Panic filled me. “Oh no. There are venomous jellyfish in this ocean. I remember reading about it before I came here.”
“Fuck. Where do you feel it? Your leg?”
“Near my ankle.” I felt dizzy.
Tate sprang into action. “Let’s get you out of here.” He lifted me, and I immediately covered my bare breasts with my hands.
I felt light as a feather in his arms. Tate carried me to shore, and I reached for my dress, quickly slipping it over my head with my back facing him, while balanced on one leg. The sting felt worse now. Adrenaline coursed through me as my mind jumped to the worst-case scenario.
Then I remembered something. “I think you need to pee on it,” I told him.
His mouth fell open. “Say what?”
“Pee on my leg, where the jellyfish stung me. I saw somewhere that the pee can help deactivate it.”
He blinked and repeated, “What?”
“Please? I’m really scared.”
“We need to go back to the main building,” he said.
“We’re too far. What if this kills me in the meantime? I think you need to pee on it now.” I pointed to the spot. “It’s this area right here, just above my ankle. Urine is a natural sterilizer.”
“Shit.” He exhaled. “All right…uh…”
Tate slipped his massive dick out of his boxer briefs.
After a fleeting look that I knew might haunt me for decades, I turned away so as not to make him uncomfortable as he aimed at my ankle.
The next thing I knew, I felt the warmth of his urine on my leg.
I tried not to look back at it, instead focusing on the feel of the liquid, imagining that it was thwarting any potential for disaster.
When he finished, I opened my eyes to find Tate tucking himself back into his boxers. “How does it feel now?” he asked.
“The same. Just colder now that it’s not being doused in warm pee.”
Tate reached for his phone and scrolled. “Okay. It says here that urinating on a jellyfish sting is a myth.” He looked over at me. “What made you think that was a good idea?”
“I saw it on Friends. Chandler peed on Monica after she got stung by a jellyfish, and she felt better after.”
“Friends?” He narrowed his eyes. “And you take that as science?”
“I thought there was truth to it.” I threw up my hands. “I swear I heard the same thing somewhere else. I just can’t remember where.”
He returned his gaze to his phone. “This medical article from a trusted source says saltwater is the best thing for it. We probably should’ve just stayed in the ocean.”
“So I can get stung again?” I countered. “No, thank you! I’m done with that water for the rest of the trip.”
“Let me look at it.” He sat next to me on the sand, turning on his phone flashlight and aiming it at my leg. “It says to remove the tentacles. But I don’t see anything. Next step is to keep rinsing with saltwater.” He stood and offered me his hand. “Come with me down to the shore.”
We sat on the sand at the water line. Tate spent the next several minutes cupping saltwater in his hands and pouring it repeatedly on my stung leg.
As the minutes went by, I began to feel better and more confident that I wasn’t heading toward impending death.
“I think it feels better,” I announced.
“Yeah?” His worried expression lessened.
I nodded.
He placed his hand on my thigh. “I’m sorry that happened to you, beautiful.”
“It’s okay.” I shrugged. “Thank you for peeing on me anyway.”
“Anytime.”
“Really?” I laughed.
“No.”
I winked. “At least now I can say I got some action on this trip. I mean, how much kinkier does it get than a hot man peeing on you?”
He chuckled. “Whipping out my dick and urinating on you was not on my bingo card tonight.”
After a half hour, my leg felt exponentially better, so we went for a stroll along the beach.
Tate took my hand in his, threading his fingers through mine. “Is this okay?”
“Of course.”
It felt good to hold his hand. For the past two days, I’d been angling for any sort of contact, and this simple act sent shivers through my body.
Hand in hand, we walked silently along the shore. The waves crashed under the dark night sky. I tried to just enjoy the moment, but the idea that this would all be ending soon continued to put a damper on my mood.
“Are you gonna regret not sleeping with me?” I asked.
“I might,” he answered. “I’ll probably always wonder. But it would only make things harder if we did.”
“You’re right,” I agreed, proud of myself for resisting the chance at an innuendo.
He stopped and faced me. “I have never had more fun in my life than these past two days. And that’s no exaggeration.”
“I feel the same, but considering you’ve lived a lot longer than me, that’s a huge compliment.”
He laughed. “Blair...” he whispered.
“You’ve been saying my name a lot since you discovered it.”
“I’m just so happy you told me.”
“Well, I certainly don’t tire of hearing you say my name, Tate.”
“Blair,” he murmured again. “I want to kiss you so fucking badly.”
Rather than wait for him to determine that was a bad idea, I reached forward on my toes, took his face in my hands, and did what he’d done to me earlier.
“Fuck,” he whispered over my lips. He circled his tongue over mine in slow, firm strokes.
The ache beneath my panties grew as I imagined what that tongue would feel like between my legs.
As our bodies pressed together, I felt like an animal in heat, unable to get close enough to him.
And I could feel his cock threatening to burst through the crotch of his pants.
I wanted to reach down and cup it in my hand, but didn’t want to put him in the position to reject me.
He’d made up his mind about not going any further than this, and I needed to respect that, just like he’d chosen to respect me.
Still, I confessed, “I want you so badly.”
He leaned his forehead against mine. “You have no idea how much I want to fuck you, Blair. My decision has nothing to do with a lack of desire. I want to do things to you that you can’t even imagine. Believe me, I have imagined it all.”
Arousal pooled between my legs. “Is that what you do when you go back to your room at night? Imagine what you could actually be doing if you stopped being chicken?”
He groaned. “What happened to your vow to stop taunting me?”
“You pressed your cock against me. That’s what happened. All bets are off now.”
He slid his hands down my back. “Probably shouldn’t have done that.” He stopped short of touching my ass and took me by the hand, leading me over to a spot on the sand.
We sat together, looking up at the bright moon.
“Life is funny, isn’t it?” I said. “Out of all the people in the world, we met each other here, both alone and craving companionship.”
He took my hand again, looping his fingers through mine. “I definitely don’t believe in accidents.”
“You think someone up there orchestrated this? Got inside my head, ordered me to get buzzed off of one margarita and go on that app so I could meet you?”
Tate turned to me and smiled, his eyes sparkling in the moonlight. “I can’t tell you how it happened, but it feels like I was meant to have this experience with you. You’ve breathed new life into me.”
Looking out at the waves, I sighed. “This would be a nice way to end, wouldn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.