Chapter 13 The Calm #2
Zeke cleared his throat loudly, shooting me a sheepish expression. “Um, can you put this sunscreen on my back? Please?”
Could I rub his rippling back muscles with a lotion that smelled like sweet jasmine and citrus because Zeke sprang for the good stuff? Absolutely. Could I do so without soaking through my bikini bottoms? Unlikely.
Still, I wasn’t going to admit that to him.
Zeke kneeled in front of me so that his back was within easy reach and I bit down hard enough on my bottom lip that I tasted blood.
Even from this angle, his body looked like a work of art.
His skin was silky smooth to the touch, and although I noted the way he initially tensed when my hand applied the lotion, he quickly relaxed.
It was then I noticed the scars lacing across his back.
My hand stilled as my mouth dropped open in horror. There were dozens of scars, like Zeke had been whipped. Some of them were clearly older and more deeply embedded in his skin.
“Zeke, what happened to you?” Tears clogged my throat now for an entirely different reason.
Rather than answer, Zeke stood up and sat in the chair beside me. “Thanks,” he said curtly.
Zeke so far had shown me nothing but respect in regard to my boundaries. He never pried or forced me to open up, and while I knew I should reply in kind, word vomit came out instead. “Seriously? What happened? Those look bad.”
“I learned things the hard way a lot as a kid,” he finally said. Tension lined his jaw and he shoved a new pair of aviators on his nose to block his expression.
My heart softened at the prospect of a young Zeke receiving such a harsh punishment.
Unless he set fire to nursing homes and drowned puppies, I couldn’t see how he could have done anything bad enough to warrant marks like those.
Even at Diana’s worst she would never lay a hand on me.
I couldn’t even remember a single time my father disciplined me for anything.
“You know, you can talk about it with me and I’ll listen,” I offered. “No strings attached. Sometimes saying things out loud makes you feel better. At least, that’s what Marla always says. And she’s pretty much never wrong.”
A ghost of a smile darted across his face, there and gone in an instant. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Silence descended on us again. This time I didn’t fill it as shyness suddenly rendered me speechless. I wanted to comfort him, but didn’t know how. To show him that he wasn’t really alone.
So I did what I did best. I flirted.
Rolling forward so that I lay chest down on the towel in front of me, I kept my hips arched up so that I could push my shorts off.
This particular bikini, while also a bold color that caught people’s attention, featured a hiked style bottom that exposed a lot more of my ass.
I chose it specifically in hopes that Zeke might finally make a move.
A move I was even more desperate for now that I knew how unnaturally hot his body was.
Settling myself back down, I tugged at the string holding the back of the bikini top, then let the string around my neck fall loose.
Coyly, I looked over my shoulder at him and said, “Guess that means it’s my turn.”
Zeke was not immune to my wiles. His eyes had widened to the point where I could see the whites all the way around the irises, and his jaw clenched down hard enough that I could hear his teeth grinding. He cast furtive glances around us as if daring someone else to look at me.
A smug grin lined my face. Men were so predictable.
The sand gave a little as Zeke kneeled down beside me, lathering in lotion with the kind of gentle caress I expected from him.
On the exterior, especially in a swimsuit with rippling muscles on display, Zeke looked like someone you should be fearful of, but the more time I spent around him, the more I realized he was actually a very considerate, compassionate soul.
How he managed to fight in combat was a mystery I could never solve.
“Is…is this okay?” Zeke asked, his voice a tight whisper.
“Yep! This is perfect.” I tried and failed to keep myself from shuddering underneath his touch.
Zeke’s fingers moved deftly between my shoulder blades and down my spine, massaging the lotion into the clefts at my lower back.
But he didn’t linger, only touching me long enough to put the lotion on and then returning to his chair.
I peered at him over my shoulder.
“Should you really have your top undone like that?” Zeke refused to meet my gaze, focusing on something off in the distance. “What if you need to jump up suddenly and then you’re half naked?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, that’s never happened to me before, so when it does, I’ll let you know. I just don’t want to get tan lines. They’re so unattractive.”
Zeke snorted. “Like anything is ever unattractive on you.”
Now I was the one unnerved. I shuffled my hips as the blush burned across my face. Compliments sounded so sincere when they came from Zeke Hayes’ lips. He didn’t say them as a way to get in my pants, he said them because he truly felt that way. It was high praise, and I drank it in.
“So where are you from?” I needed to change the subject before I threw myself at him, topless and all, in front of all the families trying to enjoy their day at the beach.
“Michigan,” he supplied. “Sort of.”
Okay, laying down wasn’t the right way to have this conversation.
Zeke needed answers pulled out of him, like a dentist yanking teeth.
I hastily tied the bikini strings around my neck, then sat up while holding the back strings.
Turning so that I kneeled in front of him, I tied a knot behind my back as I pressed further, “What does that mean?”
Zeke tried to keep his eyes poised on my face, but I caught them darting down to my chest as I adjusted the bikini cups. “Um…I just moved around a lot.”
“Oh. Was your dad in the military, too?”
“Something like that.” His eyes fell to my chest again, then back up to my face, his cheeks turning beet red.
I grinned. “Is there something wrong with my bikini top?”
His face reddened even more. “Of course not!”
“Because you seem really concerned with it.”
“I just want you to be comfortable, Maggie.” Sincerity layered his words, and I fell back on my heels.
Most guys I know would have turned that into a disgusting innuendo.
The sweet talkers like Spencer would have found a way to flip the conversation into something flirtatious that gave me the hit of adrenaline and serotonin my mind craved from run ins with meaningless flings.
But of course Zeke didn’t do that. Zeke genuinely concerned himself with my well-being.
“I don’t understand you,” I burst out in irritation. “Do you like me or not?”
A puzzled expression replaced the crimson shame on his face as Zeke stared me down. “I like you a lot, Trouble. That’s why I’m here.”
An answer that didn’t really answer anything. “But how do you like me?” I whined. “In what way?”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he considered the question. “I don’t know,” Zeke finally admitted. “But I’m determined to find out.”
I didn’t want to become an overly emotional woman who scared him away.
Diana always told me that men didn’t like that.
Getting teary-eyed would only make them clam up and start to look for a better partner.
At the same time, though, I was afraid of Zeke slipping through my fingers.
Just because he claimed he didn’t have any other girls vying for his attention didn’t mean it would stay that way.
I needed to stake my ground now before it became a bloody war.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere,” I replied.
Zeke smiled, displaying gleaming white teeth. “Then I have about a million questions for you.”