Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Stellan
Irise early, the habit ingrained from my time in the military.
After I shower and dress myself, Margot is still soundly asleep.
I sit down on the bed beside her, looking down at her.
Some women I’ve spent the night with have been like sleeping beauty in their slumber; placid and peaceful, unresisting and serene.
Margot isn’t like that. She hugs a pillow to her bare chest, a tiny pucker of emotion creasing her brow, her mouth set in the echo of a frown.
Her cotton candy curls spill backwards from her head like a dash of ink spilled in water.
Her hands are tight little fists, looking like she’s ready to fight.
And yet, I still find her incredibly beautiful. Not despite.
Because she is rebellious to her very core. Even in sleep, she doesn’t lose her edge.
But the best thing is when I lean over, dropping a kiss to her bare shoulder. She stirs, opening her sapphire eyes a crack. And then she smiles at me. Big and bright, sleepy but all the more meaningful for it.
“Hey,” she rasps.
One corner of my mouth lifts. “Haj.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Were you watching me sleep?”
I shrug a shoulder. “Just for a second. I was actually coming to wake you up.”
She sits up, stretching and yawning. “What for?”
“A surprise. Come on.” I stand up. “And wear a bathing suit. There should be a bunch in the closet. We’re going somewhere that I want you to see.”
She makes a face at me but gets out of bed. An hour later, she joins me in the kitchen. I’m leaning against the island, sipping my coffee.
One look at her makes me do a double take and choke on my coffee just a bit. She’s wearing nothing but a tiny black bikini under a filmy white robe. And her Converse, as per the usual.
I bite my lip. “You look...” I search for the right word. “Edible. Maybe we shouldn’t even leave the house.”
That earns me a scornful sound from her lips.
“This bathing suit is scandalous,” she complains, indicating her outfit. “There were so many of them hanging in the closet, but this is the only one that was my size.”
I give her a smirk. “You are just lucky that we carry sizes suitable for tiny people. You are elf-sized.”
She rolls her eyes. “Are we going out to the beach or what?”
“We are. Here, I made you a coffee to go.”
Her eyes widen with glee as she accepts the mug. “You’re really getting to the core of who I am as a person,” she jokes. “Coffee first, then literally everything else.”
The beach is only a short walk from the house. As soon as we step outside into the salty air, I take a huge breath. The sun beams down on us as we stroll to the beach. I came out here earlier and set things up, so my footprints are already in the sand.
Margot makes a silly face as she steps in one of my footprints. “A giant has already been here, apparently.”
That makes me grin. “He’s giant all over, if you know what I mean.” I lean close to stage whisper. “I’m saying that I have a huge cock.”
That makes her cackle. “Yes, I’m aware. It’s not for nothing that I’m walking a little stiff-legged today.”
Pure male satisfaction fills me. “If you’re lucky, I’ll show it to you again later.”
She shakes her head at me but she can’t stop grinning. “Shut up.”
We walk down to the pebble-strewn shore, sand clinging to our feet. I’ve left two paddle boards there, their matching paddles sticking up out of the sand.
“What is this?” Margot asks, pulling her hair back into a bun.
“Paddle boarding.” I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “I’ve done it before. I’m practiced, you could say. So I’ll mostly just be here to watch you fail at it.” I arch my brows. “It should be a good diversion.”
She squints at me, then turns her gaze out to the green-blue sea. “Twenty dollars says I’ll be good at it by the time we finish.” She pauses. “No, wait. Money doesn’t matter to you. How about you pose for my camera tomorrow if I can get good today. And if I don’t…”
I grin wickedly. “If you don’t, I get to put my cock anywhere I want tonight.”
Her brows fly up and she turns red as a beet. “You want to do anal?”
“Ja. Of course. I have just been waiting until the moment is right.”
Her eyes tighten a little. “Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. Because I’m going to win.”
I rub my hands together and lick my lower lip. “I really hope you lose, skatter.”
She flushes and looks down at the paddle boards. “You’re going to get your ass kicked. Let’s go.”
I hold up my hands. “Slow down. First I need to know if you’ve ever surfed.”
Margot’s brows knit. “I’m from the city. And even though the water is right by us, it’s safe to say that I have never surfed anywhere.”
“Okay. Starting from the end of the board, yeah?” I point to the end of one of the surf boards. “You grab the sides, and then move onto your stomach. Then you lift yourself upward…”
“Oh, right.” She moves onto the board. “Like this?”
“Ja. Then you sort of turn your leg…” I show her on my board. “And slide your other foot forward. Then the hard part, which is having enough balance to stand on the paddle board.”
“Right. Got it.” She scrunches her face up. “I mean, I think I do.”
“Good. Let’s paddle out, then.”
We pad out to the sea, the sand stiff and crunchy, breaking away under our feet. When I step into the ocean and feel it swirl around my feet, I suck in a deep lungful of salty air.
Glancing at Margot to make sure she’s still with me, I put my paddle board down on the water.
“Don’t forget to attach your leash to your ankle,” I say. Balancing awkwardly for a second, I do as I said.
I look at her as she does the same, biting her lip as she attaches the leash. I can’t help the way my eyes dip down to her lush mouth, or the way they slide down to her tits. She’s taken off her cover up and is just wearing that little black bikini now.
I realize that I am as bad as a horny fucking teenager, filling in what I can’t see. But I don’t bother to jerk my gaze away this time.
She looks up and colors when she sees me looking at her. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “What?”
I grin. “Nothing. Are you ready to try to surf?"
She starts to move out into the water. “Ahhh. The water is cold!”
She jumps back, glaring at me like I’ve just endangered her well being somehow.
I pull a face. “It’s warmer than room temperature.”
“It’s so cold!” she disagrees. “You should’ve warned me.”
“So you give up, then? Because I count that as a forfeit.”
She wrinkles her nose at me. “No.”
She stomps back into the water, her movements obviously irritated. She likes to win; I should make a note of that. I wade out after her, carrying the paddles, and watch as her body disappears into the ocean. I shiver a little as I submerge myself up to my shoulders.
We both paddle out a little ways. The wind picks up a bit. I can feel the ocean sweeping us aside, which is unusual. When I have paddle boarded before, the sea was calm and placid.
That doesn’t stop us from trying to paddle board today, though. She flounders a little bit trying to get on top of the board and then pops up… only to fall back into the water. When she resurfaces, gasping, I can’t help but grin.
“You can give up any time you feel like it, you know.”
She splashes me and I laugh. She grabs her board. “I’m ready to go again. But I want to see you do it.”
A wave crashes just behind us, distracting me. I look over my shoulder and see dark gray clouds on the horizon. “Shit. Those weren’t there before, were they?”
When I turn back to look at Margot, she’s eyeing me suspiciously. “I don’t think you can do it.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course I can. We’ll do it at the same time, ja?” And look over my shoulder again. “I’d say we have about thirty minutes before we probably should get off the beach.”
She jerks her chin up at me. “Bring it on, Hagrid.”
“Who is Hagrid?”
“Less talking, more paddle boarding.” She grabs her board and steadies herself, struggling to get on the board.
I balance my own board, climbing on and standing up. I use the paddles that I’m holding to help keep myself from tipping over either way. Grinning, I turn to Margot.
Just in time to see her fall again, hitting the water with a loud smack. I make a face; that had to hurt. A wave crashes right on top of where we are swimming, distracting me for a second.
When she doesn’t resurface immediately, I look around for her board.
Fuck.
I can’t see it anywhere.
Turning myself around, I keep looking.
Fuck, where can he have gone?
“Margot?” I call, panicking.
I sense movement about ten feet away. I see a flash of pink right before she surfaces in a spray of white water, coughing and choking. She flails a little bit, pushing the wet hair out of her eyes, going under for another second.
I don’t think. I start swimming towards her, calling out her name. “Margot!”
She comes back up just as I reach her. We make eye contact but she looks like she’s a little confused and disconcerted.
“You’re okay,” I promise. “You’re okay. Come with me.” I tug her into my arms and swim for shore, although it is a struggle to hold onto her and swim with one arm. When my feet hit the sandy bottom of the ocean, I feel a strange sense of relief.
Margot coughs a few more times as I pull her onto the shore and put her down just out of the water’s reach. “Hey. Are you okay? Look at me.”
She nods, sucking in deep breaths. Her voice is pure gravel. “Yeah.”
Untethering myself from my board, I sit down beside her and pull her into my arms. She’s cold, much colder than me. She barely weighs anything. I press a kiss to her forehead, only just now feeling the weight of the adrenaline that kicked in.
My heart pounds. I’m sweating even though I’m not hot.
But Margot is safe. She’s right here, in my arms
“Fuck,” I mutter into her hair. “Jesus, that was scary.”
She raises her head and I see tears in her eyes. She clears her throat. “Sorry.”
I shake my head. “There is nothing to apologize for. It’s just… for a second, I thought I had lost you. And that thought almost killed me.”
Her eyes well up and she nods, falling against my chest. “Sorry.”
“We need to get you warmed up. You’re freezing.” Pulling back from her, I stand up and help her to her feet. “Let’s go back to the house.”
Above us, the first lick of lightning splits the sky in two. A few fat droplets of rain fall onto us. Margot covers her face and takes off toward the house at a run.
I follow a little slower, weighed down by my thoughts.
What if something bad had happened to her?
What would I have done?
My chest tightens.
I realize, in that moment, that I’m in love with Margot. I love her so, so much. I can’t even think about all the things that could have happened to her today.
Fuck. Just considering what almost happened makes my heart wrench in my chest.
She stops just before she reaches the door, shivering and looking back at me. And I pick up my pace without thinking about it, because she might need me.
And that’s more important to me just now.