Chapter 27
LIAM
A fter changing into a pair of swim trunks and a sleeveless tee, I was ready to hit the beach. Taking the stairs down two at a time, I heard the soft murmur of the girls’ voices in London’s bedroom, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Jerry was already at the bar when I reached the first floor, loading lots of drinks into a cooler so we wouldn’t have to head back inside every time we got thirsty.
With a towel already slung around his shoulders and his sunglasses perched on top of his head, it looked like he’d been ready for a while.
On the other hand, he probably hadn’t just laid on his bed for a minute, breathing in the scent of a girl who shouldn’t have been between his sheets. He looked up when he saw me coming, breaking apart a six-pack and sticking the beers into ice as he held my gaze.
“What took you so long?”
I chuckled. “I didn’t make my bed before I came down for breakfast. Had to tidy up a bit before London accused me of being a slob again.”
His eyebrows rose slowly. “And you did that for her? Isn’t that sweet?”
“Not for her. For me. To protect my ears against the complaining.” I moved behind the bar to add a few bottles of water to the cooler. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
He hadn’t moved his eyes away from me and he seemed puzzled about something, his lips parted and his brow furrowed. “Things seem different between you and her.”
I smirked. “You know how I’ve always felt. That hasn’t changed.”
“Yeah, but you’re not the one I’m worried about. I do know how you feel, but she’s always had a way of drawing you in and then not wanting to be anything more than friends. Now you’re living together, working together, and socializing together. That has to be getting to you.”
“Nah.” I buried the water bottles in the ice, glancing back up at him when I felt him still looking at me.
Realizing he wasn’t going to let me off the hook, I straightened and flicked the icy water off my hands in his face.
“Don’t worry so much, bro. There’s nothing serious going on and not much has changed. ”
“We might have different definitions of not much.” He scrubbed the drops off his face and popped the lid onto the cooler.
“Just take care of yourself, okay? I can’t even imagine what it must be like, being around her twenty-four-seven and knowing she’s never going to be ready to take that next step with you, but you’re in it now.
You just need to make sure you get out the other side without getting hurt. ”
I scoffed. “I’m not going to get hurt. I know London better than anyone, and besides, there really isn’t as much of a difference as you seem to think.”
“If you say so, bro. All I’m saying is to watch yourself. That girl has a way with you and you know it, but you also know that you’d be setting yourself up for heartbreak if you fall for her.”
“I’m securely attached to the safety lines,” I said confidently. “I’m not falling, Jerry. I promise. I’ve got this.”
He arched an eyebrow at me again but sighed and picked up the cooler. “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Walking out into the entertainment area, he and I scoured the beach from our patio for a good spot to sit. A little ways down from our house, a group of people had started a volleyball game and music drifted to us on the breeze, seemingly also coming from that direction.
I glanced at my friend. “That seems to be as good a place as any to start. Do you want to wait for the girls, or should we just tell them that we’re heading over there?”
“Let’s wait.” He turned toward the stairs as if he’d felt her coming, and sure enough, only a few seconds later, Lorelei appeared. He smiled, eyes raking all over her in a skimpy pink bikini and a pair of white shorts. “There she is. I knew we weren’t going to have wait long.”
“ You might not have to. Lori is a unicorn. London, however, takes seven days just to do her makeup before she even just goes to the gy?—”
Words failed me when she appeared on the upstairs walkway. Large black sunglasses already covered her eyes. A tiny black bikini top with golden trim peeked out from beneath a black, sheer black cover-up. Her hair tumbled in loose waves past her shoulders.
Her lips shone with some kind of red gloss that I knew would smell and taste like strawberry—because again, I knew this girl better than anyone else. Yet, like this, she once again looked like a completely unattainable supermodel, a beauty in a class all of her own.
Jerry let out a low whistle beside me. “Dude, you should see your face right now. Try to tell me again that you’re not in trouble?”
After blinking my eyes back into my head, I rolled them at him and shrugged. “Hot will always be hot and London has always been that. Everyone knows it. Even a blind man would be attracted to her. Give me a break.”
“That’s all I’ve been giving you.” He chuckled and left my side to go to his fiancée when she stepped out onto the patio. Pulling her into his arms, he laid a ridiculously inappropriate kiss on her, her arms wrapping around his neck.
London gave them a wide berth as she walked out of the house, sashaying over to me before she nodded at the cooler. “Please tell me there’s water in here. It’s going to be a scorcher of a day.”
“There’s water,” I said, swallowing in an attempt to restore some moisture to my suddenly dry mouth. “You look good today, Walker. I especially like the hickey. It goes great with your outfit.”
“Jerk,” she muttered under breath, angling her head defiantly as she raised her face to mine. In the bright sunlight, I could only just make out her eyes underneath the shades, but I kind of wished I hadn’t been able to once I realized how narrow they were. “What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t,” I said honestly, but I also couldn’t quite stop myself from grinning. “Seriously, I didn’t think at all. My brain really wasn’t in charge at that moment, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it.”
She sighed, but I saw the fight bleed out of her posture, her shoulders relaxing as she shook her head.
“Fine. I guess I can’t blame you. They haven’t seen it yet, I’m assuming, but there are some scratches on your shoulders.
” She jerked her chin toward my left arm and shot me a satisfied smirk.
“You’re going to have to pretend you had a fight with a cat. ”
“Oh, I did, but in the end, I made that kitty purr.” I winked and ducked away from her when her hand came up to smack me.
Laughing as I grabbed the cooler, I dropped my shades onto my eyes and headed down the few stairs from the patio to the sand. It wasn’t blazing hot yet, but it would be soon, so I kept my flip-flops on.
I felt London behind me, and soon after, I heard Lori’s laughter when they joined her. Leading the charge to the beach volleyball players, we set up shop there for the day, spreading out our towels and bopping our heads along to the beat of the music.
London and Lorelei donned huge, floppy hats pulled out of their beach bags and Jerry immediately grabbed a drink before he went to speak to the guys playing volleyball. He waved me over a minute later and he and I joined their game.
The sun was out, the sky was blue, and the music was an amazing blend of energetic and relaxed. London pulled her cover-up off and reclined on her towel, drawing way too many stares in her direction for my liking.
Meanwhile, Lorelei went to grab them some slushy drinks and a bag of chips from a vendor on the beachfront. All things considered, it was pretty great.
Until the girls decided to join the volleyball game. London ended up on my team, delicate golden rings on her fingers glinting in the sunlight as she took the ball from a guy who was looking at her like he was trying to impregnate her.
I felt my gut roiling in response, possessiveness surging through me like a tide. She dismissed him from her gaze as if he was nothing, though. That beast inside me settled again, even grinning like a Cheshire cat when she turned those eyes on me.
“I’ll serve,” she said, hoisting the ball and forming a fist with her free hand. I nodded and spun, digging my feet into the sand to get ready for the ball to be returned, but the next thing I knew, the ball smacked into the back of my head so hard that my teeth snapped together.
Pain erupted through my skull, and for a moment, my vision blurred.
“Shit, Liam. I’m so sorry.” London was beside me in a heartbeat, running her palm along the length of my arm and leaning around to hold two fingers of her other hand in front of my face. “How many do you see?”
“Two.” I took her hand in mine and forcibly removed it from my line of sight before I focused on those blue eyes, shiny with worry but also sparkling with a healthy dose of amusement. “I’m fine, Walker. Nothing a spot of revenge won’t fix.”
A little while later, I got to get her back by pushing her into the sand to get the ball before she could. London scowled up at me, but Lorelei laughed from the other side of the net. “Hey, guys. Y’all are supposed to be competing against us, not each other. You’re on the same team, remember?”
London jumped to her feet and straightened her sunglasses. “We’re competitive, Lori. You know this about us. Now let’s kick these boys’ asses.”
“I don’t think she knows what it means to be on the same team as someone else,” I commented dryly. “If I have to go to the emergency room after this, someone will have to tell the doctors that my final wish was to be declared as the ultimate, all-time winner of everything.”
“It’s the emergency room, not one of those foundations that make wishes come true,” she retorted. “Although it wouldn’t matter how hard you wished for that or even if a doctor did declare it, it still wouldn’t make it true.”
I chuckled and twisted to face her, but even in the midst of yet another verbal battle, I couldn’t not notice how good she looked. Trying not to make it obvious, I ran my gaze across the length of her torso in that bikini, glad that I had my sunglasses to hide behind.
She wasn’t fooled, though. Sunglasses or no, she knew I was looking and she smirked, pretending to fix her top while slowly pulling the fabric right to the edge of her nipple. I swallowed hard, my head shaking as I tried to clear it.
This girl drove me absolutely crazy and the worst part was that she didn’t even only know it—she loved it.