Chapter Twenty-One
Everett tried to sleep but by midnight realized it was impossible. Rolling out of bed, he pulled on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt and checked on Kelsey.
She slept hard, like all teens did. Half buried under her blanket, bed scattered with books and stickies and the phone beside her.
He moved the objects to the desk so she wouldn’t roll over anything and smiled at her smooth, relaxed face.
Today had been good. By the time she’d retired to her bedroom, Everett sensed a bond between them that simply hadn’t been there this whole summer.
Surfing had brought it to him.
And Rowan.
Gently shutting her door, he grabbed a glass of water and headed to the balcony. Letting the fragrant air cool his skin, he listened to the distant roar of waves and allowed himself to think of her.
He should’ve shaken it off by now. God knows he’d been told worse by people who mattered far more to his profit margin. People who judged him by money and clothes and status. But Rowan’s words lodged under his skin, under his ribs, deeper than they had a right to.
You’re not the type. Too structured. You could never really live in my world.
He wanted in. At first, Everett figured it was the simple challenge or the chase. As the hours passed, and the words kept playing through his head, he realized the problem.
He didn’t want to belong to her world as a tourist or the guy waving from shore.
He wanted more.
Everett remembered how she’d looked in the surf. Not her body, though God, that was a distraction he’d handled badly all day—the strong line of her shoulders; the fine scatter of freckles over her nose and cheeks; the messy bun skewering that heavy, dark hair; skin like painted sunlight.
No. He’d studied the way she stiffened after she uttered those words. Like she’d put down a line and dared him to pick a side. A flare of guilt reflected in her gold-green eyes, before being firmly extinguished with a joke.
Damned if it hadn’t stung, because she was both right and wrong.
Everett knew he was structured. He liked his world tidy, and he made laundry lists out of chaos.
He’d built a life for a little girl who needed him to be unbendable.
It was how he’d survived the parts that broke.
It was how he’d kept Kelsey standing when everything else crashed around them.
But he also remembered a boy who craved new experiences before his father crushed all curiosity in the name of results.
Once, he’d wanted to understand things from the inside out, and jump without checking safety nets.
But somewhere along the way, he’d become a man with nice shoes who watched and financed the people who leapt with reckless joy.
He muttered a curse and paced the small balcony.
What would it be like to surprise them? To speak Rowan’s language just enough that when she said something like pop and follow the line, he’d know what it meant in his bones.
How would it feel to share an experience with Kelsey and not be the spotter on the beach for the rest of his life?
He hadn’t thought of the hotel all day. Hadn’t craved to sneak a few peeks at his phone.
Hadn’t mentally organized calls to return or emails to draft. Hadn’t thought about donors or investors or the way Purity would sit on the coastline and make people both angry and thrilled. Usually, the guilt brought him back to the job.
Today, he hadn’t cared. It had been about Kelsey and Rowan at the North Shore. Eating shrimp from a food truck and having a conversation without a goal. Holding Rowan’s hand and walking together with his daughter in the middle. Like a . . .
Family.
He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the impulse to pass. When it didn’t, Everett grabbed his phone and sent the simple text.
Can I come over?
Of course she’d be sleeping. It was late. She wasn’t aching like him, desperate to be close and hungry for his touch. He’d be embarrassed in the morning about this emotional slip-up and back in control and he’d—
Yes.
His head swam. He dragged in air, rubbing his hand over his face. Before he could think himself out of it, Everett scribbled a note in case Kelsey woke up. Not caring about changing, he quickly brushed his teeth, shoved on boat shoes, ran fingers through his hair, and headed out.
The drive was short with no traffic. He drove up to her bungalow and tapped at her front door. She opened it immediately and stepped back to allow him entry.
Everett stared at her. She was fresh from bed, obvious with her messy hair, flushed skin, and oversize T-shirt hitting above her knees.
Braless. Barefoot. Blinking with surprise as he stood in front of her like a lunatic.
Need strangled him and his fingers itched to reach out and close the distance.
The confession spilled from his lips. “I need you.”
She cocked her head, as if studying him in the shadows.
Panic hit. He’d made a huge mistake. This was a summer affair with set rules, and showing up in the middle of the night was not one of them.
Neither were the growing emotions that messily tangled up his head and his heart.
He wondered if he had the strength to apologize and leave. Before it was too late.
But he kept standing there.
Her smile was slow and sweet and welcoming. She reached her hand out. “I’m glad you’re here.”
And then she was in his arms and he was kissing her. Her mouth was warm and minty as his tongue slipped between her lips, hungry for all of her. She matched him stroke for stroke, hands shoved up under his shirt, scraping her nails down his back. He picked her up and stumbled to the bed.
She pushed him down and climbed on top, divesting him of his shirt, pulling down his pants.
Her hands shook with the same gripping need, which made him even more ravenous.
Everett shoved up her T-shirt and ripped it off, hands cupping her breasts and tweaking her already hard nipples. She smelled of coconut and hibiscus.
“First fast, then slow,” he ground out as her hair spilled over him like a silky, dark curtain. He sucked hard on her nipple. She arched and cried out, and he soothed the sting with his tongue. “Can’t think.”
“Then don’t.” This time, she grabbed the condom and sheathed him. Drugged green eyes locked him in her gaze as she straddled him, grasping his cock between her fingers and positioning him at her dripping entrance. “Just feel.”
She sank on top of him. He thrust his fingers in her hair and twisted.
Hissed out a curse. Her tight, wet heat gripped like a vise as she took him in one smooth motion.
His head spun as she rode him and chased her pleasure with greed.
Everett moved his hands to grasp her hips and drag her closer.
She gasped, biting down on her lip as she set the rhythm, dragging her clit across his length with each downward motion.
He was going to die. Explode. Come so hard he’d never recover. He studied her face with greed, savoring every moan and grunt and rapturous expression as her sweet pussy squeezed and the ripples began. Her head fell back. Her thighs tightened.
With one quick move, he shoved himself deep and hit her sensitive spot.
“Everett!”
“That’s right, sweetheart. Come all over me.”
She did. She rode out every sensation and he refused to miss one flicker of her expression as she gave herself up and over to him. Finally, he let himself go and followed her over. It felt like forever. It felt like a lifetime.
It felt like perfection.
They collapsed together in the damp sheets. His heart began to slow. Hand cupping her ass, he pulled her closer, enjoying the warmth of her silky skin pressed against his hair-roughened body. Everett nuzzled her ear. “Okay, I swear that wasn’t a booty call.”
Her delighted laughter made him grin. “Really? Because it certainly felt like one.”
He winced. “I wanted to see you. Not just to have sex, though that was incredible. I wanted . . .”
“What?” Her softly spoken question prodded him to say the rest.
“To talk. Touch you. See your face and fall asleep by your side.” Silence fell. “Are you freaking out now?”
Another laugh, but this one was quieter. “A little. But I still don’t want to stop.”
“Good.” He stroked her hip and traced the lines of her tattoo. The shark tooth was sketched like a rising wave and beautiful in its poetic simplicity. “I kept thinking about what you said today.”
She stiffened, then relaxed. “About surfing?”
“Yeah. It hit me, I guess. Felt like there was a distance between us when I dropped you off.”
“I felt it, too.” A sigh spilled from her lips. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I’m afraid I did.”
Her honesty humbled him. This woman wasn’t afraid to speak truths. “You don’t think I could live in this world. You don’t think I could learn to surf.”
Rowan turned her head to meet his gaze. “I think it would be hard for you.”
Everett considered. “I think most of the best things in my life have been hard.”
“I know you could learn, Suit. Hell, you can conquer anything you set your mind to. I just don’t think you’ll like it.”
Maybe she was right. Maybe he was reading way too much into it, and he was leaving in a month, so it wasn’t like suddenly surfing was going to change anything between them. The end was clear, and there was nothing to do about it.
Everett still didn’t care and didn’t want to analyze why. “Teach me.”
Her head jerked. “What?”
“Teach me,” he said again. “Or if you don’t want to or are too busy, let me ask Tino. Or Lea.”
She touched his cheek. Ran her index finger over his mouth. Green eyes dove deep, seeking answers. “Why?”
“I want to try. I want to share something you and Kelsey love, even if it’s for just a few lessons. Will you?”
Lush lashes closed. She wanted to hide from him. It hurt, but he let her go.
Then, the smile touched her lips. “You’re so demanding.”
He grinned, sensing victory.
“You’ll be bad at first,” she said finally. “That’s the point.”
“I’m familiar. I’ve been bad at several things in my life. I even let people see it once.”
She laughed. “Okay, Suit. We’ll do a lesson. I think Tino should take the first one and then I’ll step in.”
He grinned then, and it spread, the real kind, not the PR version.
Her mouth tugged like she didn’t want to but couldn’t stop it, either.
The knot in his chest loosened. It didn’t erase what she’d said.
It didn’t fix the part of him that wanted to believe he could belong everywhere he went if he just tried hard enough.
But it was a start.
“I’d like you to come to the hotel this week.” She blinked in surprise and he stroked back her hair. “See what Purity is and what we built. I can give you the full tour.”
Everett didn’t know why his casual tone contradicted the nerves in his gut. Ridiculous, really. It was no big deal for her to see his workplace, yet he sensed it was another level for them and she might pull back. It was his world, and the invite felt bigger than what they should be doing.
Her brows pulled into a concerned frown. His heart stopped.
“Is there a dress code?”
He relaxed and laughed. “Not for you. But seeing you in a tight pencil skirt and heels may do me in.”
That made her giggle, reminding him of Kelsey when happiness beamed from her pores. “Maybe I have fantasies of my own, Suit,” she whispered sexily, causing his brain to explode and his cock to harden immediately.
“I can’t wait.” Then he rolled over and pressed her into the mattress. Hands parting her legs, he touched her, curling his fingers, enjoying her ramped-up breath and the way she whispered his name. Not Suit, though he now loved it; a sexy tease only for him.
“Now, slow,” he whispered against her stomach, feeling her shudder and melt underneath him.
And then there was only the soft whisper of sheets and mattress creaks and the night waves crashing over the surf.