Aeron stalks away without a single glance back. I want to run after him, but I don’t. Why did I approach him in front of everyone? What was I thinking?
I feel like I have lost. All I want to do is go back to my room and crawl into bed. But what if I don’t see him again after today? What if he avoids me now he knows I am here?
And then I remember what Dane said. Make Aeron jealous. Make him come to me.
For a moment I sit on the send, resting my head in my hands. And then I get up and take a deep breath.
Although it is the last thing I want to do, I start looking for Robb. It isn’t hard to find him. He and his friends are skim-boarding at the waterline, whooping and laughing as they perform tricks.
He grins when he sees me. “There she is!”
When I get close enough he puts his arm around my shoulders, almost possessively, making a show for his male friends.
“So you know Aeron Balthazar, huh?” he whispers in my ear.
“You saw?” I ask, blushing.
“Sure. Looked interesting. Are you two… together?”
“No!” I say hotly, not wanting him to know my business.
“Okay,” he says knowingly.
I eye up the skim boards nervously. I need to spend some time with Robb, and could ask him to teach me, but I sense I might make a fool of myself. On the other hand some of the others are floating on paddleboards a little deeper in the water, and that looks like a far more stable prospect.
I can’t swim, but the paddle boarders are only in waist deep water. I can handle that.
“Will you teach me to paddleboard?” I ask Robb.
“Sure,” he says, with a wide grin.
Robb gets a couple of free boards to us and hands me one. He leads me to the water. He is a surprisingly patient teacher and quite funny. I find myself laughing as he shows me the basics. It is not as hard as I had thought it would be to lie down on the board and paddle myself out to sea.
He sits on his board and uses our paddles to guide himself alongside me. When we get far enough out, he gets to his knees in one smooth movement and stands up on the board. He makes it look so easy.
He is reaching out an arm to help me balance on my board when I decide that I would rather be able to get up by myself and show Aeron that I am not useless. Surely that smooth motion that Robb used to get up is something that I can do too?
And so I try it, and am elated when I get to my knees. The board wobbles vigorously under me.
“Easy there,” Robb tells me.
And that’s when I look around and realize we are much further out than expected. Aeron and Tyler and their friends are still playing their game near the shore. They seem very far away. And yet I sense they are aware of exactly where I am. I can’t quite tell, but I think I see them glancing my way.
Deep water be damned. I am determined to look like I am having fun.
Worried of falling in, I ask Robb to help me stand up on my board. He lends me a hand, gripping my elbow firmly. Just the act of successfully getting on my feet fills me with a sense of achievement. I hope that watching Robb with me is making Aeron extremely jealous.
Robb shows me how to balance on the board, and how to use my paddle. Just as I get the hang of it a wave, just a small one, hits my board, knocking it from under me. I scream as I fall crashing into the water.
My arms flail about and, as I gasp for breath, water gets into my lungs, choking me, and sending me into a spasm of coughs. My arms splash and my legs kick. I’m underwater. I can’t tell which way is up. I can’t breathe.
And then strong arms are around my waist and guiding me upwards out of the water.
I scream and struggle, unable to control my panic.
“You’re okay,” says Tyler’s voice. “I’ve got you now. You’re safe.”
I relax, letting him lift me up out of the water. I stare at his face as I pant to recover my breath. My lungs are burning. I cling to his muscular arms as I try to find the sandy bottom with my feet, but we are too deep and I am not tall enough to reach it.
This sparks a fresh wave of panic. I find myself clinging to Tyler, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.
“I can’t swim,” I gasp. “I can’t swim.”
“I remember,” he says soothingly. He wraps his arms reassuringly around my back, holding me up above the water. “It’s okay. I won’t let you go.”
I hear nervous laughter from nearby. Robb is sitting floating on his paddle board a short distance away.
“She would have been fine, man,” he says. “It’s not even that deep.”
Two lines of angry red stroke across Tyler’s cheekbones, and his black eyes gleam with fury.
“Get the fuck out of here,” he says through gritted teeth.
“Sorry, man. Take it easy,” Robb says, his smile uncertain now.
The look on Tyler’s face sends him paddling away quickly.
“What did you think you were doing?” says Tyler, through gritted teeth.
My heartbeat, which had only just calmed down a little, starts racing again. But this is Tyler, and I never was good at keeping things from him.
“I was trying to make Aeron jealous,” I say in a small voice.
“It was a damn stupid thing to do!” he growls. “And why the hell are you dating that idiot?”
I blink at him. He thinks I am dating Robb? But of course he does. It’s what I wanted.
“I can date who I like,” I mutter in a small, defiant voice.
But it is getting harder by the moment to maintain my façade. Tyler has never held me before. I always stayed away from him for good reason. And now I am hyper-aware of my arms clinging around his strong neck and powerful shoulders, and of how my breasts are squashed against his chest.
“The hell you can,” he snarls. “Not while you are here.”
“Who else am I supposed to date?” I ask hotly. “Aeron made it clear he doesn’t want me.”
“And you thought making him jealous would to win him back?” he demands.
I nod, trying not to let my nerves show.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he instructs.
“What?”
“Do it.”
“No.”
He shrugs. “Fine.”
He begins walking through the water.
The sudden motion startles me. Crying out in shock, I hastily wrap my thighs around his waist.
I almost think he is going to chide me for having been stubborn, but he only wraps his arms more tightly around my waist, holding me firmly in place. He is so solid. I cling to him and bury my face into his neck in shame.
“Easy,” he says in a soothing voice, as if I am a bolting filly. He strokes my back gently until I am calm and have stopped gasping for breath.
I realize that my mouth is panting against the hot skin of his throat, and that my breasts are pushed up firmly against his naked chest.
I find that I am shockingly aroused. Between my legs I feel a tightening and tingling. My thighs clench even tighter to his hips and my calves press against his hard buttocks. And this time it is not because I am afraid. It is because I can’t help it.
He goes still. The stiffness in his body tells me he has sensed the change in my mood.
The sensible girl in me knows that I should unwrap my arms from around his neck, and move my breasts away from his chest. But I can’t. I just want to hold him a little longer.
Instead of moving my lips away from his neck, I open them against his skin and taste him with my tongue. I pretend that he won’t notice, but once I have had one little taste I can’t stop. I find myself kissing his neck and running the tip of my tongue up the strong column of his neck. He tastes musky and salty and as good as he smells.
He curses, and begins walking faster. But he is not going towards the shore. He is walking parallel along the sea, staying at the same depth, but back towards the spot where he came from.
“Where are you taking me?” I whisper.
“To where he can see you.”
“Why?” I ask, my heart pounding.
“If you want him to be jealous,” he says harshly, “we’ll give him a reason to be jealous.”
