Kissing Eden (8 page)

“Sure. Yeah, of course, but I drove.” Grey turned toward the party that was raging in front of us. “I think we can leave through the side gate. No reason to go back in that mess.”

I followed him around the side of Bongos and through the wooden gate that was marked as an emergency exit. I waited for a siren to go off as he pushed on the handle, but it was silent.

“They just mark the gates like that so people don’t sneak their friends in. That’s how my buddies and I used to get in here.”

I looked at him. “You used to sneak into Bongos? Tell me it ain’t so.”

Grey laughed. “Yep. And I did a lot more than that.” He had a sexy smile that was making me melt. “Come on, let’s get you back.”

Grey walked over to a huge maroon truck parked in the club’s lot. He crossed in front of the vehicle and opened the passenger side for me. I had to hold the grab bar to hoist myself into the cab. This was definitely the highest truck I had ever ridden in, but that was supposed to be Texas. Big trucks, right?

Grey pulled into the empty parking lot at the Palm Palace and cut the engine. I could hear the waves hitting the beach through the
open windows of his truck.

“Would you want to have a drink?” Grey pulled the keys from the ignition.

“Yes!” I said it a little too quickly and maybe a little too loudly, but I didn’t want to walk back to my room and spend the rest of the hours until bed alone. I would probably just sit in there and think about Grey.

“Ok, then. I’ll grab a few drinks from my room and meet you at the boardwalk.”

I climbed down from the cab and made my way to the wooden path that led to the beach. The breeze had picked up and I wished I had something to cover my arms.

After a few minutes, Grey emerged behind me holding two beers. “Sorry, I don’t have a huge selection. Beer ok?”

I wasn’t about to admit that I didn’t drink much beer. “It’s perfect.” I took the cold bottle and sipped. A shiver ran down my back.

“You cold? Here.” Grey handed me his beer and unbutton
ed the plaid shirt he was wearing. He pulled one sleeve and then the other before wrapping it around my shoulders. Underneath, he had on a T-shirt. I studied every move he made, as if he was unwrapping a present.

“Thanks. I guess you did get to be a knight in shining armor after all.” I laughed and was glad to be warm. The shirt was heated was from his body.

“Follow me.” He tilted his head in the direction of the water.

“Where are we going?”

“My secret spot on the beach.”

“Sounds mysterious.” I trailed behind Grey as we walked down the boardwalk and north along the
dunes, glad his playful side had emerged again.

“Here it is.” He stepped into an alcove nestled by sea oats and beach shrubs. “It’s a natural wind barrier. You won’t be as cold in here.”

I also noticed that we wouldn’t be spotted by a single soul on the beach. The cove was tucked away among higher sand dunes. Grey tossed one of the forbidden motel towels down on the sand.

“I heard you
can’t use those except for showers. There’s a strict motel policy,” I taunted him.

“I’ve got connections.” If it hadn’t been so dark on the
beach, I would have sworn he winked at me.

I hugged his shirt around me and sat on the towel next to Grey.

“Didn’t you say you had guests checking in later this week? When do they get here?” I sipped on the beer. I actually liked this one, it tasted like it was mixed with orange.

He leaned back, his palms pressed into the blanket.
“Spring break lasts all month, so the Palm is booked up for the second half of the month. I didn’t think I would be able to get the rooms ready in time for the first round of spring breakers, so I held off on taking any early reservations. Other than you, the first reservation checks in on Friday.”

I tried to read more into his words. After last night, all I could think about was that kiss
, and here we were alone on the beach, talking about work. “And you have to do all of the work yourself? You can’t hire anyone?”

In the quiet sand dune
alcove, I heard his exhale. “No, I can’t. And to be honest, I don’t even know if I’ll have all of the rooms ready by the weekend. Maybe they won’t notice the broken deck boards or the missing shower rods. What do you think? Too obvious?”

I don’t know
why it took so long to surface, but the idea seemed to be staring me in the face. “Why don’t you let me help you?” Last night, I couldn’t think straight when I offered to help, but now clear thoughts were circling my mind.

I felt Grey stiffen next to me. “No way. I don’t need charity.”

“It’s not charity. I want to help. I could do something useful, I’m sure. I’m a business major. Maybe I could get the accounting and the reservations squared away for you, and you could focus on the fix-it stuff. That way you’re not trying to do everything.” I remembered how stressed he looked sorting through the receipts.

“Business major?”

“Mmm-hmm. I am. I know some numbers.” I mimicked his position on the blanket, smoothing the blanket over the sand as I leaned back.

“I can’t pay you. It wouldn’t be right.”
Grey shook his head.

“You don’t have to pay me
, and I can help straighten the rooms and deliver towels too. There’s no limit to my skills.” My need to do good deeds kept pouring out.

“You really want to help me out?” Grey sounded cautious.

“I do.” I wanted to help more than I could explain.

I
shifted toward him. In the light cast by the half-moon, I could see his eyes were raking over my body. Then I felt it, the charging air between us. The force that stopped all my thinking and tempted my body to give in to the rush of feelings that surfaced when Grey looked at me that way. I wanted to ask him if he felt it too, but it was one of those things I couldn’t describe. Words might ruin it.

“Eden, I don’t know what to say. I’m doing this whole thing on my own.
The Palm is my burden—my problem. It doesn’t feel right accepting free help.” He had nestled his beer in the sand and his hand traced my jawline.

T
his is exactly what he did last night, and I loved every intense and hot second of it. My breath quickened, anticipating and wanting his next touch.

I leaned into him. “Just say, ‘
Yes you can help me.’”

I barely uttered the words
before he closed the space between us, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me toward him. I tasted the beer on his lips and his tongue. Within seconds, the shirt I had been borrowing shimmied down my arms, and Grey’s lips grazed my shoulder and the line of my dress. I don’t know if it was spring break and I was doing all kinds of things I had never done before, but I wanted him to rip that dress off me. I wanted less between us. I tugged at the bottom of his T-shirt to pull it over his head. My mouth found his again in the dark, and I moaned as he kissed me deeper and harder.

“Grey—I
…” My body was responding to every flick of his tongue and every time his lips moved against mine. He was the most incredible kisser. If he kept doing that thing with his tongue, he could convince me to do anything. I pulled myself into his lap, needing to be closer to him.

The roughness of his palm surprised me as it trailed over my leg, hiking the hem of my dress as he shoved the fabric out of his way. I moaned quietly as his thumb pressed deeply along my inner thigh. It was tender and possessive at the same time. The pressure in such a sensitive spot made my skin burn for more touching. I rocked my hips forward.

But just like that, he stopped. His hands went to his sides and his lips were gone. “I think we should head back.” His voice was breathy.

I froze, straddled across his hips and completely out of breath.
“But— I thought—” Dammit. This boy was so hot and cold all the time. Although, I was completely turned on by the hot side of him. I crawled off his lap, not sure what had happened.

I stood to flatten my dress and took a few deep breaths.

“If you’re serious about helping, then we have an early morning.” He retrieved his T-shirt and pulled it over those abs I wasn’t done touching.

Annoyed he had abruptly stopped our second make out
session, I wrapped myself back in his plaid shirt, picked up the beer, and trudged back to the boardwalk. Even if I wanted to have a spring break fling, I wasn’t so sure Grey was the guy to do it with.

He led me back to my room and deposited me on the doorstep. “Goodnight, Eden. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight.” I tried to take the poutiness out of my voice, hoping he would lean in for another kiss. He had to be as turned on as I was by what just happened. He, however, seemed to have more self-control than I was able to pull together.

I leaned against the room door and
watched as he walked across the parking lot before disappearing into the room opposite of mine. My heart was still pounding from the kiss on the beach. How was I supposed to sleep after that?

CHAPTER FIVE

T
he sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I was adding, subtracting, and multiplying. After my offer to help Grey with the business end of the Palm Palace, he had stuck me in the office with a box of receipts and a calculator. If only I could get extra credit in my finance class for this.

I wanted to ask Grey about the phone call I overhead yesterday, but I didn’t want to embarrass him. Even though he had opened up a sliver of the bookkeeping to me, he was keeping the Palm’s full financial situation guarded. I respected that. It couldn’t be easy to navigate this alone.

It didn’t take long for the tiny office to heat up. I walked over to the wall unit and cranked the air conditioner to the coldest setting. It was probably silly that I wanted to look cute for Grey this morning, but I had left my hair down. With the stickiness on my neck, I was regretting not pulling it up in a ponytail. Texas was hot. I searched the wooden desk for a rubber band. Victorious, I gathered a handful of hair and twisted the rubber band around it. There. I decided right then that Grey wouldn’t determine any more of my fashion choices. I had put that Eden behind me.

It was almost lunchtime
, and other than when he first set me up with the documents, I hadn’t seen Grey all morning. It felt like he was avoiding me again after our late night roll in the sand. I bit down on my lip, remembering how his hands felt against my thighs, and how I wanted it to go farther before he triggered his self-control switch.

I turned back to the books.
His grandfather hadn’t been much of a record-keeper. Now I knew why Grey always looked so frustrated and stressed. If I woke up to this financial confusion every morning, I wouldn’t be a happy person either. Even though the motel had been closed for a year, there were still bills that had to be paid and expenses that were due.

I was hungry. Grey had to be too. I decided to walk over to Pete’s and pick up some sandwiches. My eyes could use a break from the
number crunching. I tucked my phone in my back pocket and jogged across the street.

“Look who’s here.
” Mac smiled at me from the bar.

“Hi, Mac. How are you?”
I pushed my bangs out of my eyes.

“Good. Can’t complain. What can I get you today?”
He opened the screen on the bar’s computer.

“Two turkey clubs with fries, to go, please.”
My hands started tapping to the beat of a drinking song blasting from the jukebox. I hadn’t noticed it on my first trip to Pete’s. The cowboy singer had played the entire night.

Mac looked at me. “Did you say two?”

“Yep. One for Grey and one for me.” I tried to sound matter of fact. It wasn’t my intention to garner questions, and I especially didn’t want to answer any.

The bartender chuckled as he typed the order into the computer. “You’re picking up lunch for Grey?”

“I thought I’d get him something since he’s working so hard to get the Palm ready for the weekend crowd.” Bartenders were good at reading people—that I knew. I hoped Mac couldn’t see that I had a Grey crush written all over this lunch order.

“That’s mighty nice of you. He’s turned down everyone else’s offer to help him.”
He punched in the last button and printed out a ticket.

“Really?”

Mac nodded. “Oh yeah, we’ve all tried to put in some hours to help him get that place ready. We know how much he wants to prove it can be done, but he’s a stubborn son of a bitch sometimes.”

I giggled.
During the few days I had gotten to know Grey, that sounded exactly like him.

“So, is this lunch strictly platonic?”

Mac was probably used to getting all of the good stories on the island, but I didn’t think he would be nosey. “Mac! You can’t ask me that. I’m helping him out a little at the office. That’s it.” I had probably just turned three shades of red.

He seemed unfazed by
my ardent protest. “Grey’s a good guy. A real good guy. And he’s been through a lot this year. He had to leave his grad school program when his grandfather got sick, and now he’s trying to turn that heap into something to be proud of. If anyone can do it, he can.”

“Did you say grad school?”
My forehead scrunched into a confused expression.

“Oh yeah, Grey’s in an advanced engineering program at Texas State. Well, he used to be. I hope he gets to finish it one day, but as long as he’s working over there on the motel
, he’s going to have to keep it on the back burner. Smart guy, that Grey.”

Grey hadn’t mentioned that part of the story when he told me he inherited the Palm Palace. It seemed like kind of an important detail. Honestly, I wasn’t sure he had gone to college. He made it sound like he had always been at the motel.

“Mac, do you think he’ll sell it?” I thought about the three different offers Grey had mentioned.

The bartender polished a glass. “That’s hard to say. There aren’t many of us local business owners left on the island, so I respect him for trying to hold out.
However, no one would blame him if he sold the place and moved on with his life. There’s nothing else keeping him here.”

“Orders up!”
the cook yelled through the kitchen window.

“Here you go, my dear.” Mac handed me two white paper bags. “Tell Grey I said hello.”

“I will. Thanks, Mac.” I was happy to have lunch in hand, but Mac had dispensed a backstory on Grey I hadn’t expected.

I walked across the street and thought about what Mac said. Grey had given up his
education to help his grandfather, and now was plowing forward with a business that might as well be built on quicksand. He’d never have enough money to make all the repairs the buildings needed. I knew what my nightly rate was and with twenty-four rooms at that price, the income numbers just weren’t what he needed to run a business.

I checked the office first to see if Grey was inside, but my piles of receipts looked untouched. I started with the first room and knocked on each door until I found Grey precariously balanced on the edge of a bathtub.

“I brought lunch. Mac says hi.” I held up the bags before placing them on the dresser by the TV. “What are you doing up there?”

He had one leg on the tub and the other on the soap dish. His tool belt was fastened around his waist and he was wearing his white T-shirt that I associated as his self-proclaimed work uniform.

“This showerhead keeps spraying the ceiling. I’m trying to adjust the pipe and the setting so I don’t have to replace it. Not many replacement parts around here.” He twisted the wrench in his hand, keeping his eyes on the nozzle.

“Right.”
My eyes followed the lines of his forearm. Each time he tightened the wrench, the muscles in his arms flexed harder.

I had gone over the expense budget this morning. Grey would be lucky to pay the utilities this month. He definitely didn’t have money for extra plumbing fixtures.

“Can I help or something?” I walked closer to the tub, admiring the view hovering above me.

“Yeah, I think the smaller wrench is on the vanity. Can you get it for me? I don’t want to move.”
He nodded at the placement of his feet.

“Don’t do that. It looks like you could fall. I’ll get it.” I reached for the wrench and handed it to him.

“Thanks. I think I’m almost done.” He fastened the end of the wrench behind the showerhead and twisted the head a few times.

“I made some headway this morning on your numbers.”

“Really? What did you figure out, numbersmith?” His attention was on the pipe in front of him.

“It seems like you might have a few decisions to make.” I didn’t know how open Grey would be to discussing the real estate offers with me, but the reality of his situation called for a serious resolution.

“Good. I think that’s fixed. This room is done.”

Grey made a triumphant hop straight up and landed with both feet in the tub. I smiled at him,
just as the showerhead sputtered to the floor of the tub and water spewed from the open pipe. I shrieked as I was doused in cold water.

“Turn it off! Can’t you turn it off?” I giggled while trying to turn the handles. Grey reached for the pipe above me
, twisting the nozzle until the geyser ceased.

“
Dammit. That actually didn’t work.” He rested his forehead against the shower wall. “So much for trying to save on parts.” Water trickled down the back of his neck.

I stood
, my drenched clothes clinging to me. A few seconds passed before Grey turned around.

“Oh my God, I got you completely soaked. Sorry.” He
laughed as he tried to wipe the water from his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m not the only one. Look at you.”
I pointed to his white T-shirt. It hugged every muscle on his torso and it had become almost transparent from absorbing the water. My fingers reached forward, needing to trace the lines the wet shirt made against his skin.

I
inhaled sharply, recognizing the shift in the mood. I felt his gaze lingering over the V of my throat, and the involuntary twinge in my belly as I looked into his eyes. The space between us was so charged with energy, it felt thick enough to grasp and push aside, like a curtain.

Grey pivoted as if he was going to step out of the tub. “M-maybe I should get us some towels.”

I remembered how it felt last night when we were so tangled around each other it was hard to breathe. I wanted that feeling again. I wanted him.

“Grey, wait.” I clenched a handful of his wet shirt in my fist, preventing him from moving past me.

His eyes shot from my hand to my face. The expression he wore was a mix of lust and hesitation. “Eden, I …” He closed his eyes and leaned against the back of the shower.

I
didn’t give him a chance to explain. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressed my body into his, and kissed him, holding nothing back. His lips responded with hungry kisses that tilted my world where it had never been. He tasted like the perfect combination of sweet and salty. I dipped my tongue into his mouth, eliciting a full moan from somewhere deep within his chest.

His hands slid along the curves of my hips until his fingers were tucked under the waist of my shorts. With infinite slowness, his palm pressed against my skin, gliding down until he had my bottom cupped in his hand.

“Ohhh.” I breathed into his ear as he squeezed me tightly against him. He took my mouth again and I melted into his hands.

We couldn’t stay in these wet clothes
; we definitely should not stay in these wet clothes. My hands fumbled for the hem of his shirt. I didn’t want to step back, afraid that if I hesitated for even a second he would stop kissing or touching me. After the last two nights, I didn’t think I could take it if he stopped.

Under my command, the shirt slid over his chest and he stood while I stripped the wet fabric over his head. I felt an ache in the center of my body. I had never seen anyone I had wanted so much. There had to be a way to tell him.

“Grey—” He silenced me with a slow kiss before his fingers wound along the edges of my tank top, and then peeled it off my chest. His mouth was hot and his tongue was in and out doing that thing that made me weak in the knees.

T
he hardness of his tool belt pressed into my bare stomach. I reached down to find a way to loosen it from his waist.

“Hold on. Let me do that.” His lips broke from mine,
and he unclipped the belt and laid the tools on the floor. “Better?” he asked while hitching me up around his waist.

“God, yes.” I latched my ankles together to keep from sliding down his wet and slippery waist.

His hands moved up my back and held my head, forcing my mouth back to his. I couldn’t kiss him enough, even if we were in this shower all day. Something about watching the water trickling down his tanned skin heightened everything that was happening. Pressed against him like this, wet and half naked, I knew there was only one way to release the frenzy building under my skin. I didn’t want to think about how temporary my stay in South Padre was, or that I had only known Grey for three days. I gave into the yearning invading my body like a hurricane and locked my thoughts far away.

I didn’t realize he had stepped out of the shower and walked across the room until I felt the coolness of the sheets against my back. He laid me across the bed and stared hungrily at me.

“You. Are. So. Damn. Sexy,” Grey growled between kisses.

I arched my back a little so he could flick the clasp on my bra. He slid the
soaked straps down my arms and tossed it on the floor. We were doing this. He wasn’t going to stop and I wasn’t going to talk myself out it. As much as I loved kissing him, my body was aching to feel his mouth in other places. I guided his head over my chest and bowed upward for him to take my nipple in his mouth. I cried out as he bit down and simultaneously slid his hand between my legs. My body was writhing from the blissful, heated sensation. I couldn’t describe what Grey was doing with his fingers, but with each touch, my legs opened a little wider, relaxing under the pressure of his fingertips.

“Let’s get these off.” His eyes were serious and seductive.