Summer Dreaming (Hot in the Hamptons Book 1) (8 page)

Yep, frolicking. That was the only way to describe it.

The late-morning sun shone off her golden tanned skin. The white crochet bikini she wore was designed to torture mere mortal men like me. I had no idea how the material held up her ample breasts. The perfectly tied bows at the side of the bottoms beckoned my fingers to tug at its strings to unravel the prize beneath.

Though the white flags were up, the greedy Atlantic Ocean waves would wash her suit out to sea. Which is probably why she was teasing the water with only her toes and teasing me with the rest of her body, along with every damn man on the beach including Blake, who shared the stand with me today.

I looked away, twirling my whistle out of habit and concentrated on the group of forty-something ladies navigating the waves while their children dove in ahead of them. Yet my gaze kept returning to Kelsey, tracking her movement along the shore. Never had any girl tempted me from my duties as a lifeguard. Never.

“Man, she’s a danger to public safety,” said Blake.

A hot blade of jealousy slashed through my gut. Enough.

I blew my whistle, capturing her and everyone else’s attention. I waved her over. With the sun on my back, Kelsey crooked a hand over her sunglasses as she approached the stand.

“Am I in trouble?” Her tone, naughty and flirty, left no doubt to her preferred form of punishment.

“Yeah, for indecent exposure.”

“Wait until I get wet.”

“Damn, Kelsey.”

Blake whistled and not with his standard issue lifeguard whistle.

“Whoops. I didn’t mean it THAT way.”

“Sure you didn’t. Go home and take a nap. I want you rested for later.”

“Sean, that would be sexy if you didn’t currently look like a Smurf.”

Touching my nose, I’d forgotten about the blue zinc oxide I’d smeared on this and every morning so I wouldn’t end up with skin cancer in a couple of years. “You’ll pay for that.”

“What? I think it’s adorable. And it matches your eyes.”

“Seriously, Kelsey, go home and stop torturing me.”

She stuck out her tongue before spinning on her heel to sashay back to her towel.

Yep, sashayed.

“Oh, how he mighty have fallen,” said Blake.

“Yeah, what was your first clue?”

“Dude, you’re Mr. Lifeguard, and you looked away from the water for two seconds.”

If only it were a mere two seconds. “That’s why I asked her to leave. She’s my Kryptonite. I think I love her, man.”

“Here.” Kelsey held up a brown paper bag.

Crap. Had she heard any of that? We’d agreed to keep the relationship fun. If she suspected that my feelings ran deeper than just sex would she back off?

“Hello.” She waved the bag. “I made you lunch.”

“Oh.” I reached down and opened the bag to peek in.

“And I bought you an energy drink, because YOU’RE going to need it later.”

I welcomed the challenge. Closing the bag, I said, “Thanks, babe.”

“Welcome.” She turned to go.

“Hey, Kelsey.”

She stopped, placing a hand on her hip. “What?”

I pointed the whistle at her bikini. “Wear that under your dress tonight.”

“Wear the blue stuff on your nose,” she quipped back.

Laughing, I turned my gaze to the water. Guarding lives was a hell of a lot easier than guarding my heart.

“I’d say she’s got it bad for you, too,” said Blake.

I twirled the whistle like a cowboy with his gun, pretending I didn’t care if what Blake said was true, but I still asked nonchalantly, “You think?”

“Dude, she made it clear to all the other chicks on the beach that you are hers.”

Heart, body, and soul.

Could it be that Kelsey’s feelings ran deeper, too? Is that why she made her way to my beach on most days when she could have sunbathed by Storme’s house? Why she’d made me lunch today? And why she couldn’t get enough of me at night?

My break wasn’t for another hour but I was suddenly hungry. Opening the bag, I unwrapped the foil, relieved to find none of that health food crap that she liked to eat. Hearty roast beef with all the fixings on a sub roll. I’d save the energy drink for later, because I knew Kelsey wasn’t lying when she’d said I’d need it.

“Are you going to share that sandwich?”

“Not a chance.” The sandwich was mine. And so was Kelsey. At least until the end of the summer.

*

Later that night,
I found myself soaking in my first bubble bath since I was a little boy, only instead of a rubber duck as a companion, I had a hot playmate sitting across from me. Vanilla scented candles surrounded us, and music played softly in the background. The swell of Kelsey’s breasts peeked above the bubbles. I was damn tempted to pull the drain cap so I could see her whole body, slippery and wet, wearing only bubbles.

Though we’d been barely able to keep our hands off of each other, I still wanted more, but Kelsey seemed far away. Maybe, I wiped her out, which would be a first. But something told me it wasn’t that.

“Hey, what’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing.” Kelsey took a handful of bubbles and formed her beautiful mouth into a perfect O and blew. I smiled but her return smile was strained.

True to our agreement neither of us talked about the future. But somewhere along the way it became more than just sex for me. Way more than a summer romance. I wanted to help her with whatever was going on in that beautiful mind of hers. Hell, I wanted to take care of her. Solve every problem. Fix anything that was broken. But I didn’t have the right. In a couple of months, I’d be thousands of miles from her. Even if the thought of her living her life without me hurt, I’d take the pain to ease hers.

“Bullshit.” I scooped up some bubbles with a finger and dotted her nose. “Talk to me.

Kelsey

T
alk to him?
How could I? He was going off to war and I was trying to decide between the comforts of home in Georgia or going to Europe to extend my studies and my fun. Except without my friends—without Sean, the prospect of Europe held no appeal. Nothing did. I wanted this summer to last forever—for us to last forever. How foolish to think I could keep my growing love for Sean in a box and like Pandora, if I opened the lid there would be no going back.

What I couldn’t express verbally, I did with my touch. Our gazes silently communicated what we felt. What we had moved beyond sex. Or maybe my brain was weaving this into a tragic Shakespearean play when in reality it was a comedy with the joke being on me if Sean didn’t feel the same way. If that was the case, then ignorance was truly bliss.

“I can’t. The rules of our relationship—”

“Rules are made to be broken. Especially if you’re the one who made them.”

Sean’s intense gaze held mine. He seemed to be holding his breath. Had he been waiting for a signal that I wanted more? One part of me did, the other part—the one that was winning, didn’t want to end up like my mother. Worse than alone, grieving for the love of your life. I looked away. “You agreed to them.”

“I would have agreed to anything if it meant seeing you again.”

My gaze darted back to his. The candlelight wavered in his blue eyes making them appear to be same color and texture as a swimming pool lit up at night. I could surely drown in them and not care if I was rescued. I didn’t know if it was the languid feeling from soaking in the bubbles, the candlelight, the beer, or the fact that I trusted him as a lover and as a friend, but I decided at that moment to share more than just my body with Sean.

“Okay then. I don’t know what to do after the summer is over.”

“Any ideas?”

“Well, option one, I go home. Get a job.” Then find a nice but boring guy and train him to give me orgasms like you.

“Option two?”

“Go to Europe, get my MBA in architecture engineering.” Then study like mad and try to forget you.

“Architecture? Engineering? How come I didn’t know that?”

“Don’t look so surprised!” I smacked his leg, which cause a ripple of water to splash up over the side of the tub. “I’m smart.”

“Of that I have no doubt. It’s a tough field and you’re a female.”

“I don’t know which is worse, you thinking I’m dumb or that you’re a sexist.” I took a sip of beer.

“To be clear, I never thought you were dumb. And I’m not sexist just a realist.”

“Which is why you probably think Europe is a dumb idea.”

“No, you should go before you settle down.”

Did he mean settle down with a job or a man? Did he even care that after the summer I might find someone else? Would Sean be a ‘girl in every city’ type of soldier? Or would he be a one-woman man and find a girl who could withstand the lonely nights. Either scenario drove me crazy with jealousy.

“It’s a pipe dream.”

“What’s stopping you?”

“Money.” He knew I wasn’t a rich girl like Storme. “There are no volleyball scholarships for MBA programs.”

“Sell the car.”

“I can’t sell my Dad’s car! It’s the only thing I have of him.”

Sean downed the rest of his beer and placed it on the windowsill. “You’ve told me about your mom and your sisters, but you’ve never told me about him.”

Only because it was too painful to talk about, but so was not talking about him. Remembering him. “It took my Dad ten years to restore the Mustang. When he was home on leave, he’d be out in the garage tinkering with it. I’d bring him some sweet tea and we’d talk for hours. As I got older he’d let me help.”

“A daddy’s girl.”

“Yeah. And a tomboy,” I admitted. Sean reached for my hand. I took a shuddering breath trying to contain the wetness in my eyes. “He loved that car. My mom went into labor when they were looking at it. In fact, he wanted to call me Shelby. My mom refused, so they compromised on the name Kelsey and he purchased the broken down Shelby Mustang.”

Sean laughed. So did I.

“Anyway, I can’t sell his dream.”

“That’s just it Kelsey, it was
his
dream. Maybe he left the car to you so if he wasn’t around, it would give you the money to follow your dream.”

I blinked. That sounded exactly like my dad. Why hadn’t I thought of it? But Sean had. I could sell the car, and not only pursue my dream, but also help my younger sisters. It felt right, like my dad had been waiting for me to come to that realization.

“You know my Dad would’ve liked you.”

Sean chuckled and shook his head. “No, he wouldn’t.”

“Why do you say that?” Sean was an all around good guy and a future Marine.

“Uh…because I’m having sex with his daughter.”

“Oh yeah, he’d have killed you.” I went silent realizing what I’d said.

“Kelsey, it’s okay to talk about him.”

I smiled and nodded. It felt good. For the first time since his death I was able to remember my father with laughter. “Thanks. Now can I ask you something?”

Sean reached over to the cooler for another beer. “Sure.” He popped the top and took a swig.

“Why the military?”

He nearly choked as he swallowed. I could tell he was measuring his words before he said them. “The simple answer is that I was raised to serve at an early age. My church. My school. My community. And now my country, like all the other Dempsey males.”

I nodded, like I understood his decision to enter the armed forces, as if it would help me to understand my father’s call to duty. But it didn’t. Not that I wasn’t proud of my father. I was. So very, very proud. But proud didn’t get me my father at my college graduation. It wouldn’t get me my dream of having my father walk me down the aisle at my wedding.
Proud wouldn’t get me Sean.

“Why architecture engineering? And what’s the difference?”

Relieved to be talking about something else, I delved into my answer. “It’s more than the design of a building, it’s about the materials, and the surroundings of the site. My focus is on creating new sustainable communities.”

“Ambitious.”

“I wasn’t raised to be a Southern Belle. Being a Marine’s daughter, I know how to change a flat, know the basic self-defense moves,
in addition
to baking a mean pecan pie.”

“Pie. I like pie.” His hand drifted up my soapy thigh.

He was so cocky and sure of himself. Of me. I gripped his hand to stop his progress. “Say pretty please.” I gave his wrist a little twist to show off one of those self-defense moves.

The light in his eyes turned to blue fire. “May, I please touch your pretty pussy?” he asked in a rough whisper.

I melted at the low desperate timber of his voice. I let go surrendering to him and to the fact that I had no self-defenses when it came to Sean, whether it was my body or my heart. None at all.

He moved forward to position himself between my legs. Water sloshed over the sides of the tub.

“Um, Sean, we’re going to the flood the floor.”

“Not a problem.” Sean flipped the toggle of the drain to the down position and the water started to recede, the sound of it in stark contrast to the romantic music in the background. “Just you, me and the bubbles, babe.”

Sean

M
y departure loomed
over us like the tropical storm bearing down on the East Coast. The day had been sunny and hot with no indication of the upcoming storm, but the ocean knew, as it always did. The rough surf kept the swimmers out of the water but not away from the beach, making it a busy day of whistle blowing.