“This has been really fun,” she said, and I turned to her.
“It really has.”
She looked at me, her eyes moving down to my lips before returning to meet my gaze. I grinned and felt my heart swell with excitement. I wanted her, she wanted me, and there was no one on this secluded bit of beach for what felt like miles around. It was just us, on this night, with nothing to lose and one evening to enjoy each other. There was only one thing we could do, really.
I stepped toward her, slipped an arm around her waist, and pulled her in close. She placed her hands on my chest and looked up at me, eyes widening and lips parting. And then, before I could take the lead, she grabbed my face and kissed me.
Our lips met and then our tongues. Our bodies pressed tightly against each other in the middle of the beach. I traced a hand down her bare arm, enjoying the feel of her skin beneath my fingertips. I wanted her from the first time I’d laid eyes on her, looking like she’d just rolled out of bed. And here she was, in my arms.
Holding her like this had my cock twitching. Aria fit perfectly against me, and I realized she was lightly grinding on me, her hips rocking back and forth against mine like she couldn’t resist. She wore a short dress, and I reached down playfully, hitching up the back so I could rest my hand on her perfect ass.
She deepened the kiss, taking it to the next level, and before I knew it, we sank down into the sand, her on top of me. Her body was small and light as I ran my hands over her, letting my hands come to rest innocently on her waist. There was plenty of time for everything else I wanted to do to her. For now, I wanted to take this slow and enjoy it.
She raked her nails through my hair, and it was clear from the small moans she was letting out she wasn’t as worried about doing this too quickly as I was. Well, if it was what the lady wanted, it would be rude not to oblige.
I flipped us over, pressing her against the sand. The sound of the waves acted as the soundtrack to our encounter, and I slipped my hand over her bare leg and drew it up and around me. My cock ached for her, and my head was spinning with how much and how badly I wanted her. Jesus, this woman had an effect on me like no one else ever had. I let out a groan and was about to pull her dress up and off her when she pulled back.
“Listen, I’ve…” She tried to get the words out but seemed to stutter and stopped. I frowned at her, still panting, trying to bring my heart rate down to normal.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m a virgin,” she blurted out. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
I pulled away from her and got to my feet. She looked up at me, clearly nervous, and I extended my hand and pulled her up to stand next to me. I took a deep breath. My cock was still reacting to her, but I couldn’t let her see just how much. Not after that confession.
“That’s cool.” I smiled. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
She wrapped her arms around me and looked up into my eyes. I leaned down to kiss her lightly on the mouth, catching her chin in between two fingers and tilted it up toward me. And then, I heard a sound.
“What the fuck?” I pulled back from her and frowned, looking around, trying to figure out where the sound and light was coming from.
“Oh, shit,” Aria breathed and quickly leaped away from me as though an electric shock had passed from her body to mine.
There was a flash, and I turned to find someone pointing a camera at us. I couldn’t make him out from the flash still blinding me, but fuck, I didn’t want any of those photos going anywhere.
“Hey, what the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, and the man, who looked to be in his late thirties, took a few steps back so he was out of my reach. I lunged toward him.
“Give me the fucking camera,” I snarled. It wouldn’t do me any good to get mad, but the thought of this being used against me, of this fucking asshole with his camera ruining what had been such a perfect evening, made me furious.
“Oh God. Not again,” Aria groaned from behind me, and I turned and frowned in her direction.
“What are you—”
Before I could finish my question, a huge man emerged from the boardwalk and joined us on the beach. He was at least a head and shoulders taller than me, and he quickly snatched the camera from the man and snapped it in half. The newcomer towered over the photographer, threatening him. The photographer looked him up and down, then ran off into the night. But now, we had this other man intruding.
Who the fuck was this guy?
Aria hung back a few feet away, and I peered around to see what was going on with her. She was glaring at the man who’d swooped in to take the camera from the assailant, and the whole situation just seemed to get weirder and weirder.
“What the fuck is going on?” I asked. Only a few minutes before, she was on top of me in the sand, the two of us lost in each other, and somehow, we ended up with this ugly confrontation. I needed answers.
“Who’s this guy?” I gestured up at the man, who tossed the broken camera in the sand.
“He’s the man my father sent to spy on me,” Aria spat out, and I was shocked by how clearly pissed off she was.
“What the fuck?” I looked at her and then back at him.
“I’m her bodyguard,” the man growled in a voice so deep, I was surprised it didn’t shake the water rolling onto the shore a couple dozen feet away.
Aria turned to me. “You should go,” she said, and there was an urgency to her voice that hadn’t been there before.
“What? Why? Are you sure?”
She huffed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
I glanced over at the man, who seemed unimpressed. Well, I might as well go for it. I leaned down and planted another kiss on Aria’s mouth. A sweet, soft kiss. The kind she could remember me by.
“LA, right?” I pulled back, and she nodded.
“I’ll come visit you,” I promised, and then backed away, waving my arm dramatically in an attempt to get her to smile. “You haven’t seen the last of me yet!”
She managed a small grin, but the mood of the night was ruined by this whole fuck-up. I turned and started to make my way back down the beach toward my place. What the fuck was all that about? I assumed the photographer had been here for me, something to do with my father keeping an eye on me while I was away, but I distinctly heard her say, “Not again,” when I lunged at him. What didn’t I know? Who is she?
I arrived back at the beach house and let myself in. Tucker wasn’t there, likely still out with the chick he’d met the night before. I headed to my bedroom, exhausted and frustrated by the way the night had panned out, and realized, I finally had some alone time.
I flopped onto the bed, unbuckled my pants, and found my cock hard and aching for her. I wrapped my fingers around it, closed my eyes, and thought of her. I stroked myself as I imagined the weight of her body on top of me, the feel of her lips on mine, the way she arched herself against me like she craved so much more.
I’d never met anyone like her before, and it was clear I had so much left to learn about her. And, as I lost myself in thoughts about where the night could’ve gone, I knew there was no choice. I had to see her again.
Chapter Eight
Aria