Setting the towels and picnic basket down on the sand, he joined Abigail in the shallows. The bright pink bikini she was wearing hugged her slender curves but also served to remind him from her porcelain white pallor that she hadn’t been in the sunshine for a long time.
“Did you put sunblock on?” he asked as he stood beside her. The small waves crashed around his ankles, the water delightfully cool against his skin, and just what he needed to try to get his head in the right place. This wasn’t about pressuring Abigail into jumping into bed with him because his body felt like it was dying after three long years without her touch, this was about earning her trust back any way he could, and patching up the damage he had done to her heart.
“No,” she said, never taking her eyes off the horizon where the blue water met the blue sky.
“Come on, we better do that now before you end up sunburned.” Gently grasping her shoulder, he turned her around and led her back to their things. “I got it,” he told her when she reached for the bottle of sunblock.
“Ryder,” she warned, her gaze moving from his groin up his bare chest and settling on his face.
“Nothing sexual, babe, but I’d have to do your back for you anyway. Just relax, Abs, let me take care of you, you’ve been on your own for so long but I’m here now.”
When she gave a small nod of permission, he opened the bottle and squeezed some sunblock onto his hand then knelt before her and began to rub it into first one and then the other of her legs. As he worked higher he could hear her breathing going shallow, and for once he knew it had nothing to do with pneumonia.
He moved onto her stomach, and when his fingers lightly brushed against the underside of her breasts Abigail inhaled sharply.
Spider smiled.
If it were up to her body he would already be back in her good graces. She was still attracted to him, and he was even sure that he already had her heart on board too because he believed that she still loved him, unfortunately the hardest nut to crack would be her mind. She was wary of him because he’d already let her down twice before, he would have to work hard to convince her mind to give him a third chance.
He stood and rubbed sunblock up her arms and then did her chest. As his hands moved to the v between the two triangles covering her breasts, he had to force his body to stand down. Being this close to her breasts and not being able to touch them, tease her nipples, take them into his mouth was the worst kind of torture. And he’d been tortured before.
“Turn around,” he murmured.
She obeyed, and he covered her back before turning her around again.
Her eyes were glued to his, her breathing heavy, her pulse fluttering wildly in the hollow of her neck, she was as affected by his hands on her body as he was.
Carefully, he smoothed sunblock on her forehead, her temples, across her cheeks and down to her chin, his fingertips lingered at the corners of her mouth, how much he longed to press his lips to hers.
One little kiss couldn’t hurt.
He’d already broken his own rule to keep things focused on her recovery by kissing her back in the house. What was one more kiss?
When Abigail’s gaze dropped to his mouth Spider knew she wanted it too.
Happy to oblige, he stooped and brushed his lips over hers, just one little taste. It would never be enough, but it was enough to hold him over, keep him going.
“What do you want to do now?” he asked as he released her and set the sunblock back in the basket.
“Lie in the sun for a while, it feels so nice on my skin,” she said with a delighted sigh. “Then maybe go for a swim before we eat lunch.”
“Whatever my girl wants, she gets,” he said as he spread out a towel for her. She didn’t contradict him this time when he called her his girl, and unless he was mistaken the expression on her face when she looked at him was softer.
Progress.
Chapter 6
June 19th
2:17 P.M.
“Thanks, guys, for everything,” Abigail said to the men standing around her. How could she ever properly thank them for saving her life? She knew it was their job, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t know every single one of them would have gone out there in their free time if they’d known she was there. And even if it had been just a job she still would have been eternally grateful.
“It was nothing,” Matthew said, waving off her gratitude.
“No, it’s not,” she said firmly. “I would have died if you hadn’t found me, hadn’t come for me. I won’t ever forget what you did.”
Matthew ruffled her hair affectionately. “Seriously, Abs, no need for thanks.”
“Well, you better get used to it because I’m going to keep saying thank—”
“Someone better tell her you’re welcome or she’s never going to stop,” Ryder said with a laugh.
She shot him a glare. “Well, would you stop thanking the people who saved your life?”
“No, ma’am,” he teased.
She rolled her eyes, but she could feel tears building up. Stubbornly she held them back and faked a smile she didn’t feel. “I just want you guys to know …”
“You’re welcome,” Matthew said, giving her a hard hug.
Each of the other guys also hugged her and then it was time. She’d been procrastinating all morning, sleeping late, taking her time eating breakfast, and in the shower, and packing up the few belongings she had here. By the time she’d been done it was lunchtime so they’d all eaten together in the bright, airy kitchen, but now it was time to leave.
To go home.
The day at the beach yesterday had been wonderful, but constantly hovering at the back of her mind was the fact that she had to leave. It had haunted her dreams as well, and as much as she wished there was a way to put it off for longer there wasn’t.
Which gave her only one option.
She had to face it.
“See, guys, I told you that saying you’re welcome would stop her,” Ryder teased her as he picked up her bag.
“We’ll all do dinner together on the weekend if we’re not called out on anything,” Christopher told her.
“Sounds like fun,” she said. It did, hanging out with the guys and their families was always fun but today was only Tuesday and the weekend felt a long way away.
“Night … uh, Eric, and the others should be back by then,” Ryder told her.
“I know Eric’s nickname,” she reminded him. It should make her feel better that her big brother would be back soon, but since they’d never been close she didn’t feel any comfort knowing he would soon be home. Eric hadn’t approved of her relationship with Ryder either, maybe that had something to do with her lingering ill will toward her brother.
“Let’s get going,” Ryder said. The look he gave her suggested he knew something was going on with her, but she appreciated that he didn’t push the issue.
“Bye, guys,” she said as she reluctantly trailed after Ryder to the SUV parked in the driveway.
Neither of them talked during the fifteen-minute drive to her place. She appreciated that the guys had taken her to the gorgeous beach house when they brought her back. A hospital full of strangers would have freaked her out after so many months alone, and she hadn’t been ready to go straight home.