“Are you okay?” She walks up to me until she stands so close I can actually kiss her, but something in her eyes tells me that it might just be painful.
“Yep, it’s just a scrape. Nothing serious.” I smile my best smile, hoping it will lighten her mood, cause I don’t have any idea why she seems so mad.
“Good.” The next moment her hand slaps my cheek with brutal force, sending my head whirling to the side. My face burns like fire. For someone with such small hands, she can hit pretty darn hard.
“Ouch!” Jackson moans as if feeling my pain. She keeps her eyes locked with mine.
“Are you stupid?” she asks. “Or just dumb?” Christ. She’s pissed.
“Isn’t that like the same thing?” I ask carefully.
“Aaahhh,” she screams and walks away, swaying that fine ass, and I swear she’s pulling out her hair. Boy, she’s mad.
“I think you broke my sister,” Enrique snickers softly next to me. I feel like the angel that got kicked out from cloud number 9 without knowing what the hell he did wrong.
“What the hell were you thinking? No, wait, you were not thinking, were you?” Kiara starts her principal speech on me.
“What? She knew we were going for a ride.” She looks at me observantly while the others join us standing around the Jeep.
“Tsk-tsk-tsk, poor thing. You have no idea.” Kiara clicks with her tongue. I run my finger over my arm where blood is trickling from a small scrape.
“Why is Mel so pissed?” Enrique asks the question lingering in my head.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because her boyfriend just leaped over her head on a bike and then almost fell to his death.” I pull my face, not truly seeing the problem. It wasn’t that bad and I’m far from dead.
“I wouldn’t have fallen if I hadn’t looked at her,” I say truthfully.
Kiara snorts saying something about boys and how stupid we are. Ava hands me a beer from the cooler and I hold it against my now throbbing head.
“My heart didn’t jump from a fucking cliff and I still want to slap you,” Kiara moans.
“But I’m alright.” I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable now.
“Holy crap. The saying is right, men really are stupid,” Ava says and she shakes her head knowingly. We stand around the Jeep, drinking beers from the cooler the girls packed.
“And women overreact,” Jackson snobs. The guys laugh, unscrewing the lids from some more beer bottles while the girls just give us angry-ass looks. My heart tells me to go look for Mel and apologize, but my mind is shit-scared, thinking it’s a good thing to give her some time to cool down. I decide I’m with my mind on this one.
“Ug, I’m leaving for a photo shoot in Berlyn. I’m going to freeze my fucking balls off.” Enrique doesn’t look very happy and then the realization sets in and everybody’s face turns sour. The end-of-the-year rush is on us.
“And to top it off, Dean is on my case because of all the bad publicity I’ve received lately, so I need to be a good boy. Luckily Thalia will be there, so at least I’ll have some company.”
“Don’t mess with her.” I look at Enrique and he shrugs.
“We’re just friends. Hell, she’s probably one of the few girls that don’t want to screw me.”
“I’m leaving for New York for a bit,” Jackson tops. Probably time for his sentence to coach the Bulldogs again.
“I’m going with you, bro,” Axel says promptly. They exchange a secret look and I know something is going on, but I also know they won’t let anyone into the details.
“I have my last race in Rome,” I almost forgot about that. I wish I could cancel the trip, cause I don’t want to be away from Mel for that long. Speaking about Mel … time to face the music.
“I should go and sort my shit out.” I throw the last bit of beer out on the ground and put the bottle back in the cooler.
“Eh, yeah, you’re all on your own with that,” Enrique comments. “And that’s why I don’t have a girlfriend.” They grab their stuff, saying they’re going back to the waterfall for that picnic.
I watch them drive away and throw the empty bottles into the dustbin, all to stretch out the inevitable confrontation I’m dreading.
I find her sitting on the beach staring at how the sun plays with the ocean. I move in behind her and cradle her with my legs. A helpless feeling drags me down. I know I must choose my next words very carefully or my evening may be about to take a radically different course than the one I’d planned.
“Mel, I want to say I’m sorry for scaring you.”
“Good! No normal person will try stuff like that without proper preparation,” she gruffs. “Or at least some practice.” I guess now is not the time to tell her that I’ve done that exact jump probably a hundred times successfully. And that the only reason I fell was because I got distracted by her sexy body.
“Just let me finish,” I snap. “But I’m also not sorry. I needed to do that for myself.”
“It was stupid.” She’s very angry. Or hurt. I can’t really say for sure.
“Some sexy girl told me that I will do stupid things. It comes with the testicles.”
“It seems to me the bigger those testicles, the bigger the ego, the more the stupid.” She sounds dull, but her mouth is lifting at the corners. I nuzzle her hair and inhale deeply. That vanilla scent and her proximity stir my libido. I want her. Again.
“So you forgive me?” She struggles to get out of my arms and stands up. What now?
“Come, I’m going to the bathroom, will tell you after.” There’s a glint in her eye and I’m not sure I like the way she smiles. I follow her cause she looks as if she’s going to challenge the devil and his whole army or something.
“Wait here!”
I stay on the veranda while she goes inside – not eager to test my luck any further. I guess I understand her point of view, but I can handle the stunts, like I said, if she wasn’t there I would have done it perfectly.
“Damion!” she calls my name and then my heart stops right in its tracks. She’s standing on the edge of the balcony of my room, overlooking the pool. Naked may I just add.
And I just know she’s going to jump. And from nowhere the darkness fills me, my demons clawing at me, shrouding my skin, leaving an icy trail of despair in its wake. She can get hurt … or worse, die.
I’m not sure if I’m angry, scared, or horny. I suck in a breath and watch. She lands in the pool with a big splash.
Her head pops above the water and she screams with excitement. And because the water is probably freezing. I let out my breath.
She gets out, nipples perked, waterdrops clinging to her skin. Oh, I must put sex in the pool on my growing list. I grab a towel from the cupboard and wrap her in it – my mind spinning like a fucking tornado.