I glared at him. “Could you help me at least?”
“Can’t you stand?”
At that point I realized Jack had the upper part of his chest out of the water. Mortified, I lowered my tiptoes to the invisible sandy bottom, but I could only reach it between each wave.
“There are still sharks out here, you know,” I said petulantly. I wasn’t kidding. I was also a complete coward when it came to swimming in ‘dark water’ as I called it. I really couldn’t even get in a lake without shuddering. Call it an overactive imagination, but I would rather be ‘on’ the water than ‘in’ it. Jack must have seen something on my face because he instantly stopped laughing and came close. He laid the paddle on the board and came next to me.
“Hold onto the board and lift a leg up,” he said reaching down into the water.
All thoughts of sharks fled as I felt his hands make contact with the bare skin of my thigh and his fingers run down behind my knee. A shark could have nose-butted me right then, and I would have only swatted it away. Flicking my eyes down nervously, and trying to keep my breathing even, I lifted my leg and his hand continued down to my foot where he cupped it into a stirrup.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, glancing at him.
“No sweat.” He nodded tightly.
Completely embarrassed by my idiotic outburst and reeling from his touch, I went to climb onto the board, but all of a sudden Jack let go of my foot and pulled me against him. I gasped and instinctively grabbed hold of his hard shoulders.
The contact of my sliding skin against his in the water made my heart pound in my throat and something uncomfortable happen deep in my belly. His arm at my waist gripped me hard as each new swell of water gently rocked us. I looked up at him.
A bead of salt water trickled from his water–darkened hair down the side of his face to his full mouth. I braced myself to look into his eyes, but before I could, he tucked his face in close to my jaw, his stubble setting my nerves on fire.
Breathe, Keri Ann, breathe. So much for us ignoring the almost kiss and being just friends. Clearly, he was having a hard time with that. I gritted my teeth. So was I.
He suddenly pulled away, and his arm shot out to grab the paddleboard before it got out of reach. “We almost lost that.” He grinned.
I blinked, confused, as he resumed helping me up onto the board.
“You paddle, I better swim back,” he said, then turned and cut through the swells with strong strokes.
What on earth had that been about? I took a deep breath and paddled slowly back to shallower water on my knees before standing up.
He’d almost kissed me again. Actually, I had almost kissed him. One more second and I would have. All the reasons I had last night for not doing it just didn’t seem to matter anymore.
F I F T E E N
Jack and I didn’t say much on our way back to the beach house until he handed me a beach towel and suggested I change so he could throw my wet stuff in the laundry.
Grabbing my backpack, I stepped into a downstairs bathroom.
We’d talked earlier about hanging out by the pool after we paddleboarded and eating some sandwiches for lunch, so I figured it was time to break out the bikini.
Drawing my confidence together, I pulled it out of my bag along with the matching and way too gauzy white cover up. I put the bikini on and adjusted the ties, making sure there wouldn’t be a wardrobe malfunction displaying my assets. My breasts weren’t overly large, but looking in the mirror and taking in the white triangles on my top half, I felt like an awkward offering. Quickly, I pulled the cover-up on too, noting it had been severely misnamed. Since I had nothing else to wear, there was nothing to do but be confident in myself.
My hair was wet and full of salt and sand, which I would have to deal with later after the pool. I let it out of its hair tie and used my hands to shake it loose so it could dry faster. At least the salt water helped it dry with a little wave and body. I grabbed up my bundle of wet clothes and headed for the laundry room.
Still in his swimsuit, he must have only brought the one, Jack was throwing a bunch of his clothes in the dryer. Barely turning around, he grabbed my sodden stuff.
“Thanks,” I said.
He shrugged. “Sure, no problem.”
He still hadn’t turned around, and his shoulders looked tense.
“Are you okay? Do you want me to go?” I didn’t want to hang around if I was only pissing him off. Besides, it was no picnic for me either. If being around Jack was fraught with tension on a normal day, this moment was totally throwing me off-kilter.
“No. It’s okay.”
He glanced over his shoulder at me, and then at my outfit and shook his head.
“What?” I asked, self-consciously.
“Nothing. You hungry?” he said still shaking his head with what looked like a rueful smile.
I nodded.
He made no move to go anywhere though, he just turned and leaned back against the machine, his arms folded across his chest. His eyes slid slowly down my entire body.
My belly flip-flopped with enough waves to make a sailor sick. If he could just stop looking at me like that.
“It’s not fair,” I whispered, deciding it was time to address the issue.
“What’s not fair?”
“What you’re asking of me.” Wow. I had really just said that, I was going to take this bull by the horns.
“Do you want to spell it out for me? What is it you think I’m asking of you?”
I stared at him, incredulous.
“Are you serious? You can’t be that obtuse. Look at you. I was already half in love with you before I even met you because of the character you played, and you are totally taking advantage of that right now. I guess that makes me an easy target, but I’m out of my depth, Jack.” I steeled my nerves, my voice shaking slightly. But I was right to do this. I couldn’t be on tenterhooks the whole time with these almost kissing moments. It might kill me.
“I’m just a normal girl, and I’m definitely not sophisticated enough to deal with you wandering off back to your girlfriend and your Hollywood life when you are done here.”
“So you are only attracted to me because of Max? I mean, you mentioned it last night, and I kind of hoped you were joking.”
“It’s not because of Max.” I owed him the truth, and in that moment I knew even if it had been the initial reason—it wasn’t anymore.
He nodded, a cynical look in his eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“Well, it’s the truth. Not that it changes anything.” I thought I sounded bitter. Well, so what if I did? I was basically admitting I was attracted to him, and he was asking for permission to break my heart. Way to go, Keri Ann.
“Of course it does. It changes everything.” He pushed away and stood right in front of me, too close but not close enough. He seemed to struggle a moment, as if he couldn’t articulate what he was thinking.
“God,” he finally said, his tone exasperated. “Do you think it’s normal for people to feel this,” he motioned between us, “whatever this is that happens when we are in the same room with each other? Maybe you have no idea, but I do. It. Doesn’t. Happen. At least not to me.” He stopped, seemingly surprised by his admission.
I was too. I held my breath, my heart thudding.
He sighed and went on, “I can’t make you the promises you probably want, Keri Ann, I’ll only break them. But I can promise you I’ll always tell you the truth.”