“Heck, I don't know.”
“Wait! This is your whoredom, isn't it? Wow, do all the girls know you?”
He looks embarrassed. Actually blushes.
“Some. Honestly, most of the times I hooked up this summer I was pretty drunk. The whole summer’s sorta a blur.”
“So did your brother, Cam, participate in the whoredom?”
“Ha. Yeah. He’s just like Riley. I’m shocked he’s not here, but he’s got some party at school he didn’t want to miss. Which means he’s hot for some chick and hasn’t gotten her yet. He always told me I shouldn’t have a girlfriend unless I was having sex all the time. Which, well, I wasn’t.” He’s quiet for a minute then grins at me. “Did I tell you how much I like this bikini?” He plays with one of the strings.
“Um, no, I don't think you did.”
He runs a single sandy finger down my arm and even in the blazing sun, my body does a little shiver.
He notices and grins.
“I just gave you goosebumps. It’s hot out.”
“I got a chill—ocean breeze, you know.” I roll my eyes, bite my lip, and try not to smile.
“You’re lying.” He grazes his thumb across my bottom lip. Stares at me with those adorable brown eyes. “I think you look ridiculously hot in your dance uniform, so I don’t know why I was so surprised by how amazing you look in a bikini. It took all my willpower not to undo these strings,” he touches the string on one side of my bikini bottoms, “in the bedroom, not come out for days.”
I giggle. “I thought you had to take me back to the house and feed me some Kool-Aid first?” I take a drink of punch and smirk at him.
He squints his eyes at me.
“I have to give you some shit. I can’t help it.”
His face gets serious. “That's not how I want it to be with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s kind of embarrassing, but for most of the sex I've had, at least one of us, and usually both of us, have been drunk. Even Whitney, she never really wanted me unless she was messed up.” He lazily plays with a strand of my hair. “When we do it, if we do it, whenever that is, I don’t want us to be drunk.”
“Dawson.”
“Yeah.”
“I wanted you to take off my bikini in the bedroom, and I hadn't had a single drink.”
He stares at me for a couple beats then rolls on top of me and pushes his mouth onto mine. I part my lips in surprise, mostly at the force of his kiss. Up until now our kisses have been sweet, safe kisses. Friendly kisses.
This is not a friendly kiss. This kiss is full of desire. He grabs my tongue with his, sucking it into his mouth forcefully. He sucks on it greedily. Like it’s his to own.
He slides a hand into my hair and pulls my head closer to his. As close as I can get.
I wrestle my tongue away from him and slowly tease his lips with it. Then I grab the back of his head, sucking his tongue into my mouth with equal force.
I can't stop a little moan from escaping.
I rake my other hand down his back, settling on the back of his board shorts and kneading my fingers into them.
“Ahhh!” we both scream out when cold water splashes down across Dawson’s back.
He rolls off me saying, “What the f—” and sees Riley standing there, holding an empty sand bucket.
Riley says, “Jeez, Dawes, you’re gonna get us fined for indecency. Thought you needed some cooling off. Besides, that girl needs to show us her surfing skills.”
Dawson gets up and chases Riley down the beach and into the water, where they have a shoving match. Dawson gets Riley in a headlock and dunks him. Then Riley kicks Dawson’s feet out from under him and they both go down into the water.
They’re laughing as they run up the beach.
“Wish me luck,” I tell Dawson as I jog by him with a surfboard.
Riley and Ace grab boards and paddle out with me. Riley paddles out to a small wave, catches it, stands up, goes about twenty feet, then crashes.
Ace takes the next one and doesn’t even get to a standing position before he bites it.
I wait out three more waves, there's a slightly bigger one building.
I ride it, easily carving back and forth through the water, and take it all the way until the board glides up on the beach.
Dawson grabs me, runs his hands down the back of my swimsuit, and kisses me. “That was amazing.”
“That wave was like the bunny hill you learn to ski on.”
“It knocked my brother down.”
“Yeah, well his foot placement’s all wrong, and he's leaning too far forward.”
“Don't tell him that. I love to see him crash and burn. Makes for great videos.”
A couple hours later the punch we brought is gone. Everyone’s tipsy and worn out. We decide to go back to the house, where we chow down on sandwiches.
After we eat, I tell Dawson, “I'm kinda tired.”
Actually, I’m exhausted.