Something had just happened, and I couldn’t explain it. It was emotional, like a tender blues song coming to life.
Jenny laid her head back against my shoulder. I was holding on to her, doing my job keeping her warm, like she asked, although her body was still hot and worked over.
She shuddered a little and I felt the unmistakable drop of a tear on the back of my hand.
“Hey,” I said softly, close to her ear. “You okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine,” she said. “That was…unexpected.”
I knew what she meant. “Yeah. Weird, huh?”
Jenny laughed a little. “For lack of a better word.”
“I’m not known for my pretty talk.”
“Just your pretty singing?”
“People say I’m not half-bad.”
She turned around in my arms to face me. “So sing me something soft and romantic.” Her face was upturned, but I couldn’t make out much more than her eyes.
“Any requests?”
“The first thing that pops into your head.”
I started singing, and only after a few words did I realize it was the opening line to “Fools Rush In.”
Damn. That’s over the top. Falling in love. Not being able to help it. My gut tightened at saying anything like that to anybody. I wasn’t up for entanglements. I’d only just managed to sever everything that had been dragging me down when I left Tennessee.
But now I was committed to the line, or I might upset her. So, to lighten the mood, I pressed my hand to my heart and shifted to falsetto. “I…can’t…HELP…”
She smacked my chest with a giggle. “Okay, okay, stop.”
“What?” I asked. “You’re not impressed with my crooning anymore?” I put my hands on her slender waist and lifted her up. “Rather I use my mouth for something else?” I blew a loud phbbbttttt on her belly.
She shrieked and wiggled against me, trying to push off. “Aaaaah, stop! It tickles!” She laughed and fought against me, but I kept my grip and did it again.
This time she managed to work loose and took off across the sand. “No zerberts!”
I chased after her in the dark, the ocean roaring and powerful in front of us.
She made it to the first waves and shrieked again at the cold. She ran with high steps and now that we were out in the moonlight, I could see the bouncing of her breasts as she ran.
I glanced up and down the beach to confirm we were still alone and chased after her.
She dashed farther out, gasping. When I reached the water, I sucked in a breath. Damn, it was freezing.
“You’re crazy!” I told her.
She laughed. “You’re just now figuring that out?” She splashed me with water, and it hit my skin like ice.
I blasted a wave back at her, and she jumped away. She was still only thigh deep in the waves, and I could see every delicious inch of her skin.
I lunged for her, dragging her against me. “I’m supposed to be keeping you warm.” She was covered in goose bumps.
“So do your job.” She jerked her chin high and her hair fell down her back.
I wrapped a handful of dreads around my palm and tugged. “God, this hair makes me so hot.”
She laughed again. “I think I might be noticing that.” She backed away and looked down at how I was standing at attention again despite the cold. “So much for shriveling!”
She ducked her head to get me to let go of her hair. I released her, and she spun away to run through the waves. I followed her, thinking just how insane we were, like little kids running naked after a bath.
The moonlight kissed her skin as she dashed back to the shore. It was an image I didn’t think I’d forget for a long, long time.
“Clothes!” she shouted and sprinted back for the rocks. “I’m so damn cold!”
I hurried behind her and caught up just as she bent to pick up her dress. “Now we have sand everywhere,” I said.
“We’re going to be a jacked-up mess going back to that party,” Jenny said, pulling the dress over her head. “I'll stay in the limo.”
“You look beautiful,” I told her.
She pushed at me. “I look tragic. I can’t have any photographers catching me now.”
I shook sand from my boxers. “You worried about the shot somebody took in the garden?” I remembered that guy draping an arm over her. She might be avoiding the party on purpose.
She smoothed her dress down over her legs. “Nah, that one was okay.” Something in her voice had changed.
“You sure?”
She bent down and scooped up my shirt and smacked it against the rocks to remove the sand. “I’m sure.”
The easy camaraderie we’d felt in the ocean seemed to evaporate. We were back to near strangers having a one-night stand.
But it was just as well. I really couldn’t give her any more than that.
As if she knew the directions of my thoughts, she asked, “So are you in LA to stay, or just passing through?”