Jack let out a harsh grunt as his back hit the sand without much water breaking his fall. I landed on top of him, pounding the air out of both of us.
“Christ,” he croaked, and closing his eyes, let his head fall back. “What was that?”
“Sorry. Me trying to get you back for dunking me?” I offered, sheepishly, my damp hair falling to the side of our faces like a curtain.
He opened his eyes and looked into mine. A small wave washed up our bodies then ebbed away, pulling the sand around us.
“Can I make it up to you?” I asked and lowered my mouth to his, kissing him deeply.
He responded, winding a hand up into my wet hair and holding me against his mouth. Gentle waves lapped at us every few seconds or so before a big one suddenly rolled up over my back. My arm was under Jack’s neck and I jerked him up suddenly to get us out of the water.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
I laughed. “About every seventh wave is the largest. Luckily, the tide is going out, otherwise we’d be choking right now.”
He blinked up at me then pitched over, rolling me onto my back in the surf, settling his weight between my legs and on my chest. Cold water forgotten, my heart tripped and heat spread through me.
“You know a lot about waves, huh?”
I nodded, instantly thinking of my wave sculpture. “I’ve totally dorked out on research. We’re lying in about four inches of water right now, which means that the next wave that makes it this far before breaking will probably be eight inches higher than that. I’m thinking you’ll be fine, but you’ve left me kinda vulnerable.”
Another small wave lapped up our bodies and carved the earth beneath us, and I wrapped my arms around his bare back.
“Eight inches, huh? I could go so many different ways with this topic.” Jack laughed teasingly, his green eyes bright against the flush on his cheekbones. “So, my beautiful ocean dork, how many waves til the big one now?”
“You’re a little distracting. I have no idea,” I answered honestly with a smile at his mischievous expression.
On cue, a larger wave rolled up causing me to lift my face closer to him. It also rocked Jack’s body along mine. Whoa. I flicked my eyes down to his mouth. The way the rest of me was feeling, I needed to complete the connection. “And I may be a dork, but I’m your dork,” I whispered. Please kiss me.
Jack’s lids lowered fractionally and he dropped his forehead to mine. “God, you have no idea how much I like hearing that.”
“What? That I’m a dork?”
“No, that you’re mine.”
The sand beneath my back ebbed and undulated with the washing tide, but it was tiny distraction compared to Jack hovering above me, his body pressed against mine.
He was hard, smooth, and firm. Too hard. Intimately hard.
The earth at my back was fluid and rough. I was fully clothed, but the situation was making me feel completely bare and exposed. I turned my head and made out figures and a dog barking in the distance.
Jack followed my look. “We’re fine,” he said and bumped his nose softly against mine. “I think I’m pretty good at spotting if we’re being watched by now.” A cloud passed over his face as he said that.
“What?” I asked.
“Come on,” Jack whispered. “It looks really great on postcards, but this making out in the surf thing is bloody freezing.”
He climbed off me, and I grabbed his offered hand as he pulled me to my feet.
Without his body heat, the normally mild spring ocean breeze sliced through my wet clothes and straight through me. I shuddered.
He tugged my hand and we jogged back toward the house. Trying to move with cold, wet clothes and rough sea sand in every crevice was not a good mix.
“There’s an outdoor shower under the house, and it has hot water,” Jack promised as we made it over the dunes to the privacy of Devon’s house.
“I hope you have something I can borrow. I’ll have to get home to change before work tonight.”
“Yeah.”
We went past the pool and I grabbed my sneakers Jack had dropped. We re-entered the dim area under the house, and Jack led me to a small area hidden by more lattice.
Leaving me in the private enclosure, Jack took my dry shoes from me. “Will you get the water sorted? I’ll be right back with towels.”
After I got it just right, I stepped fully clothed into the welcoming scalding hot spray and tipped my head back to let the water wash over me. Wow, how did I let my life change so drastically in just a few hours? I was involved with Jack again. Fully. All the way involved.
I hadn’t even talked to Jazz about the journal pages, and we consulted about everything. And Joey? God, I had no idea how Joey would react. Everyone’s head would be spinning. Mine was.