I cock my head to one side as I study Sloane. She looked up who I was, or she’d already known who I was. That has me even more intrigued with her.
“Are you underestimating my surfing skills?” I instinctively move toward her, unable to resist closing the distance between us.
Sloane holds tight to Wes, like he is going to be able to stop me.
“No, just your teaching skills and Wes’s lack of coordination.”
Wes and Sloane laugh together, like most couples do. Like they share a secret no one else knows. Seeing them happy together just makes me want to rip them apart even more.
“Well, Wes, you’d better go out there and prove her wrong for both of our sakes. I wouldn’t want her to find either of us lacking.”
Sloane frowns every time I speak, but the second Wes looks at her, a fake smile appears on her lips. It’s entertaining really, watching her.
Wes kisses her on the lips, and I study them both. When Wes kisses, he closes his eyes and lets her into his soul. When Sloane kisses, it’s clear that she isn’t fully in the moment. Her eyes don’t close all the way, and her lips don’t part all the way to let him in or so that he can fully claim her mouth with his.
Sloane gently pushes Wes away. She tries to hide it. She tries to make it seem like she wants nothing more than to be kissed by Wes all day. It’s clear that me being here makes her uncomfortable.
Wes smiles at Sloane, so oblivious and in love that he can’t even tell that she had issues with his kiss. He grabs his surfboard and then begins walking toward the water.
He pauses just before going in. “You coming, Asher?”
“Nope, this is all you.”
Wes runs into the water with his surfboard in hand and begins paddling out.
Sloane folds her arms across her chest and watches Wes with laser focus. So much focus that I am able to move until I’m standing right next to her.
“He’s good, isn’t he?” I say into her ear.
She jumps.
I lean back, away from her ear, as she turns to me.
“What are you doing? Why did you give Wes surf lessons?”
“Are you accusing me of setting this all up so that I could see you again?”
“Yes, that is exactly what I’m accusing you of.”
I fold my arms across my chest and watch her eyes linger on my abs for a second before looking me in the eye again.
I laugh. “As luck would have it, fate stepped in. My sponsors arranged the lessons, not me. It would seem the world thinks we should be together.”
“You’re an asshole, a douche bag, a bastard, a—”
I laugh. “Is that the best you’ve got?”
She narrows her eyes. “I’m engaged! What kind of man thinks I’d be willing to have a one-night stand with him, a complete stranger, on a normal night, much less when I’m about to be married? There isn’t a name so bad to describe what you are.”
I shrug. “At least none that you can call me from your pretty, little mouth.”
She glares at me, and I know she means it as a warning that I have no doubt she would follow through on if I tried anything, but all I can think is that I want to see that same passion in her eyes when I kiss her. I want to see how angry she would be if I kissed her right now. I want to feel that anger with just the tiniest hint of desire. Because I know that, once she got a taste of me, no matter how much she loved Wes, she would keep coming back for more.
“You’d better turn your attention to your fiancé. You wouldn’t want him to see that you couldn’t take your eyes off me when you were supposed to be watching him.”
Sloane huffs but doesn’t say another word as she turns her attention to Wes, who is now sitting on his surfboard, waiting for a wave. I, however, don’t take my eyes off of her. And, even though she tries her best to fix her gaze on Wes, she still looks at me out of the corner of her eye.
“Oh my God…he’s…” Sloane says.