Shattered (Steel Brothers Saga 7)

“No, it’s—”

He stopped me by placing his hand on my forearm. My skin burned where he touched me.

“Look. You have nothing to fear from me. I just want to get to know you. We’re both here for the week. We’re both free as birds. I’m not asking for anything other than friendship.”

“Friends don’t usually kiss their friends on the mouth,” I said. God, my skin was on fire.

“That won’t happen again. Not if you don’t want it to.”

“I don’t want it to,” I lied.

He smiled. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed, and I can’t promise I won’t try to make you change your mind.”

My heart thumped. I needed some cool

water on my forearm. If I didn’t know better, I’d expect a red handprint to be there.

I cleared my throat. “I won’t change my mind.”

He finally let go of me and stood. “Okay, then. Where do you want to walk?”

“I figured the beach. Walking in sand is incredibly good exercise.”

“Great.” He smirked. “I’m a little more dressed for the occasion today.” He held out his arm. “Shall we?”

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow, and he put his arm down.

Then we walked side by side out of the restaurant and into the gorgeous air that was Jamaica.

A concrete walkway led to the beach. When we hit the sand, I stopped to take off my flip-flops. He did the same and then took mine from me to carry them. Again I felt like a blushing schoolgirl. So un-Ruby-like. I crushed my toes into the soft sand. Wonderful.

“Feels good, huh?”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

We walked toward the water. It was early yet, for island-timers, so there weren’t too many people on the beach—a few dotted here and there, either sunning themselves or swimming. I looked around for jellyfish. I didn’t see any.

We didn’t talk much, just chatted about inane stuff, but when we’d been walking for about twenty minutes, I noticed something different.

More bodies appeared on this side of the beach. Naked bodies.

“Uh…Ryan?”

“Yeah?”

“I think we need to turn around.”

He laughed. “Why?”

“I’m a little uncomfortable.”

“You’re a resort guest. You have every right to be here.”

“Isn’t this the nude beach?”

“Very observant, Ruby.” He laughed again. “Does nudity bother you?”

“No. But honestly, I’ve never been around it like this.”