Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

Besides his occasional chuckle and rather suggestive eye contact, he hadn't really done much else to entice her...whether good or bad. The sane part of her told her that that was a good thing. She should definitely consider that to be a good thing. But being this close to him and having him nearly completely ignore her...well it damn well irritated her.

So what if he had an adorably, perky girlfriend that he'd been with for just under a year and a half? He'd still flirted with her when he'd been with Danielle, and they'd been together much longer than that. Hating herself for her thoughts, she kicked her feet over the bed and silently edged out of the room.

The beach house was designed in such a way that when you entered from the front door a large set of stairs to the right led to the enormous lofted master bedroom suite. It took up the entire top floor, and Seth had happily claimed his parents' king-size bed as his own for the week. The front doorway opened to the hardwood floored living room with standard beach decorating, and a host of stylish wood furniture. Down a hallway to the left the guys were staying in the two standard offices one with a pullout couch and the other with a black futon. A set of stairs off of the living room led to the bottom floor where Seth's sister's bedroom and a separate guest bedroom were connected by an adjoining bathroom. A homey looking den opened to the massive deck Lexi had looked up at earlier during the day.

Sneaking out of Seth's sister's bedroom, Lexi exited the house through the den and out into the cool night air. The wind caught her hair and whipped it around her face. She breathed in the salt enjoying every second. After grabbing a pink and yellow striped towel, she flew down the flight of stairs that opened to the sandy beach below.

Falling back against the towel, Lexi stared up at the giant moon overhead. This was much more pleasant than getting elbowed to death in her sleep. She just wished that she could somehow get Jack out of her mind. It's not like her and Clark were currently in a rough patch. Things were going as well as they ever had. He had been a little moody as of late, but she just chocked that up to graduation approaching and the looming prospect of finding a job. Other than that though, it was just Jack that was bothering her. Things tended to go very very wrong when she was around him. The worst part was knowing that he got to her...and being completely helpless to prevent it. She had kept her distance since that time she had allowed herself to slip up. She couldn't take that back, but she could do everything in her power to prevent a repeat performance.

But he was so gorgeous in person. Those baby blue eyes had turned crystal clear with desire at her approach on the beach, and she hadn't been able to stop herself. Just like every dream since she'd met him. The cool environment coupled with the slow rolling of the ocean eventually lulled her to sleep even as she was thinking these thoughts about Jack.

A hand gently shook her awake and she jumped up from her slumber. She was immediately terrified that she had slept through the entire night out here on the beach. But after opening her eyes, she noticed it was still pitch black outside, and breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't want to be caught out here. Then she remembered that she had been woken up, and turned to see who had caught her out on the beach alone.

"Hey," Jack said retrieving his hand from her shoulder. He smiled down on her brightly.

Of course, it was him. If she ran back up to the house right now, would he be offended? Deciding against that course of action, she mumbled groggily, "Hi. What are you doing down here?" A long yawn escaped her.

He grinned at her goofily. "I could ask you the same thing. Scoot over," he directed her, bending down and plopping down on the small beach towel. He leaned his elbows back into the sand and stretched his legs out facing the ocean.

She tried to fix her gaze forward and avoid looking at him, but she couldn't. Just before she had been awoken, she had been having another…rather inappropriate dream about him. Apparently being within his presence had allowed him full access to her dreams again. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked just to make conversation even though the silence wasn't that bad either.

"I saw you come down here," he told her.

"I thought you were sleeping upstairs." She couldn't help but stare at his well-defined profile in the ambient light.

He shook his head. "Nah, sleeping next to guys...not my style. I took the couch in the den."

Her eyes raised in realization that when she had passed through the den door he must have been right there all along. "Oh. How long have I been out?"

"About thirty minutes I guess before I decided to join you."

"How did you know I didn't go for a walk?" she asked curiously.

Finally, he turned his head towards her, and by the light of the moon, she got a full look at the beautiful face she had been dreaming about. His eyes traveled over her flimsy sleeping clothes, and then rose back to her intrigued face. Finally, he shrugged and answered, "I just knew."

"You didn't come down at once and check on me?" she questioned him not understanding.

"No. I waited to see if you were just going to come right back in, but I soon realized you weren't. So I came to find you. I just knew you'd be here Lex. I just know you," he said reaching out and cupping her cheek in his hand as he had done earlier that afternoon.

At his touch her breath instantly quickened, and her lips parted. How did he do that? "I've missed you so much," he said his voice lowering intimately.

"Jack," she whimpered as he trailed his hand down her neck, "you...you can't touch me like that."

He pulled her by her neck towards his waiting lips. Just as they were only an inch apart, he broke her steady gaze and began to kiss down her supple neck. She moaned deep in her throat, and then ripped herself out of his enticing grasp.

"I said no," she cried standing in a fit of anger. He remained seated and rested back on his elbows again not even looking back up at her. "Why are you here? What do you think you are doing? I don't want things to be like that again. My boyfriend...your girlfriend...our friends...everyone is up there right now and could see you doing this. Don't you care about anyone but yourself?"

Ignoring her other questions, he coolly said, "Lexi just sit down."

"No! I'm not going to just sit down. Why do you have to be so demanding all the damn time?" she cried her hands resting on her hips. She was glaring daggers at him.