Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

"You can come back once everyone goes back to sleep."

"No."

"No, you won't come back?"

"No, I'm not leaving."

"You're so stubborn. We're going to get caught. Go back to your room."

"No, let's go to the beach instead."

"Do you not hear that upstairs?" he asked pausing to allow her to listen to the continued noise.

"Jack, I hear it, but they're just going to go back to sleep, and then we've missed all our time together."

His blue eyes intensely stared at her before finally speaking, "Fine. Let's get out of here before they come downstairs." He scooted them off the couch, and after snatching up her hand, dove out of the house and down the stairs.

"How do you know they are coming downstairs?" she asked enjoying the feel of his hand entwined with her own.

"Were you not listening at dinner?" Jack asked lightly swinging their hands as they neared the water line. "I forgot about the conversation when we were…together."

"Oh...no, not really. I was pretty spaced out I guess."

"Yeah, I think I noticed that."

"So what's going on?"

"Seth dared Hunter to go skinny dipping tomorrow in the middle of the day. Hunter agreed, but only if everyone else did it too. The girls were pretty grossed out by that concept. So Seth said they would do it after all the girls went to sleep. Didn't want to ruin his prospects of having a foursome."

Lexi giggled. "Yeah, I could see that. I guess I was really out of it. Somehow I managed to miss that entire conversation."

Without uttering another word, the couple began to take a slow paced stroll along the beach. If they stayed in front of the house, then they would be caught together by the potential skinny dippers. The feel of Jack's hand in her own almost burned her. All she could think about was how close to kissing they had been earlier on the couch. She would have succumbed to him. The familiar feeling of losing control had taken over her. Instead of steering away from the feeling, she had gotten lost in it once again. And now she was out on the beach with him when any of their friends could find them missing at any moment. Surprise washed over her when they stopped in front of the pier. The pier was over a mile away from their beach house, and time with Jack had just flown by she hadn't even realized that they had been walking so long.

He nudged her forward to keep her moving, and they slunk along the wooden planks. Lexi skirted the edge where an old fishing pole rested surrounded by dried up bait. They reached the edge and sat down on a green bench set up for tourists.

"I don't know if I can do this anymore," Jack's husky voice muttered sounding defeated. It was such a strange sound coming out of him that Lexi had to stare into his face to even believe that he could feel that way.

Lexi knew what he meant. Her heart was racing knowing that they were so close together, but they couldn't be together. Only a mile up the coast, their significant others were blissfully unaware of what was happening out on the pier. She felt terrible about the deception. Not only was the sleep deprivation killing her, but the lying too. She couldn't keep up this act for much longer. Not when Jack wanted her. The way he had kissed the nape of her neck had proved that. He had been trying to hold back how he felt from her all week, but moments like that kept creeping in to their time together. But they weren't supposed to be together. Hadn't she only thought earlier that the universe was just trying to keep them apart?

"I know what you mean," she sadly whispered her chin dropping to meet her chest in anguish.

"I'm not sure I want to break up with Kate though," he said miserably.

That snapped her right out of her own pity party. Break up with Kate!Holy shit! Where had that come from? Maybe they were talking about two different things. "Uh, Jack?"

He titled his head to look at her under his thick dark lashes. "Yes my dear?"

"You've been thinking of breaking up with Kate?" She couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice.

He nodded choking on his own words. "Ever since I saw you like a vision on the beach the first day you got here."

"Wh…Why would you do that?" She knew the answer. But she wanted to hear him say it.

"I thought that was quite obvious."

She waited eager to hear his confirmation.

"For you."

She sighed pleasurably at the way that sounded coming out of his mouth. She had wanted to hear that for so long. But would he break up with Kate? Could she think about breaking up with Clark? Her heart ached painfully at the mere thought of letting him go. She didn't want things to change with Clark. She loved Clark.

She just didn't know exactly how she felt about Jack, and that scared her. Could she love Clark so much, and still want to spend so much time…have so many inappropriate thoughts about Jack at the same time? God, she wasn't sure, and her head was pounding with the waves of confusion overtaking her.

"For me?" she finally got out.

"How could you not know?"

"I knew, but I thought it was like last time. I didn't think you would want to end things with her. I didn't think you want to…be with me," she whispered into the cool ocean breeze.

Her hair whipped around her head and a long strand landed across her face. Jack reached up and tucked the lock behind her ear for her. He pulled her face closer to his and his voice spoke gruffly into her ear, "You have always been what I want. I just made some mistakes along the way. I told you that I would make it up to you, that I would show you what I could be for you, if you would only let me."

Lexi's mind was racing along ahead of his words. He wanted her. Just like she had always dreamed. How could she turn away from him so long as he wanted her? Consequences damned Lexi pushed her face forward and moved her lips against his. Taken by surprise, he remained stiff. She was relentless though and began to tease his bottom lip with her tongue. Enjoying the feeling, he moaned and she used the opportunity to insert her tongue in his mouth. She pulled back just long enough to straddle his body and she pressed herself firmly against him. His hands came up and wove their way into her thick brown hair. Yanking ever so lightly, he pulled her head back giving him access to her bare neck. She purred as he roughly kissed her neck hard enough to send waves of pleasure through her body, but not hard enough to leave a mark.