I could hardly take my eyes off Eryn, and I was thankful that I was wearing sunglasses so she couldn't see just how hard I was staring.
She and Leena were dressed in far more modest bikinis than Tammy and Kelly's. But that in itself was part of what attracted me. She wasn’t trying to show off everything she had. Make no mistake, I'd found her tremendously attractive since I'd first laid eyes on her, but seeing her in a bikini set off a fire inside me that I needed desperately to tamp down.
Her body was toned, obviously from all the extra workouts she put in, and she had a beautiful, even tan. Her long legs and strongly-defined muscles were even more obvious than during practice, again a result of her hard work on the volleyball court.
Her stomach was smooth and flat, and her breasts – God, I could hardly keep my eyes off them. They were clearly not fake. Pert and medium-sized; just the right size for a handful...or mouthful. Her curves were so different from the exaggerated, plastic-enhanced bodies of Tammy and Kelly. She was natural and beyond beautiful.
Damn. I was getting hotter than the temperature intended, and I knew that I shouldn't be thinking about my star player in such a way. It was just so, so hard not to stare at her.
“Hi, ladies,” John said in response to their greeting before I could talk. “I'm guessing you're also members of the Florida State volleyball team?”
“We are, yes,” Eryn replied.
“And, Eryn here is one of the star players,” I added quickly – not sure why I'd felt the need to add this. But then she smiled and I was glad I had. I couldn't help but smile back at her.
“I'm not that great,” she said, “but thanks for the compliment, Wade.”
“Except you are that good, Eryn,” Leena interjected. “C'mon, you work your ass off! It's okay to take a little credit for your hard work now and then. Right, Coach?”
I laughed at the way Leena had delivered her pat on the back. “That’s exactly right, Leena. Exactly right.”
“So are you planning on introducing me to these lovely ladies at any stage, Wade?” John asked with a grin.
“Ah yeah, Eryn and Leena, this is John. He’s one of my best friends. I've known him since our college days.”
“Yeah, Wade and I were both on the Florida State men's volleyball team together,” added John. “Believe it or not, despite how I look now, I was once as fit, strong, and ripped as this specimen next to me.”
The girls both giggled, and I could have sworn that I caught Eryn staring at my chest, only to look away quickly when I glanced at her.
“Wade was the star of the team, of course,” John continued.
“But you were good, too,” I added. “You had a mean spike on you; you could really blast that ball like a cruise missile.”
“I'm not the one who ended up going pro, though, and then winning Olympic gold,” replied John. “You ladies do know about that, right? That your coach is an Olympian with a gold medal?”
“We do,” Leena spouted, “and we're extremely happy to have him as our coach.”
“We really are,” Eryn added. “I feel like I am going to learn a lot under his watch.”
“I'm glad you feel that way,” I said.
“And, of course, you're both gonna improve leaps and bounds with this crazy guy as your coach,” John added.
“Oh? He's crazy, is he?” Eryn asked with a grin, and I could have sworn that there was a hint of flirtatiousness in her tone.
“Believe me, I could tell you some stories, I really could!” John exclaimed with a big smile.
“I’m going to want to hear some of those stories,” Eryn chimed.
“Agreed,” Leena piped in. “Might need some leverage sometime when he wants to make us run suicide sprints.”
I didn't want to get too much into the stories John could tell. Yes, I'd done some crazy things in my college days that were fun to laugh about now, but I didn't want that to evolve into any kind of stories from my L.A. days, which were a lot more recent and a bit more shameful. I decided to change the topic before anything like that could pop up.
“So, what made you ladies decide to come out to the beach for the day?” I asked.
“Eryn's restaurant burned down,” Leena replied nonchalantly.
“Whoa, hold up – first, you have a restaurant, Eryn? And second, it burned down?” John asked with a truly convinced look.