“When you’re trying to skip a rock, you have to throw it from the side.” He showed me the movement again and again, but it wasn’t registering. “You have to whip your wrist quickly and let the rock go at the perfect angle. The ocean really isn’t the best place for this, though.” He pressed his chest against my back and used it to turn my body in the correct angle. “You really need the water to be calm.”
There wasn’t a thing about me that was calm.
There wasn’t a thing about me or the ocean that was calm.
“So there’s no point to this?” I looked over my shoulder, and he was right there. His mouth was so close to mine. I would have to stand on my tiptoes to reach them, but I could do so easily. I could kiss him, and I knew I wouldn’t regret a thing.
“There is definitely a point.” His hand tightened around mine, and his gaze dropped to my lips.
He was going to kiss me. I didn’t know anything about this boy or who he was or what he wanted, but I knew that. We didn’t need to know anything about each other to know that I felt desperate for him to kiss me.
I licked my bottom lip, and he tracked the movement like a hunter.
“Josie!” I could hear my name being called in the distance, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to end this moment, this trance I felt like I was under. I wanted Beck to kiss me before he thought better of it and turned away.
My name was called again in the distance, and Beck lifted his head toward the sound, but I was already moving. I let my hand fall from his, and I twisted against him as I wrapped my hand around his neck.
My heart was slamming against my chest, and my lungs felt like they were crashing into me with the same force of the ocean. I wasn’t this girl. I didn’t make bold moves or kiss a guy I didn’t know.
But no one here knew who I was.
I was no one to them. A brand new face, a girl who was nothing but a mystery. I could be whoever I wanted to be here. I could create the girl I wanted them to know.
He looked back down at me, the sound forgotten, and he didn’t wait for me to close the gap between us. He leaned down, the muscles of his neck straining beneath my fingers, and he pressed his lips to mine.
At first, it was gentle, his lips moved against mine, and I tried to breathe even though it felt impossible. Beck tugged my bottom lip with his teeth, and I couldn’t hear a thing except for my harsh breath and the sound of his growl.
We didn’t know each other, and somehow he wanted me as much as I wanted him. His hand pushed into the windblown strands of my hair, and he tilted my head backward just as his tongue hit mine. He tasted like wintergreen, and I couldn’t get enough of him.
I chased his tongue with mine, and he tightened his hand in my hair. There was an edge of pain under his fingers, but I didn’t care. It only made me want to get closer to him. We were practically surrounding each other, and still, I felt the urge to climb closer and closer until there wasn’t a breath left between us.
I heard my name again, this time closer, but I still kissed him. I didn’t want to stop. I didn’t want reality to hit and for him to remember that I was some stranger that didn’t matter to him. I wanted to live in this moment, and I refused to allow anything to ruin it.
Even if it was just this one kiss, this one touch between us, it was perfect and messy. His teeth hit mine as he pulled me closer, and I clung to him as my lips moved faster and faster against his.
I had very little experience when it came to men, but I knew that this kiss wasn’t a first kiss I would ever get again.
This would be it, then I would have to let it go. Beck would be the guy I compared other first kisses to for the rest of my life, and a twinge of fear ran through me at the thought.
He pulled away from me as my name was called again, and I bit down on his lip before slowly letting him go.
He lifted his head, but he was still staring down at me. I was wrong before. His eyes were much more golden than they were brown or green, and the moonlight seemed to flicker off the specks that I felt lost in.
Beck blinked away the fog that he had fallen under with me before turning toward the beach we had just come from only moments ago. I followed his gaze, and I didn’t even have time to catch my breath before Lucas and some guy I didn’t know came into view.
Beck’s body went stock-still beside me and his hand slid from my hair. I quickly dropped mine away from him and stepped toward my stepbrother.
His face was flushed and his eyes looked murderous, but I had no idea what his problem was. I didn’t even know the guy, despite his mother’s marriage to my father, and he had no right to act like the protective older brother.
Even if he was technically about eight months older than me.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Calm down.” I crossed my arms, but he wasn’t talking to me. He and his anger were headed straight for Beck.
“What the fuck does it look like I’m doing?”
I spun around to face Beck. His voice sounded so different. He sounded so angry and irritated, and honestly, cold. Nothing like he was with me only moments before.
“Do you two know each other?” I looked back and forth between them, but neither one was looking at me. They were staring each other down in some sort of pissing contest, and I had no damn clue what the hell their problem was. “Hello.”
“Yeah.” Beck nodded and looked over at me. His eyes now felt as cold as his voice. I would have given anything to go back to being in his arms before Lucas interrupted us. I liked that Beck. That Beck felt intoxicating. This Beck was something different.
This Beck scared me a little.
“How do you know Lucas?”
I looked back between them because I was clearly missing something. “He’s my stepbrother.”
A harsh laugh fell from Beck’s lips, and I watched as he clenched his hand at his side. Lucas moved toward me, and I jerked away from him as he reached out for my arm. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t need him trying to be some knight in shining armor.
“Don’t act like you didn’t know who she was.” The way Lucas said it made my gaze snap up to Beck. He knew who I was this entire time?
But Beck wasn’t looking at Lucas anymore. He was glaring at me, and he no longer looked like he wanted any part of me. Those feelings washed out to sea the moment our kiss was over. The only thing Beck’s face held now was pure disgust, and it was directed entirely at me. While his eyes glared, his mouth curled into an evil smirk. He looked like a threat no one would ever want.
He barely knew anything about me, but as soon as Lucas appeared and he learned of my connection to him, everything was forgotten and I became enemy number one.
He hated me. Instantly.
Whatever his reasoning was, Beck hated me and the way Lucas reached out for me again. He stared at his hand as if he could set it on fire with his stare. He was furious, and I had no idea what I had done.
“That’s why you wouldn’t tell me your last name.” He laughed, and there wasn’t an ounce of humor. “What did you do, Vos? Send your whore sister out here to seduce me?”
I jolted back as if he had slapped me. I felt his insult to my very core. Every part of me that felt alive under his kiss now felt like it was burning with embarrassment.
I had been such a damn fool.