Page 130 of All at Once

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“I liked the waves more around 11,” I finally confess, while blankly glaring at the noticeably higher wavelength behind the shore.

“Don’t worry. Those waves are fine.” Luca must sense my fear that’s building. “But if you’re not feeling comfortable we can come back later or just do something else.”

“Maybe I’ll just try it out and see if it’s okay,” I say, while laying out our beach towels as he brings our surfboards.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“Yeah. But you’re sure that’s safe?”

“Yes,” Luca reassures. “If it wasn’t safe I wouldn’t suggest coming right now. But we can leave anytime you want.”

“Okay.”

He takes off his shirt the same moment I take off my tank top and shorts. Then I blush at the realization that we’re both giving the other a once-over, acting as if we haven’t seen each other in a swimsuit before.

He glances away first. “I wasn’t looking,” he lies.

“I wasn’t either,” I lie.

“Webothweren’t looking.”

“We don’t even like each other.”

“I forgot about that,” he says so endearingly that my composure lasts as long as my lack of restraint to look away from him.

I reach into my bag for my sunscreen then hear Luca’s voice as I struggle to layer it on my back. “Do you want me to do your back?” When I bite down on my bottom lip, he shakes his head. “Why do you keep making me think everything I say is dirty?”

“Well, why do you keep making themsounddirty?”

“I genuinely wasn’t.”

“I don’t believe you,” I say.

The already sunny day feels blazingly warmer when Luca takes the sunscreen bottle and squeezes some of the cream onto his palm. He’s not just pouring it into his hands. He’s taking his time to rub his long fingers in circular motions with it as he watches my posture shift, my lips part, and my eyes almost roll back, until his grin is satisfied enough. “Do you want me to do you or not?”

Having any excuse for him to touch me, I coyly turn around. He pushes my hair to the side, and I feel my body start to tremble as the cool sensation reaches my neck.

But as he rubs it in, I start giggling. “Right,” he says. “How could I forget? Tell me, does that tickle more, or this?”

Luca holds me from behind, tickling my stomach so gently, but still enough where my sensitive body bursts into laughter. We effortlessly fall to our sides in an almost spooning position onto our beach towels.

“I sincerely wish you good luck for later.”

“What?” When his laugh vibrates off my ear, I shiver, while turning my face toward him.

“There’s always been this ongoing joke between my doctor and I that we both don’t know how I’m ever going to do anything physical with someone since I’m this ticklish,” Iexplain.

He licks his lips so subtly. “There are ways to work around that.”

Too flustered to reply, I redirect the focus back to the ocean. “Maybe by the time we actually get in the water, the waves will be gone. Here. Let me do you now so we can go.”

Luca purses his lips. “I can see how that might have sounded alittlesexual now.”

“I’m glad you see it now.”

He turns around to lay on his chest, and this angle is somehow evenmoresensual.The way his back flexes against the towel, while his shoulders are extended reveals even the tiniest muscles that I didn’t know he had.

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