Page 40 of Enthrall Ecstasy
I’m at the beach house.
A cold sweat covered my body. I shook my head to clear it and then glanced at my watch: 6:35 A.M.
I climbed out of bed and pulled on my pajama pants, not caring about the shirt.
Walking barefoot, I padded toward Rue’s room to check on her. She wasn’t there, and I noticed her sheets were so ruffled it looked like she’d had a restless night. I felt a stab of guilt for me being the reason. I checked the en suite bathroom, finding that empty, too.
I stepped up to the security panel out in the hallway. A few punches on the keypad and I’d deactivated the strobe.
That familiar headache was back, followed by regret for drinking too many beers the previous night.
A breeze wafted in through the patio door.
Someone had opened it from the inside. Rue?
Sliding the glass door open further, I looked for her on the patio. Not finding her, I leaned over the banister to scan the beach. Footprints in the sand tracked all the way to the ocean.
That’s not good.
Sunrays reflected off the water.
Way out there, a female surfer with a curvy physique was balancing on a blue surfboard and shredding a wave. It looked a lot likemysurfboard. It was Rue in a T-shirt, the same one I’d given her last night. It was soaking wet and clinging to her. She could have been a cover model forSurfing Magazine. All wild and sexy and elegant as she rode the wave in, taking my breath away.
But she shouldn’t be surfing alone.
I’d gone from pissed off to relieved and impressed. Relieved that some idiot hadn’t broken in, forcing me to end the bastard.
Fully awake now, I suddenly remembered my life had imploded. That’s right, I was here in Cameron’s swanky beachside home because I’d sold my Brentwood house.
It was a place I’d lived in for years, but I had to start over again.
The beach house was meant to be a stopover—only I’d not found anywhere else to go yet.
There was something unresolved in my mind.
The soft sand down below had once looked inviting, but now it triggered a memory.Not so fun when sand is in your fucking mouth.
A sandstorm.
Unrelenting heat.
I fought the memories, dragging my mind back from the Middle East and reorienting, looking around for something familiar to grab to ground myself.
Rue, just focus on her.
Folding my arms, I continued to observe her out on that surfboard. Now that I could see she was safe, I didn’t want to look away.
She was simply mesmerizing.
At one point she looked toward the house and saw me watching. She leaped back onto the board and shredded another wave.
Drawing in a deep, cleansing breath, I realized how I’d neglected the ocean. How I’d been too inwardly drawn. Rue reminded me of myself before I’d joined the Navy.
A life full of choices.
Having a beautiful woman stay overnight wasn’t exactly a burden.
She wowed me.
