Page 93 of Courting Gossip (Courting)
Chapter Fourteen
They slept in late the next morning. The curtains in the east-facing room tried to block the sunshine from entering, but the bedroom glowed bright and warm. It was the deepest Brody had slept in a long time. He stretched before getting up and walking to the window. He pulled back the shades and looked out at the ocean. The sun had been up for a while, but nobody was around. The tide had gone back out, and one lone gull trotted along the edge of the water, looking for breakfast.
He soaked in the quiet. He liked the calm out here. DC was always wound tighter than a top. The people, the politics, the tourists…He hadn’t noticed how much it had affected him until yesterday when it had nearly spun out of control. He glanced at Genieve when she rolled onto her back and opened her eyes. Her hair spilled across her pillow, and the sheet rode low on her breasts. Even now, he wanted to crawl back into that bed with her and forget about the rest of the world.
He’d screwed up yesterday. Even with the best of intentions, he’d nearly lost her. He needed to make some changes in his life so it didn’t happen again.
‘Good morning,’ she said, her voice husky from sleep.
‘Morning.’ He walked across the sunlit room and dropped a kiss on her lips. ‘What do you want to do today?’
‘Nothing and everything.’
That sounded like a great plan to him.
They took their time getting started, but eventually spent the day like any other tourists in town. The advantage was that there weren’t many here yet. In the summertime, the quaint little town of Rehoboth Beach ballooned to twenty times its size, but in early spring, the people in town were year-round residents. They strolled along the boardwalk and checked out the souvenir shops and boutiques. Some were open limited hours, while others were closed until the official season began. Funland amusement park wouldn’t be opening for a few more weeks, but the beach arcade was open. They played a few games, and Genieve won a stuffed bear by throwing darts.
They ate lunch on the second-floor deck of The Greene Turtle before heading back to the beach house. It was a perfect spring day without much wind, but the water was still too cold for swimming. They spent time on the beach, lazing around on beach towels, and playing Frisbee. Brody doused Genieve from head to toe in sunscreen. With her fair skin, she couldn’t stay under the bright rays for long. The reflection from the water only doubled the exposure, and it wasn’t like she covered up.
The bikini for the day was emerald green. It matched her eyes, and the halter top provided more support for her full breasts. It was the bottoms that were making Brody’s head cramp. It was a thong. He kept his eye on neighbouring houses as he rubbed the lotion over her pert little derrière. She jerked when he got a bit too intimate, but then relaxed into the sand as his thumb worked round and round. When her leg bent and her toes pointed at the sky, he knew it was time to stop. They could try that later in the privacy of their own bungalow. Still, he had to go into the water to cool off.
She laughed when he let out a curse and quickly headed back. ‘I told you it was too cold.’
He wiped the moisture from his face and looked down at his swimming trunks. ‘It did the trick.’
She grinned. ‘But for how long?’
He dropped onto the towel beside her. ‘Good point.’
Ever since she’d started hanging around, he could get a boner at a moment’s notice.
They spent the day making love and just unwinding. As much time as they’d spent together at his house, the interlude had been stressful. The underlying questions and threats had always been there, sharpening the edges. For once, they could just enjoy each other – without worries, without attention on them, and without that damn Luxxor contract. As open-ended as it had been, it had still gripped their relationship like a vice.
The day passed by and soon it was time for supper. Brody grilled fresh fish they’d bought at the market while Genieve prepared the rest of the meal. They talked through the open kitchen window and then sat down together at the small outdoor table on her deck.
‘Come here,’ Brody said when they’d finished.
She lifted an eyebrow lazily, but followed him when he went to the grill. It was still warm, but the metal cooking grate was cool enough that he could remove it. He propped it up against the deck railing, and she automatically reached for the marshmallows. Her movements stilled when he pulled a set of papers out of his back pocket.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ she asked.
He passed the contract to her, and she unfolded it. Her smile dimmed for the first time all day. ‘What were your plans for this?’
‘I brought it along, thinking I could argue for it.’ He’d run around his house packing so fast he’d forgotten a lot of things – including swimming trunks, which he’d replaced with a purchase along the boardwalk – but he hadn’t forgotten that. ‘I like this option better.’
He pushed the igniter button and the grill’s flame came back to life. He turned it up to high and stepped back. ‘You can do the honours.’
‘Nuh uh.’ She ripped half the pages from their staples and handed them back to him. ‘We’ll do it together.’
As one, they tossed the Luxxor contract into the flames. The fire flared and danced excitedly as it consumed the dry white paper. Soon it was gone, with only ashes at the bottom of the grill to show it had ever existed.
Genieve’s hair swung as she tilted her head. ‘Which felt better? Burning that or the other one?’
‘The other one,’ Brody growled.
She bit her lip. ‘I thought you were jealous when I was with Samuel…even before I really knew you.’
‘Jealous?’ he bit out. ‘Try infuriated, frustrated and just plain out of my head.’
