Page 22 of Shadowed Rubies
Just as I was getting ready to say I would call for a ride back to town and leap out of his truck, he surprised me by saying, “I hate it that those asshats have made you feel self-conscious, but it’s okay.”
Reaching a hand out, he brushed the back of his fingers along the side of my jaw. “I’ll never ask you to do anything you don’t want to. If you say something is off-limits, I won’t push you.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude for his caring, considerate response, I said, “Thank you, but we both know this will never work out. You are a self-proclaimed boob man, and I have serious issues with sharing mine.”
Max shook his head and said, “Don’t give it another thought.”
I gave him a watery-eyed smile, but knew that I would probably give it a lot more thought. I didn’t want to deprive Max of one of his favorite things, but even during the brief trysts I’d taken part in during my residency at Boston General, I’d never allowed my shirt to come off. With those meaningless flings, it hadn’t really mattered because it was more a brief meeting of our parts to satiate a mutual need. With Max, though, it would matter… a great deal.
Obviously trying to ease my concerns, Max said, “Would it make you feel better if you knew the rude nickname those jerks in high school had for me?”
I doubted that it would help at all, but I nodded anyway.
Max exhaled a deep breath before revealing, “Maxi pad.”
I couldn’t help snorting out a surprised laugh. Max exuded raw sex appeal, and he always had. The fact that classmates had devised a disparaging name for someone as popular, cool, and likeable as him did manage to make me feel somewhat better.
Feeling guilty for laughing, I pulled myself together and said in a serious tone, “Kids can be so mean.”
“Indeed,” he said solemnly, before brightening with an idea. “How about if you go in the water up to your belly button?”
At my wary look, he added, “Final offer.”
Unwilling to go back on my word, I said, “Deal,” before reluctantly climbing down from his truck to go face my frigid fate.
25
Max
I’d thought Dani would back out from actually going in to the freezing sea water, but she was a woman of her word. She complained the entire time, but she walked out to the shoreline and began removing her shoes and socks.
When she pulled down her brother’s baggy sweatpants, I had the distinct impression that I might pass out from all of the blood rushing out of the head on my shoulders and down to my other one. Dean’s tee shirt was long enough to cover her all the way to her upper-thighs, but seeing the chill bumps arise on her bare, pale, and toned legs was almost more than I could handle.
The woman was raw, pure sex appeal, and she didn’t seem to have any idea. If I knew who had said those awful things to make her so self-conscious about her breasts, I would pummel them to a bloody pulp. She was physical perfection, and for anyone to make her feel otherwise should be a crime.
As she hopped on both feet, gearing herself up to run into the frigid water, I reminded myself that the woman was fragile and needed to be handled with extreme care. My base urge to reach out and crush my face to hers before burying myself deep inside her right then and there would not bode well for my chances of winning her heart.
“I can do this,” she chanted over and over, gearing herself up for the challenge.
Making a snap decision, I kicked off my own shoes and yanked at my socks. It might be crazy, but I wasn’t going to let her do this alone. She turned back when she heard the sound of me pulling down the zipper on my jeans. Not wanting her to worry that I was up to something nefarious, I said, “You go, I go.”
She gave me a smile that made warmth spread in my chest as I kicked aside my pants. That extra bit of heat was a good thing because the next thing I knew, she let out a whoop and charged toward the water.
Not giving myself time to think about it, I yanked my shirt up over my head and ran after her. Her shocked screech told me that the water was as cold as it looked, but I couldn’t turn back now.
The icy chill of the water climbing up to my ankles almost froze me into place, but I couldn’t wimp out in front of Dani. I followed her out to waist-deep water.
“Far enough?” she yelled in my direction, even though I was right beside her.
I nodded, thrilled by the prospect of turning back and heading to shore. I’d brought us both towels and a big blanket to wrap up in, and I couldn’t wait to be enveloped in their dry warmth.
Rather than running back to the beach as I’d expected, Dani surprised me by saying, “We’ve come this far… We might as well go all the way.”
With that, she dropped and plunged her entire body under the water.
Just when I thought she couldn’t possibly get any more amazing, she went and did it. Beaming with the realization that I was falling for a crazy person, I followed her lead and dunked myself.
We both surfaced spluttering. I felt like my body was frozen in place, even though every instinct I had was screaming at me to head to shore. It wasn’t until Dani raced to the beach that I was able to move and follow her.
