Page 143 of Till The Sun Dies (Checkmate 2)

“I will. Thanks.” I set it in my lap and smile. “Truly, thanks.”

“S’okay. Only cost me a buck, and the lady selling it wasn’t weird like the crystal shop lady.”

“What are you guys doing today?” Jess asks. “Baby and I are gonna bake, read, and drink. What about you?”

“I can drink cocktails.” Kane plops a kiss on Jess’ cheek. “I’m happy to bake and drink, too. You wanna teach me how to surf?”

“Sure.” She winds her arms around his neck. “I’ll teach you. It’ll be fun to watch the waves dump you.”

I laugh and accept my almost empty coffee mug back. “Thanks. I’m kinda dragging today.”

“I told you not to stay up all night watching movies.”

“I needed to know that Shadow was okay.”

Ang knows I’ve seen that movie before.Iknow I’ve seen that movie before. But just like last night, it’s fun to pretend we’re both flirting idiots.

“You knew Shadow would be okay, you knew Sassy was okay, you knew how that movie ended. You’ve seen it a thousand times already.”

I laugh and finish my coffee. “Whatever. If a girl wants to drink wine in bed, eat chocolate, and watch Disney movies, then that’s her prerogative. Who are you to bring your hate to the date?”

“No one, obviously.” He snags a piece of toast from my mostly uneaten breakfast and flashes a crumby grin. “I poured the wine Bishop paid for, I took more chocolate from the fridge, and I didn’t complain when you drunk snored.” He looks up. “How am I the bad guy here?”

* * *

“Hey, Ang?”Operation‘Send him insane’has begun. Because he’s right; he poured my drink, he supplied my chocolate, I know for a damn fact he played with my hair last night, and this morning, he was rocking a boner.

For me.

The same way he was rocking a boner at the gun range.

Dark sunglasses have been pulled over his eyes for hours, and a cap shadows the rest of his face and hides him from me.

Lazing on a sun lounge, he lowers a magazine and turns to me. “Yuh?”

“Can you help with my sunscreen? I wanna turn over, but I don’t want to burn my back.”

Straight out of the Girls Gone Wild Spring Break Playbook, I toss a tube of sunscreen into his lap and force him to help. He gets no choice until he admits he’s kinda into me.

“You want me to do your sunscreen?” I canhearthe way he nervously swallows. “Um…” When he looks around and remembers Jess and Kane are in the water, he lets out a deep sigh and picks up the tube.

Not so long ago, I’d consider that a sigh of displeasure. Rejection, even. But now I consider it a sigh of ‘I’m so fucked.’

I sit my half-read book on the ground beneath my lounge and flip over. When he makes noises at the back of his throat that I hope are in appreciation of my ass, I bring my hands under my face and smile when he slowly turns.

His sunglasses hide everything important. They hide his eyes, and they’re usually my window into what he’s thinking, but the twitch of his lips is telling in itself.

He’s shirtless, and wearing orange and black boardshorts that sit on his hips and show off a nice ridge where the V dips into his pants – a V I’ve admired at least a couple times over the years during the summer. His skin is mostly ink free, a direct contrast to the tattoos that cover Kane right up to his throat, but his bulging arms are distraction enough for me.

His chest is broad.

His stomach lined with abdominal muscles.

If he had tattoos, I might catch fire.

“Ang?” I hide my smile when his eyes shoot up in surprise. He was totally studying my ass. “Sunscreen?”

“Yep.” He flips the cap open and squirts the white liquid into his palm.

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