Page 25 of Beauty and Kaos

She smiles. “Like you?” She turns toward me, walking backward to maintain her distance.

I cock an eyebrow at her. “I dare you.”

“You have no idea how dangerous I can be.”

I nod. “I have an idea.”

She smirks, starts to turn, then swings at my head. I duck, grab her wrist, and twist it behind her back in a move that pulls her flush against my chest, with her other arm pinned under mine.

She struggles, her breath warm against my neck as she peers up at me from beneath a curtain of purple hair. I can feel her smooth legs between mine, her feet in the sand, her breasts heaving as she catches her breath. The fit of her against me is perfect. Delicate curves against the muscles and edges of me.

“You balled your fist before you swung.”

She smiles. “You’re good at this.”

I nod, and casually take a pull from the cigarette with my free hand. She struggles against me, and I release her.

“Want to try again?”

“When you least expect it,” she replies.

When she moves away, the moonlight catches a collection of lines and colors on the inside of her forearm. Curious, I catch her wrist, and she stills, glancing up at me.

“What’s this?” I ask, moving her arm into the light andrunning my thumb over the image. I smile. “I didn’t know you had a tattoo.”

I trace the intricate lines around in a circle. A Fibonacci spiral overlapping a watercolor ocean wave, with words beneath.

“All the oceans touch,” I read, looking back at her.

She swallows hard, and pulls her arm from my hand. “It’s just something someone said to me once that made sense. Like, we’re all connected. Despite time or distance or circumstance. We exist together as one world.” She slides her hands back into her pockets.

I raise an eyebrow at her. “The ocean as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of life. Very un-Nebraska of you,” I comment.

She glances over at me. “Are we judging people based on tattoos now?” Her gaze travels down my arms. “If that’s the case, where do you want me to start?”

I smile. “I’ve never met a woman who doesn’t like to talk about herself. I have to start assuming things at some point.”

“Assume all you want. I’m mysterious for a reason.”

“To drive me crazy?”

“Yes, exactly that,” she replies sarcastically. “Or, I don’t know. You could use your overactive deductive reasoning skills to determine why a woman would want to put twelve hundred miles between her past and present.”

I take a pull from my cigarette and pass it over to her. “You don’t have to tell me today. I’ll get it out of you eventually.”

“I applaud your confidence, as misplaced as it may be.” She takes the cigarette from me and hits it.

In the distance, I hear the cackle of Mia’s laughter echoingdown the beach. They run across the back deck of the Sandbar and cross the beach toward us. I sigh.

“Doesn’t anyone sleep around here?” Ivy asks, arching an eyebrow.

I shake my head. “Not during the summer. Winters are for sleeping.”

“Holy shit,” Mia says, running into the water. “I haven’t seen it like this in ages.” She splashes through the shallow water in a shower of blue sparks.

“I thought you were going home,” I shout toward Nick, and he shakes his head.

“You know all I do is chase this girl,” he replies with a smile as she stalks back to him. His hands slide down her wet body as he dips his head, and takes her mouth with a kiss. I roll my eyes and glance over at Ivy, catching her strange yet amused stare. My eyes narrow.

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