Surrender (Club X #2)(40)
Author: K.M. Scott

“You grew up here? Wow!” I wanted to say more, but that’s all that came to my mind as I filled my eyes with the view of the gorgeous house in front of me. How wealthy were the Marches?

“Yeah, it was pretty great living here. Cash and I used to love running up and down the hallways when we were little. Then when we got older, we’d dare each other to do dumber and dumber things in the water. We’re lucky we’re still here.”

“It’s stunning, Stefan. Just stunning.”

“I’ll give you the grand tour later. For right now, let’s relax on the beach.”

“Lead the way. After tonight, I could use some relaxing. Any chance there’s a hammock?”

“Sure! We’ll probably fall asleep, though. It’s pretty relaxing down there just listening to the waves.”

Stefan walked toward the beach, but I stopped, unsure this was a good idea. He wasn’t getting the idea of how to be a friend, and I wondered if I’d been duped into coming here just so he could put the moves on me as a captive audience.

He got about twenty yards ahead of me and noticing I wasn’t right behind him, turned around. “You coming?”

I could have asked him what the hell we really were doing here, but what was the point? The guy wasn’t going to hurt me. He hadn’t shown himself to be a rapist or ax murderer. The worst that would happen would be he’d put the moves on me and I’d have to shoot him down again. He stood there staring at me as all this ran through my head, his brown eyes and their sexy look beckoning me.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

As long as I didn’t fall for those eyes and all the other incredibly hot parts of him, I’d be fine.

My feet slid into the cool, damp sand, the tiny grains getting between my toes, and I leaned back on my elbows to look up at the night sky dotted with stars. A typical early November night, a tiny chill cooled the air as it brushed my skin.

I looked to where he lay on the sand next to me. “It’s gorgeous here, Stefan.”

“Yeah, it is.” His eyes widened a little as he looked at me, and he said, “Is it okay if a male friend takes his shirt off when he’s sitting on the beach with a female friend? I don’t want to break any of these friend rules, which by the way, there seem to be a lot of.”

The man could seduce a woman with just that cuteness of his. Even if I didn’t want to smile, I couldn’t help it when he said things like that. He waited for me to answer, to give him permission to take his shirt off, so I pretended to think about it for a minute and then answered, “I guess. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, so I don’t think it would break any friend rules.”

I knew what he was doing. Between the cute and charming thing and the sight of his perfectly ripped half-naked body, he thought I’d forget all about this friend nonsense and sleep with him right here on the beach. As he stripped off his shirt to reveal his toned pecs and abs, I couldn’t help remember the feel of him against my body as we made love that night in my apartment. As much as my head told me no, the rest of me wanted that again.

No! Do not let yourself get seduced by all these things, Shay! You may want to play him, but Carrie was right. He’s out of your league and the only one who’s going to get played is you.

With a smirk that made me want to kiss him or punch him—I couldn’t decide which—he said, “Either you’re staring because you like what you see or…well, I can’t think of another reason why you’d be staring.”

His comment shook me out of my silent adoration of his body and I rolled my eyes, hoping to convince him that I didn’t want him more than anything else in the world at that moment. “You know, if you’re going to get all those tattoos, you shouldn’t be surprised when people look at them. Isn’t that the point?”

Stefan looked down at his arms and torso and shook his head. “No. I don’t get them for anyone else but me. If they were for everyone else, I’d get cartoon characters and Chinese symbols all over my body.”

“Instead of mythological beasts and half-naked women.”

There was that smirk again. It made me feel like he thought he had my number and all he had to do was give me one of those sexy trademark Stefan looks and I’d be on top of him begging him to fuck me.

“For someone who’s only seen me naked once, you seem to know a lot about my tats.”

I felt my cheeks grow hot under his direct stare. That’s what he wanted, though. He wanted to seduce me with his tattoos, his muscles, and every other delicious part of him.

Quickly, I changed the topic before he was successful. “So if we’re going to be friends, Stefan, maybe we should know something about one another.”

“More than how incredible we were in bed together?”

I rolled my eyes again. I knew it! This was all a ploy to get in my pants again.

“I’m guessing by that look that you think we should know more about each other. Ask away. I’m an open book.”

“What’s your favorite thing to eat?” The instant the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them. Stefan was just going to say something sexual and my first attempt at being friends would be ruined.

But then he surprised me.

“Meatloaf.”

“Meatloaf?” The man came from a family that lived in a multi-million dollar waterfront house with its own beach and meatloaf was his favorite thing to eat?

“Yeah, meatloaf.” He leaned back onto the sand and folded his arms behind his head. Looking up at the stars above, he continued, “Sometimes when my father was gone, which was most of the time, my mother would let the cook go for the night and she’d go into the kitchen and make us the most delicious meatloaf you’ll ever taste. I have no idea what she does to make it so good, but I think she puts some kind of tomato sauce and pepper in it. Whatever she does, I love it.”

“Wow. I figured you’d say something like caviar or escargot.”

Turning to look at me, he made a face like he’d just eaten something rotten. “No thanks. Neither one of them even sound good. What about you? What’s your favorite food?”

“Blueberry pie.”

“I don’t know the rules for this game, but I figured the favorite food had to be something you love more than anything else. How often do you have blueberry pie?”

“Not often enough. And there aren’t any rules to this. Just has to be your favorite food. Still want to stick with meatloaf?”