Operation Foreplay (20 page)

I coiled my hair into a messy bun, grabbed my toothbrush, and made my way to the bathroom Jared and I would be sharing. He walked in as I finished brushing my teeth.

Wearing nothing but boxer shorts.

And a six-pack of tight abs.

And a happy trail that begged for my tongue to take a trip.

I shook my head and sprayed toothpaste all over him and the mirror.

“Really?” He wiped the foam from his cheek. “I walk in wearing boxers and you lose your mind.”

“What? I didn’t… You can’t…” He was kind enough to give me the heads-up that I was caught looking by the large shit-eating grin plastered across his face. I decided to rise above it and be the mature one. I stomped my foot, growled—yes growled—and stormed quietly back to my room. I didn’t want to wake my parents, after all.

I felt the bed sink when he climbed in. My back was to him. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of my eyes popping out of my head when I checked out his body. So I kept my eyes away.

“Mel?”

“Yeah?”

“I ate too much.”

“I told you that you were going to have a stomachache.”

He shifted in the bed and I could feel him lift the covers off himself and toss them to my side of the bed. The pillow that separated us followed.

“Mel?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you rub my belly?”

“Seriously?”

He rolled over, big spooning my little spoon, and nuzzled his face into my neck. Maybe it should have been awkward but it wasn’t. It felt—I don’t know. Felt like something. Something
simmer-y.

“It really hurts,” he whispered into my hair.

“Hold on.” I went to the bathroom, took the Pepto from the medicine cabinet, and filled a glass with water, then took them to Jared.

“Drink this.”

He took the bottle and downed about half of it.

“Do you need water?” I asked.

“No, thanks.” He groaned.

I placed the water on the side table and slid back into bed. I nestled my head into the crook of his arm and lightly rubbed his stomach.

“Use your nails,” he mumbled.

“Awfully bossy for someone whose stomach is about to revolt.”

“Lower.”

“What?”

“You know you want to.”

I rubbed his belly in silence, thinking about what Zac had said about my being free and what Jared had said about wanting to get to know me and I had to admit that from the moment he helped me carry the bags up to his sister’s apartment, I had been intrigued. Something about him threw me into a tizzy. He was refreshing, unpretentious. He made me feel good, feel safe. I wanted him and not just for sex. For something I wasn’t sure I could admit. And because of that feeling, I knew I needed to keep sex off the table for now. Especially after what happened earlier.

God, this is gonna be hard.

Pun intended.

Propping myself up on my elbow, I leaned my face close to his. I spent an awful lot of time admiring the high cheekbones, perfect eyebrows, and day-old stubble that I wanted to feel rubbing between my thighs. My stomach flopped at the thought and I had to reach under the covers and adjust my shorts.

“Did you just adjust yourself?” He opened one eye and looked at me.

I yelped and jolted back, nearly falling off the bed. “You’re awake?”

“You didn’t answer my question.” Both eyes were closed.

“For your information, men are not the only ones who have to adjust themselves on occasion.”

“Yeah, but when we do it it’s because we have a boner. Do you have a lady boner that needed adjusting?”

“I do not have a lady boner!” I totally had a lady boner.

“I’m just sayin’. You stare at me, an inch from my face, for like a minute then you reach under the covers and adjust yourself. Were your panties shifted over or something? Did your lady boner push them aside? Are your panties all wet now?” He rolled over and propped himself up on his elbow and stared directly at me. “I am suddenly interested in the size and scope of your lady boner.”

“For your information, I am not wearing panties.” What sounded like a great comeback to prove he was wrong turned out to come across as nothing more than a cheap come-on.

He rolled over on his back, looked at the ceiling, and blew out a long breath.

“Is your stomach bothering you?” I asked, suddenly worried.

“No. The Pepto worked. Thank you.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I need to adjust my shorts.”

“You’re an ass.” I hit him with my pillow and he rolled over and tackled me.

“Mel?” He lay on top of me, his lips close to mine.

“Yeah?”

“Will you rub my belly again?”

“No!” I pushed him off me, laughing.

“Well, the least you can do is adjust my shorts.”

I smacked him in the face again with the pillow. “Jared?”

“Yeah?”

“Go to sleep.”

“Only if you’re little spoon.”

“Fine.” I rolled so my back was to him and he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my hair.

He whispered, “Definitely going to have to adjust my shorts.”

I elbowed him in the stomach, smiled, and closed my eyes.

Chapter Sixteen

W
ake up!” I hit Jared with a pillow. “We have yoga on the beach in…”—I checked my phone for the time—“fifteen minutes.”

“I don’t want to.” He stretched, tightening his back muscles as his arms reached above his head, and disappeared under the pillow.

“You promised. Let’s go. Up. Up. Up.” I ripped the blanket off him and tossed it on the floor. Taking a moment to admire the way his boxers sat just below his tan line, I chewed the inside of my cheek, wishing it were his ass I was biting. “Come on.” I took a chance and slapped his ass.

“Did you just slap and grab?”

“I slapped. There was no grab.”

“I distinctly felt a bit of cuppage. You grabbed.” He turned his ass toward me. “Do it again.”

“If I grab your ass will you get up and go do yoga with me?”

“Yes.”

“Fine.” I saw him tense as he waited for me to take a handful. Laughing, I kicked a leg over and straddled the backs of his thighs. With my hands hovering over each of his cheeks, I heard him inhale right before I performed the ultimate smack, grab, and lift on his perfect ass. His tiny groan caused my lady parts to throb a bit. “Now can we go? As it is we’ll have to run to get there on time.”

He shifted under me so I was straddling the most important part of his boxer shorts and placed a hand on each of my thighs, his fingertips grazing just underneath the hem of my running shorts. “I like your shorts.” He squeezed my thighs.

“Thank you.” Just to tease him, I squeezed my thighs against him and shifted.

Reaching up, he ran his finger across the bottom of my bright orange sports bra. “I like your sports bra shirt thing.”

“Again, thank you.” I pushed his hands down.

He sat up quickly, pinned my arm behind my back, and pulled me closer to him. I could feel him between my legs and I inhaled sharply. Nuzzling against me for a moment Jared finally whispered, “Do I have time to pee?”

“You have time to pee,” I was barely able to squeak out. I thought my tongue would jump out of my mouth and lick him all on its own.

“Great.” He let go of my arm, grabbed me by my ass, and lifted me off, tossing me to the side of the bed. He pulled on the sleeveless shirt I threw at him, and stepped into a pair of running shorts.

I pulled two water bottles from the fridge and tossed him one when he walked in the kitchen, still groggy from a night of gorging himself on fried everything.

“We gotta go.” I handed him a towel as we headed out the door.

We jogged easily to the yoga class that was already in progress and joined in after tossing our shoes in a pile and laying out our towels. Thankfully, they were still in seated meditation, so we didn’t miss much. I found a spot at the end of a row and Jared fit himself in behind me.

At five minutes after six in the morning, I was sitting on the beach clearing my head of extraneous gunk. The salty breeze felt good against my skin and the soft flow of the waves calmed me. Yoga had always been a favorite of mine. A simple retreat into meditation helped my often hectic life.

We moved from our sitting mediation, stood, and stretched our arms upward before moving to downward dog. I could feel my body stretch, the sun fall on my exposed skin. I could hear Jared’s low whistle behind me. I giggled and gave him the tiniest shake of my ass before we moved to plank and back to downward dog. For the next forty minutes we went through leg raises, knee circles, and cobra planks before finishing up with a forward fold and stretch upward.

I shook out my towel and took a swig of water as I looked out to the ocean. Jared handed me my sneakers.

“Thanks. You hungry?” I asked, my eyes still on the rolling waves.

“I could eat.”

I turned to look at him and smiled. “We’d have to run for it.”

“Run for what?”

“Breakfast. Banana pancakes to be specific. The best in the world. All the way down the boardwalk to the hotel past the Towers. You up for it?”

“So I get to run with the most limber girl I’ve met in a long time—nice downward dog, by the way—”

“Thanks.”

“All the way down the boardwalk to some random hotel to eat the best banana pancakes in the world?” He pursed his lips, tied his sneakers, and said, “Wouldn’t miss it.”

He smacked my ass and took off toward breakfast. I had to dodge a large number of bicyclers before I caught up.

“No fair.” I settled into his rhythm.

“All’s fair,” he responded.

“In love and war,” I finished.

“So which is it?” He glanced toward me.

“Which is what?” I tried to keep my eyes ahead, knowing full well what he was asking.

“Love or war?”

I fell back, running behind him as he clarified.

“Today?” I smiled. “War.” I pantsed him and took off as fast as I could, knowing he’d catch up soon.

When he didn’t immediately run up behind me and exact his revenge, I turned and trotted backward, looking for him. I didn’t see him. I stopped running and walked back toward the spot where I’d dropped his pants. I chewed my fingernail, worried that maybe I’d gone a bit too far and pissed him off. Well, pop a point on my tally sheet for being an asshole.

“Jared?” I yelled.

Turning around, I couldn’t figure out where he’d gone, though I could probably guess he was back at my parents’ condo packing up his shit so he could get the hell out of here. I was beginning to panic when a weird feeling washed over me; anxiety mixed with something not quite familiar. It was almost like, maybe I—my stomach almost revolted at the thought—missed his being around or something.

I’d spent almost five minutes looking for him on the boardwalk, finally given up, and started walking back to the condo when out of nowhere I was lifted off the ground and thrown over a muscular shoulder.

“What the fuck! Put me down!” I yelled and hit the back of my attacker. Until I noticed the ass that was attached to the body of the muscular shoulders belonged to Jared.

“You ass! I thought you left.”

“Nope.” He continued to carry me, stepping off the boardwalk onto the sand.

“I was looking for you.”

“I know.” He laughed and quickened his pace.

I turned my head to see that we were headed straight for the water. “Don’t you dare!”

“You asked for it.” He reached the water and ran in, hopping over the small waves that rolled in.

I gripped his shirt in a frantic attempt to remain dry and the fabric tore away as he pulled me by my hips and tossed me in the ocean. We were only in waist deep but for a moment it felt much deeper. The water was colder than I thought it would be and my laughter was momentarily stifled by the shock of the temperature. Jared was doubled over laughing so hard he didn’t notice that I’d caught my breath and wrapped my arms around his leg. I yanked it out from under him and he splashed in next to me.

“How’s it feel?” I laughed.

“I had to do something. You pulled my pants down in the middle of the boardwalk! Good one, by the way. You got me. Wasn’t expecting that. You’re lucky I was wearing underwear.” He ducked his head under a small wave.

“For what it’s worth”—I let a wave push me a bit closer to him—“you have a great ass. I am sure patrons of the boardwalk were honored to be in its presence.”

He cocked his head and smirked. “I think you just wanted to see my ass.”

“Oh you do, do you? Hardly.” I rolled my eyes but the picture of his perfect ass walking away from me back at my apartment stomped through my brain.

He wiped water from his face. “If you wanted to see my ass, you could’ve just asked.”