So Much More (4 page)

Stella nodded in agreement.

“I was planning on going to Blackbeard’s Castle at some point so I’ll join you two.” David sipped his wine and winked at Angie. 

All eyes turned to Dean, waiting to find out his plans for the morrow. He looked at David, who shrugged and took another sip of wine, and said, “Blackbeard’s Castle it is.”

Angie didn’t know if she should be excited or start dreading it. Either way, she was already doing a mental inventory of the items in her suitcase, trying to pick out the most sophisticated outfit she brought. After all, she didn’t want to look like Gidget again.

A pair of kaki Capri’s, a light pink ribbed tank top, a light pink ball cap, and white backless tennis shoes made her un-Gidget outfit. She was feeling confident that there was nothing about her outfit to ridicule. So both Dean and Joan would have to find someone else to pick on.

Angie emerged from the room she shared with Stella and walked right in to dean. “Sorry,” she mumbled, not really feeling sorry at all. After all, she did get a second of feeling his hard body against hers and she would take it anyway she could.

“I was just coming to see if you were ready. Stella and David just left to drop dad off at the conference so we’ll have the Jeep today. Do you want some breakfast?”

Breakfast with just Dean?
Alone in the house with just Dean? Suddenly naughty thoughts popped into her mind as to what they could do with their time while they had the condo to themselves, and the only nibbling she wanted to do was on his body. Heat crept into her cheeks and she knew her face had to be a darker shade of pink than her shirt.

She followed Dean in the kitchen and he said, “Blueberry or multi-grain bagel?” He reached for the toaster from its hiding place above the refrigerator.

“Oh, I get it now.” Angie sat on the barstool closest to the kitchen entrance. “You didn’t think I would be able to find the toaster! You took pity on me and offered to make me breakfast so I wouldn’t starve.”

Dean sent her a quirky smile before plugging the toaster cord into the wall. “You caught me. It would have been much more work to just tell you
where the toaster was and sit back and watch you struggle to reach it, even while standing on a chair.”

“Ha ha.
For your information I knew exactly where the toaster was and would have had no problem reaching it.” She pat the leg of the barstool she occupied. “This is much taller than a normal chair and quite sturdy to boot.”

Dean held up the two bags of bagels and said again, “Blueberry or multi-grain?”

She pointed to the blueberry and hop off the stool. “You cook the bagels and I’ll get the drinks.” She pulled out a carton of orange juice from the fridge and turned in search of glasses to pour it in. 

“You know it isn’t safe to stand on a bar stool.” Dean leaned against the counter and watched her strain to reach for the glasses.

“Give me a break Dean. I’m five feet tall, I have to get creative or else I’d never be able to reach anything.” She stood on tiptoes, stretching to reach the only glasses left, which happen to be at the rear of the cabinet’s second shelf. Then she felt it, Dean’s body heat on her back. It seeped through her clothes, warming her backside. His tanned arm reached past hers to grab hold of the two glasses just slightly out of her grasp.

Angie turned her head to glare up into his laughing face and said, “Not a word.”

He handed her the glasses, still standing too close for comfort, and said, “I wouldn’t dare Little Bit.”

After a couple beats of silence he stepped back to the toaster, leaving her breathless and holding the empty glasses. 

It wasn’t until ten minutes later when Stella and David arrived that Angie had completely composed herself. And even then she could still feel his body heat.

Riding in the Jeep with the top off was enough to make Angie willing to give up all of the comforts her of her life just to live by the ocean.  Nothing made her relax like the smell and sounds of the sea. They drove up to Blackbeard’s Castle and set off to the tourist trap. David stuck by Angie, flirting and giving her fun facts about the Castle. She hadn’t laughed so much in months. Her face was beginning to hurt from all the smiling she was doing.

After the tour they made their way back to the Jeep, content with the lazy day, in no hurry to get anywhere.
“Where to now?” Stella asked, hopping into the backseat of the Jeep with Angie.

“I thought we were going to the nude beach?” David asked jokingly.

Angie smiled, not really expecting to go to the nude beach but pleased to play along with David. “So did I! The dress I brought for dinner tonight is sleeveless and I really don’t want tan lines.”

Dean cocked his head to the side and grinned. “And I really don’t want to go to a nude beach with my little sister in tow. Besides, David will embarrass himself by ogling you two and I can’t have that on my conscience.”

“Oh come on Dean, don’t be such a prude!” Stella smiled at Angie and winked before continuing. “I dared Angie to go topless and she never backs down from a dare.”

What was Stella up to? She only jokingly dared Angie to go topless and that was before they even left for the trip.

David laughed, “Seriously? You never back down from a dare?”

Angie shook her head. The truth was that she couldn’t stand the thought of people thinking she was boring so in college she got a reputation for never backing down from a dare, something that got her into trouble more than once.

“This I’ve got to see! Dean, find a nude beach!” David and Stella were laughing uproariously, finding great humor in the fact that Angie wouldn’t back down from the stupid dare.

“We’re already at this beach,” Dean pulled the Jeep into a dirt parking area for one of the beaches. “Let’s just stay and maybe hit the nude beach tomorrow.” Angie looked at Dean in the rearview mirror and sent him
a silent thanks for coming to her rescue. “Besides, I told Jasmine we would be back here today and I’d buy her a drink.” Wait a minute, who was Jasmine? The Victoria’s Secret model from the day before?

Angie was no longer feeling rescued by Dean. In fact she was feeling a bit ticked off that he was willing to pass up a chance to see her half naked for the blonde from the day before. It only fueled her on to take the dare seriously. Now more than ever she was determined to go topless.

“Well how about we drop you off here and the three of us can go to the nude beach?” She suggested and was awarded with the full attention of the others. “Like Stella said, I never back down from a dare.”             

David laughed and slapped Dean on the shoulder. “Get out. I’m driving us to the nude beach. You can stay here and look for your blonde.”

Dean stared at Angie in the rearview mirror. Something flickered in his hazel gaze but she wasn’t sure if it was anger or aggravation. Whatever it was it was directed solely at her.

“The one thing I ask is that Stella keeps her clothes on. I’m not going to have my baby sister stripping in public, especially if I have to be there.”

Stella made an invisible cross over her heart. “My clothes stay on and Angie’s come off.”

Angie jumped in to clarify.
“Just my top. That was the dare.”

Stella laughed and gave Angie a one armed hug. “This is one thing I love so much about you… you can’t help but prove yourself by doing stupid things.”

She was right. Angie just couldn’t help herself. And this time she was out to prove to Dean that she had all the right parts and he was missing out.

This was a huge mistake. He should have stayed back at the last beach and looked for Jasmine. What the hell was he supposed to do when faced with a half naked Angie? Run, that’s what he should do. His life was starting to play out like the eighty’s song Centerfold, about the guy who sees his crush from high school, a girl who was pure as the driven snow, naked in a magazine.

But Dean wasn’t strong enough to walk away from this. He wanted to see her naked. He wanted to punish himself like the masochist he was realizing he was. To see what he couldn’t have in all her glory, well, the top half of her glory anyway.

He clenched his jaw and glared at her in the rearview mirror. It was all her fault. Angela Adel and her puritan disposition and her status as “sister’s friend” made her completely untouchable. He knew a long time ago that dating his sister’s friends was a big mistake. And when he first met Angie he was not so subtly reminded by his sister that her friends were off limits.

It was a good rule, really. Dean wasn’t ready to settle down and the women he spent time with knew that and accepted it. He was only out for fun and Angie was easily hurt. Even thinking about her in sexual fashion was enough to put a strain on his relationship with his sister, as well as his pants.

So he glared at Angie again, pissed at her for even thinking of sullying herself by stripping in public. It seemed so below her. It seemed so demeaning. It seemed like the devil inside him was cackling with anticipation for the show. Danmit!

Chapter Seven

The drive to the nude beach was a short one and David and Stella laughed and joked. Dean was silent, almost brooding.

It ticked Angie off to think he was pissed about not seeing the blonde
again, after all, he could have stayed at the last beach and met up with her. It wasn’t Angie’s fault he chose to go with them. But by the way he was acting he obviously laid the blame on her shoulders.

After pulling into a parking spot they all hopped out of the jeep and gathered there beach gear. Angie’s heart was pounding hard in her chest. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was one dare she shouldn’t go through with. It would be different if Dean and David weren’t with them, in that case she would have had a good laugh with Stella over it.
But as it was her secret crush and his best friend were in tow and it was going to be more embarrassing than she thought when goading Dean into taking them there. 

“Well here we are Little Bit.” Dean stood directly behind her as Stella and David laid out their beach towels. “Are you going to back out now? Faced with the idea of all these people seeing you
naked, or half naked as the case may be? Are you really prepared to have these strange men ogling you?”

He was angry! What did he have to be angry about? He wasn’t the one who was going to let his private parts hang out for the world to see. Suddenly his anger fueled her determination to fulfill the dare. She turned to face him, her eyes fixed on his, holding his hard stare. With a tug she pulled the pink tank top over her head and dropped it at her feet.  His eyes were still focused on hers. Slowly, deliberately, she reached up and untied the blue
strings at her neck, letting them fall. Allowing gravity do its thing, she let the weight of them pull the top of the cups of the bikini. It stopped just short of exposing her nipples.

She was unaware of everyone else except Dean, whose eyes remained focused on hers, holding her stare trapped in his own. She could tell it took all his will power not to look down to where her bikini was resting at the tops of her breasts and this brought a bit of a smile to her face.

Knowing it was now or never, she reached behind her back and unhooked the clasp of the bikini, letting the slip of fabric drop to the sand with her beach bag. Angie stood motionless, eyebrows raised, doing a bit of silent daring of her own. She knew Dean couldn’t resist the urge. Something flickers in his hazel eyes before he lost the battle and looked down.

Never in her life had Angie been as pleased with her body as she was in that moment. She could see Dean’s visible intake of breathe, his hard stare softened and his hand actually shifted in her direction. The appreciation filling his gaze was enough to live on for a year.  

“I told you she’d do it!” Stella’s words penetrated the bubble they had created around them and Angie had an embarrassing moment of realization that she was standing half naked in front of a beach full of people and not just her dream crush.

She turned her head to see Stella and David grinning from ear to ear, obvious understanding of what was happening between Dean and her. “So how long do I have to stay this way?” Angie asked, half joking half serious.

Stella looked up at David with a conspiratorial grin. “How long should we make her stay this way?”

David kept his sunglasses on so it was impossible to know where he was staring, but Angie had an idea his eyes weren’t on her face. “I think she should stay this way indefinitely. I’m enjoying it! If you need help with sunscreen just let me know.”

“Alright, that’s enough!” Dean bent down and retrieved the clothing at Angie’s feet and shoved them at her chest. “Just put your clothes back on and let’s get out of here.”

“We can’t leave yet!” Stella exclaimed. “We just got here and I have yet to see any naked men under the age of seventy.”

“Fine.” Dean mumbled. “I’m going to find a bar.” Then he stormed off, leaving Angie feeling ashamed and embarrassed. She knew she had only brought it on herself, his anger, her embarrassment. But she couldn’t help but hope that they had a bit of a break through, she and Dean. Maybe, just maybe, he could see her as a desirable woman for once.

She put the bikini top back on and set up her towel next to Stella’s. David was on the other side of Stella and they continued whispering about the people on the beach, laughing and carrying on like Angie hadn’t just bared her breasts to the world. 

Dean stayed gone for a while. Long enough that Angie began to speculate he had found some bimbo to have a beach tryst with. 

“I wonder if Dean found a
bar?” Stella voiced one of Angie’s thoughts, the more decent of the two. “I could use a diet Coke.”

Angie pushed herself up, antsy and not willing to remain sitting. “I’ll go get one for you. I need a drink too. David you want anything?”

He shook his head and stretched out on his towel. “No thanks, I might just rest my eyes a minute. Stella, don’t let me cook too long.”

She laughed and winked at me. “Sure David, I’ll just lather sunscreen on you as you sleep.”

The banter continued between them as Angie walked away. It didn’t take long to find a bar crowded with people. Some stood around on the outside of the hut with drinks in hand, some used it as an escape from the hot sun and sat on bamboo stools, sipping their cool beverages and munching on nuts and pretzels.

Angie pushed her way between a couple guys and waited for the bartender to work his way over to her.

“So why did you put your top back on? We liked the show.” One of the guys on the barstool asked her. He appeared to be in his early twenties and working his way into an alcohol induced coma. Angie chose to ignore him.

“If we buy you a drink will you take off the bottoms this time?” The other one asked and they chuckled together, as if they were a witty group instead of an annoying duo.

“Why don’t you keep drinking those beers and perhaps when you pass out you’ll dream about the rest of me naked, because frankly that is the only way it’s ever going to happen for you… in your dreams.” The bartender continued to take orders at the other end of the bar and the two guys kept moving closer and closer to her, sandwiching her between them.

It didn’t take long for Angie to decide she was better off without drinks. She pushed away from the bar, and the drunks, but they followed her.

“So how about we go to one of those huts and have us a private party?” Angie walked faster. “I’m sure we can think of plenty things to do with you.”

She looked around the beach, frantically searching for Stella and David but they were
nowhere to be seen. She walked even faster, her gut beginning to clench in something close to fear.

They guys continued making lewd jokes but it wasn’t until one grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop that she started to panic.

She tugged her arm, attempting to pull it free but he tightened his grip, no doubt creating bruises. “Let go of me.” She said through clenched teeth.

“Come on babe,
lets have a kiss.” The one who held her arm moved in for a kiss just as she drew her knee up hard into his groin.

“Back off!” Angie yelled. His hand dropped away to cup his injured area but his friend jumped in to take his spot.

“Don’t be that way. We can have a good time if you just go with the flow.” He cooed as his hand snaked out to grab her upper arm. But it never made it. The guy was whipped around before Angie even realized Dean was there. His fist connected with the guy’s jaw in a crunch that was heard by anyone passing by.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that drunks are obnoxious? She asked you to leave her alone.” Dean held the guy up by his shirt, his face inches from the bloodied mouth of drunk. “You even think of saying another word to her and I’ll render you sexless. Got it?” The guy nodded before pulling himself out of Dean’s grasp and running off, his friend close on his heels.

Angie sighed. “Thanks Dean-“ But she didn’t have a chance to finish before he hauled her off to one of the empty huts. His grasp on her hand was boarder line painful and her feet were dragging in the sand. He didn’t notice.

“What were you thinking?” He spat out, pulling the canvas flap of the hut closed. “You’re stupidity could have gotten you hurt! There’s no telling what those guys could have done to you if I hadn’t been there to stop them. What is it you were trying to prove by taking your top off in front of the world?”

Angie had never seen Dean angry before. And she was even more startled that it was directed at her. He was so ticked off he was physically shaking with his anger.

She took a step back. “I didn’t do anything to egg those guys on. I didn’t saunter around and shake my ass. I didn’t give them a come
-hither look. And frankly I didn’t do anything that any other woman on this beach isn’t doing. So don’t blame me for their actions.” She tried to shove past him but he blocked her.

“You didn’t do anything? Are you serious?” His voice dropped so low she barely heard him; actually if she wasn’t standing so close she wouldn’t have heard. “Angie you are the most pure female I have ever encountered. You radiate innocents! For you to take your top off in front of all these people was almost like setting off a beacon for unscrupulous males.”
             

He thought she was innocent? He thought she couldn’t handle guys who got the wrong idea? He obviously didn’t know her at all. “For your information I’m not some fresh-faced girl just out of high school! I know how to take care of myself and I don’t need you to act as bodyguard. And for the record, I was handling the situation with those guys just fine before you arrived. You think you saved the
day but all you did was get in the way! And besides, you’re pissed and looking for a fight but don’t take your anger out on me just because you were hoping to get laid and your plans got derailed. I didn’t ask you to come with us, in fact I would still be topless and enjoying myself if you weren’t here!”

Dean stepped even closer, closing off the small gap left between
their bodies and forcing her to look up at him.

“You want to be naked? I can help with that.” His arm snaked around her waist and pulled her hard against his chest, smashing her breasts and making her fully aware of the stone-like erection in his pants. “As for my plans for getting laid… well
you
can help with that.”

His mouth closed over her as his arms half lifted her off the ground. Angie’s body reacted instantaneously. Her arms wrapped around his neck in the same moment her legs wrap around his waist.
How many times had she envisioned just this? Pressing her body to his and getting the lustful reaction she was getting now? But this wasn’t one of her dreams. She had to face him and reality in the morning.

Dean’s hands move to cup her bottom and all thoughts of morning after regrets fled her brain like kids from a school yard. It felt so right… He tasted wondrous as his tongue melded with hers, mimicking what her body was begging him to do with the lower half of his body. She ground her center into his erection, relishing the hard thrust he followed with. There was no hiding the moisture pooling between her thighs and really, she didn’t want to hide it. She wanted him to know she was extremely turned on and it was him that put her that way.

One of his hands moved lower on her bottom until his finger slipped under the elastic of her swimsuit. If he wasn’t aware of her desire before, he was now. He moaned just as his fingers figured that out and her body clenched in response to that purely male sound. Instinctively she moved over his finger, wanting more and silently begging him to give it to her. Her thighs squeezed around his hips just as he slipped a finger inside her.

The world stopped spinning in that moment. Breaking the kiss her head fell back on her shoulders. She could do nothing but feel, feel his fingers moving in her, feel his mouth on her neck, feel his erection growing even harder. Her body was extra sensitive and her mind was savoring every second, storing it all away to dwell on later. 

He sucked and nipped at her neck, doing everything just right to unleash a sigh of desire from her. “Dean…” She whispered, aware of every inch of his body that touching hers.

He added another finger and it shot her body to the boiling point. Nothing else mattered to her
but her own fulfillment, her own desire, and the fact that Dean was the one giving it to her. He moved in her, his eyes focused on her face, gauging her reaction to what he was doing to her body. She held tight to him, squeezing her legs around his waist, her arms pulling his chest closer just as her mouth met his again in a frenzied kiss. Lips, tongue, teeth, she used them all feeling her release building and needing to feel his mouth on hers as she came.

When her orgasm hit it hit hard, steeling the breath from her lungs and constricting every muscle in her body. She couldn’t help but yell out, clenching her arms and legs tighter around his body. Thankfully her yell was captured by his mouth so no one walking by the hut would hear.

They were both breathing hard as Angie spiraled back down to reality. Her wide eyed stare met Dean’s. His face was closed off and she had no idea what he was thinking. Did he enjoy that as much as she had? He withdrew his fingers from her and she tried not to moan in protest. She wanted more of him. She wanted to do things to him. She just wanted.

But the reality of what happened was working its way to the forefront of her mind. Obviously it had already arrived in Dean’s head because he gently set her back down on wobbly legs. Angie cleared her throat and adjusted her bikini bottoms.