Twisted Minds (5 page)

Six

The Lake

When we got to Ripley Beach later that afternoon, I was more than a little tipsy.

Finn wasn’t any better. Running into Cass had screwed him up, and as soon as we’d gotten back to his house, he’d stretched out on his deck and started popping cans of beer and slamming them down like they were water.

Since neither of us were in any condition to drive, his mom had to drop us off at the beach like we were a couple of irresponsible teenagers. Currently, Finn was stumbling along beside me as we made our way through a line of thickly grown trees and out onto the pebbly beach.

It was a lake, really, as Theresa had explained to me in the car. The “sand” was actually dirt and pebbles, and the beach was just a small part of Lake Erie which ran further west through several states.

A warm breeze hit me as I stood for a moment on top of the slope enjoying the view. The sun was just beginning to set, casting an orange glow on the surface of the lake. In the fading light I could tell the lake water was pretty clean, which was a nice change from the dirty water in New York City. You wouldn’t dare swim there.

There were several groups of people hanging around on the beach, none of whom immediately stood out. I finally caught sight of Finn’s three friends from the other night, and pointed them out to him.

Nodding sluggishly, he began ambling in their direction. I followed after him with the cooler because he seemed to have forgotten about it in his intoxicated state.

“Hey, man, you look pretty hammered,” Buddy commented as we reached them.

“I’ve had, like, two, three beers,” Finn responded, slurring his words a little.

More like, five, six.

“It’s good to see you again, Nate,” Amanda said to me, her freaky pale eyes raking up and down my body.

She had a can of Bud Light in her hand that had clearly lowered her inhibitions. A multi-colored, geometric print bikini clad her bony body, and she probably thought she looked pretty good. I thought she looked like she needed to eat a cheeseburger or two. 

“You too.” My tone was bland, but Buddy still shot me a look that could kill, which I ignored as I greeted Jackson with a nod.

The guy was blazed. His eyes were squinty and red as he grinned and nodded at us. Good for him. At least he could chill, unlike Buddy over here.

“Did you see what your sister’s wearing?” Amanda asked Finn, a hint of disapproval in her tone.

“No.” Finn shook his head, turning around to scour the beach.

Curiosity piqued, my eyes also wandered across the beach until, bam, they fell on her.

Kira was standing several feet away, closer to a slope which led up to rockier terrain. I hadn’t expected to see her here, especially not like this.

Her hair was messily swept up in a high ponytail, highlighting her incredible cheek bones that could cut glass. While all the other girls around her were wearing bright two-pieces, Kira stood out—she was different. She wore something a girl from the west coast would wear.

She was in a white one-piece that complemented her creamy skin. The swimsuit had dramatic cut-out panels along her bikini line and the sides of her obliques, giving it a strappy appearance. It actually made it appear even more provocative in comparison to the tiny two-pieces the other girls were wearing.

I had to admit, even I was blown away with how fashion forward she was. I’d been expecting a good girl from a small town—the gangly girl I remembered from back when she’d been younger. She was no longer the same shy girl who would rather sit in a corner reading a book.

This woman—she was foreign to me, and all I wanted was to know more about her.

The people—mainly men—hanging around her were speaking rather animatedly to her, and she looked radiant as she interacted with them with a beer in hand, occasionally brushing loose tendrils of blonde hair from her face.

There was a big, sandy haired, tan guy who looked like he hit the gym a lot. He seemed to be paying extra attention to her, grinning at her like a buffoon as he spoke. An unexpected pang of jealousy shot through me when I noticed Kira was sneaking shy glances at him.

Was this doofus her boyfriend or something?

Then she smiled at him—the first smile I’d seen on her face—and even from here I could see the dimple appear on her cheek. A strange sensation rippled through me, like water gently lapping against the shore, and a thought planted itself in my mind.

I wanted to make her smile like that. I wanted her to smile for me.

Then her eyes met mine, and an explosion hit my chest. That undeniable chemistry that had formed between us in her room was flowing through my body. The smile fell from Kira’s face and she seemed unsettled at finding me here.

Finn followed my gaze, groaning when he caught sight of his sister. “Are you fucking kidding me? Does she want every sleazebag out here to throw themselves at her?” Swaying a little, he caught her eye and motioned at her with a little too much anger.

From across the beach, her face flamed as she excused herself from her friends and headed towards us. We began to inelegantly walk down the slope towards her, and I glanced over at Finn’s unsteady feet in case he fell over and ate dirt.

My eyes flew back to Kira, drinking in every inch of her hot body. Those once gangly legs had kept their length, but her thighs were now thick with muscle while the calves were a little slimmer.

I loved the way her tiny waist curved into fuller hips, with a flat stomach and abs clearly visible. Then there were those perfect tits that bounced with each step, practically spilling out of the neckline of her swimsuit.

Every man watched her. Every woman shot her a dirty look. And the truth was like a slap to the face—Kira Walsh was stunning, captivating. I noticed the blond dude was studying her like a hawk. He turned back to his friends and they all laughed and high-fived each other.

A monster snarled in my chest as I watched them with narrowed eyes. I wasn’t sure why I’d suddenly grown so jealous, but I couldn’t ignore the feeling.

“Kira, did you forget to wear clothes?” Finn asked, his tone chiding as his sister drew closer.

Surprisingly, she didn’t seem mad that he was questioning her outfit. Instead, she lowered her head as her ears turned pink. “Do I look ridiculous?”

Before Finn could say anything, I let out a laugh of disbelief. “Fuck no.”

Kira’s head snapped up and she frowned at me as though wondering if I was actually being serious. “Um, what?”

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to figure out how I could say what I wanted to say without getting my ass beat by Finn. “There’s a reason why every single guy on this beach is staring at you right now, and it’s not because you look ridiculous.” At the risk of sounding like one of those guys, I had to curb my excitement a little. “It’s because you look like a fantasy, like one of those unattainable porn star girls.”

Kira’s eyes widened in shock, and her mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?” Her eyes flashed in anger and—exactly what I wanted—surprise.

I wasn’t going to be one of those drooling guys, even though I was drooling on the inside. I wasn’t going to tell her how incredible she looked and fawn over her. I won girls my way—each one was different. This was my Kira technique.

“Nate, for fuck’s sake, you can’t just call my little sister a porn star.” Finn’s tone turned serious, but he wasn’t very intimidating, especially when he was intoxicated. “I’m trying to teach her to respect her body.”

Raising my hands defensively, I took a step back and looked her up and down. “The way that thing’s cut, it looks like her body’s getting the respect it deserves.” My mouth turned upwards in a smirk.

Kira’s face was flaming now. She was anger and embarrassment all rolled into one. Seriously, though, if she wasn’t aware of her own hotness then she really was naïve as hell.

“I’m gonna knock your teeth out,” Finn threatened, turning on me.

“I’m waiting,” I retorted, assuming an air of jadedness.

In a fight, I’d say the two of us were pretty equal. Finn was thicker with broader shoulders, but I was taller with more muscle mass. We’d both played football and ran track throughout college, so athletically we were tied. This moment would come down to the simple fact that he was slightly more intoxicated than I was, therefore I had the advantage over him.

We were too close, though. Aside from arguing over leftovers, we’d never fought in our lives. Sure, he didn’t agree with my playboy lifestyle, and refrained from indulging in women the way I did, but he overlooked all of that. He was the brother I’d never had.

Finn rolled his eyes at me, reaching down to pull a beer from the cooler and crack it open. “You’re not helping, Nate.” In the case of his scantily dressed sister, alcohol could help.

With a sigh, I focused on Kira again. “What your brother is trying to say is you look smoking hot to every guy here. You make the other girls look like dried up dog shit in comparison.” She blinked at me in surprise as I spoke. “So, considering every guy here is gawking at you, Finn is having a hard time trying to decide whose teeth to knock out first.”

“Thank you,” Finn said, breathing a sigh of relief as he chugged his beer.

I wasn’t done yet. “So, while you do look fucking incredible, don’t do anything that’s gonna make your brother go to jail, because trust me, he will kick the shit out of someone for you, and I’ll be right there by his side.”

Finn shot me a grateful smile, and threw me a beer.

“That’s not exactly the lecture I was expecting,” Kira said, her blue eyes clouded with confusion. She still wasn’t sure what to make of me, and I wanted to keep it that way. “But it sounded better coming out of your mouth than my brother’s.”

Probably because she didn’t want her brother describing how she looked. That was about as weird as things could get. Weirder than me walking into her room and seeing her half-naked, that’s for sure.

“Hi, Finn,” someone said cautiously from behind us.

Right then and there, I wanted to grab Finn by the arm and drag him to the other end of the beach. I knew exactly who that voice belonged to and I would rather eat a dozen cacti then stand here and listen to her fucking bullshit.

Refusing to turn around, I took a swig of my beer. Kira shot me a look of confusion, probably wondering why I was being so rude. She didn’t have a fucking clue.

“Cassid-whoa,” Finn started to say, then abruptly stopped.

Whoa? That wasn’t a good sign.

My curiosity got the better of me. I turned around.

As my eyes took in Cass’s outfit, or lack of, it became pretty clear exactly why Finn had stopped mid-sentence. I tried my hardest not to groan out loud at how blatantly whorish and desperate she was coming across.

Our dear Cass had stooped about as low as she could go. She’d showed up in a black thong bikini. I wasn’t joking. The girl’s ass cheeks were practically flapping in the breeze. She’d positioned herself in an awkward side standing way where we could get a scope of her entire outfit. And Finn’s eyes were scoping out of control.

I elbowed him pretty fucking hard in the ribs, making him jump and slosh some of the beer out of his can and onto the pebbly ground.

Finn was done with her—she needed to move the hell on. Sure, the way Kira was dressed was definitely out there too, but I found her appearance rather thought provoking—it provoked my thoughts of how I was going to do her from behind.

“We need to stop running into each other like this,” Cass said, fluttering her lashes at him.

Those lashes looked fake as hell and she had way too much makeup on for an afternoon at the beach. I preferred the way Kira had opted for no makeup, only choosing to highlight her lips with that shiny, pink stuff.

Also, I needed to stop comparing everything to Kira.

“Yeah, you too,” Finn said, continuing to make an obvious sweep of her body.

My fingers itched to smack him across the back of the head. Cass noticed his non-subtleness, and practically glowed.

“Hi, Kira! You look gorgeous!” she cried, clapping her hands together like a well-trained seal. “I saw Greg checking you out earlier.”

Who the fuck was Greg?

Out of the corner of her eye, Cass smirked at me. That single smirk conveyed a lot, mainly the fact that there were other guys competing for Kira’s attention. The bet flashed through my mind.

“Thank you! You look perfect!” A dazzling smile appeared on Kira’s face again, that indent appearing on her cheek. “Yeah, he’s been trying to impress me all night talking about the new truck his parents bought him.”

I almost threw up. Kira was the one who looked perfect. Cass looked like she’d just finished her shift at the local strip joint.

Stepping forward, Cass nodded back at where a group of people were standing around a huge pile of wood, probably for a bonfire. “Wes is making some crazy drinks over there if you’re interested.”

“Sounds good!” Kira said with a grin. “Amanda and Buddy bought a whole case of Red Bulls so we can do Jager Bombs.”

This entire time, Finn had been staring at Cass like a moron.

“Um, Finn.” Cass inched closer, batting her stupid lashes at him again. “Could I maybe talk to you for a sec? Alone.” She shot me a dark look.