“I won’t argue that.” He stared out, and I glanced back at my food truck.
Bradley’s sign had already faded, the spray paint not holding up against the ocean air. “We have a love-hate relationship with the port and terminals. We make a living off it, but it ruins the beauty.”
“I think we can all work together to bring change to all that,” he murmured like he believed it.
I nodded. “Well, then, I guess I need to get the truck up and running again if this town is going to be thriving soon, right?”
He turned to me with a question in his stare, but something shifted in his gaze before he asked anything. “I’ll get a crew to clean it out and have security come when you want to work.”
“I don’t need security.”
“I think that’s the only way I’m going to let that happen, Morina.”
“Let it happen?” The statement rubbed me the wrong way, like someone stroking a cat from tail to head.
He watched a seagull flying by, white against the blue skies. “It’s a matter of safety, not control.”
With a sigh, I conceded, not sure I wanted to fight him on that front. I didn’t know how much it would cost him to have the food truck secured, but I wanted to make my small amount of money, and I missed my customers, the feel of the beach, and the smoothies too.
We walked to the edge of the water in silence, both probably unsure how to broach the subject of our marriage and the ridiculous measures we had to take so that these port shares could be easily transferred to Bastian.
Before our toes hit the water, I dropped the board near me and he followed suit. “So, Bradley might be a little bigger than you. The board will be fine though.”
Bastian’s eyes narrowed at my assessment. As I stared at him, his shadow engulfing me, I reassessed because Bastian was a whole head taller than me.
He slid off his T-shirt, the movement unhurried.
I didn’t look away. Instead, I sucked my bottom lip in between my teeth and stared like a hungry dog. He was muscles on top of muscles and abs over abs and that vein on his pelvic area that dipped under his swim trunks was much too distracting.
I’d had him before.
I knew how it all felt. How big he was and how well he maneuvered his size.
“Morina.” His voice was thick and full of gravel. He dragged a finger from my collarbone up to my chin, tipping it up so I could look at him. “You’re staring where you shouldn’t be,piccola ragazza. Don’t do that, love, unless you intend to do something about it.”
I stepped back and cleared my throat. The way I wanted to take him up on the offer wasn’t at all healthy. He and I both knew that. “Sorry. You’re normally in a suit and normally not so…” I waved at his abs. “So on display.”
“Only reason you’re looking?”
“Sure,” I said, moving on from the uncomfortable questioning. I’d been holed up in that penthouse for way too long. He was running around for work and probably still indulging in women. I couldn’t possibly bring a guy back.
It was a topic we’d have to discuss later.
The idea caused a fire in my stomach, hot and worthy of fury if I thought about it. Instead, I whipped my own shirt off, and when I looked back at him, he was staring exactly where he shouldn’t be too.
Good. I wasn’t the only one. I’d expected that and honestly hoped for it. I’d worn a smaller bikini and it was a bright coral instead of the normal black and white ones I wore.
I don’t know why I’d needed to get his attention that day, I just knew that I wanted him to look at me like I was attractive enough. Maybe it was the fact that I was all too aware of his beauty or that I wasn’t sure if I’d just been a girl in the right place at the right time that first night.
I wasn’t a diamond like most of the women I was sure he dated. I wore baggy clothes with the color fading. I didn’t do my nails, and I didn’t even try to act girly. I embraced astrology and the smell of damn oil in shakes for a living.
To most men, I was easy, not unique. I was there and willing, not rare and one of a kind. I was okay with that because they were the same for me. I didn’t want anything more or less from the men I’d hooked up with the past.
Now, I had five months left with a man I thought I actually enjoyed as a sort of friend. I know I enjoyed his crepes, that was for sure.
Standing at the edge of the water, I explained the basics of surfing. He didn’t seem to get it when I told him it was going to be difficult.
He smirked in my face like the cocky boss he thought he was here.