40-Love - Olivia Dade Page 0,86

down to give her a light kiss, cognizant of how drenched his clothing was after another steamy day spent in the summer sun.

“Want to keep me company in the shower before dinner?” He grinned at her. “It may be a clown car, but at least we have enough room to honk each other’s red noses.”

Her own nose, slightly pink, wrinkled. “Are you referring to my clitoris as a red nose? And saying you’ll honk it? Because I think my vagina just went completely dry.”

“Cut me some slack.” Helping her up from the bench, he steered them toward his apartment. “Sexualizing clowns is hard, especially in my non-native language.”

“Wait, Lucas.” She tugged him to a halt on the sidewalk. “You don’t need a shower.”

The breeze plastered a strand of her dark hair across her cheek, and he tucked it gently behind her ear. “Is this about the red nose thing? Because I promise not to honk your clitoris.”

“No, it’s not about your weird clown shit.” She rolled her eyes. “We’re going to the beach. You can rinse off in the water, so you don’t need a shower.” Her head tilted toward the clubhouse. “Just drop off your stuff upstairs. I’ll meet you back out here.”

Normally, they talked through their options and decided their evening plans together, but if she particularly wanted to visit the beach that night, no problem. Obligingly, he left her by the clubhouse and let himself into his apartment, depositing his gear just inside the door before locking it behind him again and returning to her side.

She took his hand and led him past the family beaches, past the adults-only sandbar they both loved, past the gardens and the rocks and the overlook, to the most distant beach of all.

The nude beach.

At the very end of the sidewalk, a discreetly labeled, sandy path led toward shore. Before the beach and water came into view, though, they had to pass single-file through a narrow gap in a veritable wall of shielding shrubs.

Then the vista appeared before them, all azure waves and palms swaying over the white-gold expanse of shore. The pristine arc of sand was entirely guarded by that wall of shrubbery. And in the early evening, just before sunset, the beach was oddly deserted, empty of everything but a few scattered loungers and a bird or two darting across the sand, hunting diligently for dropped food.

As well as, unexpectedly, a white canvas tent the size of a small room. And a very familiar person in resort uniform standing just outside the tent’s entry flap.

Brendan was bent over his phone, texting someone. At their approach, though, he looked up and turned immediately to Tess. “Everything’s set up the way you wanted, Ms. Dunn. I double-checked, and there’s no one in the vicinity. If you need anything else, let me know.”

“Thank you.” Tess shook his hand, and Lucas could see the edges of several bills passing from her palm to Brendan’s. “You’ll put out the sign?”

“What sign?” His brows beetled in feigned confusion. “I wouldn’t hang the Beach Temporarily Closed for Cleanup sign across the path for no reason, much less block the entrance through the shrubs with a wooden construction barrier. A kid playing a prank must have done that.”

With a final salute to Tess and an amiable, congratulatory punch to Lucas’s arm, he ambled back toward the sidewalk and out of sight. His jaunty whistling grew more and more distant, until the rush of the breeze on the water drowned it out entirely.

They waited a few more moments, but no voices drifted through the shrubbery. No shrieks of laughter, shouts to friends, or even distant music interrupted the sounds of a beach at sunset.

Tess turned to him. “I remembered Brendan’s name from that first lesson, so I tracked him down this morning. I wasn’t sure he could arrange things the way I wanted, but he said he could.” With her toe, she traced a line in the sand, then erased it with the sole of her foot. “Apparently he was right.”

“Tess…” He wanted to tug her close, squeeze her breathless, but he was so damn sweaty, and his woman didn’t like mess. “You didn’t have to do this.”

She ignored that, instead gesturing for him to precede her into the tent. His throat thick, he obeyed.

After depositing her sandals inside the entrance, she surveyed the setup by his side. “It’s not fancy. But it’s the best I could do, especially on such short notice.” Her lips curved into a