Anything but Minor - Kate Stewart Page 0,17
graceful and determined Rafe as he ripped through both air and water. Pretty soon, others joined him, and I realized the show had just really begun. A circus of colorful kites and air acrobatics floated around me, but my eyes focused on Rafe. I fell into a dazed stupor. Rafe was completely in control, dancing over the curtains of water with ease. I was nursing my third beer by the time he let himself land and whipped his hand in the air in a round up way. He pulled himself onto the boat as water dripped from his ridiculously defined torso and arms. I took in every solid inch of him in appreciation. The driver, whose name was Marc, grabbed Rafe’s board from the water as Rafe dismantled his kite.
“God, that was phenomenal,” I said as he popped a beer and sat next to me. “You are truly gifted at that.”
Rafe seemed taken aback by my comment as I gushed on. “You looked so...good, just like a... just so skilled, so in control. I loved watching you. I wasn’t even bored like I thought I would be,” I said with a wave of my hand, “but I wasn’t, not for a single second. I could watch you all day.”
“Thanks,” he said with an amused grin.
“Yeah, dude, you totally rocked that,” I said as I tilted my beer back, and without too much thought, grabbed another from the cooler between us.
A few minutes into the boat ride back, Rafe turned to me. “So tell me about your last relationship,” Rafe said with a smirk. “You said you were single now.”
I stiffened in response, his arm slung around me casually.
“It was a long time ago.”
“We have about fifteen minutes to dock,” he chided.
That was a lot of lying to do in fifteen minutes. So I began. “Ah...I, well, he—oh, she was...crap.” I had no choice but to look him in the eye. “I’m not a lesbian.”
Rafe nodded with a smirk as my face flushed. “You knew that.”
“I did. So, I’m out of the Pride party this weekend.”
I pointed to the air above us with my next declaration. “On a technicality only, and because I have no gay friends...yet.”
“The parts of you that aren’t orange are now pink,” Rafe said as he looked me over, ignoring my threat.
“Blush and bashful. My colors are blush and bashful,” I said in my best southern accent. I went on to explain. “It’s a line from—”
“Steel Magnolias, I know. I do have a mother and sister.”
I gave him a smile I knew to be my biggest, and I swear I could hear him mutter ‘shit’ under his breath.
This woman was insane, but the kind of insane you gravitated toward. There was nothing generic about her. She didn’t hold back on anything, not her wrath, her opinion, or her compliments, which she gave freely. I watched her as she sank into the ocean once we docked and came out soaking wet. Her body was a mix of color but still completely alluring, even with the mess that her skin was in. Her shoulder length, golden hair was dripping wet as she put on her shorts and slipped on her sweatshirt. I was fantasizing about wrapping her arms and legs around me and sinking into her.
God, I wanted this woman.
And she’d made it clear she didn’t want me, which of course made my dick even harder. We packed up my Jeep as she turned to me.
“Beer...I can do beer now...and parasailing!”
I couldn’t help my grin. “That’s a lot in a day.”
“Best day of my life,” she declared. “Thank you, Rafe.” She took a long look at the water and turned to me with a smile that stole my breath. “God, I love it here!”
I chuckled as we closed our doors and I started the Jeep and put it into gear.
“I don’t know why good days have to end. It’s so sad. Criminal, don’t you think?” She gripped my hand on the gear shift and squeezed it once before she let it go. “I guess so we appreciate them more or whatever.”
“Guess so,” I said, having the most honest conversation with a woman I’d ever had. She was completely raw to me, nothing about her guarded. I was starting to think I really was the prick Andy spoke of and that she may be too real, which made me more of a prick.
I studied her as she soaked in the scenery and I soaked in mine. I was staring at