Big Bad Boys A Romance Collection - Penny Wylder Page 0,74

with the same accusation. I’m covered in dirt. Wiping the potting soil on hands onto my shorts doesn’t help.

She looks over at Tim who has stopped what he’s doing to watch the exchange. He lifts an eyebrow and gives a not-so-subtle thumbs-up. I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to the goddess standing before me.

“Oh,” she says, the frown still there, but I can tell she’s feels more awkward than angry. “I thought you were a surf instructor.”

“I am, part time. I do landscaping too.”

Her eyes scan my body, my dirty clothes, the sweat covering my shirt. Inside, I’m wishing I was showered and clean for this second encounter with her, but the look on her face isn’t reading like someone who’s disgusted by my appearance. Just the opposite, actually. Her eyes keep roaming over me, until finally landing on my crotch. She stares at it a moment too long, then shakes her head and looks away.

I bite my lip to keep from laughing. This girl is thirsty for some cock, that’s obvious, and I’m more than willing to give it to her. Just thinking about it makes me a little hard, which doesn’t go unnoticed when she looks at me again.

“You don’t have to stalk me, you know,” I say. Her eyes shoot up and she looks at me, surprised. “I’ll give you what you want.” I take a step closer to her.

She doesn’t move away. “You’re insane. I don’t want anything from you.”

“Are you sure? It didn’t seem like that last night.”

I take another step closer. She still doesn’t move. Her breathing comes faster, her lovely breasts rising and falling. Her eyes find mine and I’m struck by a feeling that is … confusing, and not entirely sexual. I’m not sure how to explain it. It makes me falter a bit, and I step back.

I swallow and say, “You might not remember this, but your hands were all over me.”

She lets out a shaky breath. “I have to go.”

“Are you sure?” I ask.

She starts to turn around. I panic, because part of me worries that if she leaves, I’ll never hear from her again. I don’t know why I even care. There are a hundred women on my roster waiting for their turn with the Bed Shaker. Cadie is no different.

“How were the pancakes, by the way?” I ask stupidly. It’s all I can think of on short notice.

She stops, looking back at me over her shoulder. “Delicious, actually.” She then looks at my truck in the parking lot. “You bring your board with you to work?” she says, obviously trying to change the subject. She said she has to go, but it feels like she just found an excuse to stay.

“I go straight from work to the beach.”

She hesitates. I can tell by the look of concentration on her face that she’s trying to think of something else to say. She looks at the ground, flushed. “I should go,” she says.

“Me too.”

I could stand here all day talking to her, or not talking to her, as long as I’m with her—

STOP, I chide myself. What the hell is wrong with me? Connections aren’t my thing. I have sex with women, no strings attached. I like it that way. No one gets hurt, nothing gets messy. The last girlfriend I had was all the way back in high school. Since then, it’s all been flings, and never once have I even met someone I considered settling down with. It’s not in my nature.

Cadie walks into the building. I watch her every step. It’s a lovely view, the fullness of her ass, the way her hips sway just so, the thick ponytail touching the middle of her back. Everything about her does it for me.

When she’s gone, I go back to my work. Tim comes up to me, a smile stretched from ear-to-ear. “A friend of yours?” he asks.

I look at the spot where Cadie had been standing. “Not yet, but I’m working on it.”

4

Cadie

After leaving the studio, I sit in the food court at the mall, drinking a blended coffee and looking at Ram’s pictures on Instagram. He has an incredible body, but the pictures I’m drawn to are the close-ups of his face. There’s one picture in particular I gravitate to more than the others. It’s of him on the beach. He’d just gotten out of the water, his wet hair a crown of golden curls around his face. His bright blue eyes sparkle like