The Reality of Everything - Rebecca Yarros Page 0,22

bottom that cut straight across her hips.

“God bless the south,” Sawyer muttered.

Once her shorts hit the sand, she bent over, that incredible ass in the air as she retrieved her clothes.

“Seriously?” Brie asked, her exasperation clear at the open male ogling.

“Okay, that is a gorgeous woman,” Garrett admitted.

Apparently, we were all watching the same show.

Morgan’s arms arched above her head as she twisted her hair around her hand and somehow got it back into a bun. Fuck me, she was perfect. Lithe yet still ridiculously curved in every place my hands itched to touch.

“Jax,” Brie chided.

“I’ll be…over there,” Sawyer declared his intent, his eyes on Morgan.

He didn’t even make it a step in Morgan’s direction before my arm snapped out sideways, blocking his path. “No.”

“But…” He looked at me like I’d killed his puppy.

“No,” I repeated, making sure he understood.

“Whoa.” His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open.

“What?” I snapped.

“You calling dibs?”

“Jesus Christ, are we in junior high?” Garrett asked.

“Jax.” Brie’s annoyance registered somewhere in the back of my mind.

“She’s a woman, Sawyer. Not a pre-K snack you lick and say it’s yours.” My eyes found their way back to where Morgan walked into the water, the water reaching her knees.

“Well, seems like you wanna lick her,” Sawyer teased.

I shot him a quick glare and watched Morgan sink to her hips in the Atlantic.

“I mean in a calling-dibs kind of way. Well, and the other way. Every way, really, from what I can tell by looking at you.” Smugness practically oozed out of his voice. “But, I mean, if you’re not interested…” He shrugged.

“Jax,” Brie called, her voice sharper this time.

I put my finger up, wordlessly asking her to wait a second.

“Don’t even talk about licking her,” I warned Sawyer.

“Oh shit, Montgomery is going primal.” Garrett laughed. “This is getting good.”

Sawyer shrugged. “I’m cool with it. I haven’t seen you legitimately interested in a woman since—” His eyes hit the sand, and I saw Brie tense in my peripherals.

“It’s not like that,” I protested, my eyes narrowing when I saw waves breaking on either side of Morgan but not in front of her.

“Jax!” Brie shouted.

“What?” I didn’t take my eyes off Morgan, hair rising at the back of my neck.

“You’re burning the burgers!”

Shit, Morgan was exactly where she shouldn’t be and getting deeper. I shoved the spatula at Garrett’s chest, kicked off my flip-flops, and broke into a dead run as a bigger wave receded, pulling the water off the beach. My shirt was off two strides later.

“Morgan!” I called out, my pulse kicking up a notch.

She looked back at me over her shoulder and moved forward, the water already tugging at her. It was waist-deep, but she was easily twenty feet offshore on the sandbar.

“Move over!” I pointed north, my feet hitting the water, which immediately slowed my progress.

She startled but moved as the water swept past her, and was already in the safety zone before I reached her.

My hands gripped her shoulders. “God, woman! It’s like you’re determined to find every possible way to injure yourself!”

“What’s wrong? You scared the bejesus out of me!” she snapped, like I was the one in the wrong.

“Hell yes, I did! You were standing in a riptide zone. Any deeper, and I would have been showing off my Baywatch moves!” My fingers tensed on her skin, but I was careful not to squeeze, to shake, to let my emotions manifest physically.

“What?” She looked back to where she’d just been. “There’s no sign or anything.”

What? I held her steady as a wave swept by, bringing the water up past my waist.

“Right, because we didn’t put one out.” Adrenaline pumped through my system, and I concentrated on keeping my words even and soft. The ocean was an unforgiving bitch who didn’t give a fuck about signs. You broke her rules, she ate you whole, and sometimes she changed the rules just for fun.

“Why would we put one out?” Her forehead puckered.

“Because we own the beach, at least up to the tide line.” Understanding dawned. “You’ve never been on a private beach, have you?”

She shook her head. “Always public.”

I blew my breath out in a long sigh. This girl was going to be the death of me. “Okay. Do you know how to recognize a riptide?”

“No. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been headed for one.” Her eyebrow arched, and the tension drained out of my muscles as I fought the urge to laugh.

Of course she would throw sass at me right after I saved her ass.