Slow No Wake - By Dakota Madison Page 0,3
he was going to tell me a secret. I could feel his breath on my neck and it made me shiver a bit. What was that I had just said about the no wake zone? Eddie was already causing a lot of waves. “I would watch out for Hans,” he whispered. “He’s kind of a perv.”
Hans did not seem like a perv to me but I hadn’t spent much time with him. “He’s old enough to be my father,” I said with a bit of skepticism in my voice.
Eddie shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He turned away from me. “But have you seen his girlfriend yet? She’s at least five years younger than us.”
“Wait,” I said.
Eddie turned around and grinned at me. “Change your mind?”
I nodded.
Eddie rested his arm on the doorframe right above me and leaned in close. He smelled like suntan oil with a hint of saltwater and sweat. “I’m happy to help you in any way I can. All you have to do is ask.”
His words were laced with so much innuendo and sexuality, I found it difficult to swallow. “Thanks,” was all I was able to mutter.
Then he turned and headed for the truck. I followed and in that moment, I felt like I would have followed him anywhere.
By the time we got the furniture unloaded and placed in my apartment, I had gotten extremely sweaty and sticky. I hoped I didn’t look as wilted as I felt. Not that I was trying to impress Eddie. Or if I could, even on a good day. He was the most perfect specimen of a man I had ever seen.
People had always told me I was attractive, which was probably true to some extent, but I was definitely not in Eddie’s league. He was Hollywood star gorgeous. He was Jared Leto gorgeous, which says a lot. I had always had an enormous crush on Jared Leto and thought he was one of the best looking men ever born. Until I laid eyes on Eddie. Eddie was actually a better looking than Jared Leto. And here I was, a woman trying to live a quiet life of solitude and celibacy, only to move next door to Eddie, easily the best looking man I had ever met. Why was my life always riddled with complications and plenty of waves, especially when I craved a no wake zone so desperately?
“Thirsty?” Eddie asked as he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. His body was now glistening with sweat. I thought about what it would be like to lick the sweat from his muscular chest…and had to stop myself. No wake zone, remember?
“Sorry, I don’t have anything to drink,” I said. “I haven’t had a chance to get to the store yet. Not that I have any glasses unpacked anyway.”
He nodded. “No problem. I’ve got a stocked fridge next door.”
I gulped. Going next door with him, alone, was not a good idea. The counselor in me tried to rationalize everything. All of his flirting could have been harmless and maybe I was just reading too much into it. After all, we had just met. But I thought I could feel some sexual tension between us, and that really scared me.
“What’s wrong?” Eddie asked.
“Nothing,” I said, but it didn’t sound convincing, even to myself.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he said. “I don’t bite. Unless you want me to.”
And there it was again. The tilted half smile with the dimple. Oh. My. God. The man was such a shameless flirt. And I’m sure women loved it.
There was obviously only one way to handle Eddie. I had to make myself totally immune to his charms. I decided to try some behavior modification and pair his flirtations with a negative stimulus. Whenever he tried to seduce me with his looks and charm, I would think about something awful, like finding a dead puppy when I was five years old or failing my first economics test my freshman year of college.
“Okay,” I said. “Lead the way.”
Eddie’s apartment was a mirror image of mine. The guys had obviously lived there awhile because they had accumulated a lot of stuff. The place was packed with shelves of book and movies and there was strange looking sports stuff everywhere. Hans had mentioned the guys were surfers but this stuff didn’t look like any surf stuff I had ever seen. Not that I was that familiar with the sport, or any sports for that matter.
I pointed to the strange looking