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“Have you been with a lot of women?” Elle asked, staring at theceiling. “You don’t have to answer that question if you’d rather not.”

Gia opened her mouth and closed it again. “I don’t know. I haven’texactly kept a list.”

“So, a lot?” She glanced over at Gia. “Definitely no judgment.”

Gia turned to face Elle, her cheek on the pillow. “Not as many asyou think. Trust me. An occasional tour hook-up. And that’s only once in agreat while.”

“That’s fair. And girlfriends?”

Gia laughed. “Even worse. There have been exactly two. One brokemy heart when I was twenty-three, but it was for the best. She was a surfinstructor and older than me. I guess you could say that we were at differentplaces in life. The other was a blip. Since then I’ve concentrated on my job.”

Elle nodded and snuggled into the crook of Gia’s arm, fittingthere perfectly, like the spot was made for her. Gia felt herself let go andsink into the mattress, releasing the stress of the day. How could the sameperson who had excited her so thoroughly in one moment help her relax in thenext? It was the last thing she remembered before opening her eyes the nextmorning and staring at the most beautiful girl in the world, still curled intoher side and radiating warmth. Elle’s fist was tucked under her chin, and herblond hair pooled at her shoulders. She looked like an angel when she slept.

That serenity was shattered when she caught sight of the clock. Shesat up, still gathering her wits but knowing this was bad. Really bad.

“Elle! Wake up. We overslept.”

Chapter Twelve

Time seemed to move at warp speed as Elle raced from Gia’s room ina blind fury. She made a mental list of all she had to accomplish in the nextthirty minutes, noting it would be nearly impossible to prep for her heat theway she normally would. Somehow, she had to calm the hell down and regaincontrol, her focus. Wasn’t working.

How had this happened? She was never late, and she certainlydidn’t oversleep.

It was close to nine a.m. when the first heat of round two wasscheduled to start. While she wasn’t scheduled to compete, Gia was. She’d be inworse shape than Elle in terms of time, lucky to even make it there beforedisqualification. But she couldn’t focus on Gia right now. She had her ownproblems.

“Everything okay, Elle?” one of the other surfers asked as shebarreled to the elevator.

“Yep,” she said, hitting the button four times and opting for thestairs when the car didn’t immediately arrive.

“Gia okay?” the woman called. “That’s her room, right?”

“She’s fine,” Elle answered over her shoulder. Last Elle saw ofher, she was climbing all over the room, looking for her suit and jersey. Shedistantly hoped Gia would get something quick to eat before the opening heat,knowing it was a luxury at this point and unlikely.

She checked in for the heat and scurried over to Bruce, who staredat her like she’d lost her damn mind, which, apparently, she had. He had herboard waiting and waxed, which she owed him for, big-time. This was honestlyall her fault. She let herself get lost in the new and exciting world of Giaand forgot the rest entirely. She couldn’t let that happen again.

“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I don’t know how this happened.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Bruce said, hitting her with a hard stare.“Think about what’s ahead of you. Get your mind on the heat. Nothing else.”

Elle nodded and worked on doing just that. Her eyes caught thetournament standings on display near check-in. Her heart leapt into her throat.

“That’s right,” Bruce said, following her stare. “You lucked out.Malone went down in the first heat. She’s out.”

Elle didn’t know what to say. She stammered and changed thedirection of her sentence, finally settling on, “Did she surf?”

He looked at her strangely. “’Course she surfed. Turned in twosorry scores, and now she’s out of your way. Celebrate later, though, you’reup.”

Elle nodded, scanning the beach for any sign of Gia, all the whilebattling her warring emotions. Her top competitor, the one with the power totake what was hers, was out of the tournament and now had zero chance of takinghome the points needed to close the gap between them on the tour’sleaderboard…at least for now.

On the other hand, Gia was out.Gia.She hurt for her, and wanted to have a moment to say she was sorry. Withoutthat opportunity, she carried her board to the shoreline for her own heat, inwhich she’d have to take down the number four surfer, Alia Foz, to advance inthe tournament.

The morning conditions were ideal and there seemed to be somekiller pipe out there. Now all she had to do was make it hers.

She set to paddling.

Heat two was just her and Foz, head-to-head. The best two waveswould take it. One would move forward, one would not. Foz drew first priorityand headed out to catch the first wave, but it fizzled before she couldcapitalize on anything worthwhile. Elle waited, watching, not in any hurry. Shelicked her lips, tasting the salt that reminded her of where she was and whatshe was here to do.

There it was, a big sucker, rising like a beast.