Page 108 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

Thursday

The whistles blew and I looked up from my book.

My lifeguard hopped off the stand and quickly pushed it up away from the water.

A second later he collapsed beside me on my towel.

He was so close I could smell the intoxicating mixture of sunscreen and sweat on his skin.

I felt myself leaning a little closer. Kristen was right.

There was just something special about a guy’s scent.

"We're going to play in like ten minutes." He put his hands behind his head and lay down on his back.

"Okay." I sat up so I could look down at him. But then I wished I had stayed lying down too. Because now all I wanted to do was lean over him and kiss him. It had been far too long since our first kiss and my lips were craving him.

"So why are you suddenly so interested in that number?" he asked.

I shrugged. If the number of girls that had seen him naked wasn’t important to me, I probably wouldn’t have even realized what he was talking about.

But it was important and I was interested in the fact that his number was four.

"You asked me last night. And then I was wondering about you. So...you've had four girlfriends?"

"No. I've had two girlfriends."

"Oh. So what were the other two girls?"

He sat up. "Girls that I wasn't serious about."

"Hmm." His response was a warning sign. I thought about the fact that he drove a motorcycle and my mother’s warning. He was a very bad boy.

"Don't look at me like that, Jellyfish Girl."

"Like what?"

"Like you think I'm a bad person."

"I don't think you're a bad person." It was true, I had been thinking he was a bad boy. But a bad person? I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. J.J. definitely wasn’t a bad person. "When did you break up with your last girlfriend?"

"It's been a while. A few years maybe. Yeah, over two years."

I already knew that his first girlfriend cheated on him when they went to different colleges. So that left the mystery of the other people who had seen him naked. "And where do the other girls fit in?"

"My last year of college."

"Were they like…one-night things?" It felt like I was pulling the information out of him in an extremely awkward friendship way.

"You're suddenly awfully curious about my sexual history. What about you? You've only had sex with Aiden?"

I scrunched up my face. "Yeah."

My lifeguard laughed. "It seems like you want to change that."

"Maybe I do." I dug my heels into the sand. With you. Why couldn’t I just tell him that I liked him? Every time I came close, my lips seemed to press together, keeping my secret locked away. “So…about those other girls…”

He laughed. “You’re very nosy today.”

“And you’re avoiding the question.”

He turned away from me and looked up at the sky. "I told you that I'm not thrilled about my job this fall. I was kind of a mess my last year of college. I know that's not really an excuse."

"And I told you that I don't think you're a bad person."

"So you still like me?" He flashed me a smile.

"I really like you." I coughed. "As a friend. Of course as a friend. You're my buddy."

"Right." His smile faded.

Fuck. What is wrong with me? That had been my best opportunity yet. Just tell him how you feel!

"You guys ready?!" Clint yelled over to us.

I was happy that I was being offered an avoidance tactic instead of just creating them in my head.

I quickly stood up. I was still a little wet from my dip in the ocean.

Hopefully that would prevent me from getting too sweaty.

Whenever I worked out, I always seemed to get way sweatier than anyone else.

And being nervous around my lifeguard wasn't going to help the situation. I was lucky that he wasn’t coming on my supposed five mile run tomorrow.

He’d probably just keep on running away from me if he saw how sweaty and red I got.

My lifeguard slowly sat up, took off his sunglasses, and tossed them onto my towel. He looked up at me with his blue eyes.

I didn't want to play football. I wanted to fall asleep with his arms wrapped around me again.

I wanted more than whatever it was we were.

Somehow I needed to make him realize that.

And since the words escaped me, maybe I could show him in a different way.

By body tackling him into the sand during touch football, even if that was technically against the rules.

It was the only logical option. I put my hand out for him.

He grabbed it and I pulled him to his feet.

"Can I be on your team?" I asked. I didn't let go of his hand. Or would it be better to not be on his team? How could I flirt more? Tackling meant being on the opposite team. Unless I was going to throw in the towel and be really bad and tackle my own teammate. Which would be really hard for me to do because I loved winning. Maybe that’s why my being bad at love was so hard for me to accept.

"I'm not sure it's up to me, buddy ." He squeezed my hand and then let it go.

"Oh, come on. You knew what I meant."

"Actually, I didn't. Maybe you could describe it in more detail." He smiled at me.

I knew he was messing with me, but it seemed like another perfect opportunity to tell him the truth. Why is this so awkward? I swallowed hard. His eyes were so distracting.

"Yo, guys! Come on!" Clint yelled again.

I smiled at my lifeguard and started walking toward the group of lifeguards that had formed away from the water.

It was impossible to talk to him, so being more flirtatious was definitely the only thing I could do.

I walked over to Clint. "Hey, your girlfriend seemed nice. Is she going to come play?"

"Who? Elle?" Clint laughed. "I don't have a girlfriend, Stalker Girl."

"Oh." Awkward.

"Okay, Reggie and I are the captains," Clint said. "I'll take J.J."

My lifeguard walked over and stood next to Clint.

He whispered something in Clint's ear. My heart started beating fast. It felt like I was in high school all over again.

I didn't want to be picked last. It was always so mortifying just standing, waiting. And I wanted to be on my lifeguard's team. I hoped he’d just told Clint to choose me next. I wouldn’t let them down. After all, I was a beast.

I started to pull my hair up into a ponytail. It was time to get serious.

"Hey, are you any good?"

I turned my head toward Reggie. He was looking right at me. I turned around to see if there was some big strong man behind me who Reggie was actually staring at. Nope. I looked back at him.

"Who, me?" I asked.

"Yeah, you." He smiled at me.

"I'm...okay." I was standing next to two tall, muscular lifeguards. He couldn’t seriously be about to pick me. It didn’t make any sense. From a competitive standpoint, I should be one of the last picks just because I was so much shorter than everyone else. Smaller legs meant slower.

"Come be on my team,” Reggie said.

I definitely didn't expect to be picked first for someone's team.

I looked over my shoulder at my lifeguard as I walked toward Reggie.

He looked kind of pissed. Maybe this was just what I needed.

If I could make him jealous, then maybe he'd admit that he wanted to be more than friends too.

Besides, now the tackling strategy was a go.

We were about to take a sexy roll in the sand.

Reggie leaned down and whispered in my ear. "I haven't seen you around. What's your name?"

"Mila." I put my hand out for him.

He shook it. "It's nice to meet you, Mila. Are you just here for the summer?" He was completely ignoring the fact that it was his turn to pick someone again.

"Um, I think it's your turn to choose someone."

"Right. Alex!" he said and turned back to me. "Are you going to the 4th of July beach party?"

"I actually didn't know about it. Is it just on the beach somewhere near here?" Rehoboth beach wasn’t that big, but if it was on the other end of it, I might miss it. How had I not even heard of it?

"Yeah, and it's going to be a lot of fun. They set off fireworks and there's tons of food and drinks. You should definitely come." He called out another name.

"That sounds great. I'll think about it." I looked over at my lifeguard. His hands were in his pockets and he was scowling slightly. This is working.

"I'll give you my number after we're done so that I can tell you where it is," Reggie said.

I wanted to say, "Can’t you just tell me now?” But I knew he was probably just flirting with me. It made me realize that I didn't even have my lifeguard’s number yet. Why didn't I? Wasn't exchanging numbers one of the first things that people who liked each other did? This is so frustrating.

After both teams were selected, my team got in a circle and listened to Reggie.

Apparently they did this all the time. And they had terminology that I had never heard of before.

All I understood was that Reggie was the quarterback.

Embarrassing J.J. wasn’t what I wanted to accomplish today…

but it was looking like that was what was about to happen.

I shouldn’t have told him I knew how to play.

Tossing a football around with my dad didn’t exactly make me an all-star.

"Sorry, what do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Just try to get open," he said.

"Okay." I stood next to Reggie when we got into formation. We were running something called a slant route. Fortunately it had nothing to do with me.

My lifeguard positioned himself directly across from me.

"You're going down," he said.

"In your dreams."

"I have dreamt of you going down on me."

What? "Shit," I mumbled. The play had started and I was still standing there staring at him. "Stop distracting me," I hissed and tried to run past him. My heart was racing from his comment. Was he serious? Had he really dreamt of that? Focus on the game!