Page 27 of Suddenly Beck

‘Oh, believe me there are levels.’ She smiles widely. ‘You want me to kick it up a notch?’

I growl in frustration as I stop and turn to face her, almost clipping her with the board as she skips nimbly out of the way.

‘Fine,’ I relent. ‘I promised Mum I wouldn’t go there. She’s taken a shine to him and doesn’t want me…’

‘To dick and dash?’ she supplies helpfully.

I growl again and turn sharply stomping back toward the shack.

‘Wow, I’ve never seen you so… ruffled before.’ She jogs to catch up with me. ‘Beck…’ she says softly as she catches my arm to slow my movement. ‘Beck.’

I stop and turn to her with a resigned sigh.

‘You like him.’ She realizes. ‘I mean like, LIKE him.’ She smiles widely.

‘What are we twelve?’ I snap defensively.

‘You like him as more than a one-night hump and dump,’ she chuckles clapping her hands in delight. ‘Oh, this is too perfect.’

‘Where do you come up with this shit?’ I roll my eyes. ‘Seriously, have you got like a phrase book or something?’

‘Ssh, I’m being serious here,’ Georgie replies contemplatively. ‘I never thought I’d see the day, especially not after what happened in Florence.’

My eyes sharpen, and my stomach tenses. ‘I don’t want to talk about that.’

‘No,’ she mutters thoughtfully as she stares at me. ‘You never do. I’m not trying to drag up the past, but I’m serious, Beck. I’ve never seen you look at anyone the way you look at him, so I repeat, why aren’t you doing something about it?’

‘Because Mum...’

‘Bullshit.’ Georgie shakes her head vehemently. ‘That’s never stopped you before.’

‘Drop it, Georgie,’ I warn. ‘I mean it. We’re just friends, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.’

By the next morning, I know I’m lying as I find myself inside the B&B at the arse-crack of dawn, hoping desperately Ms Molly is still in her coffin having fed on the blood of some young virgin. I glance around carefully, and seeing the coast is clear, I raise my hand and knock at the door to Nat’s room, hopefully loud enough that he can hear me but not loud enough to attract the attention of the old succubus.

I knock again, and after a moment the door opens, and I almost swallow my tongue. Nat is standing there in all his warm, sleepy glory. His olive skin flushed, his wild dark curls rioting all over the place and wearing nothing but a very… very thin pair of sleeping shorts. I swallow slowly, and as if all that tempting skin rippling down his lean torso isn’t inviting enough, I can actually see the outline of his cock beneath his shorts, and fuck me, he’s hung. My mouth is actually watering, and I almost reach up to see if I’m drooling.

Just friends…. Just friends…I chant silently.

He blinks slowly, as if he isn’t quite awake enough to focus.

‘Beck?’ he murmurs, and his voice, hoarse from sleep, shoots straight to my balls. He blinks again in confusion. ‘Am I having that dream again?’ he wonders aloud. ‘If I am, where’s your moustache, and why aren’t you fixing the plumbing?’

I snort out loud, and it breaks the tension.

His head tilts as he studies me. ‘What are you doing here?’ He glances back into his room, presumably to look at a clock and scowls. ‘At five thirty in the morning?’

‘The break is perfect this morning, so I thought we could catch some waves.’ I smile.

‘At five thirty in the morning?’ he repeats slowly, and I nod. ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ he says dryly.

‘Nope,’ I pop my lips on the word and grin again.

‘Urgh,’ he grunts in disgust and turns back into the room.

I reach out and slap my hand against the door before it slams in my face and follow him in curiously. He crosses the room and crawls back into bed, flopping down on his stomach like a starfish with his face buried in the pillows and gifting me with a gorgeous view of his round peachy arse.

‘Go away and come back at a more civilized hour,’ he mumbles incoherently into the pillow.