Page 32 of Suddenly Beck

‘Pfft.’ Beck shakes his head. ‘Please... as if.’ His gaze snags on something before turning back to me, ‘You know what you need?’

‘A probation officer?’

He snorts, and I glance ahead of us to where he’s pointing. ‘Seriously?’ My brows rise slowly as I stare at the bright pink van glowing in the sunshine with a gigantic ice cream cone mounted on its roof and playing a high-pitched warble ofa teddy bears picnic. ‘I have had ice cream before you know,’ I tell him dryly.

‘I imagine you have.’ He nods in agreement. ‘But I bet you’ve never had a 99 before.’

‘What’s a 99?’ I muse. ‘Sounds kinky.’

He laughs as he tows me over to the line which, embarrassingly, is made up entirely of children. I’m about to point this out when the kid in front of us turns around and gives Beck and I a very condescending look for a ten-year-old.

‘Aren’t you too old for ice cream?’ the boy asks in disdain.

‘Kid, you’re never too old for ice cream,’ Beck says piously. ‘And don’t let anyone tell you different.’

‘Beck?’ I tilt my head as I study him curiously. He’s so relaxed in his own skin, it makes me a little envious. ‘You just don’t care what anyone thinks do you?’

‘Nope,’ he replies easily as the queue moves forward, and we reach the little window to find a rather bored looking middle-aged man with a visible paunch and a wild, hefty grey shot beard. In fact, he looks a bit like Brian Blessed, and I’m actually a little disappointed when he opens his mouth and sounds more like Alan Carr.

‘What can I get you?’ he huffs.

‘Two 99s, please.’ Beck smiles lazily.

‘Sauce?’

‘Raspberry.’ Beck turns to me expectantly.

‘Whatever you’re having will be fine.’ I smile in bemusement.

‘Both Raspberry.’ Beck turns back and informs him.

I watch curiously as the guy turns and retrieves a cone, holding it beneath a metal spout and pulling a large lever. A long creamy swirl of soft serve ice cream coils on top of the cone, reaching impossibly high and ending in a neat little peak as he grabs a chocolate flake and jams it unceremoniously in before picking up a plain plastic bottle and squeezing sauce over the top. He hands it through the window, thrusting it in my direction. My fingers wrap around the flimsy wafer cone, dipping slightly at the top-heavy weight of the ice cream, as I stare at the gooey sauce sliding down the mountain of ice cream.

‘It’s blue?’ I blink.

‘It’s blue raspberry sauce.’ Beck takes his own cone and hands the money over. ‘I’m guessing you’ve never had a Slush Puppy either?’

When I stare at him in incomprehension, he simply laughs as we walk toward the benches and iron railings overlooking the beach.

‘So many firsts, Nat.’ He grins. ‘This is going to be so much fun.’

I find myself blushing slightly when my mind immediately deviates to the first I’d like to give him. My dick twitches, and I draw in a breath, trying not to think about him taking my virginity, but images of him bending me over and sliding his cock slowly inside me, flood my brain causing me to swallow hard.Do not think about sex… do not think about sex…I chant silently.

‘So.’ I clear my throat. ‘Do you think that guy could be the secret love child of Brian Blessed and Alan Carr?’ I change the subject.

Beck throws his head back and laughs. ‘Oh my god, that’s exactly who he reminds me of.’

My belly warms at the sound of his laughter, and I watch mesmerised as his tongue snakes out slowly and licks a wide swath up his ice cream cone. I turn away deliberately and count to ten in my head, anything to stop my dick going from a half-hearted semi to full hard-on in front of such a family-oriented venue.

Shaking my head, I tentatively lick the weird blue sauce, sharp sweetness bursts across my tongue, and I can taste the sugar. It’s not unpleasant, just very sweet I think, feeling my left eyeball twitching slightly. ‘Whoa, this is enough to make you start hallucinating.’

‘I know.’ Beck grins. ‘My brother, Jesse, wasn’t allowed it when we were kids, that and cherryade, otherwise he’d get so hyper he would literally be swinging from the light fixtures.’

Beck climbs up onto the black iron railings easily, slinging his leg over with casual elegance as he perches on top, looking out to the perfect blue ocean in front of us. Following his lead, I seat myself down on the railing with my feet resting on the lower rung, swivelling my body so we’re more or less facing each other.

‘I’ve got something for you.’ Beck reaches into the bag hooked over his wrist. He pulls out a black baseball cap, it has Blue Reef Aquarium embroidered on it, but instead of their dead fish head logo, it has a black fin shark on it. He grins as he hooks it over my head. ‘There, a memento of your first visit to an aquarium.’

I smile at him, ridiculously touched at the silly gift. I reach into my own bag. ‘Here, I got something for you too.’ I hand it to him shyly. I’d bought it on a whim because it made me smile, then I’d been too nervous to give it to him in case he thought it was stupid. But there’s just something about Beck that makes me feel comfortable with him, and somehow, I know he’d never laugh at me or make fun of me. He just takes everything in his calm and sexy stride.