Edge (Gentry Boys #7) (15 page)

He shifted and closed his eyes, letting out a strange noise in the back of his throat.  Then he led me over to a beautiful blue sports car.  I didn’t know much about cars but I was impressed. 

“This can’t be yours,” I said, running my fingers along the smooth surface of the hood.   

He opened the door.  “I can show you some paperwork that says it is.  It’s there in the glove compartment.” 

“Wait, what about my car?”

“It’ll be all right overnight.  They don’t tow here unless you leave it more than twenty four hours.”

“And what if you’re wrong?”

He shrugged.  “If I’m wrong I’ll do whatever it takes to get your car back or hand you a new one.” 

The inside of his car smelled like beer and cigar smoke.  Conway climbed into the driver’s seat, told me to put my seatbelt on and drove out of the mall.

I twisted around in confusion when he got on the freeway. “I think you took the wrong ramp.” 

“No I didn’t.” 

“Phoenix is the other way, Con.” 

“We’re not going back to Phoenix, Roe.” 

I frowned.  I’d just assumed we were going back to his room at the hotel.  Or else maybe my apartment.  But we weren’t heading in that direction at all. 

I crossed my arms.  “Okay, no bullshit, you need to tell me where we’re going right now.”  

He looked over and gave me a boyish, happy smile.  “I wanted it to be a surprise.  I’m taking you to the beach.” 

“What beach?  We’re in a landlocked desert.  There are no beaches for three hundred miles.” 

“Closer to four hundred where we’re headed.  It’s this quiet beach outside San Diego.  If I’m timing it right though, we should be there in time to watch the sun come up.” 

My mouth fell open.  “You’re serious.”

“Not often, but this time I am.” 

“You’re really going to drive all night just to take me to the beach.” 

“Yes.” 

“Conway, I can’t just suddenly leave the state like this.” 

“Sure you can.  Tomorrow is Saturday and you’ve already said you don’t work weekends.”

I looked out the window, at all the inky black miles of highway that lay ahead.

“Why?” I asked quietly. 

He touched my cheek.  He didn’t answer until I faced him.  “Because you love oceans,” he said simply.  “You told me so, remember?”

“I remember,” I mumbled.  I tried to think of something else to say but came up short. 

Conway reached into the backseat and pulled out a blanket.  Apparently he slept in his car now and then.  He told me that I should take a nap if I was tired.  The drive to San Diego would take about six hours but we should make it there before sunrise.

Fifteen or twenty minutes passed and finally I unfolded the blanket.  It smelled a little musty but was soft.  I sneaked a glance over at Conway.  He had one hand lightly on the wheel and the other hand was loosely on his lips as if he was deep in thought.  As the shadows played across his profile, the sheer strong-jawed beauty of him almost took my breath away. 

“Conway?” I said. 

“Yeah?”

I unbuckled my seatbelt, leaned over and kissed his cheek.  “Thank you.”

He didn’t answer and I didn’t look his way as I buckled back in and tucked the blanket around myself. 

Finding a bed so we could screw the night away was one thing and even though it would have been incredible and mind blowing and amazing it wasn’t this.

This was something entirely different.   

CONWAY

I hadn’t planned on this road trip but then again I’m not exactly a planner.  As we were hanging out at the pizzeria my dick kept interfering with my more chivalrous side and I couldn’t help but wonder about the best way to get Roslyn naked even as I wanted to prove to her that I didn’t have a one track mind. 

Then there was that kiss. 

Holy fuck, that kiss. 

I swear I would have traded three years worth of orgasms for that kiss.  All the most demanding parts of my anatomy were shrieking ‘
Take her, take her, take her!!”
and I was dying to listen.  Her damn sloppy t-shirt and yoga pants were driving me as wild as if she was wearing a black corset and fishnets, especially because I already knew what waited underneath. I wanted to violate all of it in sixty nine creatively dirty ways.

The problem was, I’d spent too many hours lying awake in my bed and thinking about the tranquil pleasure of holding her in my arms.  Sex alone wouldn’t get me back there. 

We’d been on the road for almost two hours.  Roslyn had been sleeping for some time but she stirred and opened her eyes as we passed the Imperial Sand Dunes along I-8.  It was after two a.m. and the dunes weren’t visible in the dark.  I only knew they were there because of the road signs and because I’ve seen them in the daylight before. 

Roslyn yawned.  “Aren’t you tired?”

“Nope.  I’m a night owl by nature.” 

She gave me a look.  “Funny, I remember you climbing out of bed at sunrise and going for a run.” 

“Oh, that.  That was a special occasion.” 

“An interesting choice of words.”   

“Well, let me try again.”  I cleared my throat and adopted a professorial tone.  “When I awoke in a tangle of bedclothes and saw a beautiful woman lying beside me I desperately wanted to fuck her into oblivion.  But since she was still unconscious I did the gentlemanly thing and worked that energy out elsewhere.” 

“Temporarily,” she said.  She was smiling though. “Or did you forget?”

“I don’t forget things like a hot, wild fuck against my bedroom wall.” 

She was silent for a long time.  I thought she might have dropped off to sleep again but when I looked over I saw her staring solemnly at her lap and playing with the hem of her shirt. 

“In case you were wondering,” she said quietly, “I don’t regularly do that.  Have one night stands I mean. Not that I have regrets but it was totally out of the ordinary for me.  And I’m always far more responsible when it comes to using protection.” 

That was no surprise.  I could feel her waiting for the same reassurance from me.  However, I could only give her part of what she was looking for. 

“Well,” I said, trying to choose my words carefully, “I want to be honest with you, so I’ll say that screwing around casually is
not
out of the ordinary for me.”

She tensed and nodded tightly.  “I understand.” 

I touched her knee.  “But I swear I
always
use condoms.  And without going into a litany of medical details let’s just say I can assure you that you’ve got nothing to worry about.” 

“I’m not on birth control, Con.” 

The words hit me like a freight train and I had to struggle to keep the steering wheel straight.  Roslyn must have seen the alarm in my face. 

“Oh god, no.  Conway, I didn’t mean that I was pregnant or anything.  I took the morning after pill.”

I exhaled with relief.  “That’s good,” I said weakly. 

She giggled.  “I scared the shit out of you, huh?”

“No big deal.  Just a year or two shaved off my life.” 

Roslyn chuckled and stared dreamily out at the darkness.  She hadn’t commented on my admission that I was no choirboy and there was nothing I could do about all the notches in my belt.  But it really bugged me that she might just think she was another one of them.   

She looked over when I cleared my throat.   

“Listen, what happened between me and you last time, it hasn’t been like that with anyone else.”

“Con, you don’t owe me any explanations.”

“That’s the thing, honey.  I think I do because if you happen to find yourself in a conversation with anyone who’s been around me these last few years you’ll hear about it. I don’t know what we can call this thing but I want to prove to you that it’s not about a score.”   

She touched my arm. “You are proving that, Conway.  You’re proving that tonight.” 

When I took my eyes off the flat ribbon of highway and looked at her the gentleness I saw in her eyes threatened to cut me open. 

“You’re so beautiful,” I blurted out and it sounded like sappy soap opera talk even to my own ears.  Roslyn was probably used to being told how gorgeous she was and she didn’t blush or argue this time.  She just smiled and settled back into her seat to watch the miles pass. 

I had turned off the radio earlier while Roslyn was sleeping but now I switched it back on. It crackled to life via satellite and the reception was crystal clear despite the remote location.  Roslyn practically squealed with delight when I switched to a station that played mostly music from the 1980s. 

Funny thing I’d noticed about Roslyn; I used to assume she was nothing but high maintenance.  Yet in the short amount of time I’d spent with her I had already learned that it was the small things, the tiny everyday joys, that made her eyes light up.  We sped through the dark landscape of southern California to the soundtrack of The Bangles and Bon Jovi.  We talked and she dozed off again for a while.  When she awoke I pulled into a rest stop to gas up, use the bathroom and get some coffee.  We’d reached the outskirts of the San Diego metro area and even though it would still be some time before the sun rose I could tell the sky was not as dark as it had been.   

“How much longer?” she asked once we were back on the road.  She was excited, sitting up straight in her seat and already craning her neck around for a glimpse of the ocean, which was still miles away.  She reminded me a little bit of Evie right now, the way she practically vibrated with infectious enthusiasm.  I wondered how they’d get along, Evie and Roslyn.  Well, Evie got along with everyone but something told me the two of them would hit it off uncommonly well. 

“About an hour left,” I said, and then smugly and silently congratulated myself for coming up with this bright idea. 

By the time we reached the beach the eastern sky had lightened to a soft gray and it was easy to imagine the sun peeking over the horizon shortly. 

“What are you doing?” I asked Roslyn as I pulled two more blankets out of the trunk of the car. She was standing about ten feet away, eyes closed, arms outstretched like she was deep in meditation.   

“Enjoying,” she said over the sound of the surf lapping the shore below. 

“Well, walk this way if you want to enjoy everything a little closer to where the action is.” 

As we descended the long wooden staircase to the water I could see we weren’t the first on the scene.  A handful of figures waited at the shoreline, some strapping themselves into wetsuits, others just quietly holding surfboards under their arms as they waited for the sunlight. 

We kept walking the length of the beach until there was no one in sight.  Roslyn immediately dropped down on a blanket as soon as I spread it out on the sand.  The cool air tasted of salt and the wind blowing off the water was brisk and invigorating.

I stood back for a moment, just admiring the sight of a beautiful girl beside the shore.  So many paintings and photos had attempted to capture a vision like this but none were as stunning as the view of Roslyn’s hair lifting in the wind as she closed her eyes and breathed in the sea air. 

She turned suddenly, noticing that I was hanging back.  “Sit down,” she said, patting the blanket. 

“Here.” I tossed her the other blanket.  “In case you’re cold.” 

“When I was little,” she said, smiling as she unfolded the spare blanket and draped it across her slender shoulders, “I used to pretend all that barren sand outside Emblem was one giant beach and that if I walked long enough I’d eventually step right into the ocean.  You know how the washes are always littered with debris after a storm?  We used to pick through the remains and imagine that the pieces of things we couldn’t identify were actually seashells.  Neither of us had ever seen a real beach, not back then, but we talked about it all the time.” 

“We?”

She nodded, sinking her fingers into the soft sand.  “Me and Erin.”  She sighed and withdrew her hand, pulling the blanket tighter around herself. 

“It’s okay,” I said quietly.  “You can talk about her.” 

Roslyn looked at me, touched my arm.  “You can too.” 

I was quiet for a moment.  “I didn’t talk about her at all, not for a very long time.  I couldn’t even say her name until Stone dragged it out of me one day.  That day was the first time I ever visited her grave and that’s when I realized I’d done her a terrible dishonor in all the time I couldn’t stand to remember her.  She deserves more than just a sad legacy.”

“Yes,” said Roslyn.  “She does.”

I watched her as she took her necklace out of her shirt and slowly pulled it over her head.  She kissed the crystal on the end and then carefully placed it inside a zippered compartment in her purse. 

The seagulls were beginning to assert themselves overhead, circling over the shallow areas and shrilly competing for air space. We watched as one made a sudden dive into the water, grabbed something small in its talons and then flew toward the pier where a handful of fishermen patiently waited with their poles in the water.  

“Do you still dance?” I asked suddenly. 

Roslyn tucked her hair behind one ear and looked at me with surprise.  “No, not for years.  I’m surprised you even remember that about me.” 

“I do though.  It’s strange, the bits and pieces of information that we store without realizing it. Ballet, right?”

She nodded with a smile.  “Yeah, mostly.” 

“So why’d you stop?”

She shrugged and pulled her knees up to her chest.  “I don’t know.  Seemed like a little girl’s dream and we all have to grow up sooner or later.  Sometimes I miss it though.  I miss the feeling of invincibility.  I miss the strength that would course through me every time I stretched into
promenade en arabesque
.” 

I didn’t know what that was.  But there was grace in just about every movement Roslyn made and I wished suddenly and desperately that I’d seen her dance, just once. 

“Show me,” I said. 

She laughed.  “What, here?”

“Sure.” 

“Sand isn’t really conducive to ballet, Conway.  A flat surface is rather a firm requirement. Besides I haven’t done it in years.” 

“So what? I bet it’s like riding a bike.” 

She shook her head and looked out over the water.  I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger and moved her face back to me.

“Please.  I swear I won’t ask you for anything else.”

She raised an eyebrow.  “Ever?”

I mulled that over.  “For at least an hour.” 

Her lips twitched.  “All right.” 

Roslyn stood and made a show of brushing the sand off her clothes before taking a few steps in the direction of the water.  Her face became serious, her gaze focused somewhere on the horizon where the sun was starting to show its face.  Right there on the beach, in her running shoes and yoga pants, Roslyn Tory lifted her arms, stretched one leg straight behind her and held a pose of such magnificent glory it took my breath away.  Slowly she began to rotate, swinging her body around in a perfect arc like one of those jewelry box ballerinas. 

“Damn,” I whispered because I was impressed, infatuated and absolutely fucking horny all at once. 

Then the shifting nature of the sand caught up to her and she tumbled to earth with loud laughter. 

“Damn, that felt good,” she gasped as she lay on her back and giggled in the sand. 

She was still giggling when I stretched out in the sand right next to her.  I rolled to my back and stared up at the sky.  A few stubborn stars still twinkled vaguely but they faded with each breath of morning wind.  In the distance the surfers hooted in celebration as they braved the cold spring water and paddled out to meet the waves. 

Roslyn slipped her soft hand into mine and we watched the sky change together as we lay side by side.  The sound of the surf rolled over the beach behind us, the same water that’s been riding the waves as long as there’s been an ocean. 

There was no such thing as time.  It didn’t exist in its conventional form. There was just us, the two of us, and the ancient endurance of this place. 

Roslyn’s breathing had grown deep and even and I wondered if she’d fallen asleep.  When I rotated my head to look at her I saw that her eyes were indeed closed, lips slightly parted as the wind toyed with strands of her long hair, teasing them across her lovely face like wispy paintbrushes. 

She must have been awake all along though because she cracked one eye open and peered right at me.  A seagull screamed right over our heads, a mighty wave crashed somewhere unseen and Roslyn rolled her body right on top of mine.  She propped herself up on her elbows and stared down at me until I couldn’t take the tension anymore.  I grabbed her, our mouths eager to meet again with a passionate ferocity that unleashed a growl in my throat.