Page 58 of No One But Us

I hesitate. Ginny’s arrival may have stalled things, but my body is still demanding what it was denied, no matter how impossible it now appears.

“Go ahead,” she urges. “He’ll be fine.”

I walk away, feeling uncomfortable about the deception. And if it already bothers me that we lied, a secret relationship with James might not be as easy as I thought.

Chapter 34

ELLE

I give myself ten seconds in the morning to relish all of it: his words and his weight above me and the feel of his skin beneath my hands. Because right now, with the sun streaming in my room, I can only imagine him taking these things away from me again. I can only imagine finding him the way I’ve found him before: full of regret.

My limbs are sluggish as I shower and head downstairs. James sits at the table with Max, his gaze meeting mine for a moment before it flickers away. I beg him to smile, to find some small way to tell me my fears are unfounded, but he does not.

When I hear him push away from the table, I continue on toward the coffee, but all I want to do is go upstairs and pack. Except suddenly he’s beside me, standing closer than normal. He slides his mug over as if he’s only here for a refill.

“Everything okay?” he asks in low voice.

“Yeah. You?” I fill his mug and push it back toward him. His hand wraps around mine, warm and rough and firm, and holds it there, blocking Max’s view with his body. I wait for him to pull the rug out. I wait for the phrase ‘we need to talk’, but it doesn’t come.

I venture a quick glance at him, and his mouth quirks up at the corner.

“Yeah. Everything’s perfect.”

I stand here, trying to commit the moment to memory, his smile and the way he’s looking at me, his hand wrapped around mine. These moments will likely be fleeting. I know that much.

But I’m going to enjoy the hell out of every one of them.

* * *

James quietly suggests the beach. I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed when Ginny and Max decide to come with us. On the one hand, it will be impossible to hold a serious conversation. And on the other hand…it will be impossible to hold a serious conversation.

“You had to wear that bikini, didn’t you?” James groans under his breath when I come downstairs.

“I thought you were all done staying away from me?” I whisper back.

“That doesn’t mean I need to spend three hours next to you dressed like that.” He sighs. “Especially after last night.”

He stays by my side as we walk, close enough that our hands brush, a small frisson of electricity that makes the surface of my skin come alive. I look at him out of the corner of my eye—his strong jaw and the curve of his bicep at rest—and feel something spasm low in my stomach. I’d be so much better off right now if we hadn’t been interrupted last night.

We lay our towels down, James not-so-subtly nudging Max aside when he walks up beside me.

“Want me to do your back, Elle?” Max asks.

James snatches the sunscreen from his hand. “I’ve got it.”

You’d think, with the anticipation I’m feeling, that we were both in bed naked. I sit up and face away from him, hugging my knees to my chest, waiting for him to begin. His hands whisper over my skin, and the anticipation builds. He lifts the back of my bikini, sliding his hand beneath it, and I actually shiver. His low laugh in response brushes my ear.

It’s only when Max calls him on it—“Gee, James, I had no idea you were so thorough. Do my back next.”—that he stops.

“Want me to do yours?” I ask.

He hesitates, and we exchange a look.

“Sure,” he says, lying down on his stomach.

I could spend hours applying sunscreen to him, memorizing the feel of his skin and the tightly bunched muscles of his back. And I probably would, were I not a foot away from Ginny, though she seems to have noticed nothing.

“So what happened with Justin?” she asks sleepily.