CHAPTER 21

“Jump Then Fall (Taylor’s Version)” – Taylor Swift

WHILE MY IRRATIONAL FEAR OF the ocean hasn’t fully escaped me, I’ve been anticipating going into the water, now having some surfing knowledge under my belt.

But my excitement isn’t enough to mask how tired I still am as I open the door to find Luca grinning wider than my half-asleep mind and body can handle at the moment.

“Good morning,” he says with plenty of energy for the both of us.

“It would have been if I got another three hours of sleep,” I reply grumpily, then perk up a little when I notice what he’s wearing. A white t-shirt, olive-green swim trucks, and black Ray-Bans.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “The ocean will wake you up.”

“I was thinking a donut would be more effective but okay, great. Can’t wait.” I put on my sunglasses, while I continue to sleepwalk.

“We can get some pastries before we go if you want?” he suggests .

“How about we get the pastries and come back and sleep ?”

“There’s no time for sleep this week. You can sleep next week. C’mon.”

Luca takes my hand with purpose, leading us toward the main restaurant and then the beach as I daydream about the implications of his comment.

_________

“I liked the waves more around 11,” I finally confess, while blankly glaring at the noticeably higher wavelength behind the shore.

“Don’t worry. Those waves are fine.” Luca must sense my fear that’s building. “But if you’re not feeling comfortable we can come back later or just do something else.”

“Maybe I’ll just try it out and see if it’s okay,” I say, while laying out our beach towels as he brings our surfboards.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“Yeah. But you’re sure that’s safe?”

“Yes,” Luca reassures. “If it wasn’t safe I wouldn’t suggest coming right now. But we can leave anytime you want.”

“Okay.”

He takes off his shirt the same moment I take off my tank top and shorts. Then I blush at the realization that we’re both giving the other a once-over, acting as if we haven’t seen each other in a swimsuit before.

He glances away first. “I wasn’t looking,” he lies.

“I wasn’t either,” I lie.

“We both weren’t looking.”

“We don’t even like each other. ”

“I forgot about that,” he says so endearingly that my composure lasts as long as my lack of restraint to look away from him.

I reach into my bag for my sunscreen then hear Luca’s voice as I struggle to layer it on my back. “Do you want me to do your back?” When I bite down on my bottom lip, he shakes his head. “Why do you keep making me think everything I say is dirty?”

“Well, why do you keep making them sound dirty?”

“I genuinely wasn’t.”

“I don’t believe you,” I say.

The already sunny day feels blazingly warmer when Luca takes the sunscreen bottle and squeezes some of the cream onto his palm. He’s not just pouring it into his hands. He’s taking his time to rub his long fingers in circular motions with it as he watches my posture shift, my lips part, and my eyes almost roll back, until his grin is satisfied enough. “Do you want me to do you or not?”

Having any excuse for him to touch me, I coyly turn around. He pushes my hair to the side, and I feel my body start to tremble as the cool sensation reaches my neck.

But as he rubs it in, I start giggling. “Right,” he says. “How could I forget? Tell me, does that tickle more, or this?”

Luca holds me from behind, tickling my stomach so gently, but still enough where my sensitive body bursts into laughter. We effortlessly fall to our sides in an almost spooning position onto our beach towels.

“I sincerely wish you good luck for later.”

“What?” When his laugh vibrates off my ear, I shiver, while turning my face toward him.

“There’s always been this ongoing joke between my doctor and I that we both don’t know how I’m ever going to do anything physical with someone since I’m this ticklish,” I explain.

He licks his lips so subtly. “There are ways to work around that.”

Too flustered to reply, I redirect the focus back to the ocean. “Maybe by the time we actually get in the water, the waves will be gone. Here. Let me do you now so we can go.”

Luca purses his lips. “I can see how that might have sounded a little sexual now.”

“I’m glad you see it now.”

He turns around to lay on his chest, and this angle is somehow even more sensual. The way his back flexes against the towel, while his shoulders are extended reveals even the tiniest muscles that I didn’t know he had.

My fingertips reach the surface of his skin, and a shock so strong crescendos throughout my chest before filling every corner of my body. And this can’t just be since it’s the first time I’m touching a guy’s back like this. It’s that his skin is so perfect. This is the only logical conclusion I can make at the moment, wondering how he’s feeling under my touch when I’m in such a daze just by tracing along his back.

As my hands start spreading the cream over him, his body shifts ever so slightly.

All this touching is making me forget that we’re going to be in the water any minute now.

_________

Once we’re far enough from the shore, Luca helps refresh my memory as he straddles his board. “Do you remember which foot worked better for you in the front?”

Placing my weight over the surfboard quickly reminds me how impossible this felt the first time. As I test out both feet, I confirm, “For sure left one forward is better for me. ”

“Okay, cool. Remember, bend your knees a little.”

“Okay. Got it,” I say, trying to maintain my focus on him, despite how quickly my legs are starting to wobble again.

“Face more at an angle,” he recommends. “Remember the 45-degree angle rule?”

“There was a 45-degree angle rule?”

“I’m glad to see you remember everything exactly the way I taught you,” he deadpans.

“I told you that you weren’t the best at teaching me,” I say.

Luca scoffs as he reaches out to hold my ankle, helping me find the right balance again.

I watch him as he moves his hand to the side of my thighs, noting how he’s touching me. So delicately that I barely even feel it. Almost hesitantly.

“What happened to you?” I tease. “You weren’t this shy the first time around.”

His cheeks flush. “I’m not shy.”

“Okay. Whatever you say.”

I feel his hands rest on my hipbone, my body shuddering at the sudden contact.

Before I have a chance to fall, Luca grips onto the side of my hip. His arms are extended so firmly that if he let go right now, I’d immediately tumble into the water with how my knees are struggling at the moment.

“It’s good to know your balance has improved.” He laughs.

I scoff while trying to get more familiar with keeping my balance in this position he’s helped me find.

After a good 45 minutes of practicing, Luca encourages, “Okay. There’s a tiny wave coming if you want to try and ride it.” My jaw drops just to mess with him. “It’s a surfing term. Fuck .”

So I try and ride it, his words, not mine.

And I’m not doing as bad as I thought as I try to keep my balance on the small wave. “Look! I’m doing it!”

“You’re doing great!” He paddles toward me, his grin just as wide as mine. “I’m proud of you. That was really good.”

Currently on an adrenaline high from riding my first wave, and now at his words, I say, “Thank you. I guess your teaching wasn’t half bad then?”

“I mean, you weren’t really following anything I told you.” I roll my eyes. “But you still did great. Maybe surfing just comes naturally to you then,” he adds, smirking.

“That’s nice of you to say. But I’m afraid nothing comes naturally to me,” I reply.

“You already know I’m not going to agree with that.” Luca gives me a knowing glance as he caresses my shoulders. “Just look at how easily you make me blush,” he says so casually before he starts to paddle away again. I don’t know if it’s the sun or his words, but the saltwater suddenly feels like it’s boiling.

The second wave I try to challenge myself with doesn’t go quite as well, when Luca’s effortless surfing distracts me.

Crashing into the water, I’m even more soaked than the last time this happened two weeks ago. But I can’t complain too much given how my bikini top is still fully intact. The pile of seaweed and kelp currently attached to my hair makes up for this though.

I turn around when I hear Luca’s voice.

He leans in and helps me remove the sea vegetables out of my hair, while trying to stifle his laughter. “How do these things keep happening to you?”

I spread my arms wide. “What can I say? I’m a magnet to chaos.”

Thinking I’ve removed it all, he pushes my hair away from my neck. Between the cold water droplets scattered across my collarbone, Luca’s warm hand against my body, and the hot sun beaming down on both of us, I feel a wave of chills hit me all at once.

I look at his crystal blue eyes as he lifts another piece of kelp from me. “There,” he says. “That was the last piece.” My lips part open slightly when I notice him swallow hard. “Your eyes are so fucking beautiful.”

I shake my head. “Of course you have to say it like that .”

“Say it like what ?”

“You know exactly what.”

“I’m sorry, but I really need to look away now. It’s just too much,” he says, while shielding his face from me, making me snort.

When he glances back over, the way our eyes meet is as if they never left each other.

Too frozen to say or do anything, I barely manage to smile back as he looks just as affected by this as me. “Do you want to go back yet or continue?” he asks.

“We can go back,” I reply. “I’m starting to get a little hungry actually.”

And that’s not just because of my stomach …