Forbidden Fruit (11 page)

“
What are you thinking about?” he asked.

About how impossibly sexy you are
. I wondered again why he asked me out. “I don’t understand why I am here with you,” I admitted.

A questioning look swept his face. “Do you not want to be?” he asked.

“
No. I mean, no, that’s not what I mean,” I stumbled. “I just,” I stared down at my hands in my lap, unable to face him as I admitted the truth, “I don’t know why you would want to go out with me.”

Refusing to look up at him, with the weight of my statement in the air, I continued to wait for a response. He sat in complete silence. He had no comment. I could feel myself start to squirm in my seat.

“
You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” His comment sliced through the heavy air and landed in my chest. That was not at all what I expected him to say.

I raised my face, desperate to see sincerity in his expression. The simple statement came from him like a vow.

His face did not disappoint. I believed him, the earnestness was undeniable, but I didn’t understand why he thought so.

Ending the intense moment, the server asked if we wanted dessert. I regretfully declined after eating such a heavy meal. Michael followed suit. She slid the bill on the table and took our plates.

Michael grabbed the bill immediately, which came as no surprise. He placed a hundred dollar bill in the little black folder and then asked, “Are you ready?”

“
Sure.” I had no idea what I was answering, but at that moment, I felt like I would have followed him anywhere.

We left Café Suzanna and headed toward the beach, a short jaunt across the street. He guided me toward the pier with a large hand on the small of my back. The touch sent chills up my spine and down my legs even through my dress and his jacket.

The walk down the pier felt amazing. A warm fall breeze swept over the railing, caressing my bare legs as we strolled out over the ocean. The waves crashing against the shore and slapping the posts of the pier were the only sounds around.

I was all too aware of his body next to mine, as we walked along. He emanated some sort of soul deep pull that I was irresistibly caught in. I didn’t want this night to end. If it would last for the rest of my life, I would die a completely happy woman. Yet I didn’t know the guy next to me. All I knew was what I felt, an undeniable attraction to him, like some sort of magnetic pull.

“
You don’t say much,” I noted, belatedly realizing it may have been rude.

He smiled, “What would you like me to say?”

“
Well, you could start by telling me why you wanted to have dinner tonight.”

I was curious. He hadn’t said much to me at school, and I thought that was just how he acted with everyone around, but then during dinner he hadn’t said much either.

He looked a little surprised by my suggestion. “I thought you would enjoy some company. No one likes eating alone,” he added.

It was an evasion. He gave me an answer that was polite, a response meant for an associate of sorts, not a possible girlfriend, which was of course what I wanted to know about.

“
I see, so you were just offering your company as an act of charity, so I wouldn’t have to eat alone?” I was confused. Was this a date or not?

He smiled, “You make me sound like an escort.”

Isn’t that what he just described himself as? Joining me for dinner so I wouldn’t have to eat alone. I began to feel a little pathetic.

Then he sighed. “Lily, I wanted to take you to dinner because I…” he broke off as we reached the end of the pier. The wind swirled, sweeping around his dark hair as he peered out to the ocean for guidance. “I wanted to be near you,” he finally admitted.

I blushed against my will. I was probing for just that but hadn’t really expected he would say it. I had hoped, but knew it wasn’t possible. He was perfect, could have any number of girls. It didn’t make sense.

I didn’t have anything to add that wouldn’t leave me sounding like the desperately eager person I was feeling like inside. I was seventeen and still had never had a real boyfriend. It was safe. I could never get my heart broken, but it was also tragic.

He sighed again, frustration seeping through his voice, “I always want to be near you, even though I know I shouldn’t.”

“
I don’t understand,” I admitted, feeling dejected. Did he want to be or not? It wasn’t that complicated, was it?

He turned a wry grin my way, the moon gleaming in his eyes, “I know.” He lifted his hand and caressed my cheekbone, allowing his fingers to glide down my face, around to my neck, and just below my ear. “You are exquisite.”

Every nerve in my body screamed at his touch, ached for more. My breath fell short and my heart began to beat rapidly. He caressed my neck and gazed longingly into my eyes. Then he took a nice long sweep of my face. He seemed to be memorizing every detail. I was lost to him right then and there. He could have asked anything, I would have obeyed, done anything, and I would have followed. And the only meek thought that crossed my mind was,
I really hope I don’t have anything on my face
.

“
Lily,” he breathed my name in a husky, slightly accented voice. His drawl wasn’t foreign per se, but the way he said my name…no one had ever said it like that.

I’m quite certain I stopped breathing right then. I wanted to touch him, to feel his perfect face and that amazing body. I took a leap.

Shyly reaching for his slightly tanned skin, I touched his jaw line, with trembling fingers. He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes at the touch. Was it possible he felt the same thing I did, that same electric magnetism, that overwhelming pull?

His long lashes lifted and a dreamy haze fell over his features. He leaned in ever so slightly, and I heeded the summoning. All I could think about was what his kiss would feel like, soft, yet powerful against my lips. There was a static field of danger and longing sparkling between our bodies, and it was utterly irresistible.

The next sequence of events happened so fast my mind could hardly process them. Michael’s eyes widen in shock and…anger? He dropped his hand and spun away from me. Then something grabbed me by the shoulders…something from the other side of the railing, which should have been impossible. I was leaning against a balustrade that faced an expanse of ocean, twenty feet above the water. I felt myself being pulled over the barrier in one fluid motion. Then I was falling.

I choked, salt water burning my nose and throat. The waves pummeled me, dragging me under. It was so dark. I could see nothing; all I felt was the sting of salt in my eyes as I desperately thrashed around, searching for the surface. Then I felt a seer of pain across the flesh of my upper thigh. I knew I had been dragged under the pier. The posts were riddled with barnacles that cut like ceramic knives. I heard a gurgling scream of pain come from my mouth as another wave over took me, slamming me into another spiked post.

A hand wrapped around my arm and pulled. I panicked, pumping my legs and arms in an effort to free myself. Whatever had pulled me over the edge had come back for me. It was a futile endeavor. The hand turned into two, the second wrapping around my waist. The force of that pull over-powered my strongest fight entirely too easily. I was being yanked to the depths of the ocean, fear crashing over me, as I ran out of breath.

I was going to die.

The next moment, I felt my head surface, cool, light air replacing the warm, heavy water. I was completely disoriented. I wasn’t being pulled to the bottom after all, but rather to the top. Then I heard the most incredible voice in the world, rough and against my ear, “I’ve got you Lily, it’s okay.” It was Michael.

I couldn’t stop choking, as the salt water burned my nasal passages. He wrapped both of his brawny arms around me and waited for me to stop coughing. I went from pure panic to felling safer than I had ever felt in my entire life within those few moments. No one’s embrace should be that powerful.

Then he swam me all the way back to shore, never releasing his hold. He was a great swimmer, never seeming to tire or become short of breath. A constant flow of reassuring comments convinced me that all was right in the world.

Even when I could touch the sandy ocean floor, he didn’t let go of me. I was glad. My body felt like I had just run a marathon, and I wasn’t sure if I could stand on my own without him.

When there was only sloshing ankle deep water, I stopped walking, confusion sweeping over me. He stopped also and turned to me. His brow creased with worry and out of nowhere, he scooped me up in his arms and continued walking up the beach.

“
What just happened?” I asked, allowing myself to rest on his chest.

“
You fell. But you’re okay now,” he recalled, with a distinct lack of emotion in his tone.

“
No,” I shook my head, still confused, “I mean who pulled me over?”

“
What?” He looked genuinely confused himself, which I found immensely irritating.

“
Someone grabbed me. When you turned around to see what was behind you, someone pulled me over the railing,” I explained.

His brows pulled together, and then he said, “Lily, there was no one there but us. You fell over, and then I jumped in after you.”

“
No, I remember!” I insisted, what little bit of adrenaline I had left sparked its head. “You turned around because…” I wasn’t sure why, but I assumed it was because someone had been there. “Look, something grabbed me!”

I was becoming exceedingly frustrated. He didn’t look like he bought my story, which I had to admit, did sound rather impossible. How did something pull me over the railing twenty feet from the water? I peered over his shoulder at the ocean as we walked away. Something had to be out there, because if it wasn’t, that made me crazy. Yet, I didn’t see anything but the dark waves caressing the posts of the pier.

“
I know what I felt,” I kept insisting, though the wind had clearly gone out of my sail.

“
Let’s get you dry and this cut cleaned,” he said.

Dry and clean sounded good to me, since I was getting nowhere trying to convince him that we were not alone. Besides, my story was beginning to sound crazy even to me.

Michael placed me on a bench near the car and popped the trunk. After shuffling around in there, he came back with a variety of first aid items, including some cleansing wipes and a large bandage.

“
Does your car double as an ambulance?” I tried to joke. It was odd he happened to have all the essentials just at the right time.

He grinned at the suspicious humor, “I like to be prepared.”

I peeled off the soaking wet jacket and apologized, “Sorry about your jacket.” Not only was it soaked with salt water, but also my blood.

He shrugged, “It’s just a jacket.”

A light breeze swept through, and I became all too aware of my clinging wet dress and the location of my cut, high on my thigh. Michael was quiet as he gently lifted my hemline, exposing the beastly cut. He took his time, gingerly attending to my wound as I tried not to make any of the typical crybaby noises that usually followed such events.

I found myself focusing instead on the closeness of his body next to mine, as his hands lightly brushed my thigh while he carefully positioned the bandage. Such proximity to him elicited many images foreign to my mind, things that I had never experienced with a guy.

He was done too quickly. I sighed, not wanting him to stop. I no longer felt pain radiating from the cut.

“
Can you walk?” he asked with an edge to his voice.

For half a second I considered playing the injured victim just to feel his arms around me again, but when a flash of Lacy being carried away by him crossed my mind, I forced my chin out and my legs to move. I would never be like her. “Yes, I’m fine.”

When we got back to my house, he walked me to the front door, keeping an obvious distance between us.
Please don’t let him turn out like the rest
, I begged any god that would listen. That was how it always happened. A guy would be interested in me but as soon as we tried to get close, he would lose all interest, keeping a clear distance as if I were a leper.

I stood there a moment toying with my keys, not ready to say goodbye yet. Michael shoved his hands in his pockets and pressed his lips into a tight line. An awkward moment went by, and then I shivered as the wind blew from the Charleston battery over my porch, causing my still wet dress to feel much colder than it was.

Michael reached for my arm and then quickly dropped his hand. “You should get inside and warm up.” Those dark eyes peered through his long lashes as he gave me an incredibly hot grin. A shiver caressed my body again, only this one had nothing to do with the temperature.

“
Goodnight,” I said fidgeting nervously.

“
Sweet dreams Lily,” he said with that delicious mouth and dreamy voice.

I just grinned and walked inside before I did something I would seriously regret. My mind had been toying with jumping into his arms and demanding he finish the kiss he started on the pier.

Once in my room, I fell against my door, allowing myself to unleash the childish giggling I had pent up all night. I couldn’t believe I had just gone on a date with the hottest guy on the planet. I sighed with elation, still on cloud nine as I got ready for bed. I couldn’t wait to dish to Bailey tomorrow.