Behind Frenemy Lines by Lauren Price

Author:Lauren Price
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black & White Publishing
Published: 2022-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

16

Beach Please

“I hate it!” Miko snaps, frantically attempting to brush the sand from her towel with oily hands. She lifts her palms, now encrusted with a thin layer of grit, and hisses in irritation. “I hate putting on sunblock on a beach—it all just sticks and it’s impossible to get rid of it unless you go in the sea . . . and then you need to reapply again!”

“Just ignore it,” Violet suggests from behind us. She’s stretched out on a stripy beach towel, looking infuriatingly classy in aviators and a red bathing suit. Around her, the rest of us have attached our towels like a giant patchwork picnic blanket, decorated with lounging bodies, sunblock bottles, my Polaroid camera and Riley’s ginormous yellow beach-bag. She, Alec and Joe have all left already to go swimming.

“But I feel like one of those little sand crabs,” Miko whines. Another flurry of sand flicks up into the air as she shakes her towel. It clings desperately onto the breeze for a few suspenseful seconds before dancing down to land on my shins.

“You’re definitely not a sand crab, Aragog,” Chase’s voice sounds smoothly from the towel behind me. After the incident this morning with Miko’s mortification over her unshaven legs, he’s taken to nicknaming her Aragog, after the hairy tarantula in Harry Potter. As expected, Miko has not taken kindly to this comparison.

She scowls and throws her water bottle at him.

“Ouch,” Chase complains, as it smacks violently into his elbow. He peels his arm away from his face and squints in the bright light for a few seconds, before his eyes adjust and find me, shamelessly ogling him. Then, that stupidly attractive smile. Somehow, it’s even more potent when he’s lying shirtless in the sun.

“Careful, gorgeous,” he murmurs through his smirk. “Keep staring like that and I might think I have your heart.”

“The only thing you have is an ego the size of Jupiter,” I mumble, turning my chin away in an attempt at carelessness. I gaze down the pale beach towards the wink of orange light reflecting from the waves. My fingers claw into the towel I’m sitting on. He’s right of course, I need to stop staring. It’s awkward to be caught out.

“Are you guys ready to surf now?” Dylan asks, rolling lazily onto his side.

The urge to level the playing field sparks victoriously in my chest, eliminating any damp embarrassment.

“Sure.” I turn back to Chase with the semblance of a smile.

I can make him stare, too.

In one smooth motion, I tuck my thumbs under the hemline of my T-shirt dress and lift it up and over my head, exposing the indigo bikini I’m wearing beneath. As my textured hair falls messily around my shoulders, I have the satisfaction of watching that smug smile fall from Chase’s features as his attention diverts to my freshly exposed skin.

“Careful, Squidge,” I say nonchalantly, reaching backwards for a bottle of sunblock. “You should probably stop staring or I might think I have your heart.”

One corner of Chase’s mouth tugs into a half smile and his teeth slide out to catch it before it grows.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.