The Sea Ain't Mine Alone by C. L. Beaumont

Author:C. L. Beaumont [Beaumont, C. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-948272-16-2
Publisher: Carnation Books
Published: 2019-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

~

“So this is it,” Sydney thinks to himself. “This is how I’m going to die.”

There can’t possibly be a way for him to survive the nerves roiling through his body—that his heart was somehow made to withstand the beats currently thudding explosions through his chest.

He tunes out the droning, pointless babble coming from the announcers and tries to eliminate everything but the sound of the waves, desperate for the steady rhythm of the breaks to try and slow his racing heart. The incoming swells are some of the largest they’ve seen all weekend, booming across the shore and roaring with whitewater and spray. Once, the sight would have thrilled him, burning with adrenaline through his core. But now it only serves to make his skin feel too tight for his bones, his throat aching and dry. Those waves aren’t meant for him.

His eyes find James where he stands next to O’Brien near the starting line. To any one of the hundreds of spectators flocking to the beach to see this Finals heat, James Campbell probably appears utterly calm. He stands ready in his full wetsuit with his waxed board by his side and a wet towel around his neck, leaning forward to hang in a stretch between his open legs and calmly bobbing up and down like he has all the time in the world.

To Sydney, he looks anything but calm.

From the moment they’d stepped out of the Jeep and started walking towards the sand, James a careful fifty feet in front of him, Sydney had watched helplessly as each step closer to the beach brought a little more tension back into James’ frame. The body that had been so strong and open as they’d held each other and kissed in the shade. Those same arms that had held him close in loose, sleepy warmth just that morning in the quiet comfort of his bed.

There’s an undeniable thrill in the back of his mind at the realization that he alone in this sea of people knows the clues to reading the secrets hidden in the lines of James’ body. That he alone has felt the raw power of those arms against his own skin, and that he alone knows that this man standing calmly on the shoreline, like he’s simply waiting in line to buy groceries, holds a dangerous, conquering strength in every inch of his limbs.

That he alone knows the texture of the scar hiding beneath his wetsuit. That he alone can call him simply “James.”

In a flash of panic, he realizes that James can’t easily see him from where he’s standing. He quickly scans the beach, knowing he only has a matter of minutes to find the perfect spot so that James can easily find him from the waves, when he hears his name cackle across the sand over the mic.

“—get Danny Moore up here to tell us his predictions for the Final!”

“Wouldn’t be a Billabong without our reigning Champion!”

Dread settles in Sydney’s gut with a sickening lurch

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