Coast (Kick Push Book 2) (The Road 3) (24 page)

My hand covers
the handle of Becca’s luggage while I roll it behind me, the other taking hers as we walk into the hotel lobby. “You want me to book you a separate room?” I ask, turning to her.

She nods.

I freeze.

Then she smirks.

“You’re mean.”

I hold her hand tighter and rush through the lobby toward the elevators, praying for the first moment alone. The second we’re inside, I hit the button for the twentieth floor. I stare down at her, watching her bright green eyes lift to mine. “Hi,” I say.

“Hi,” she mouths.

After releasing her bag, I wait for the elevator doors to start closing before holding her face in my hands. But that’s all I can do because the doors ping open again, and the rest of my team, plus Chris, step inside.

I drop my arms.

“Team cock-block to the rescue,” Reece shouts.

Chris shakes his head. “Leave ’em alone.”

Ry laughs.

Nico says, “I bet you can’t wait to get her in your room, be alone, get down and nasty.” He smirks at me, winks at Becs, then presses the buttons to every single floor between here and the twentieth.

“I hate you,” I tell him.

Becca presses her face to my chest, hiding her laughter. I’m glad she thinks it’s funny. I’m pissed.

Swear, an entire lifetime passes before we actually make it to our floor. I’m the first to step off, but not without a pocketful of condoms jokingly supplied by my so-called friends. I hustle Becca down the hall and into my room, making sure the door is closed, locked, secured, and then I grasp her hand when she starts to walk farther into the room. I gently push her against the wall just inside the door. “Where do you think you’re going?”

She looks up slowly, her eyes meeting mine, her teeth working on her bottom lip.

I move in on her, smiling when her eyes widen. “You’ve been bad, Becs, messing with my head like that.” I almost laugh when she rolls her eyes. Instead, I move closer until I’m flush against her. “You crushed my heart and you know how fragile my heart is.”

She smiles when she rises to her toes, her lips aiming for mine, but I don’t let her have it. Not yet. I pull back just in time and place my hands on her hips, pushing her away from me. “I’m mad at you.”

Her eyes dance with amusement as her hands flatten on my stomach, beneath my shirt, and I almost lose it.
Almost
. Her touch is warm,
hot
, satisfying all my cravings, all my longing. I hold off, fighting the urges coursing through my veins. She raises her hands slowly, so damn slow I can feel the pulse in her fingertips as she makes her way up to my neck, taking my shirt with her. I try to think. Try to come up with a plan that will give me the control and right now—the way she’s looking at me… I can’t think of a single reason to stop her when she removes my shirt, wraps it around my neck, and then uses it to pull my mouth to hers.

She kisses me softly, slowly, as if we have all the time in the world. Her tongue darts out, tracing my lips, and—
knock knock.

“Fuck off!”

Knock knock.

Frustrated, I sigh/grunt loudly and reach for the door.

Reece quirks an eyebrow after peeking into the room. “Wow. It’s been what? Two minutes and she’s already got you on a tight leash?”

Becca pulls my shirt from around my neck and hands it to me.

“What do you want?” I ask, my tone clipped.

“Team meeting after the signing. Remember?”

Fuck
. I’d agreed to have the meeting in my room because Becca wasn’t supposed to arrive until later. Without an invitation, Reece enters the room, now joined by Ry and Nico and Chris, while I replace my shirt and hide my
excitement.
Becca grabs her laptop out of her bag and points to the door but Chris stops her by saying, “You need to be here, too.”

I’m glad he says it because I was about two seconds away from throwing her over my shoulder, dropping her on the bed, and tying her down so she won’t leave my side. I restrain myself, obviously. After taking her hand, I lead her to the bed where I sit next to her, my arm around her waist, annoyed and frustrated and
why the hell can’t they just leave us alone
?

“You brought your camera, right?” Chris asks her.

Becca nods, a genuine smile crossing her lips.

“Good.” He pulls out some papers from his folder and hands them to her.

“An NDA?” I ask incredulously. “Really, Chris?”

He shakes his head. “Becca and I discussed her being the official photographer for the skate park tomorrow. Those are the release forms and payment contracts.”

Becca reaches into her pocket, pulls out her phone, then types, her words relayed through the speakers,
“I don’t want to be paid. I’m happy to do it.”

“Take Chris’s money,” Reece says.

“Yeah,” agrees Nico. “Take it.”

I look over her shoulder as she flips the pages, pausing when she sees the amount she’ll be paid.
$300
. I glance at her just in time to see her eyes widen and her thumbs working franticly on her phone.

That’s way too much! I can’t accept—

She doesn’t get a chance to play the message before I grab the phone and toss it across the room. I take a pen from the nightstand, add a zero at the end and tell her, “Initial here.” I point to new amount, followed by the blank space waiting for her signature. “Sign here.”

She looks between Chris and I, but Chris gives her nothing. He’ll pay her the three grand, even if it comes from me.

Becca shakes her head. “I can’t,” she mouths.

“It’s called negotiation,” Chris tells her. “And clearly Josh has been around Daniel too long.”

“Daniel?” Becca mouths, raising her eyebrows.

“My manager.”

She takes the notepad from the side table and writes:
I thought your mom was your manager?

“I’ll explain later.”

“Is there a reason for this meeting?” Reece huffs.

“Yeah. Is there?” I ask, my question aimed at Chris while I tap on the paper to refocus Becca’s attention. “Just sign it.”

Becca does what I tell her, though clearly hesitant, before handing them back to Chris who simply says, “I’ll pay you in cash tomorrow.”

We spend the next fifteen minutes discussing the plan for tomorrow—a meet-and-greet/fun skate at a local skate park—and then the media and demo shoot agenda for the following day. All things I know about and all things I wish I could back out of because
Becca’s here
. She’s here and she’s real and the second the guys are out of my room, I let her know with my lips, my hands, my physical worship of her presence, just how much I appreciate that she is.

Being intimate with
Becs on any given day is a blessing, but being with her after months spent apart is something else. I feel like I’m moving through a haze in a dreamlike state… like my hands grasping hers while she writhes beneath me is nothing more than a fantasy. In the past, I’d caught myself laughing, thinking about the way I’d be, the way I’d act when she was finally in this position. I’d expected her to be naked within seconds, and me finishing a few seconds after that, but that’s not what’s happening. Instead, we take our time, removing clothes one after the other, our breaths merging, warming our bodies until I’ve worked up a sweat and she’s done the same. It’s not until I reach for the condom in my wallet that she comes out of her daze “Pill,” she mouths.

“
Bill
? I don’t know who the fuck this Bill guy is but I’m Joshua Warden. Remember me?” I jokingly tap my knuckles on her forehead.

She slaps my chest while silent laughter bubbles out of her.

“I miss you like this,” I tell her, leaning up on my forearms, my fingers lacing through her hair.

She spreads her legs, welcoming me, and when the warmth of being inside her infiltrates my entire being, I remind her of how much I love her. How much I
need
her.

—Becca—

W
e spent the
entire afternoon, evening, and night holed up in Josh’s hotel room, only making contact with the outside world when we got hungry and ordered room service. His phone ringing wakes us the next morning. He mumbles an apology before shifting me off of him to reach for it in the pocket of his discarded jeans sitting on the floor. “It’s Tommy,” he says, his voice scratchy from sleep. “Video call.”

I lift the covers over my bare breasts and try to get out of the bed, but he holds me to him, refusing to let me go. Tommy’s face lights up the screen and the speakers crackle with his squeal. “My Becca! Nanni, look! My Becca’s with Daddy!”

Josh chuckles while I hide my smile against his chest.

Tommy waves, his smile from ear to ear. “Hi, Becca!”

Josh runs his hand slowly up and down my arm while his mother comes into view on the phone. “Morning, Becca.” She waves.

I smile and wave back.

Ella says, “Sorry for calling so early. I forgot the three-hour time difference. Tommy wants to tell you his new joke.”

“Let’s hear it, bud,” Josh says.

“Ready?” Tommy asks, his blue eyes bright.

“Go for it.”

“Why did the roll of toilet paper roll down the hill?”

“Why?” Josh asks.

“To get to the bottom.” Tommy’s cackle warms my heart. He adds, “What was it saying as it rolled down the hill?”

“What?” Josh replies.

Tommy throws his hands up. “Weeeeeeeeee!”

Josh shakes his head. “That’s really funny,” he tells his son, looking at him with love and adoration I no longer envied. “Hey, it’s really early here, buddy. Becs and I need to get back to sleep but I’ll call you as soon as I finish breakfast, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy!”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too, and I love Nanni and Ma’am and Mommy and Justin and Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Robby and Aunt Chloe and Uncle Hunt, and most of all, I love
My
Becca.”

Josh smiles at him. “Bye bud,” he says, before hanging up and throwing the phone across the room. He flips to his side and wraps his arms and legs around me. A moment later, his eyes are closed and his breathing’s even, and I try so hard to settle my mind so I can join him, but I can’t. All I can think about is Tommy. I treasure his voice, his laughter, his excitement in seeing me.

“Becs,” Josh murmurs. “Go back to sleep.”

I press closer to him, letting him know I’ve heard him. But I can’t go back to sleep. Not anymore.

He sighs when he flips onto his back, his forearm shielding his eyes. For a moment, I forget I’m naked and so is he, so I don’t think twice about straddling his lap and pushing down on his shoulders. He links his fingers behind his head, the muscles in his arms and chest flexing with the movement, while I run my hands through his hair, knowing I’d give just about anything to be able to speak. To be able to tell him how happy he makes me. Even if it’s just for the next two days… before I go back to a reality without him in it.

He sits up to switch on the lamp on the nightstand. Then he resumes his position, only now he has one hand behind his head, the other flattening against my stomach. “I like this view.”

“I like it, too,” I mouth.

His eyes narrow, his mind searching. “You lick the poo?”

“What?!” I mouth.

He laughs and sits all the way up, his hands on my waist and his gaze on my lips. “No. We should totally do this. I need to learn how to lip read. Say something else.”

I mouth, “Something else.”

Pressing his lips together, his eyes shift from my mouth to my eyes and back again. “Dumplings sell?”

I stifle my laugh. “You’re the worst,” I mouth.

He stares at me a long time. “Whores and squirt?”

*     *     *

Josh and I
eat breakfast with his team, Chris, and Daniel, Josh’s manager. I wait until we’re back in his hotel room, skateboard parts and stickers strewn all over the floor, to ask him about his mother.

He takes a moment to answer, distracted by searching for a certain sticker to place on his board. “It was mutual. She thought that being my manager was ruining our relationship, and I agreed. Besides, the novelty of traveling wore off real quick for Tommy and he said he’d rather stay home. Plus, she wants to be there so she can be around your grams. And, Tommy has to start kindergarten this year so Mom offered to home-school him for a while until things settled down for me. It kind of worked out well for everyone. Where the fuck are my Globe stickers?”

I get down on my knees and help him search for the right stickers, while typing on my phone at the same time.
“You have to do this before every event?”

“I normally do it the night before so I’m not rushing, but you know, I was a little distracted last night.” He looks over at me, his bottom lip between his teeth and his gaze skimming my body.

I find the stickers with the Globe Shoes logo and hand them to him before sitting back on the bed and checking my camera gear.
“Are you nervous?”
Cordy asks for me.

“Not really.” He sits next to me and starts placing his sponsor’s logos on the underside of his deck. “Are you?”

I’m quick to respond, glad I’m able to talk to him about it.
“A little. I’ve never really photographed action stuff before. I watched some videos on it when Chris asked me if I’d be interested. I’m scared one of your boards is going to fly right at my head!”