Slammed (23 page)

She shifted against him and he felt her lips press to his chest in a kiss.

“You awake, baby?”

“Mmm.” She let out a long, heartfelt sigh that made his dick twitch yet again. She rubbed her face against his chest and her fingers tapped over his shoulder and curled around it.

“We should get some sleep,” he said. “You have to work tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “My alarm is set for seven-thirty. You probably have a lot to do too.”

“You should know.” He smiled.

She gave him a lethargic swat on the shoulder. “I don’t have every minute of your week planned out.”

He laughed. “Yeah. But this is it. Things really ramp up tomorrow.”

“Your first heat is Wednesday, right?”

“Right. Wednesday at eleven-thirty.” He hesitated. “Are you going to be there?”

“Of course! I’ll be working, but yeah, I’ll be there.”

That made him happy. “I probably won’t see you much before then,” he said slowly. “Tomorrow and Tuesday I’ll be working with Coach and the rest of the team to get ready.”

“It’s funny that you have a coach who’s not a surfer.”

“I kind of like it. He has a whole different perspective. And he knows what it’s like to compete at this level, since he was a world champion snowboarder. He even works with me on nutrition and what I should be eating, and how I should be working out. He’s the one who encouraged me to try yoga. And another great thing is, he’s tall, and he knows how to coach me to use my height to my advantage, project where I want to go a little earlier when I’m winding up into turns. And I need to do some fine tuning on my boards with Elroy.”

“I don’t think I realized how much of a team you have working with you.”

“Yeah. I guess. But when it comes right down to it, it’s just me out there, me and the waves.”

“You’re going to do great this week.”

He smiled and kissed her head. “Yeah? What makes you say that?”

“I just know.” Her voice grew drowsy. “You’re talented and you’ve been working hard.”

“Thanks.” He cleared his throat a little. Coming from her, he found that really meant a lot. He stroked her arm and shoulder and then her breathing slowed. She’d fallen asleep.

He glanced at the digital alarm clock on the table beside the bed. It was after one in the morning
–
should he stay the night? Or head back to his hotel and sleep alone?

Yeah, like he really wanted to do that. He was starting to drift too, sleep rolling over him like gentle waves, and so he slid a little lower into the bed, settling Brooke’s sleeping curves next to him and closing his own eyes.

Brooke rolled out of bed first after her alarm went off and shut herself in the bathroom to get ready for work. When she emerged, Dylan was sitting on the side of the bed, dressed in his dark suit pants and dress shirt, in the process of rolling the cuffs back on his arms.

“Are you hungry?” she asked as she put on earrings in front of her big mirror. The big mirror where they’d, uh…watched themselves the night before. Heat flashed low down inside her.

“Starving.” He grinned and rose to his feet, all big and sexy in his rumpled dress clothes, hair tousled, beard darkening his jaw.

“I can give you some toast or cereal. Or a bagel.”

“Got any eggs?”

“Mmm. Yeah, I think I do.”

“I can scramble some up for myself.”

He made himself at home in her small kitchen. “Want some?” he asked as he cracked eggs into a bowl.

“Okay. If you’re making them anyway.” Half the time she didn’t even eat breakfast, which she knew was bad. He whipped eggs together and poured them into a skillet while she made coffee and popped bread into the toaster, then they sat at her small counter to eat.

“I had fun at the wedding,” she said.

“Did you? That’s good. Thank you for coming with me. I liked having you there.”

“Your friends are nice. Corey and Matt. They seem so happy together.”

“Yeah.”

“They care about you too.”

“I guess.”

She lifted her head. “Why do you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“As if…as if they
shouldn’t
care about you.”

“Huh. Maybe they shouldn’t. You know I’m not really worth caring about.”

She blinked at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You weren’t all that impressed with me when you showed up in Tahiti. I was messing up my career. You were pretty clear that I was in danger of losing my sponsorship and needed to clean up my act. I’m an asshole.”

She was silent for a moment, processing that. What he said was true, but… “No, you aren’t.”

He smiled at her. “Thanks, babe.”

“Seriously, Dylan. I’ve gotten to know you better since we’ve been back and you’re not really an asshole. Corey and Matt clearly care a lot about you. Tell me…what was that about, when Matt said you were responsible for him and Corey being together? How did you get them together?”

He bent his head and looked at his eggs. “Uh…no idea.”

“Oh come on.” She smiled. “It must have been great, for him to mention it at the wedding like that. I want to hear.”

He sighed. “Corey and Matt were friends for a long time. Then they started sleeping together, so they were friends with benefits. Last year when I came back for a visit, I was staying with Matt, and…well…we ended up
all
sleeping together.”

She stiffened. Replayed those words in her head. What? Had he really just said that?

“I mean, not Matt and me,” he hastened to add. “But you know…”

“You slept with Corey?”

He swallowed. “Yeah. But with Matt there. A threesome. You know.”

“Um. Yeah.” Yeah, she knew what a threesome meant, and she knew he’d done it. Many times apparently. She’d walked in on him in bed with two other girls in Tahiti. But with Matt and Corey? Holy floating jellyfish!

“They weren’t ‘together’ then, as in, a couple. They were just friends. With benefits.”

Her heart felt like a rock in her chest. “I see. But I, uh…still don’t get it. How did that bring them together?”

He sighed and set down his fork. “I was leaving to go to France for the next part of the tour and I asked Corey to go with me. She turned me down.” He shrugged. “Because she was in love with Matt. She just didn’t realize it. He didn’t either. I mean, he was in love with her too. So basically, it was because of me that they realized they weren’t really just friends with benefits, and that was how they ended up together.”

“You asked her to go with you to France?” Her lips felt stiff as she said the words.

“It was a stupid idea,” he said. “Of course she couldn’t do that. I wasn’t thinking right at the time.”

She cleared her throat, which was surprisingly painful.

“That was a long time ago,” he added.

Did he still have feelings for Corey? Was that what this was all about? Having to come home and go to the wedding of the woman you loved to another man…yeah, that would be hard. “That’s really why you wanted me to go to the wedding with you, isn’t it?”

“Ah…”

“It wasn’t because they were bugging you to find someone. Was it…were you trying to make Corey jealous?”

His mouth dropped open. “Good Christ, no!” He shook his head. “Why would she be jealous over me? She’s in love with Matt.”

“Okay. Not trying to make her jealous, exactly.” She laid down her own fork and stared at the toast on her plate. “But it was because of that you wanted someone there with you. Right?”

“Well. Yeah.”

“You should have told me that.”

“Why? What difference did it make? I was honest about it just helping me out. Not being real.”

“Yes.” Her heart contracted. “You were. I just wish I’d known that you…” She stopped. She didn’t look up at him. “I just wish I’d known.”

“It doesn’t make any difference to us.”

She closed her eyes, her chest hurting so bad. Last night had been incredible—the wedding, afterward at her place, the amazing sex, even this morning…up until the moment he told her he’d slept with Corey Ferber and had wanted her to go to France with him on the tour.

She wasn’t jealous. She was just pissed off that she hadn’t known, that she’d been made to feel foolish all those times they’d been with Matt and Corey, and she’d had no fucking clue that Dylan had apparently had pretty strong feelings for Corey. That Dylan and Matt and Corey had all slept together in a fun threesome.

That thought made her stomach heave.

“Okay,” she said opening her eyes with a bright smile. “You’re right, it doesn’t make any difference. Now, I’d better get going or I’ll be late for work and you need to meet with Brett.”

He didn’t move for a moment, just looked at her, a faint crease between his eyebrows. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“Just put the dishes in the sink,” she continued, sliding off her stool. She reached for her cell phone where it was charging and dropped it into her purse. She slid her feet into her pumps while he gathered up the rest of his clothes.

“So I’ll see you Wednesday?” he reminded her as she locked her door behind them.

“I’ll be there!” She paused, wanting only to get away from him in case her emotions broke free and she made a complete fool of herself. But if she wouldn’t see him again until after his heat… Her heart squeezed. “Good luck, Dylan,” she said seriously. She went on her toes and gave him a kiss on the mouth. “You’ll do great.”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up against him in a tight hug and her throat ached as he pressed his face to her hair. Dammit.

“Thanks,” he murmured. Then he released her and she had to drag her eyes off him to climb into her car.

She held herself together until she was in her office and alone, sitting there at her desk staring blindly at her computer screen.

It shouldn’t have surprised her. After all, the first time she’d seen Dylan since high school, she’d walked in on him with two other girls. She’d heard the rumors of his wild escapades, including sexual ones. The fact that he and Matt and Corey had done that should not be a surprise.

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly surprise that she was feeling.

She wasn’t even sure
what
it was she was feeling. Disturbed. Very disturbed. Foolish. Angry. The way her chest ached made her think she was hurt, but why would that be? Just because she and Dylan seemed to have something between them, the way he’d taken charge as they left the wedding…what had he said?
“From now on, shit gets real, babe. Let’s not play games.”

That had made her think what was happening between them was real. Big mistake.

He was a player. He’d slept with his best friend’s girlfriend.

She gave a sharp tap to her keyboard to bring the computer to life and opened her email program. She had work to do. She couldn’t sit here all day pouting about Dylan Schell.

What had that all been about, them
thanking
him for God’s sake? How did
that
work? She shook her head, then leaned back in the chair and looked at the ceiling. That was messed up.

Corey seemed so nice and normal, and so in love with her new husband. She certainly didn’t seem like a trampy, sexy siren who guys were falling all over themselves to be with, a girl so sexy she ended up in bed with two guys. Imagined scenes flashed through Brooke’s mind, of Corey and Matt and Dylan—gah! She sat up straight and fiercely rubbed her eyes, as if to erase the images.
Don’t even go there!

Why was this bothering her so much? She’d seen Dylan with two other girls, all of them naked, for God’s sake, and that hadn’t disturbed her nearly as much as hearing about this. Was it because he’d wanted Corey to go with him on the tour? Ouch. Yeah, that stung a bit.

“Hey Brooke. Have you got the consumer research and sales data for the launch of Jolt?”

She looked up to see Tim. She blinked.
Get it together, woman.

“Yes. Right here. I was doing some analysis on the data for the launch plan.” They were launching a new male fragrance, Jolt. She handed the file to him, and with a smile and thanks, he backed out of her office.

Once more she sank back into her chair. She began to put things together into a more complete picture, although a lot of the puzzle pieces were missing. Dylan’s reluctance to come back to San Amaro now made more sense. He’d been trying to avoid the wedding, not just because his friends thought he should settle down, but because he’d slept with the bride. Maybe because he didn’t want to see them get married.

Obviously he’d had pretty deep feelings for Corey. Curiosity burned inside her about what all had happened between them. Clearly he’d only given her minimal information about the whole thing. It confused her. And goddammit, it made her ache and want to cry.

She leaned forward and dropped her forehead to her desk. Flerkinschmidt! She was falling in love with him.

That could not happen. It had to be back to business for them, business and nothing
but
business. She had a job to do and Dylan did too, his job being to win a competition. And in less than a week, that would be over and he’d be flying off to Brazil, and if she’d successfully kept him out of trouble, her boss would be happy and she’d be on track for moving into a management position. That was all she had to worry about.

Chapter Eighteen

The bleachers had been set up since last weekend, but only now when the senior men’s qualifying rounds began were they filling up with people. The weather was cooperating, with cloudless blue skies that almost hurt to look at, the ocean an equally blinding blue, tossed into decent waves by the wind.

White tents had been set up along the beach, home to all kinds of vendors of food, clothing, jewelry, sunglasses and a hundred other things. At the end of the beach, the stage sat empty right now, but later on there’d be a fashion show and at four thirty the first of the headliner bands would take the stage to rock the beach.

Crowds meandered along the sand, girls in tiny bikinis, ripped guys in low-slung board shorts, everyone wearing sunglasses and a sheen of sunscreen on tanned skin, music pulsing in the background.

Dylan grinned. This was so familiar to him, it felt like home, and he loved it. He soaked up the atmosphere, the sound of the waves a backdrop to voices talking and laughing and the chords of “Party Rock Anthem” blasting from some giant speakers; the briny scent of the ocean mingled with coconut sunscreen and from somewhere, the smell of popcorn. The sun warmed the sand beneath his bare feet and his face as he turned it up to the sky. He held his board beneath his arm and shifted from one foot to the other as he waited for his scores. Adrenaline still surged in his veins from the run he’d just had.