At least until he dragged her forward, thrust his hand in her hair and kissed her, stealing her breath. She moaned as his tongue slid between her lips, her body more than ready to take him on.
After he thoroughly kissed her, she pulled away, braced one hand on his chest and lowered herself onto his cock.
"That's it," he said, caressing her thigh.
She raised her gaze to his, making eye contact as she seated herself on him.
"Oh, that's good." He fit her perfectly, her pussy clenching around him like a fist. She moved forward and his eyes went half-lidded as he reached for her breasts, cupping them and brushing her nipples with his thumbs. A rocket of pleasure shot to her clit.
She knew sex with Alex was going to be good, but she was already ridiculously close to another orgasm. She lifted, caught her breath, then eased back down on him again, needing to prolong the ecstasy as long as she possibly could.
She leaned forward, dangling her breasts near his mouth. He took one, slid a nipple between his lips while she braced her hands on the headboard.
She fucked him while he sucked the bud, the sensation maddening. She already knew he had a magical tongue, and he flicked it around one nipple, then let go and grabbed the other.
"That's going to make me come." She pulled back.
He grinned and grabbed her hips. "Isn't that the idea?"
"Not yet. I don't want to come yet. Fucking you feels so good."
He reached for her hips and dragged her forward. "But you feel so good when you come on my cock. Your pussy squeezes me."
He took her breath away. She raked her nails down his chest, then rocked forward, grinding herself against him as her climax rushed toward her. "Oh, I'm coming."
She arched back and he held her as she shuddered and let go. He thrust into her and she heard him groan with his own orgasm while she was wracked with spasms that sent her over the edge again and again.
Spent, she fell forward, resting on his chest, listening to the rapid thump of his heartbeat until it settled along with hers.
When she withdrew, he grinned up at her. She went into the bathroom and slipped on her robe while Alex got dressed.
"Preliminaries are tomorrow," he said as he put on his shirt. "Will you be there?"
"Sure. I'll come by."
"I'll leave a pass for you so you can get a good seat in the viewing area."
"Thanks." She walked him to the door and he wrapped his arm around her and kissed her. "Get some sleep."
After he left, she locked her door and went back into the bedroom, smiling as she took in her messed-up sheets. Her body fluttered in response.
It was going to be a great vacation.
Chapter Five
Despite being on vacation, Tori was unable to sleep in. Her body clock was always set to six a.m., and there was nothing she could do to change it. Years of conditioning had trained her body to wake at that time, and even a time zone change couldn't alter it. Her body just instinctively knew when it was six in the morning, no matter where in the world she happened to be.
Ugh. Damned traitorous piece-of-shit internal body clock.
She flopped around in bed for hours, determined to master her own universe. Just once she'd like to be decadent and sleep until eight or even nine--in her vacation time zone.
But no. She was wide-awake.
Admitting defeat, she grabbed her phone and looked at the time.
Ugh. She got up, threw on some clothes and went for a run on the beach. She longed for the peace and quiet, the sounds of the ocean, the energy a run could provide. It centered her, giving her time to be alone with her thoughts. Maybe she could replay last night's events in her head. That should put a smile on her face and set the tone for the day.
But apparently not this morning, because it wasn't peaceful, wasn't quiet, and there would be no alone time. They were already setting up for the competition. She hadn't made it a mile before she ran into a brick wall of tents and announcers and people already setting up spots on the beach for viewing.
She stopped and caught her breath, surveying the setup, which was pretty impressive. Viewing stands had seemingly been erected overnight, there were tents for drinks and food, and a shaded, private area for both judges and announcers. She glanced over at the announcer's area, but didn't see Alex's roommate, Ben.
"Looking for me?"
She pivoted. Ben had come up behind her, obviously on a run of his own. Sweat dripped down his arms and neck and along his naked torso. For a guy in his forties, he was ripped as hell, with an impressive six-pack and lean muscle in all the right places.
"Actually, I was out on my run but was stopped by this wall of event mania."
He looked over her shoulder, then back at her, gracing her with a thousand-watt smile. "Yeah, it's great, isn't it?"
"It's formidable. Are the events always this spectacle-inducing?"
"Not all of them, but this is one of the bigger ones. It draws a huge crowd. The tubes are awe-inducing. Wait till you see them."
"I'm looking forward to it."
"Would you like something to drink?" he asked, leading her toward the vendor tents.
"A juice would be great."
He flashed the ID badge clipped to his shorts and security let them pass. The tent was cool and Tori breathed out a sigh of relief. It was going to be a warm day. She'd have to make sure to wear her hat if she was going to be sitting out in the sun watching the surfers.
Ben grabbed an orange juice for each of them, then directed her to a couple canvas chairs. She took a seat and a couple swallows of juice.
"Where's Alex?" she asked.
"In one of the competition booths, signing papers and listening to the jargon about all the rules. Standard stuff all the competitors have to go through."
She leaned back in the chair and gave Ben a quick glance. He was such a handsome man with his dark hair, his tan and his incredible smile. He had a natural ease about him she found very attractive. Too bad she couldn't handle more than one man at a time. Besides, she typically never dated men her own age or older--they were too into commitment and that wasn't her style. Younger men were always more free-spirited and much easier to let go of.
"You competed before?" she asked.
"Yes, but it's been a while."
"Injury, or tired of the surfing lifestyle?"
He laughed. "Once a surfer, always a surfer. I hurt my back on a bad wave about ten years ago, resulting in the need for surgery. That was the end of my competitive surfing."
"I'm sorry. I can't imagine what it would be like to not be able to do what you love."
He shrugged. "I got over it."
"That's such a simplistic statement. It sucked, didn't it?"
He gave her a direct look that told her he was surprised she understood. "You're right. It did suck. For a long time."
"Like years?"
"Yeah."
She sipped her juice. "I'll bet you were a pain in the ass to live with for a while."
He let out a laugh. It was deep and filled with a dark, husky tone that made her tighten in places that had no business tightening considering her sex-a-thon with Alex last night.
"I was an unlikeable prick for about two years. Felt sorry for myself. Thought my life was over."
"I think you were due a pity party. If it were me, I might have taken another year or so."
"So what you're saying is I have another year coming?"
She laughed. "Sorry. No retro do-overs. You screwed up. Now that you've manned up and gotten over it, your complaining days are over."
"Too bad. I really enjoyed the drug and alcohol binges."
"That bad, huh?"
"The pain pills were fine for a while, but eventually the doctor put a stop to them. I used alcohol to dull the pain after that. It got pretty ugly."
"Did you have to go to rehab?"
"No. I never got that bad. I only drank at night so I could sleep, so at least I didn't become an all-day drunk. Coul
dn't stand myself after a while, and realized no one else could stand me either, so I cleaned myself up and rejoined the living."
She smiled at him. "You look pretty okay to me. Glad you found your way back from the dark side."
"Thanks. It was good for me, actually. Nothing like a long hard bout of feeling sorry for yourself to make you realize your life really isn't over."
"I deal with that with a lot of athletes, who often have very short careers."
"I imagine being an agent is more than just negotiating contracts and fielding offers for commercials. You also have to teach them about investing in their future, just in case an injury sidelines them, or even worse, kills their career sooner than they think."
She nodded, appreciating that he was so perceptive. So many people didn't "get" what she did for a living, and thought she sailed around the country romancing prospects, having them sign on the dotted line, then rushing off to snare a new conquest. Her job wasn't all big paychecks and sharing the spotlight with high-paid sports stars. It was a hell of a lot of work, and often a great deal of frustration.
"You're exactly right. A lot of these young kids think they're superheroes, that nothing bad will ever happen to them. One catastrophic injury and they're out of the game in an instant. I advise them to invest their money well, and to have a fallback plan for when their careers do end, because the large majority of them won't be in the game for as long as they think they will."
He tilted his head. "You're very smart."
She laughed. "And that surprises you?"
"Not at all. But it probably surprises many of your clients. I wish I'd had an agent like you when I was younger. You do realize a lot of them are out to make as much money as they can from their clients for as long as they can, and they don't give a shit about their clients' welfare."
"Sadly, I do know. There are many unscrupulous agents out there, but there are just as many who care about their clients' welfare. You obviously had one of the bad ones."
He finished his juice and made a perfect toss into the nearby recycling container. "Which is why I'm not retired and living on a beach somewhere, whiling away my days in a hammock."
"Awww, too bad. You have to work like the rest of us poor suckers."
"Yeah, my life is a living hell." He graced her with a wicked grin that made the female parts of her quiver.
She had no business quivering over Ben Reynolds. He wasn't at all her type. Which didn't mean she couldn't enjoy his company. He was smart and engaging, and after all, she was on vacation.
She broke a lot of rules while on vacation.
"Somehow I don't think your life is all that bad, Ben."
"I'm not complaining. I still get to travel, still get to attend all the surfing events, and I still don't have to pay for them, since my company foots the bill."
"That doesn't sound like such a bad life to me."
He stood, and she did, too. "It's a great life. Being as good a surfer as I was, I've learned to spot real talent. And when I do, I make sure I put my logo on their boards and their suits. They make me money. It's a pretty sweet deal."
"Sounds like your life is just where you want it to be."
He led her outside, and she was surprised by how many people had shown up in the short time they'd been inside the tent.
The smell of something cooking made her stomach growl. She laid her hand there.
"I think I'll go grab some breakfast. I rolled out of bed this morning for a run and haven't even had a cup of coffee yet."
"Me, either. Come have breakfast with me, and then I'll get you a prime seat for the morning practice runs."
She shook her head. "Thank you, but I need a shower first, and it's going to be hot as hell today. My hat is in my room. I'll need to gear up if I'm going to spend the day in the heat."
"You can sit in the tent area with me, out of the sun. Go take your shower. I'll still buy you breakfast. Stop at the registration desk. I'll leave you a pass for all the competition events and private areas."
She wanted to decline. No, that wasn't true. She should say no. She wanted to say yes. She liked spending time with Ben.
She also liked spending time with Alex, whose touch made her tingle in unexpected, delightful ways.
But Ben was Alex's friend, and he'd offered breakfast, not sex.
"Okay. Thank you. I'll be back in about forty-five minutes."
"Great. I'll be at the far end of the tented areas, the one with the Surf Hot logo."
He pointed, and she nodded. "I'll see you then."
*
Ben watched Victoria jog off, his lips curving as he admired her long legs and great ass.
It was really too bad Alex had met her first. She was beautiful and intelligent and the kind of woman he'd love to spend time with.
Plus, he couldn't help but focus on her mouth. He had a thing about a woman's mouth, and Victoria had a full bottom lip that begged to be tugged on.
His cock tightened. He finally tore his gaze away from her retreating form, searching the ocean for Alex.
He found him sitting beyond the waves and talking with a few of the other competitors. Even from a distance, Ben read the ease that Alex had with the board and the waves. The one thing Ben had always liked about Alex was his instincts. He knew when the right wave would come along, and when the wrong time was to drop in on one.
Ben would give anything to be out there, ready to catch one of the tubes. Dangerous to be riding the Pipeline, but he could still remember the adrenaline rush of dropping down into a wave of overpowering size and mastering it.
It might have been a lot of years since he'd ridden competitively, but the urge had never died. He clenched his fingers into his palm, sucked in a deep breath, then released it.
Give it up. It's over. It's been over and you're never going to ride the big waves again.
The dull, constant pain in his back reminded him why.
He pivoted and headed toward the promoter's tent.
*
Victoria showered and changed into her swimsuit, then tossed a pair of cotton capris and a T-shirt over it, slipped into her sandals and grabbed her bag. She made the walk back to the competition area and went to the registration area first to pick up the badge Ben had said he'd leave for her. She flashed her badge to get in, and found Ben in the tent. He was talking to a few other people, so she turned to watch the surfers, some already in motion on the waves.
She searched for Alex, but couldn't find him in the sea of bodies undulating in the water.
"He's in the center, just to the right of the dude with the bright orange board."
Ben had come up behind her, and moved beside her. She followed where he pointed, then nodded as she spotted Alex, who had just popped up on his board to take the next wave.
Her breath caught as he slid down the curve of what she thought was a pretty big breaker. He dropped down, then disappeared under a crashing fall of water. She didn't exhale until she saw him come out from underneath it.
"Jesus, that's some scary shit."
Ben laughed and slipped his arm around her waist. "It's a thrill ride, that's for sure."
She was frozen to the spot, unable to move as she watched the other surfers do the same thing, certain at any moment one of them wouldn't come out the other side of those monstrous waves. But they all did. Only Ben's slight pressure on her hip convinced her to give up her spot.
"It's like a train wreck," she said as he led her down the beach walk to the street side. "It's awful, yet I don't want to look away."
"It's not awful. It's great."
"No, it's awful. They're taking their lives into their hands every time they slide into one of those gigantic waves."
"Those aren't even the biggest waves yet."
She stopped and her eyes widened. "They get bigger?"
He grinned. "Yeah."
"You all are insane."
"Nah. They know what they're doing."
He stopped at a little restaurant
called Cafe Haleiwa that was super crowded. They had to wait for a few minutes for a table, but Ben assured her the wait was worth it. The smell of coffee and food made her stomach rumble. They took a seat and a waitress came by to take their drink orders. First item on the agenda was coffee. She looked over the menu, and they ordered when the waitress came back with their coffee.
She took a sip, closed her eyes and sighed.
"You look like you're having an orgasm."
She opened her eyes and offered up a smirk. "Well, you would know since you've seen me have one."
His lips curved. "True. But it was from a distance. And I wasn't inside you at the time. Not at all the same thing."
Heat coiled low in her belly, swirling around her like a living thing. It shocked her, this instantaneous chemistry she felt with Ben. She'd never been interested in two men at one time. It wasn't in her nature to be multiflirtatious. Once she settled on a man, she was wholly focused on him and him alone until it was over. And she'd settled on Alex. He was going to be her vacation fling. So what was up with all this sexual friction between her and Ben?
"I guess you'll just have to use your imagination then."
The look he gave her melted her to the floor of the restaurant. "I have a pretty damn good imagination, Victoria."
His voice had gone low and deep. A whisper, a dare. Or was it an offer? She didn't know what to make of him. He was friendly, and nonthreatening, but also obviously attracted to her. And she'd be lying to herself if she said she wasn't attracted to him. But she was also very much attracted to his roommate, which put her in a deep quandary.
"You know, I really like Alex."
He leaned back, his coffee cupped between his hands. "So do I."
"Then what are we doing here, Ben?"
The waitress brought their food. Ben looked at Tori. "We're having breakfast, Victoria."
Somehow she didn't think it was that simple. But she was hungry and she didn't want to dissect something that was probably nothing more than a simple flirtation. She flirted a lot as part of her job. Anything to get a contract signed for one of her players, and being a woman sometimes had its advantages.
Ben obviously liked women, and she certainly liked men. It wasn't like they'd run off to have a quick fuck while Alex was busy in the water.
Ben was right. They were just having breakfast. And they had chemistry. Big deal. Nothing was going to come of it, so she should relax and enjoy his company.