Three's a crowd

11

The last day in Hawaii was more than enough to forget about the embarrassing parent talks, the sickness that had consumed me for most of the trip, not even the constant teasing of our siblings could bring my mood down.

We spent the morning just sun bathing on the beach, taking pictures on our phones together. Of course I let Riley do the honor of applying sunscreen to my back, before I returned the favor and we laid beside each other soaking up the suns rays.

I knew my pale skin would hate me later, but for right now the heat dancing on my skin was relaxing every part of my body.

As I laid listening to the gently lapping of the waves on the shore, the steady sound of Riley breathing beside me on the beach, the gentle breeze rusting through the palm trees. It was just enough to drown out the reality that tomorrow we would be heading back to reality.

Of course I wasn't ready to think about the impeding truth that in twenty four hours we would be back to living in separate houses, spending nights apart. I didn't want to think about it. The thought alone made me never want to leave this island, no matter how bad this week had been.

After a few hours of lying on the beach, probably frying my skin Riley coaxed me into trying out one of the body boards. Well by coaxed, he bribed me with ice cream.

When we got to the waters edge Riley strapped the board around my ankle. Slowly he traced his hands from my ankle up my thigh causing my to clench my thighs together as my body reacted to the feeling of his hands.

He placed a kiss on my stomach as he stood before placing another kiss on my nose.
"Come on, time to have some fun!" He smiled as he pulled my free hand and walked me waist deep into the water.

"Okay so lay forward on the board and then when the next wave comes in paddle towards the shore." He directed me as if he had done this a million times.

I followed his instructions paddling until the waves carried me back to the sandy shore. We did this a few times before he suggested we try to see if I could do it kneeling.

Needless to say the first couple of tries I ended up in the water pretty quickly after falling off the board. Each time Riley would laugh and encourage me to try again, and while it sucked to keep falling off I was actually really enjoying myself.

"Riley I really can't do it!" I smiled even though I clearly had no talent in body boarding.

"Come on Britt one more time?" He crinkled his eyes, knowing full and well I couldn't resist him when he did that.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes, getting back on the board on my knees as Riley held me in place for the next wave.

I hadn't noticed that he had let go until I realized I was gliding closer to the shore, perfectly balanced upon the board.

"I'm doing it! Riles I'm doing it!" I yelled turning to face him and ultimately falling off the board again.

I resurfaced laughing as Riley swam towards me.
"Well I was doing it!" Corrected myself.
"You were almost perfect." He beamed down as I leaned up to kiss him.

Just when I felt that he was totally lost in the kiss I moved my hands to his chest and pushed him backwards. As if on instinct he grabbed me and we both fell into the water.

When we came up Riley's soft expression had changed, in its place was a mischievous predatory gaze that had me squeezing my legs tighter together than when he had his hands on me.

"Oh you're going to pay for that." He grinned as he tried to grab me.

I ran away as quick as I could, but Riley being the athletic guy he was, found it almost effortless to catch me.