"Hello," she said to him.
"Mandy this is Ethan, Ethan this is my friend, Mandy," Emma introduced. She grabbed her straw and took a sip of her drink. The sweet scent of strawberries drifted up to him, but he didn't detect any alcohol in it.
"Hi," Mandy greeted, but she continued to watch him like a hawk. Under other circumstances, he might have found her protective attitude amusing; now, he found it irritating.
A loud cheer drew his attention back to the game. The brunette with braids was jumping up and down as she high-fived her teammates. She jogged over to them and grabbed her towel from the sand. Words spilled out of her mouth at a million miles an hour as she dried the sweat from her body and grabbed the drink from Emma. She closed her eyes and made a pleased sound in the back of her throat as she sipped it.
"Delicious," she said. Her hand stilled on the towel when she opened her eyes again and finally noticed him standing there. A sly grin curled her lips as she thrust out a hip. "Well, hello," she greeted. "And who might you be?"
Emma and Mandy rolled their eyes, and Emma grabbed her drink back from her friend. Ethan smiled at the woman as she dropped her towel on the ground. "Ethan."
"Nice to meet you, Ethan, I'm Jill, and these are—"
"We've met," Mandy interrupted.
Jill frowned as she glanced between Emma and Mandy and then back at him. "Oh."
"We should probably go; I could stand to get out of this sun for a bit," Mandy said.
The disappointment filling him was a little disturbing, but he wasn't in the mood to examine it.
"Maybe we'll see you later," Jill said.
"I'm sure of it." He didn't even look at Jill but kept his gaze locked on Emma as he spoke. He was as startled by the words as Emma appeared to be. Her eyes flickered, and she bit her bottom lip.
She smiled at him, and Mandy took her arm. Their excited words and laughter floated back to him as he watched them walk away with their heads bent close together. The further away they got, the more aware he became of the cluster of people around him and the blood flowing through their veins. His teeth ground together as his hands fisted. After the stillness her presence had brought him, the influx of awareness was like sandpaper on his skin.
Turning away, he walked back to Isabelle and Stefan. They were both watching him with questioning expressions, but Isabelle jumped on him first. "Who was that?" she demanded.
Ethan shrugged as he lowered himself to the blanket beside her. "Just some girl," he muttered, but he found his gaze drawn back to Emma as she climbed the dunes with her friends.
Chapter Four
Emma brushed out her hair and let it fall around her shoulders as she studied herself in the mirror. Turning away, she grabbed the purple and white sundress from the bed and slid it over her head. Jill was adamant they go to the bar again tonight. Emma thought she might have a bit of a crush on Ethan.
That thought didn't sit well with her, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. She didn't blame Jill; he was gorgeous. Just recalling the feel of his large hand encircling hers caused her heart to pound a little faster and her mouth to go dry.
There was a rod of strength in him, and he radiated an aura both formidable and appealing. She should probably stay far away from him. She'd already become entangled with a man who seemed perfectly normal, and even a little boring, when she first met him, but over time she'd come to realize she'd seriously misjudged his character. Her mistake had caused her nothing but betrayal, aggravation, and a nightmare she wasn't certain would ever end.
She hadn't known him long, but she got the impression Ethan was anything but boring. Though common sense told her to stay away, she found herself intrigued by him and hoping he would be there again tonight. Even if he was there, that was no guarantee he would talk to her again; today might have been a fluke. He may have just been watching the game and looking to pass the time with some idle conversation.
Her fingers twitched as she smoothed the front of her dress and tried to get her nerves under control. She felt as jumpy as a cricket; she wasn't sure she could stand still long enough to carry on a conversation with him even if she did see him again.
Ugh, she was an idiot, she decided as she brushed her hair over her shoulder and turned away from the mirror. Grabbing her purse from the queen-size bed, she tossed the strap onto her shoulder. The cheerful yellow of the room calmed her nerves and brightened her mood as she made her way to the door and stepped into the narrow hallway.
Jill and Mandy were already in the kitchen. Even over the noise of the blender, she could hear Jill singing Buffalo Soldier at the top of her lungs. All the windows in the house and the sliding patio door were open to allow the ocean breeze to flow inside. It was refreshing as it tickled over her skin and brought with it the smell of the hibiscus growing just outside the doorway. Emma stepped into the small kitchen as Mandy shut the blender off and began to pour the red liquid into three different glasses. Over Mandy's shoulder, she could see the cotton candy pink house next door through the
