Free Lawless by Tracey Ward Page B

arm. He pretends to cringe from it but then he’s rushing toward it. He’s leaning over the console, he’s in my space, and his lips are on mine silencing my laughter and replacing it with something else entirely. Something far more raw and rough. It’s not invasive, he doesn’t involve his tongue, but it’s intimate. He kisses me with feeling, intensity, and I melt into the seat like hot butter even as my skin explodes in goosebumps.
    “I thought about you all night,” he mumbles against my mouth. “I haven’t slept. I haven’t showered. I can still smell you on my skin.” He licks a line along my lower lip, making me shiver. “I can still feel you.”
    I feel my body respond to him and his words, but this is not the time and my driveway in broad daylight is absolutely not the place. I put my hands on the sides of his face and move it back, away from mine. I come up for air before he can pull me any farther under.
    “I have to go to work,” I remind him.
    He grins, crooked and boyish and unashamed. “You sure you don’t want to blow it off and spend the day with me? Take a cooler down to the water. You in that purple bikini—“
    “How do you know the colors of my bikinis? I was wearing a yellow one the night you saved me.”
    He sits back in his seat, popping the car into gear. “I know because I’ve seen you in probably ten of them at the beach. I like the purple one.”
    “I’m scared to ask why.”
    “It makes your eyes look warmer.”
    “Ha,” I laugh shortly. “Not buying it. Try again.”
    “It looks good with your blond hair?”
    “Nope.”
    “It makes your ass look tight.”
    “There it is.”
    The drive down to Malibu is quiet. Quiet, but not awkward. The silence isn’t an avoidance, it simply is . It feels easy being here with him. Simple when I thought it’d be complicated. I’m enjoying just being with Lawson, and if I’m not reading him wrong, he’s enjoying it too.
    He reaches over every now and then and touches my hand. He doesn’t take it in his to hold it. He only touches it. Caresses it lightly, a faint smile on his lips as he drives, like he’s getting something from it. Something small but saccharine, and it’s right and just because it gives something to me in return. It gives me a calm I didn’t know I needed. Being with him like this relieves an anxiety in my blood, a tightness in my bones and my heart that turns me to liquid and sets me free. It feels dangerous and wild but I like it too much to care. I’m too comfortable to know how afraid I should be.
    “You’re off at four?” Lawson asks as he pulls up in front of Ambrose Surf.
    “Yeah, four today. I close again tomorrow. Good news is we get to sleep in.”
    He grins. “I don’t sleep in. I’ll be up at five to get out in the water by six.”
    “That’s insane,” I mutter, shaking my head.
    “You’ve never surfed that early?”
    “I’ve only surfed a handful of times and, no, it was never before noon.”
    “I’ll come get you tomorrow morning. We’ll hit the beach before the sun and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
    I feel my face fall as my stomach drops out. He sees it, he has to, but he doesn’t react. He waits, watching me.
    “I think I’d rather sleep in.”
    “You mean you’re scared of going in the ocean again.”
    “Mostly that, yeah,” I admit, figuring what’s the point in lying?
    His eyes tighten at the edges. “You gotta get over that. If you don’t do it now it will be harder later.”
    I rub my hand absently along my thigh. “I’m not ready yet, Lawson. You need to leave this alone.”
    He looks away, nodding reluctantly. “Alright, fine. I’ll drop it for now.”
    “Forever.”
    “For now,” he chuckles. “But you gotta give me the beach in exchange for my silence.”
    “Your eternal silence.”
    “Temporary silence. There’s a party tonight. Bonfire, beer, music – the whole deal. And you’re going.”
    I’m already shaking my head. “I told