Free Riding the Wave by Lorelie Brown Page A

her voice, that she’d have had more of a husky chuckle. “You keep trying, Tanner. You’ve got only your pride to hurt. Come on. There’s a party downstairs. Everyone’s waiting on you.”
    She slipped back in the window with an easy twist of her hips. Inside, she dusted off the curve of her ass. Quite the pert curve, no less.
    Drawn by that firm swell, he was in without thinking about it. But standing in what had once been his room, memories hit him all over again.
    The weight of the secret threatened to drown him every time his mom smiled at him. And she was waiting downstairs to do a lot of that. Time was running out, in more than one way. It wasn’t enough that he was here again, dealing with the pictures of Hank everywhere he turned. Mako had given that damn interview. Everything was ticking down.
    He wasn’t sure he could take it.
    Somewhere along the years, he’d lost his way. Now that his dad was dead, it became harder every day to understand why he kept a shitty man’s secret. Except Avalon was pretty much proof of why, wasn’t she?
    With no family of her own, she’d latched onto his sister and his mother. They’d welcomed her because they had that purity of spirit he’d been lacking all his life. They chilled and relaxed when he was driven to tear and shred his way through life. That was his father’s influence, pushing him to bigger and better. It wasn’t enough to have one championship; nail two. It wasn’t enough to have three sponsorships; you should find another. Drive. Ambition.
    The strange thing was, he wondered if Avalon, under the surfer-chick front, had the same sort of buzz under her skin.
    His hand darted out, almost without any conscious thought behind it. Her skin was smoother than liquid silk. Slicker than salt water between his fingers. He’d caught her by the waist, two fingers snaking under the bottom hem of her shirt.
    Her lips parted silently. In the shadowy darkness of the room, moonlight picked out her eyes to make them gleam. Her head tilted slightly to the side. “What are you doing, Tanner?”
    “I wasn’t kidding, you know.” He tugged her a little closer. A little nearer. Silence swirled around them, locking their breath together. Salt, sweet, the tiniest edge of a gasp. “Everything else aside . . . I want to know you.”
    The smile she was biting back became something suspiciously like a snort of laughter. Lines cut under the apples of her cheeks as she tensed her mouth. “Has that line ever worked for you? Maybe when you snuck girls in here?”
    “I didn’t,” he said, but it felt kind of like bluster, even to him. The back of his neck flushed hot. At least it was too dark for her to see the blush.
    Her chin lifted even higher, but she didn’t step away. If anything, she leaned nearer. The cotton shirt brushed over his chest. Her eyes looked darker than normal, the pupils large pools. “Wanna try again? Liars don’t get in my panties.”
    “Didn’t realize that was a possibility.”
    “Possibility, yes. Guarantee, no. But lying to me’s the safest way to not get a shot.”
    He followed the long, sleek line of her arms from her wrists all the way up to her shoulders. Then traced over the straight blade of collarbone hiding beneath her shirt. Most girls who showed up at circuit parties wore a hellof a lot less. Bikinis, most of the time. While Avalon could have totally gotten away with that, she’d worn a V-neck shirt that gave only a hint of her cleavage. He’d seen her body before at the beach, but he was still hit with a sense of wonder. Curiosity. What she’d taste like once he’d unwrapped her.
    He swallowed, dragging his gaze back up to her face. “What am I not supposed to be lying about, again?”
    “Girls. In this room.”
    “Yes. A bunch of them. I got them to come up after dark or when no one was home.”
    “Inez Montoya.” Her head tilted to give him better access as he traced over the satin work that made up her skin. She still