“I don’t have an...” I stop before I tell another lie. If and when I’m going to lie, it won’t be over something so obvious. “I only have the one tattoo.”
“And twovisiblepiercings,” he adds.
“Visible?”
His eyes fall over my body. “Yeah, you know you could have your?—”
“Drop it!”
“I was hoping you were going to say your?—”
“Gunner,” I warn.
He holds his hands up, surrendering all hope on the topic.“Fine, I’ll assume you’re boring everywhere else!”
I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, let’s assume that.”
Seagulls fly overhead. Their sights scan the sand for breakfast.
“If you could be anything, what would you be?” he asks.
The question is so random it catches me off guard. And even if I did know, I’m not sure I trust him enough to tell him. His friendship with Edge throws a giant wrench into things. But this time, I don’t have to lie. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, I wouldn’t suggest you be an artist. You’d give new meaning to ‘starving artist.’”
Instinctively, I reach out and slap his arm. “That wasn’t nice.”
“Oww!” He laughs and rubs the spot where I hit him. “I’m just being real. You’re terrible.”
“Well, in my defense, it was the only class available when I signed up so late in the year.” Curious, I ask, “What about you?”
He sits up, crosses his legs at his ankles, and rests his arms on his bent knees. “I want to be exactly that. Well, an artist or a pro surfer. Or fuck, both. Why the hell not?”
I’ve only known him for a few weeks, but I can see that. “Not a professional MMA fighter?”
“Nah. It’s fun and all, but I’m not a lifer like Edge or Kade.”
Lifer? Like Python?Python fought with the ferocity of a killer, not someone who’s in it just for fun. This conversation just keeps getting more interesting by the topic.
Speaking of Edge, I want to ask where he is this morning or what he did this weekend. And I hate myself for wanting to know. He’s supposed to be the one Iuseto get close to Venom as a whole, to bring them down, not actually get close tohimin the process.
Since my curiosity has a way of taking over, I try to ask nonchalantly and hope Gunner doesn’t catch on. “Where are your friends while you’re out here?”
He shrugs. “Probably home passed out. There was a party at some guy’s house last night. Kade drank more than I have ever seen him drink before, my brother was with Estelle, and Edge was off somewhere getting high and fucking the bitch, Brielle.”
The bottom of my stomach sinks into a trench as deep as the Mariana. I feel like I’m falling through the sand for an unknown amount of time. I can’t seem to stop until the imagined quicksand is replaced with nausea.I clear my throat. Where the fuck did all those dreaded feelings rise from?Forcing myself tostay situated on the sand to hear what else he has to say instead of bolting up to go home, I rest my hand over my stomach and close my eyes, still wondering what the hell kind of reaction that was. Thankfully, Gunner doesn’t seem to notice.
“Listen, I have a proposal for you,” he says.
Instantly on red alert, I open one eye and look at him. “What kind of proposal?”
“Give me your hand.”
Reluctantly, I do. He pulls me up into a sitting position. His gaze travels over my breasts when my shirt falls away, then travels up to meet my eyes. He shakes his head as if coming out of a trance. “Unfortunately, those— You are off-limits.” He wags his finger in my direction. “But if they weren’t…” He claws his hands down his face.
“Off-limits? What’s that supposed to?—”
He doesn’t let me finish. Coming again to his senses, he asks, “So want to hear it—my proposal?”
