Chapter Two

JESSIE

 

Jessie Baltimore wanted desperately to reach for the tall, frosty can of her favorite iced espresso energy drink. But she was afraid Sophie might see her trembling hand. Instead, she let her fingers creep along the weathered railing until they reached the can, and she could pick it up, tremble free.

She cracked it open, smelling the familiar rush of straight, double-barreled coffee, and took two giant gulps greedily, mainlining the much-needed caffeine straight into her veins. Wiping her mouth with the back of her free hand like a frat boy smoothing away beer foam, she saw Sophie lick her lips eagerly, even hungrily.

“I feel bad,” she said, holding out the can. “You’re not having any?”

Sophie smirked before admitting sheepishly, “There was only the one can.”

Jessie snorted and handed it over. “I only wanted a little anyway.”

Sophie took it, but insisted, “We’ll share, okay?” Jessie thought that would be just fine. As Sophie took a long, languid sip, Jessie tried not to ogle her. But the effort proved futile. She was too ripe and voluptuous not to gawk over.

She has to know that, right? Jessie let her eyes wander despite her best intentions.

Curly black hair framed a warm, tender face dominated by rich brown eyes and full damp lips. Sophie had tried to cover her voluptuous curves with a silky black and red kimono, but in her haste to confront Jessie, the loosely tied sash around her waist had given way, revealing the swell of full, round breasts pressing against clingy gray cotton, a soft, smooth belly, and the press of a generous mound against turquoise panties that left little to the imagination. Her long legs were shapely, drifting down to bare feet topped with pink frosted toenails, badly in need of a touchup.

Jessie couldn’t remember the last time she’d become so thoroughly smitten so fast. She felt awkward and pervy, unable to keep her eyes from drinking in every inch of Sophie’s glowing olive complexion and savoring every ripe swollen curve of her tempting body. Perhaps because it had been so long since she’d been smitten by anyone, Jessie was in a particularly vulnerable state right now.

Then again, even if she’d been getting sex on the regular, she would still have been susceptible to Sophie’s immeasurable charms.

The kids at work, most of them a good five or six years younger than her, called this state of instant, irrational horniness being “thirsty.” Jessie had always wondered why, until getting a glimpse of Sophie, ripe and savory in the dawn’s early night. Suddenly, Jessie had never been so thirsty for anything, or anyone, in her entire life.

“Here,” Sophie said, startling Jessie out of her reverie.

“T-t-thanks,” she stammered, sounding—and feeling—ridiculous.

How long have I been ogling her?

“It’s good, right?” Sophie asked, either not minding the ogling or, perhaps, not noticing.

Jessie nodded, waiting until she’d swallowed and handed the can back to reply. “I usually bring something of my own to drink, but the neighbors were fighting so loudly this morning I raced out without planning ahead.”

A wave of concern crossed Sophie’s beautiful face, immediate and sincere. Jessie liked that about her. A lot. It was as touching as it was sexy. “Everything…okay?”

Jessie laughed. She wasn’t normally one to go airing her dirty laundry so quickly, but something about Sophie’s warm, expressive eyes and bubbly curiosity made her easy to confess to. “Nothing a new apartment in a better neighborhood wouldn’t fix.”

Sophie clucked her tongue, nodding in solidarity as if she hadn’t just stumbled out of a charming little beach house that was worth six figures, if not seven in this bull market. “I hear you there.”

Jessie rolled her eyes and nodded behind her, at the sprawling beach house in the background. “Yeah, it must get real noisy here in your cozy cottage by the sea.”

Sophie chuckled and gave a self-deprecating nod. “I guess I meant my dorm room back in Atlanta.”

“Oh yeah? Which school do you go to?”

Sophie rolled her eyes, but not in Jessie’s direction. “You mean which school did I go to? Peachtree State. I just graduated. Last night, actually…”

Jessie thought her new friend looked a little young to be a college graduate already but didn’t want to press. “Congrats!” she said instead, fighting the vague tinge of jealousy she felt, however irrationally, at someone her own age already accomplishing so much when, after all, Jessie had managed to do so little with her own life.

Sophie gave a wry, almost self-deprecating little golf clap. “Yay, me.”

Jessie winced and asked, “Sore subject?”

Sophie shrugged. “Not to me, but get my parents started and look out. They were never happy that I didn’t get into an ivy league school to begin with, and my lackluster grades at a state college didn’t help matters much. But hey, a diploma’s a diploma, am I right?”

Jessie nodded dutifully. Sophie bit her lower lip. An awkward silence followed, filled only by the waves crashing on the beach at their backs and the soft slurping as they finished the iced coffee.

“So…you’re here now?” Jessie began, trying to jumpstart the conversation back up before her surprise morning encounter could fizzle out before it even began.

Sophie nodded. “All summer,” she said, making Jessie’s heart skip an irrational beat. “The folks said I could stay here rent free so long as I got a job and spent every minute of my free time scouting out the best graduate program to attend in the fall, but honestly? I just needed a place to crash after my lease ran out this month.”

Jessie nodded, struggling not to leap into the air and clap her hands together in glee. Three months of finding ways to run into sexy Sophie and her sumptuous curves and kindhearted smile? Be still her pounding, lecherous heart. “Any leads on a job yet?”

Sophie chuckled, a low, throaty sound that did strange things to Jessie’s already throbbing gut, to say nothing of the already turbulent region just below. “I literally drove in last night.”

“Oh, sorry, I was just saying I’m a manager at Beach Break if you need a good word.”

Sophie brightened. “No shit? I used to go there all the time as a kid.”

Jessie had inched closer, somehow. Perhaps when handing the can of Joltz back. She gave her new friend an appraising glance, up and down and back again. “Who are you kidding? You still look like a kid.”

“And you…don’t look old enough to be a manager, Surfer Girl.”

Jessie blushed, wishing her pale, freckled skin wasn’t quite such a blank canvas for every flush of heightened emotion. It made it impossible to play hard to get. “Yeah, well…” She stopped, unsure where to go next.

Sophie bit her lower lip and crossed one bare, sandy foot over the other. Jessie watched the sand leave a swath across her foot. “You really think they’d hire me? I mean, I did mostly office work back at school, so I don’t have much experience…”

“You’re hired!” Jessie blurted, making them both laugh.

“I already said it was okay for you to use the shower,” Sophie teased. “You don’t have to give me a job just because you’ve been stealing water for…how long now?”

Jessie smiled. “Long enough,” she answered. “But seriously, that’s a lot of water over the years.” Their eyes met and, although they were quiet, the silence was not an awkward one. If anything, it felt like a warm, unspoken embrace.

Sophie seemed to be deciding something and, when she did, her voice was husky and frail. “Are you serious? I mean, once I get settled and unpack, my folks are really on me about saving up for grad school…”

Jessie nodded eagerly. “No doubt. We’re always hiring, especially in the summer when all the new hires flake out and go surfing instead of showing up for their shifts. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll speak to the rest of the management team.”

Sophie’s face scrunched up slightly. “You’re really a manager?”

Jessie nodded, then shook her head before nodding again. “Well, assistant manager,” she finally confessed. “But they always give the new hire applicants to me anyway, so I could sneak you in and before they noticed you’d never waited tables before, boom…it’d be too late. You’d charm them over in no time.”

Sophie wrinkled her adorable little nose. “If I don’t drop a tray of food on their laps first!”

Jessie laughed. “It’s mostly baskets anyway, so they probably wouldn’t mind. So long as we have enough warm bodies to staff the main deck, we’re solid.”

They regarded each other again, Jessie still damp in her favorite bikini and Sophie wearing not much more ever since the sash of her kimono had given up completely to reveal the gently rolling curves nestled below, soft and smooth and distracting.

Sliding a hand atop each curvy hip, Sophie screwed up her face dramatically. “So you’re getting a brand-new employee and all I’m getting in the bargain is a chance to make you look good?”

Jessie eagerly played along, and not just for a few free showers all summer long. “Hey, it’s good money!”

Sophie laughed. “Still, I think I need one more thing to sweeten the deal if we’re going to work together all summer, Jessie.”

“What’s that?”

Sophie nodded toward the lemon-yellow surfboard still leaning next to the dripping shower head. “Surfing lessons, of course!”