Because I would have done much more for the possibility of seeing his face again, she realized with a sinking feeling.
• • •
Fuck this.
Asher checked his watch impatiently. They’d been down there for over ten minutes. Eric had taken the keys to Rudy’s rental car with him and left Asher stranded.
He couldn’t believe the balls of Eric, or that Rudy and Jimmy had gone along with his dumb-ass scheme. It had been Eric who had masterminded the whole thing . . . him and Zara, Laila’s cousin. Not that Asher was excusing Rudy and Jimmy for going along with the whole thing.
Didn’t Eric get how much trouble Laila and her cousins could get in, if they were caught? No. All that selfish jerk cared about was his dick.
All you’re worried about is that Eric will ruin your chances of seeing Laila in the future. So Eric took it a step further than you would have tonight. You were all too willing to cross the line this afternoon, a sarcastic voice in his head said.
But that’d been different. When it was just Laila and him, everything was different.
Just thinking her name made him grit his teeth furiously. What was she thinking, right this minute? He cursed under his breath and pushed himself off the parked car door, where he’d been leaning. He lunged into the road.
Fuck Eric. He’d walk home. And pray his idiot friends didn’t get caught so that there was a chance he’d see Laila tomorrow or the next day—
“Asher.”
The hairs rose on his arms at the breathy call. He turned and saw Laila walking toward him. She appeared luminous in the moonlight. Her long hair tumbled around her shoulders and down her back. His gaze lowered. Jesus. She was hardly wearing anything.
She approached him, her bare feet looking pale and somehow vulnerable on the blacktop of the road.
“You’re not wearing any shoes,” he said stupidly. It wasn’t all she wasn’t wearing, he thought, jerking his gaze off the vision of her breasts pressed against very thin, nearly translucent fabric. In the bright moonlight, he could easily make out her small, erect nipples.
“I know. I wasn’t wearing any when your friends arrived,” she said, an uncertain smile on her lips as she approached him.
He frowned. “They didn’t . . . they didn’t see you, did they?” For some reason, he hated the idea of Eric or his friends seeing her so vulnerable. So beautiful.
“What?” she asked shakily, coming to a stop in front of him. She glanced down at herself and crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously. “No, I don’t think so. They were all walking on the beach already.”
He barely stifled a curse. He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets, realizing how idiotic he’d sounded. She was wearing more now than she would at a beach in a bikini. It was just that . . . he was even more aware of her than he had been at the beach this afternoon. She’d looked like something out of a dream, walking toward him with her dark hair spilling around her shoulders and the moonlight making her smooth limbs gleam . . .
He shook his head when he realized she was staring at him worriedly.
“I’m sorry about all this. It wasn’t my idea,” he assured her, waving a hand toward the beach in the distance.
“I know. Tahi told me that you didn’t want to come down. And that you were mad,” she said softly.
“I didn’t want Eric to get you in trouble,” he bit out, fury building like steam in his blood all over again. “He’s not my friend, by the way.” He noticed her confusion. “You called him my friend earlier. He’s not. He’s a distant relative, and I’d be blessed if I never had to see his smug-ass, pretty
boy face ever again.”
She looked a little blank with shock, and he realized how blisteringly pissed he’d sounded. He opened his mouth to apologize, but suddenly, she laughed softly. He stilled at the vision of her small white teeth.
“He really is. Pretty, isn’t he?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve joined his fan club,” he said, glancing at her darkly from beneath a lowered brow.
She put up her hands in a surrender gesture, barely hiding a grin. “I’m hardly a fan. Zara, on the other hand, is ready to fall down and worship him.” All traces of a smile faded. She crossed her arms over her breasts again. Her nipples were very stiff. “It’s kind of worrisome, actually. Tahi and I have been trying to warn her to take it easy, but you don’t know Zara.” He blinked and forced his attention back on what she was saying. “Zara falls in love regularly, but I’ve never seen her get this worked up over a guy so fast.”
Their gazes held for a few seconds. Suddenly, she ducked her head. His muscles tightened in restraint. He wanted to hold her.
Badly.
“Do you think your parents are going to find out you’re out of the house?”