Will you forgive me?
Can you forget the old me
If you let me
I want to make you mine
I see your face, and suddenly my heart stands still
And when you smile, I'm lost within your perfect world
-Make you mine lyrics by Stryper
"LC…Lauren…" Stephen whispered, nudging her shoulder with his as he looked down the beach and saw Kristen, Jessica and Alex walking towards them.
"Huh?" She mumbled around the bite of sandwich she had in her mouth at the time.
"It's Kristen and them and they're headed right for us." Stephen shared, reaching out to swipe a strand of hair behind her ear that had blown across her mouth.
"Oooh. Wonderful. This should be interesting." Lauren muttered, glancing down the beach where Stephen had been looking moments before.
"Are you done?" He inquired, motioning towards her almost finished sandwich and bag of pretzels.
"Um yeah. Why?" She affirmed, looking at him quizzically.
"Why don't we go for a swim?" He offered, taking her trash from her and shoving it in a plastic bag.
"Didn't your parents ever tell not to go swimming until at least thirty minutes after you eat?" She teased, reaching her hands out to him so he could help her up.
"Of course they did. Just like yours used to every summer." He replied, pulling her to a standing position.
"We never did listen, did we?" She remembered, a wistful smile flitting across her face.
"Nope. We were always getting into trouble." Stephen agreed, smiling too at the childhood memories.
"Well come on let's go before trouble gets here." LC joked, grabbing his hand and pulling him behind her towards the ocean.
"Slow down. LC. I just ate." Stephen complained, jogging behind her despite his protests.
"Big baby." She poked, her voice floating back to him on the wind.
Smirking at her comment he quickened his pace and easily caught up to her. Then he swept her into his arms like a baby and ran the short distance left to the edge of the water. As he splashed into the waves breaking upon the shore she laughed as she wrapped one arm around his neck so he wouldn't be able to just drop her in the water.
Realizing that she probably wasn't going to let go of his neck he continued walking until the water was up to his waist before falling backwards and dunking them both. He felt the water wash over his face and was thankful for the coolness after sitting in the sun for the last hour. A second later he stood up, Lauren still in his arms but now completely wet and definitely sexy as hell.
"Who's the baby now?" He baited, as she punched him in the shoulder and rolled her eyes at his comment.
"Put me down Stephen." She ordered, beginning to squirm in his arms.
"Alright if you insist." He conceded, letting go of her quickly so that she was caught off guard and fell into the water and was dunked once again.
As she reemerged he could tell by the look on her face that the war had begun. Then
the next second she was swimming after him as he tried to get away from her. LC was a pretty good swimmer so she easily caught up to him and wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him sideways as she pushed him under. From his position he grabbed her ankles and pulled her under with him. And so they spent the next few minutes taking turns dunking one another until finally coming to an unspoken truce.
Tired from all the exercise LC laid her head back in the water and pushed her legs to the surface so she was floating. Looking up at the sky she could see that the sun was partially covered by the few clouds that there actually were in the sky. Just being at the beach and letting herself be cradled by the ocean's surface brought her a feeling of peace. A second later she let her eyes close and focused only on the sensation of being free, pushing all conflicting thoughts out of her mind.
Stephen watched as LC lay on top of the water floating. He had never been very good at floating himself even though she had tried to teach him once or twice. He was pretty sure his problem was that he didn't trust the waves to hold him up and so he could never stop trying to stay afloat, in other words he couldn't surrender control. At least that's what she seemed to think when he had asked her once why she could and he couldn't.
Glancing back to the shore he saw no sign of Kristen and sighed in relief. Things were definitely over between them but he knew that despite that fact if she saw him with LC she would do something to make a scene. He just hoped that when the time came he handled the situation right and didn't do anything to cause LC to believe that he was still hung up on her because he wasn't. He just hoped he could convince Lauren of that.
Noticing that she was still floating and had been pulled farther out he swam out to her. Smiling wickedly he decided to test her ability to stay afloat. Reaching out he lightly touched the side of her forehead, causing a drop of water to slide sideways down her face till it disappeared into the water. She opened her eyes questioningly but when he said nothing closed them back. Next, he ran a finger down the middle of her nose. A trail of water left behind began to bead and run over her cheeks before they too disappeared into the water. Still she made no move, this time not even opening her eyes.
Shaking his head at her serene expression he cupped one of her cheeks in his hand as he ran his thumb across her mouth, saltwater slicking her already tempting lips. And as he watched her tongue slip out and lick her lips he realized that maybe this had been a bad idea. But never one to quit something once he had started it he slowly began trailing his fingertips down her stomach starting just under her top. Her stomach compressed as she drew in a surprised breath but a few seconds later her breathing had returned to normal. And she was still afloat, much to his surprise.
Deciding he was going to have to fight dirty he went underwater and once he came up leaned over her so that drops of water fell all over her upper body. Her lips quirked into a smile at his obvious attempt to win the game he had started. He noticed the smile and was immediately struck by how beautiful she was and for a second forgot all about his objective as he leaned forward to kiss her.
Then realizing at the last second that it would be a big mistake to rush her or push things he pressed a gentle kiss to each of her eyelids instead. Noting that this too didn't seem to affect her he was all of a sudden hit with what would. He placed a hand behind her head to draw her attention as he moved the other under her upper back so that he was loosely holding the strings to the top of her bikini. Then all in one quick motion he deftly untied her top, causing her arms to come around to keep it in place.
Stephen had finally succeeded and laughed when LC glared at him before turning her back to him as she tried to tie her top back and said, "You're such a jerk. And that was completely unfair."
"All's fair…" He responded, smirking as she faced him and splashed him with water.
"You're just jealous cause you can't float." She accused, coming closer to him as she did so.
"Is that right?" Stephen questioned sarcastically, wondering what it was she was up to as she got closer.
"That or you were just trying to find a reason to touch me." LC baited, attempting to distract him.
"Yeah or maybe I just wanted you to flash me." Stephen joked, unsure of whether she knew how close to the truth she had been.
In the next instant she was quick as lightning as she took the sand she had gathered in her hand and dropped it down the back of his pants. He didn't even see it coming as her arms went around him and her free hand pulled his pants out just far enough for the sand to fall in. He watched as she moved out of his reach quickly and laughed at him with pure glee.
"Payback's a bitch." She teased, still smiling as she swam off.
He shook his head at her but he knew there was truth to her words. He had pushed her away when he'd had a chance with her and now that he was ready to try he had a feeling that it wasn't going to be easy to convince her to give him a chance.
