Reason to Believe 3

"Mike asked me to get you a locker and show you the ropes before Friday," Ashley purred into Carlos's ear, "and I'm scheduled to work tomorrow. How about right now?"

Damn, Carlos thought. But then, just as well. Stephanie felt too damn good in his arms. He shouldn't indulge himself that way. One thing was certain—no good would come of allowing himself to get involved with her. It was weak, and he was determined to overcome every weakness, leaving nothing to be exploited by those who might want to take advantage of him.

As Carlos and Ashley walked to the water to pick up his shoes, he let her hold his arm on one side and positioned a strategic hand on his other hip to screen his bulging swim trunks from view. Cold water, he thought. The water was cold. Think about winter, snow, ice, cold showers. Think about dead bodies, crawling with maggots. Think about anything except curly brown hair, dancing blue eyes, milk-white skin.

When he picked up his sneakers he managed to extricate himself from Ashley's possessive grip on his arm by shifting the shoes to the hand between them. He also used the opportunity to adjust the front of his swim trunks, get himself back together. By the time they walked across the boardwalk on Front Street toward the city building that housed the Recreation Department and employees' locker room, Carlos was relaxed, in a zone, thinking about the CPR training tomorrow and his first day of work on the beach Friday.

"Right over here," Ashley said, leading him into the lifeguards' area and opening an empty locker along the back wall. "This will be your locker."

She spun the dial on the combination padlock on the locker next to his. "Let me just get you a lock."

She reached into the locker. "The combination is on the back," she said, pulling out her closed fist, holding it out until he opened his hand. But it was more than a lock, he saw as she dropped it onto his open palm. Underneath the lock, with edges rough against his fingers, was a foil packet.

Carlos pulled the packet out from under the lock. A condom. A mistake, he wondered, or an invitation?

"Here," he said, holding the condom out to her. "I won't be needing this."

"Oops," Ashley said, feigning innocence as she took the condom and tossed it back into her locker. "Sorry."

Yeah, right, Carlos thought as he closed his locker and hooked the open lock through the hasp. The only thing she was sorry about was that he wasn't rolling the condom on now and doing her right here on the floor in the deserted locker room.

Ashley slammed her locker shut and faced him, stepping closer, backing him up against the bank of lockers. "When I saw that boner you had on the beach I thought you might need a little relief." Before he even had time to react, her hand was in the front of his trunks, enclosing him in a firm grip.

It was so unexpected that it took Carlos a moment to react. He was used to being hit on, but had never encountered this level of aggression in a woman before. "No," he said, grabbing her wrist and trying to pull her hand away. "Stop."

"Sure thing, handsome," Ashley said, releasing him. With another unpredictable move she dropped to her knees in front of him and in a single action yanked down the front of his shorts and sucked him in.

Carlos gasped. Her mouth closing over him brought to mind the memory of full, ripe lips and the tip of a pink tongue peeping out to moisten them. Stephanie, he thought, and was instantly, hugely erect, his breath straining, lungs screaming for oxygen.

He leaned his head back against the lockers. What could it hurt? He needed relief and Ashley was already halfway there.

But no. It was a weakness. And as much as getting involved with Stephanie would be a mistake, getting involved with Ashley in this way would be an even bigger one.

With superhuman effort Carlos grabbed the sides of Ashley's hair with both hands and held tight, twisting away from her mouth, springing free with a juicy "pop!"

"I said no," he rasped out between clenched teeth, releasing her hair and pulling his trunks back up to cover himself. "No means no."

Carlos turned and walked out the door, leaving Ashley sitting back on her heels on the floor staring at him. After pulling his running shoes on, he took off down Front Street, racing full out as if all the demons of hell were behind him.

oOo

Stupid, stupid, thought Stephanie, squirming around in her chair, trying to get comfortable. Why would Carlos even look at you when he has a gorgeous girlfriend like that? Even if she is a bimbo with fake boobs.

The salt water drying on her skin itched, and her wet hair dripped down the sides of her face. Stephanie toweled her hair and applied more sunscreen, but her insides were churning. After ten minutes of trying to relax and enjoy her day off she gave up and began stuffing her belongings into her beach bag. She'd just go back to the house and shower, maybe take a nap.

She picked up her chair and bag, slipped on her flip-flops and set off for the apartment. She wouldn't think about Carlos anymore, she told herself, even though she'd been thinking of almost nothing else since Monday night. The memory of his lips over hers, the passion of the first kiss and the tenderness of the second, wouldn't leave her alone. She couldn't help but wonder about his relationship with his girlfriend, if it was so easy for him to kiss a complete stranger.

But he didn't feel like a stranger.

And she'd been just as quick to return his kiss, she reminded herself, in spite of the fact that she kind of had a boyfriend. When she kissed Dickie goodbye on Saturday night, it seemed like an eternity until she'd see him again on Friday. And now it was just two days away and he'd barely crossed her mind since Monday. Since she met Carlos.

She probably should call Dickie tonight and tell him to come to the restaurant when he got to Point Pleasant Friday evening. He'd called her Monday when she was in the parking lot of the restaurant, but last night she had to work and he didn't call. He was probably in bed by ten. He was really serious about the Princeton internship he had for the summer and planned on working hard and building some relationships with the law professors before he started courses in the fall.

She still felt a little funny calling Dickie. Even though they'd been dating for a couple of months, they only saw each other once or twice a week, and he'd always taken the initiative. Stephanie hadn't dated anyone else since they started going out, and she was pretty sure Dickie hadn't either, although they hadn't talked about exclusivity. It was fun having a guy to take her to the movies or out for pizza, and she'd learned a lot about him, about his hopes and dreams for the future. At twenty-two he already knew exactly what he wanted to do, to be, and she felt like a lightweight compared to him.

Stephanie arrived at Green Street and stowed her chair under the back porch before going up to grab a shower. As she washed the salt out of her hair and ran a soapy cloth over her breasts and belly, Carlos crept back into her mind. Thinking about him, his gorgeous face, his bottomless eyes, his firm lips, his perfect body, how hard he'd been pressing against her center, she slid down the shower wall and slipped her fingers between her legs.

TBC