The scent of the ocean in her hair
4.
The sound of the ocean and the waves that roll over the sand of the beach, drown the echo's of yesterday's battle. The wind lifts up her hair.
She is on her way to find Miles, who disappeared an hour ago with a bottle of whiskey. She lets the memories of last night disappear into the never ending movements of the waves in front of her, so they can take care of them for a while.
She is out of breath. Her mind is filled with a focussed will to survive and everything Miles and Bass have ever taught her. She ends one more kaki threat with her knife. They waited until sunset. They talked about their strategy one more time. And now, it is silent around them while the harsh breathing of Miles and Bass mix with hers.
The raid is over. They got the intel they needed. Another camp is gone, another threat is defeated. Charlie turns around. The first thing she is able to see after and beyond the battle, are his blue eyes. They come into focus as the first new thing that matters again now this fight is over. He searches for her eyes and he waits until she looks at him.
Miles is with her in a second. He moves his fingers under her chin, lifting her head so she has to meet his eyes now. Making sure she isn't hurt and is okay. When he is sure she is okay he finds Bass' eyes and nods to him, telling him he wants to get the hell out of here.
The lush sounds of the waves can't tune out the way his eyes found hers. The blue of the water brings her back to his eyes and him. His name fills her mind like the rhythm of the waves. Bass...Bass. His name is something new her minds plays with while she walks through the sand and looks at the ocean.
Bass looks at her, alone and walking over the beach. His boots leave prints in the sand as he follows her. One look at her and he can tell how far away and lost in her own thoughts she is.
He had exchanged a look with Miles last night after the raid, when they had walked back to their safe house with her close to the both of them. They both remember Austin. He never wants to see her that broken again.
When adrenaline is pumping through his blood, his first thought after the last kaki son of a bitch goes down is about her. With the taste of revenge so close and his swords in his hands, his chest swells with something fucked up when his eyes are the first thing she is looking for. And for one damn second, they are breathing this moment in together.
He watches how Miles walks over to her, lifting her head with his fingers under her chin so she has to meet his eyes now.
Under the cover of darkness, they return to their safe house. She curls up on the couch and is asleep within minutes. This time, it is his brother that covers her shoulders with a blanket. And he has to fight a deep urge to touch her, to be the man that moves that damn blanket around her shoulders.
He quickens his pace to catch up with her. Charlie is still lost in her thoughts but it is his voice close and next to her that pulls her out of that world.
'You all right?'
His voice is the kind of the low she can actually feel inside of her. Her clear eyes find his. She nods yes to him. She knows he is not going to ask endless questions. He just lets her be who she needs to be right now.
'Just looking for Miles.'
There is a grin on his face while he spots his brother in the distance. 'Well, I think you just found him, kid.'
She follows his eyes. They walk until they find a tall palm tree and find Miles. Miles' version of spending her birthday at the beach is falling asleep under a palm tree with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. He is snoring.
Earlier today, Miles had wished her a happy birthday with a genuine smile on his face and his familiar arms around her. Bass had muttered something insulting about puppies or kittens. Miles had told him to shut up. She had just buried his nose in his neck and smiled.
She stops before Miles and crosses her arms before her chest. Charlie and Bass exchange a grin. Bass won't tell her but hell, it's good to see his brother like this. He looks younger and relaxed, passed out with a bottle in his hand. This is the brother he grew up with. And he knows that he woman standing on his right brings that man back to them both, without even knowing it herself.
Bass knows he should wake Miles up. Hell, they are here for her birthday and the moron is snoring his way through it. But there is a part of him that screams don't. Because fuck, that part of him wants that smart amused smirk of hers all for himself.
And he is many things, but right now he is also just a man with her close. So he lets his brother sleep.
'Come on..' he nods to the beach behind the both of them. To his surprise she follows him without a glare from hell and without her hands on her hips that always drives him crazy in a lot of different fucking ways. He knows it is pathetic, but his chest swells with some more fucked up things again.
Charlie fingers casually brush his upper arm, when she shares the shore line with him. It feels easy. Nothing has been easy the past few years. She experiences a closeness to Monroe she has only experienced with him in battle. So instead of saying something or pushing him away with her eyes or words, she kicks out her boots because she needs to feel the sand under her bare feet.
The beach is empty. There is no one around but him. The water softly plays with her ankles every time a new wave rolls over the sand to find her. She looks at him before her eyes follow the blue of the water in front of her to the horizon again.
Bass looks at her. The sun lightens up her hair. She moves some hair out of her face with her slender fingers. And just like the waves who keep on finding the beach, her eyes keep on finding his. And suddenly, he wishes he is wearing his leather jacket so he could put his damn hands in his pockets.
He wants to ask her if she is enjoying her birthday. But he remembers his , that first endless raw day after he had lost his parents. So he keeps his mouth shut.
Another wave that finds her feet makes Charlie wonder how the cool, salty water of the ocean would feel against her skin. And after an hour of asking herself that same question over and over again, she decides enough is enough. She starts opening the button her jeans.
'What are you doing, genius?' He grunts but not with a lot of effort. It is hard to miss the amused blue in his eyes.
She decides to use her bra and panties as a bikini. Not that she has ever owned one. But she has seen them before, in magazines. And today, she wants to be a normal girl in a bikini on a beach. With a guy. Who happens to be Monroe. She stops herself there.
'What does it look like?' Her tank lands somewhere on her right. She has enough of thinking about the water. She needs to feel it.
Bass grins. It looks like it is his lucky day. But he is not going to tell her that because she is still Charlotte and she still might cut of his balls right here on this fucking beach.
When she runs into the water and the first wave meets her, she turns around. 'Are you too old for this shit, Monroe ?' She almost yells, to reach over the sound of the waves.
His last name escapes from her lips in an unintended hot tease and invitation that even surprises herself.
His eyes light up. His body responds to the way she plays with his last name. He follows her with his eyes. Charlotte fucking Matheson. She has never in the history of ever been afraid of him.
Charlie knows his grin should not reach her the way it does. She runs into the waves before he can say anything back to her and his eyes get a change to provoke new things inside of her.
She swims. The water flows against her skin. She floats on her back, letting the waves take care of her. She watches the sky.
This day seems to exist outside of the life that she normally lives. Everything seems different. Or maybe, it has always been there. Maybe she is different. And she knows he is there on the beach. Close. Bass.
Bass sits down in the shadow of a rock alcove that separates the beach from the land behind it and that shields them from unwanted eyes, behind him. He puts his elbows on his knees and just watches her swim. He watches how she lets her hands flow through the water while she floats on her back. But most of all he looks at her while she lets her guard down, so fucking close to him.
And then, she turns her head and looks at him. And it is one simple fucking look from her that tells him that what he felt and saw in her eyes from the moment she told him to go to hell near a campfire isn't just happening in his head, that makes him curse at life.
She is beautiful as hell with her full lips and her tanned skin in the middle of so much blue. He is pretending that the way the wet fabric of those panties and bra cling against her skin, does not make him want her. He has been pretending he doesn't want her for a long time.
It was easy to be blown away by her loyal strength in Philly. But then he met her. All of her. All of Charlotte. And things go so fucking messed up that he had to put distance between him and her, because sometimes he just feels too raw with her around.
But hell, he wants her. He wants to know how the weight of her body would feel against his chest. He wants to know how she tastes when she moans in his mouth. He wants to know how far he can push her.
He wants those hips in his hands when she is riding him. He wants to hear her come. He has been pretending he has never heard her come for a fucking long time now. Out there on the road. She is always quiet, but she is never quiet enough.
He wants to be the man that makes her come. He needs to wrap his fingers around his damn cock, while he thinks about wrapping those fingers around her neck, before thrusting deep inside of her. But he just curses. He groans. And he is happy he borrowed Miles' emergency whiskey a bit longer.
When she gets out of the water, small drops of salty ocean water drip from her hair onto his shirt and muscled arms when she sits down next to him.
There is a mask of indifference on his face when he looks at her before he continues his stare in the ocean. She should roll her eyes at him. In fact, she does roll her eyes at Monroe being all Monroe. But there is something in the lines of his face, in the way his shoulders feel next to her, that does something to her that she can't deny.
The sand is warm, even in the shadow of the rock alcove. She looks at tanned skin and hard muscles that define his body. When her eyes follow the lines of the deep v of his shirt to the strong lines of his neck, she has to stop herself from licking her bottom lip.
For one moment she is tempted to reach out. To stretch her body to him and over him and to feel what it would be like to have that tall, battle hardened body under her.
He makes the mistake of looking at her when he feels her eyes on him. Her hair falls in long, wet waves over her shoulder. Her mouth is close. Her lips are full. Her skin caressed by water and the sun.
For one moment he craves to wrap his fingers into her hair and to pull her close. But this is too easy. A simple fucking afternoon with a hot girl on a beach. He can suddenly taste cool beer. She, this, the ocean, her, Charlie, she brings out a part of him that belongs to another life. She brings out the man he cannot be anymore.
When she is sure that he is going to do something, anything, that makes her heart beat faster, he stops. There is familiar tension in his shoulders and jaws. His eyes are cooler now.
The sun slowly descends and touches the beach and sky with a golden warmth.
'Are you going to share?' Her voice finally breaks the silence.
'Share what?' He asks roughly. He finally meets her eyes.
She has to fight a smile at the way he is trying to make his voice sounds like cool, in control Monroe.
'That whiskey you stole from Miles.'
'Borrowed.' He grunts back.
'Whatever.' She tries to keep her voice flat and into her usual I don't care Monroe mode. But she fails because a smile betrays her.
He tries to keep her out, but there is something in her voice and the way her face softens that makes that impossible.
He hands her the flask of whiskey and doesn't say a word. Her fingers meet the calloused skin of his finger tips when they touch, before she puts the flask to her lips.
The ocean breeze is warm against her skin, Miles' flask is almost empty and the sand clings to her smooth legs when she breathes out slowly. It is too close to a sigh, a sigh Bass notices immediately. He knows what she is thinking about. 'We should go find Miles.'
'Yeah, we should.' She looks at him longer than she has too. There is a slow haze that plays with the blue in her eyes.
When she slips her tanned legs into her jeans and the fabric of her tank moves over her breasts, she notices the good, lazy feeling in her muscles. She also notices how she feels with him around. She can feel his eyes on her. And there is something raw, a struggle, a sadness and a need all at one in his eyes.
She is about to start walking back to Miles, his bottle and his palm tree when his curse stops her.
'Dammit..' It is a harsh, rough whisper. Maybe he is a fucking idiot. She is definitely going to kill him for this. But right now, he needs her more than thinking about that last option.
Maybe it's the warmth of the sun and Miles' whiskey. Maybe it is how the ocean on her lips makes her feel like she doing more than just breathing and make it through another day. But when he takes a step closer to her, she doesn't take a step away from him. And she is standing there, in front of a wide chest and blue eyes.
The sand under her feet is warm, his shoulders are wide and his hand moves under her tank to press her against his chest. He is tall and so close. And there, in the shadow of the rock alcove on a late afternoon, Bass kisses her.
Author's Note: It is finally here, chapter four! And I am so sorry writing and publishing this took me so long. I hope you enjoyed this day at the beach. Revoinfinite, thank you so much for being so patient. And thank you so much to all of you for your patience! I loved your reviews and kudo's for last chapter. They mean so much to me, so thank you for all your feedback and for sharing your thoughts with me. I am working on chapter five and the epilogue and I want to publish chapter five next Thuesday! Love from Love
