Scandalous by H.M. Ward Page B

want to see Belinda again?” He cringed, “Me neither. They did the same amount of damage; they just gave a different explanation for justification. The thing is , I wonder if I was right. It’s been gnawing at me, constantly in the back of my head... I brought this upon myself.”
    He was quiet, staring at the sand for a moment. Finally he sighed, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, “So, we both have our futures in the hands of crazy people who don’t give a rat’s ass.”
    “So it would seem,” I answered staring blindly at the crest of another wave. My stomach turned to lead while I was speaking. It felt like I was being crushed from the inside out. Dread spread through my body, pooling in my stomach, making me nauseous.
    Without a word, Jack moved to my feet. Crouching in front of me, I looked at him. He was smiling softly, dark hair messy from the wind. With his hands draped over his knees, he said, “Miss Tyndale, there is one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt—you did what was right. There’s no mistake about that.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he spoke over me, shaking his head. “And to make sure you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I’m going to drag you around in the sand until you admit it.”
    There was no hesitation. Jack reached for my ankles, and pulled hard as he stood up suddenly. I fell back into the sand, my hair trailing behind me. Jack started to walk and I started to scream. With every step he took, sand inched into my pants, shirt, and hair.
    I was half-screaming, half-laughing. “ Ahh ! Stop! Put me down! Sand’s going places it shouldn’t go!” my voice was shrill. Jack was getting closer to the water. The sand went down the waist of my jeans and was making a sandcastle in my panties. I’d been at the beach when I was a kid and there was always a ton of sand in my swimsuit when I went home, but it was never like this. Dragging me, fully clothed, was forcing enough sand down my pants to fill a sandbox.
    Jack was laughing so hard he almost fell over. The muscles in his arms were ripped as he fought to hold onto my kicking legs. “Then say it,” he laughed with his hair in his face, beautiful eyes sparkling. “Say you were right or this demonstration ends in the water!” Laughter erupted from him, as he moved faster toward the sea.
    Twisting my body, I tried to flip over and kick him to make him let go, but that only filled my bra full of sand, too. “Jack! Put me down!” Pushing off the ground with my hands, I raised my head to avoid a mouth full of sand.
    “Say it!” he yelled back, smiling so wide his dimples were showing.
    The sand was damp under my hands. Clumps of cold wet grains were being forced into my pants as he pulled. It felt so disgusting that I shrieked, “I was right! I was right! Stop!” Jack dropped my legs in the sand, my feet falling into the surf.
    Breathing heavily, he said, “That was really close. I thought you were going in.” He was doubled over, hands on his knees grinning ear to ear.
    I laid on my back, staring at the sky, laughing, and spitting out sand that had gotten into my mouth. “You suck, you know that?” I laughed, cringing as I felt sand in places sand shouldn’t be. “I’m full of sand. All my clothes could be from Sandcastles-R-Us.”
    He straightened, “Is that so?”
    “Which one? The sucking or the sand?” I laughed. I couldn’t stop. I hadn’t laughed so hard in forever. My sides felt like they were going split open. Before I knew it, Jack was leaning down, reaching for me. I laughed, swatting him away, not realizing what he was doing. He managed to get a hold of my wrist and my thigh. He swung me up over his shoulders while I kicked and screamed.
    Jack began to wade into the water, as I pulled his hair trying to stop him. “The sucking or the sand,” he murmured, still laughing as he went into the water deeper. When it was up to his knees he spun around and I shrieked. My hair flew out, sand