Beach Day - Milo

Rain fell from the lanterns in a torrential gust of sweet smelling wind and sea.  I squinted my eyes, trying to figure out just where it was that Milo had sent me and was kicking myself for my insistence on meeting him as opposed to just going with him earlier in the morning.  Slinging my bag higher upon my shoulder, I squinted towards the maze of rocks ahead of me. He had told me the third left from the right. Now that I was here, though, the third left from the right made the kind of sense that didn’t.

Trudging through the wet sand, I told myself I would give it five more minutes. If I couldn’t find this place in that amount of time, then I was going home. The storm on the horizon was brewing and I was almost certain the waves were twice as big as they normally were. Not to mention, I didn’t even know where ‘this place’ was.  Because Milo being Milo, he gave little to no indication of what I was supposed to be looking for other than telling me I would just know it when I saw it.

My feet stuck in the sand, the Deep trying to suck me in.  There was no part of me that wished to go visit Kamille today. Maybe Pen but they weren’t often home.  They tended to like the night sky, high above the lanterns when it was rainy like this. Claiming that the depths of the ocean were eerily dark during a storm.

When I turned the corner, I nearly stumbled into an old wooden sign, covered in sand. It read “Three lefts from the right”.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered. Looking up, I saw only a rock face in front of me, but there was a small fissure, the size of which got bigger the closer I got to it. By the time I was right in front of it, I felt my jaw drop open. Just on the other side, was a bright stretch of beach. Golden grains of sand shimmered in the nearly white gaze of the sun up above. Crystalline blue waves lapped gently against the shore and pretty red and white umbrellas dotted the beach.  Behind me, the storm was picking up but right in front of me, was an idyllic little swath of land and sea.  A section, I might add, that had Milo shirtless and lounging, his face tilted towards the sun.

Stepping through, I felt the heat immediately. The water across my skin began to sizzle from me, my clothes drying instantaneously. I could still see the dark gloom behind me but in the face of coconuts and the sweet smell of hibiscus, I couldn’t find myself to even care.

“You made it!”

Milo popped to his feet as he jogged over to me. He wore a ridiculously tight pair of red shorts, his skin a light shade of bronze beneath the sun. The freckles across his shoulders and his chest were standing out more, pink beginning to brighten his arms as the sun took its toll.  When he reached me, he picked me up, twirling me around before setting me back down into the sand.

“You have to take your shoes off,” he grinned. He was breathless with excitement, his hands wandering over my sides and dancing across my ribs.  “It hurts like a bitch if you stand too long in the sun but I like to think of it as a game of hot coals or something.”

“Why would you take your shoes off then?” I laughed, having not seen him like this in a long while.

“Because it feels exhilarating.” With his head dipped towards me, I could smell the sunscreen across him and the faint scent of some sort of beer.  He was grinning wide, his eyes lit with joy as he reached down to hold my hand. “Come on. I want to show you something.” 

“Milo,” I laughed as he dragged me across the beach.  I dropped my bag, hearing it thump against the ground. His hand was warm within mine, slick with sweat. 

“No, come ‘ere. Look!” He stopped right at the edge of a tide pool, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist.  “Just look at it.”

The tide pool was shallow with bits of peach coral wrapping around purple starfish.  Little green anemones swayed and flowed within the bubbling ripples and silver dollar fish swam in and out, jutting between grass and rock formations.

“I’ve never seen anything like them,” he whispered to me. “Freaky little things.”

I laughed, kicking my shoes off like he wanted me to and dipping my toes in the water. “That’s what freaks you out? Fish?”

“Bears. Bears freak me out,” he said seriously. “But, there are no bears here.”

“You are an enigma, Milo Next.”

“And you,” he bent at the knees a little, his lips trailing across the juncture of my neck. “Are wearing entirely too many clothes.”

“The last time we had sex on the beach, you complained that you had sand in your crevices for days.”

“I came prepared,” he said, nipping at the back of my ear. “I put an anti sand charm on. Got it off a peddler down in the bogs. They gave it to me for a kiss and a freckle.”

“Meaning?”

“I gave them an old candy wrapperI found and a bit of seaweed and they gave me the charm.”

I turned in his arms, seeing the amusement color his cheeks. Milo was happy here. Actually happy. Away from the areas of the market that bogged him down. The responsibility that had creased the corners of his eyes. Here, with me, he was relaxed. Giddy even. I wanted to bottle it up forever.

“You know that charm is probably just a hunk of copper, right? If I was that peddler I would have been insulted by your offerings and given you a rock.”

“I have good experiences with things that are supposed to be rocks.” He backed me up until I was sitting on a little boulder, my legs spread to provide him for some room. Reaching up, I ran my hands through his mat of curls.

“We also have good experiences with skinny dipping,” I told him.

He looked startled at the suggestion before bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “Yeah?” He was asking. His fingers kneading my hips.  “Could we?”  Such boyish charm. Anticipation over something so simple and yet something he greeted each time as if it were brand new. I envied him for that. His ability to fall into each experience with wild abandon.

“Yeah,” I told him, my voice soft as I cupped his cheek.

He smiled at me, turning to kiss my palm. “After, I want to rub suntan lotion on your back and watch you in the sun for a while. It’s a private beach so you don’t have to worry about anyone lookin’. I got it for the entire day.”

“I would like that, Milo. I really would.”

Picking me up, he held me to him tight, the sun bouncing off him and making the mess of his hair light up with strands of honey.  “Then, let's get these clothes off of ya, darlin’. I want to make a mess of you.”

Taking his face in my hands, I leaned down and kissed him soundly.  Predictably, he melted into my touch, groaning against my lips. 

“Love you,” he murmured.

“Love you, too.”