Every Beauty Deserves a Beast

Chapter 5

Chapter five

[Seychelles POV]

The loud greedy squawks from the seagulls outside pulled me from my dreamless sleep. What time was it? From the weak rays of sunlight that warmed my shack-like house I guessed it was somewhere around six o’clock. I sat up quickly wanting to change into the closest bikini then head down for a morning surf when a sudden throbbing wracked my head.

“Erghh...!” I moaned as I cupped my lightly calloused hands to my head. “What the hell happened?” It was then that the myriad of memories flooded my brain of the events that passed yesterday.

The storm.

The surfboard cracking against my head.

Waking up in dry clothes in an unfamiliar house.

Sandy Hodges.

Ray.

...Ray...

The gentle, scarred, tattooed, blushing, muscled giant with dimples so deep my diaphragm would forget to work causing my momentary lapse in breathing.

I swivelled my aching head around looking for him. Would he have stayed the night? It was then I noticed the blanket that covered half my body and the note sitting on the coffee table. I picked it up and smiled as I read Ray’s surprisingly neat handwriting.

Sleeping Beauty,

I didn’t have the heart to wake you up after sweeping the water out. You had a very eventful day and I don’t blame you for falling asleep... even if it did bruise my ego a little bit. Just kidding.

It was a pleasure meeting you Seychelles, and if you ever need help with anything at all don’t hesitate to give me a call. I’ll be there.

I hope I’m not out of line when I say that you look beautiful when you sleep.

Ray

PS. Your snoring is very cute.

My hand flew to my mouth. Oh God, he heard me snoring?! Did I snore? Maybe he was just joking... How embarrassing. In any case, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I traced my fingers over the letter and re-read the few short sentences.

Did he really think I was beautiful?

I shook my head and gingerly stood up and when I wasn’t being attacked by the hammering of a thousand tiny hammers against my skull I walked to my bedroom to change into a bikini and grabbed my towel.

I pouted when I realised that the surf board I used yesterday hadn’t been at Ray’s house and I came to the conclusion that it was either broken or long gone. Instead of grabbing another surf board, I decided on just walking along the beach. My idiocy of actually going out in the water during yesterday’s storm made me cringe and I made a mental note to thank Ray again for saving my life.

I rubbed my arms with my hands as I walked barefoot down the cool sandy banks to the beach. Goosebumps prickled up on my skin due to the colder weather this morning. Despite the coldness however, I enjoyed the weak rays of sunlight that barely warmed my skin.

The tide was low this morning and the water waved from far back only rushing forward to barely tickle my toes. The wet sand was littered with starfish that were left stranded by the water and as I walked along the water’s edge I bent down and toss them, one by one, back into the cool water.  The sky showed no hint of the storm that had passed; instead the sky was painted with rough streaks of white clouds.

One by one, I threw the starfish back with a light splash into the salty water until I spotted a big, dark figure in the distance on the sand bank. I smiled and made my way towards the beast of a man sitting on the sandy banks staring at the ocean.