Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

to find him slipping on his own sunglasses and donning a plain black baseball cap. I’d never seen him in a hat before. He looked freakin’ hot, as always. As I stared at him, he flashed me a super sexy smile, then he headed for the path.
    I stood there for a moment, watching him walk away. I felt torn. As badly as I wanted to go down to the beach, I wanted to take Oliver back to the bedroom even more.
    I watched him walk past a hammock that was strung up between two large posts—a hammock I had totally missed the previous night. Granted, because it had been dark, it was probably easy to miss.
    Oliver stopped at the top of the steep path that led down to the beach. He turned back to me. “Come on, Laney,” he called, flashing me a perfectly crooked smile.
    I put on my sunglasses, hurried down the back steps, and then down the path to catch up to him. I was still torn between the beach and the bedroom. However, the bedroom would have to wait. The beach won. This time.
    I had an easier time making it down the path this time. Being able to see really helped. As soon as we hit the beach, I ditched my shoes and rolled my pant legs. Standing just out of reach of the waves, I cautiously let the cold water hit my feet. This definitely wasn’t the warm beaches you see on TV. No other people were in sight. We were the only bodies on this stretch of beach, and no one in their right mind would swim in that water. It was freezing!
    Oliver was beside me in the next moment —shoes and socks gone, and his pants rolled. I smiled at him and he kissed the top of my head and took my hand. We waded out a little farther, the water rushing in around our ankles and then back out into the deep blue. It was still really cold, but the warm sunshine made the water bearable.
    We spent a couple of hours playing around on the beach. Wandering a little farther, we checked out the sea life in some tide pools in a mass of rocks. We found several urchins stuck to the rocks, a small crab, and a couple of starfish. It was fascinating to see the creatures and the ocean in person. We also collected some seashells, and I noticed Oliver stashing some smaller shells into the front pocket of his jeans.
    “What are you doing with those?” I questioned.
    “You’ll see,” he said, the hint of a crooked grin appearing.
    I felt a smile tugging at the corner of my own mouth.
    As we headed back toward the path that led up to the cottage, Oliver found a stick that had washed ashore . With it, he wrote “Oliver + Laney” in the sand. He surrounded our names with a big heart. It tugged at my actual heart, making me love him even more.
    He smiled bashfully as I gazed at him, my heart so full of love. The cold water rushing around my ankles snapped me back to the moment. I pulled my phone from my back pocket and hurried to take a picture of our names in the sand before the waves washed them away. Then I took a picture of Oliver and me with the deep, blue sea behind us.
    We sat in the sand together, and I rested my back against his chest. We watched the waves crash and rush up the beach, the frothy ripples reaching for us. Some seagulls cried overhead, and a few pelicans swooped down, landing on the water and floating about for a while. It was so peaceful, and so relaxing.
    Staring out at the ocean and relaxing for the first time in so long, I let my mind go. While thinking about all of the different supernatural creatures I had read about or encountered in the last few months, strangely my mind took me to an interesting question. “Do you think Poseidon and the other gods were ever real?” I asked, raising my voice over the sounds of the crashing waves.
    “I believe it ’s a possibility,” Oliver responded.
    “Should I?” I asked. “Should I believe in the gods as well as everything else that used to be nothing more than myth to me?”
    “That’s up to you, Laney. As with everything, it is possible they once walked among us. If so, perhaps their descendants