The Vincent Boys 01 - The Vincent Boys

complete. She’d always been the one to hold me together when my world crumbled around me.
    “OH MY GOD. THERE’S A JELLYFISH!” Her shriek was followed by a humorous attempt at running through the rough water toward the sandy beach. I bit back my laughter and followed her. I didn’t doubt there was a jellyfish. It was time for them, but seeing her wide eyes and panicked expression was just so cute it was funny.

    Ashton
    “I always knew you would be irresistible once you stopped acting like someone you’re not,” Beau whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arms around me.
    I was still panting from running through the crashing waves. I let out a breathless laugh and laid my head back against his hard chest.
    “It isn’t easy hiding the bad girl inside me from the only person who knows she exists,” I replied. Beau’s arms tightened and his breath was on my neck as he rested his chin on my shoulder.
    “No. I never saw a bad girl. You’re not bad, Ash. You’ve just been pretending to be someone else for so long. Just to make your parents happy and then Sawyer happy. The girl you really are is amazing. You’re kind yet you’ve got spunk. You’re brilliant but you never act superior. You’re careful yet you know how to have fun and you’re so incredibly sexy but you haven’t got a clue.”
    It was hard to see myself the way he described me but hearing him say those things made me wish things were different. I hadn’t held back with him at all. When I was with Beau I didn’t pretend to be anything. I was just me. And instead of the bad girl he saw something desirable. I wanted the world to see me this way too but I knew only someone like Beau would find all my faults attractive qualities.
    “I’m glad you see me that way. I’m not saying I agree but it makes me happy knowing you don’t see the flaws.”
    Beau tensed behind me for a moment before his arms left me. I could feel his body shift away from me.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked, turning around to face him.
    He just shook his head. I waited for him to speak and after a few minutes of silence he turned his head to study me.
    “Why are you with Sawyer?”
    This wasn’t a question I’d been prepared for. I shook my head. “What do you mean?”
    He ran his hand through his hair, closing his eyes as if he were fighting to keep from saying whatever was on the tip of his tongue.
    “You act like someone else with him. Someone you believe would appeal to him. A perfect good girl who follows all the rules. Yet you want to break rules, Ash. You aren’t a criminal, you just want to spread your wings a little and enjoy life. But you want him so much you’re willing to deny yourself freedom to be YOU, just so you can have him.” He stopped talking but kept his pleading gaze on me. I didn’t want to hear these things. They weren’t true. I was a good girl. I was the kind of a girl someone like Sawyer could love.
    “I am good,” I managed to say through the tightness in my throat. I felt stupid saying the words when just last night I’d lost my virginity in the back of his pickup truck when I should’ve been home mourning my Grana’s death. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to force my thoughts of Grana away. I couldn’t think about that now. I wasn’t ready.
    “I didn’t say you were bad. You’re good, Ash. Were you not listening to me? You have this warped sense of what good is. Wanting to sneak out with your boyfriend and wanting to know you’re desirable and wanted by your freaking boyfriend or leaving a damn buggy in a parking spot doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a human.”
    Tears stung my eyes. I wanted to believe him. I’d lived with guilt for so long because I wanted to do the things I’d been told were wrong. But this was Beau Vincent. He drank too much and did things to girls in public places I’d never done in my life . . . until I’d started spending time with him. Mom had always told me Lucifer was beautiful.
    “I’d thought the Ash I knew was completely gone. I mourned her for a long time. Then one day in the lunch room Haley kept coming up to Sawyer and flirting with him right in front of you as if you weren’t there. When she turned to walk away you tripped her. Sawyer didn’t see it, but I did.” A grin tugged on the corner of his mouth. “When she’d been splayed out there on the floor I saw the little smirk touch your lips before you bent down to help her up, apologizing profusely. Until that