Chapter 13
brIELLE
Holding my sun hat, I breathe in the fresh air and take in the sunlight hitting my face and skin, as I’m only in my bikini with a mesh cover-up.
Ford is driving the boat across the lake.
Luckily, this time we are on the speedboat and not the rowboat, which I am fairly convinced he used the other day because he knew I wouldn’t be able to row us back if I tried to escape.
Staring at Ford, my mouth forms a half-smile. He looks good with his sunglasses on, no shirt, and steering the boat. He’s the man I’ve always wanted, and he is now within my reach.
“Daydreaming?” he asks as he turns the wheel.
“I’m that obvious, huh?”
“Yeah. I hope you’re thinking about when I get to see whatever is in that bag from Piper’s boutique.”
I wave my finger in the air. “Nuh-uh, I haven’t decided yet. I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”
After seeing Connor at camp yesterday, Ford and I picked up some takeout from Catch 22, the restaurant on the water, then we went home and watched a movie before heading to bed where he most definitely used his hands and fingers in ways that I can’t even manage to say out loud.
The lingerie set that Piper gave me is elegant and deserving of a big reveal, not an afterthought between rounds, therefore I’m reserving it for a special occasion.
“Suspense is your play, I respect that. It just means you envision a very long timeline for us; I do hope you realize that.” He smirks to himself.
“I might.”
This morning, I arrived downstairs, and Ford was closing a cooler, telling me not to worry about packing the picnic. I’d be lying if I said I don’t have butterflies in my stomach.
I haven’t been back to this lagoon since, well, before Connor.
“How do you know the lagoon isn’t covered in garbage or the trees are gone. Maybe we are hyping this up,” I think out loud.
“It’s there.” Ford is sure of himself.
“You’ve been back?”
“Once or twice. I would drive by with the boat, never went in, though.”
God, is this what the past has done to us? We can’t let go of places?
I look along the horizon to the right and see the opening to the spot that is responsible for holding our hearts captive. The trees hang over the passage. Willow trees, to be exact; the tree that blows tears in the wind.
Ford slows the boat down as we approach, and I get up off my seat to take a few steps to Ford, standing by his side and holding his arm before we both duck under the weeping tree as we enter.
We found this place one day when we decided to venture off from our group who were partying on the shore nearby. It became our spot, our refuge.
And luckily, now I can witness that it hasn’t changed. It’s still quiet and beautiful. Calm lake water with a small little beach, perfect for two.
Ford turns the engine off and throws the rope to the sand. He hops over the edge, with the water to his knees. After he ties the rope to a tree trunk, he returns to the boat to offer me his hand.
“Come on.”
Our eyes connect, and everything feels slightly overpowering but in the best possible way.
When I’m about to hop into the water, Ford grabs me in a manner that enables him to carry me and ensure I stay dry.
“What service,” I joke.
“For you, I’d crawl on my knees.”
I laugh before my feet land on dry earth. We take a few moments to lay out a big blanket and set down the cooler. It isn’t long until we are both lying down on propped elbows as we stare at the view.
“Here we are,” I announce.
Ford interlaces our fingers on the blanket. “It’s good to be back.”
“It feels kind of coming full circle,” I admit.
Glancing to my side, I see that Ford is ignoring the beautiful nature around us, as his focus is on me.
“It was our own little world.”
I snort a laugh. “Oh, I know. Nobody ever came here, except that one time when a fisherman stopped, but then he saw us making out and left.”
“Yeah, I remember that,” he reflects with a grin of fondness.
“I’m confident this is where I got pregnant.”
Ford moves to his side, and his fingers begin to play with the tie on my wrap. “Maybe.”
“It was my fault.”
He wastes no time to set his fingers on my jaw to guide my gaze to him. “No, it’s not.”
“I missed a pill.”
“So? People take all their pills and still get pregnant. Besides, we have a great kid.”
“I love him, but it could have been easier for us,” I state.
Ford shakes his head. “We’ll never know, and it doesn’t matter. Here we are.”
My lips roll in, and I can’t think of how to articulate the array of emotions stirring inside of me.
Something about this place, remembering younger me, the times we would lie here staring at the blue sky and talk about our dreams. We had crazy ideas that being together could be so easy.
We’d get a place together, and I’d study law wherever Ford went.
I wanted that because a textbook can be read anywhere, and Ford was the one and only.
Looking back, I see how he put me first. Letting go of my dreams wasn’t an option to him, which is why he didn’t fight our parents when we made the decision to keep Connor.
But damn, we were tormenting ourselves for years.
“I don’t want my heart to break again,” I whisper softly.
Ford leans down to brush the corner of my mouth with his lips. “It can’t break.” He is adamant and his voice rasps.
“I think it can.”
He gently shakes his head no. “It never broke. I’ve just been holding onto it for a while, waiting for you to come back.”
My heart swells at his words, and I tip my chin up to offer my mouth to him for a kiss. His lips press a firm kiss against my mouth, and I want to get lost in him. I slide my leg up his body until I snake around his waist, pulling him to me.
I murmur into his mouth, certain that everything inside of me has surrendered. My mind gave into his idea of having a week to ourselves, a selfish decision, but in truth, my heart already committed to more than a week long ago.
“I’m scared.” Our mouths can’t part. It’s a constant back and forth of our lips sealing together, attempting to get air, only to return like a magnet. “Of this.”
“Tell me.” Ford showers me with kisses. “What has you scared?”
I manage to escape his hold and scoot up to sitting, well aware my wrap is twisted and halfway off my body. “We’re in the grasp of having it all. It’s possible, right?”
Ford flashes me a smile of comfort. “I believe so.”
“I can’t be responsible around you. We are unable to go slow, with our relationship, I mean.” I dip my head down and attempt to hide my happiness from that fact.
Ford tucks my braid behind my shoulder. “I think ten years has been slow enough, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Listen, soon Connor is back home. Our home. I know we need to be sensitive around him, but he isn’t a small kid anymore.”
“Oh, I noticed.” I breathe a sigh.
Ford leads me back to lying. “Let’s just take it one step at a time… to our final destination.”
“Which is?” I squint my eyes at him.
He scoffs a sexy laugh before nuzzling his nose against my hair. “That ring deserves to be around your finger.”
I pretend to be shocked. “What intentions.”
Ford tickles me in response, and we both get tangled in one another until we realize we are at the moment where real entwines with dreams.
“I never stopped loving you, Elle.”
I wrap my arms tighter around his neck. “I love you too, but I guess you knew that since you had my heart this whole time.”
“Damn straight.”
His hand moves between us to untie my wrap, and my body is already aching. Ford groans as his mouth clasps onto my nipple through my bikini.
I moan and bite my lower lip. “You’re trouble. Not even thirty minutes in and we are adding public indecency to our day.”
“You didn’t seem to mind ten years ago,” Ford reminds me before he lowers the fabric.
My nipple is a prisoner between his teeth, and I hiss in pleasure. “Didn’t Lake Spark become more of a tourist destination since then? Are we really alone?”
He peers up from his efforts. “It’s just you, me, and the sky.”
My clit pulses from the need I have for this man to be inside of me. “Then do things to me that will make the sky wish it could hide.” I notice my tone is more sultry than normal.
Ford chuckles deep in the back of his throat before he makes a point to ensure I watch him as his fingers disappear under the bottom of my bikini, his touch launching instant fireworks inside of my body.
“My fingers are already soaking.” Ford’s voice is thick with approval and heat.
Feeling his fingers slide in a line then circle, I hood my lids closed and sink into his connection. “What can I say? I’m craving your touch.”
He brings his finger up to my lips, and I open to suck, knowing he likes to watch me taste myself. Needing more, I rub against his body, feeling his solid length against my stomach.
His finger pops out of my mouth and is replaced by Ford’s warm hungry kiss that shoots desire down my spine.
“Roll to your side,” he whispers his demand into my ear, causing my sensitive parts to tingle.
Obeying, I roll away from him, and I feel his hand lower his swim trunks just enough before he unties half of my bikini bottoms to give room, and his tip swirls along my pussy, dragging my arousal around until he aligns and enters me with ease.
As I look over my shoulder, he meets my mouth to swallow my moans as he moves inside of me while his hand travels from holding my hip in place, along my oblique, before sneaking up to tweak my nipples.
I gasp from the overload of sensations.
“You feel too good,” Ford mumbles against my skin.
Deep inside, I feel him reach a part of me that’s the button to awakening extreme pleasure that he can deliver on every move.
“Good thing you don’t plan on letting me go,” I murmur. I reach my arm behind me to hook around his neck, causing my body to elongate and offer a better canvas to Ford.
The sound of our skin slapping is the only sign that we’re not going slow. I’m so lost in Ford that our rhythm is irrelevant because every thrust is heavenly.
“I can’t get enough of this.”
My breath grows heavy. “Me too.”
His finger travels down to my clit, and I’m happy we are lying down because my entire body feels like it’s floating, only being grounded by Ford’s touch.
Kissing him is my secret weapon for stability. He leads us and keeps me from falling, because I’m about to explode, and he knows it too.
“I want you coming around my cock,” he demands into my ear while his finger circles my clit.
“Only if you promise to come.”
He laughs sinisterly causing a tickle below my ear. “Baby, I’m only satisfied if you come and then I fill you up.”
I nod and close my eyes as my senses heighten, and a few more strokes and I’m almost there.
“That’s it,” he coos.
Ford thrusts harder, and a wave travels below my navel, flowing until I’m pulsing and shaking around him.
My body goes completely spent and into a state of utter bliss as he continues to move.
It’s when his head falls against my shoulder and I feel him still that I know Ford joined me on the satisfaction scale.
He stays inside of me, and that’s what I love the most about the last few days, just being completely dissolved into one another, truly one.
I hum a sound to express my current state as Ford places a kiss on my shoulder.
“I feel like my thighs might be shaking for days,” I tell him.
“Excellent.” He tucks his head into the curve at the base of my neck. “One day we’ll come back here and we’ll make another baby.”
Instantly, I stutter out a sound. “You’re crazy.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You make me feel like you’re completely enamored with me.”
I feel a loss the moment he slides out of me to drag his shorts back up. “Solid observation.”
I roll my eyes as I wiggle to retie my bikini. Ford is quick to help me with the strings around my neck.
Now covered, I move to sit between his legs, with my back to his stomach and his arms finding a home around me.
“I hope you put on sunscreen; the sun is strong today.”
He kisses the top of my head. “Remember that time we came out here and we forgot? You looked like a lobster for days.”
I laugh at the memory. “Yeah, and I was red everywhere, not one inch spared; bikini lines gone, which meant everyone knew I had been naked.”
“With me.” He grins with pride.
“Exactly.”
“Do you know what I think is amazing?”
I kiss his upper arm that rests across my shoulder. “What?”
“Even when we weren’t together, I’m the lucky guy who knew you from the beginning. We have a history. I’m your first, and I know every little thing about you. We share a child, connected for life. Nobody could come close to that; I get to be the one who sees you in a different light.”
My tongue runs a line inside my mouth. “I know the feeling. You are my rock, even when I chose not to admit it.”
“I promise I won’t sink you down.” He squeezes me tighter.
“Nah, it’s okay, you can. Everything inside of me felt weighted down before. Every time I thought any chance of us would go out the window, I couldn’t move on. Now, I know I felt that way because you’re worth the wait. We were always going to find our way back, I believe that now.”
“Is it possible to feel so incredibly happy that you know it makes up for lost time?”
My shoulders come up to my ears in doubt. “I guess we’ll find out.”
“Yeah, we will.”
Over the next hour or two, we swim and have some drinks from the cooler. As I watch Ford load the boat, I can’t seem to shake this feeling that, as much as we trust our change in relationship, we are currently in our own world and bubble.
What happens when the outside world sticks a pin in it?