Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mia
“Be good, you two. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Gill called out as he slowly made his way along the docks of the marina.
Bower and I watched from the boat to make sure he didn’t fall in. He’d been right to call Bower. He’d had too much to drink. I didn’t think Bower minded picking him up either. It’d been fun, like a scavenger hunt, only for a drunk grandpa.
I’d won a prize too: a swoon-worthy kiss with Bower that had made my entire body tingle.
I kicked my feet up on the dash in front of me, crossing my rain boots at the ankles. Bower took his eyes off his grandpa for a moment to run them up and down my legs.
“Eyes up here, boy,” I said, mimicking his grandpa’s previous scolding.
Bower looked away, smiling, and threw the boat into reverse.
The motor paused for a moment before it fell into gear and slowly backed out of the marina.
“We’re going out,” he said. He stood up and watched the back of the boat as he turned it ninety degrees before flipping the gear to maneuver the boat forward.
“What if I have plans for the rest of the night?” I pulled my feet off the dash and planted them on the floor of the boat with a loud thump.
Bower stood at the helm of the boat, the muscles under his tattooed skin moving as he flexed his hand along the steering wheel. We were moving through the bay outside the marina where he had found me earlier today. The paddleboat was still there, stuck in the weeds, waiting to be rescued.
“I thought we went over this,” Bower said. “You’re on vacation. You’re not busy.”
I turned around and watched the lights of the marina get smaller and smaller. This time I wasn’t hesitant about being in the boat with Bower. He was right. The only thing I wanted to be busy with was him. The only plans I wanted to have involved him.
My week up here was rapidly coming to an end. We had tonight and tomorrow before I had to go back home, back to pick up the pieces of my life and prepare for the start of the school year. Whatever this was between Bower and me—we had to figure it out soon.
I lived hours away and couldn’t come up here on a regular basis, and I wasn’t sure Bower would be able to get away from the resort.
Even if we could get away to see each other once a month, we hadn’t had time to build a solid foundation.
It was entirely possible our relationship would crumble beneath the pressure of going long distance before it even got its footings.
But what if this thing between us went somewhere after this week? Would I quit my job and live up here? I was afraid to ask the questions because I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answers. We needed to figure it out—fast.
Once we left the no-wake zone, Bower leaned into the throttle, and I sat back, letting him and the night take me anywhere they wanted me to go.
The house Bower pulled the boat up to looked oddly familiar.
It took me back to when I was sixteen and Bower had brought me to that party.
The last time I’d seen him. It was the same house.
Perhaps the house had been painted a different color, but it was the same one.
The setup along the beach was the same too.
A bonfire in the middle, coolers and people everywhere.
“Is this the same…” I asked before Bower cut me off.
“The same house, yes. Owned now by the son of the man who owned it back when we were kids.” Ahh. The similar vibe made sense now.
Bower and I docked the boat, flipping the fenders over the side before climbing out of the boat. My rain boots clunked along the metal dock, causing people along the beach to look at us approaching.
“Mia? Is that you?” Ruby’s voice rang out from the beach.
She was ankle deep in the water, her flip-flops hanging from her hand.
Dean was beside her, walking barefoot in the water.
I waved at her as Bower reached out his hand to help me down off the dock and into the sand.
It was only a six-inch drop. I took his hand anyway.
His immediate grip told me he wasn’t planning on letting go anytime soon.
“It’s like déjà vu, isn’t it?” Ruby asked.
I nodded. “It’s freaking me out.”
“Hey, everybody here are adults. No one’s getting arrested tonight,” Dean joked.
Bower’s hand tensed over mine. We still hadn’t talked about that night.
“Caleb and Chloe are saving spots up by the bonfire for us,” Dean suggested after Bower didn’t respond to his joke.
Bower grunted before leading the group up to the fire.
It was tall, crackling and spitting embers surrounded by a circle of rocks.
Chloe and Caleb sat on a rocking bench together, her hands resting on top of her stomach, his arm stretched along the back of the bench around her shoulders.
Dean and Ruby found two Adirondack chairs and sat down in them quickly.
This felt like a game of musical chairs.
“Whoops, only one chair left!” Ruby said, smiling. Bower sat down in the single empty chair before I could, an amused look on his face. My hand was still in his as he pulled me toward him, my body twisting around before my butt landed on his large quads.
He was warm on the chilly night. I couldn’t help but lean back and meld into his chest. His shoulder cradled my head as I rested against it.
The heat from the fire in front of me and the heat of his body behind me sandwiched me in.
Bower wrapped an arm possessively over my stomach, his thumb drawing circles along my side. I shivered even though I was now warm.
Ruby tossed a can of beer over to Bower, who caught it before it landed in my lap.
He passed it over to Caleb without opening it.
“Thanks, Ruby, but I don’t drink,” Bower said.
His arm wrapped back around me, his thumb continuing the torturing circles.
I wiggled on his lap and the circles stopped, his hand now pressing hard into my side, subduing my body.
“Since when?” Ruby asked.
I glared at my sister—that was a rude way to ask someone about their drinking—but she just shrugged.
Bower didn’t seem to mind the brazen question and answered without pause. “Since nine years ago on this beach.”
I stilled and turned to look back at Bower.
“When you got arrested?” Ruby asked.
I twisted my head back to her. “What the fuck, Ruby?”
Bower nodded. “I never wanted to put someone I loved in danger ever again.”
I hadn’t been in danger that night—he’d saved me from getting into trouble, saved me from the wrath of my parents. I’d felt terrible that night, especially because I hadn’t known what to do. I’d been a sixteen-year-old girl in way over her head.
Was that what he thought I’d felt that night? That he’d put me in danger?
I twisted around to Bower and put my hand on his face. His hand moved to my lower back. “I was never in danger,” I whispered. “You put me on that boat—you saved me.”
“If I hadn’t been drinking, everything would have been different. I could’ve been faster getting you on that boat. I could’ve had quicker reactions—maybe I would’ve had time to get on the boat. I would have been there the next summer and the next.”
“You don’t know that,” I said. I rubbed my thumb along his jaw. The stubble from his beard was rough.
“I do, Mia. You only get so many summers. I’ve wasted so many of mine already.” Bower looked down at my lips.
I sucked in a breath, ready to be pummeled by his mouth again.
His hand left my lower back, catching something behind me.
“Get a room, you two,” Ruby said from across the fire.
Bower was holding the bag of marshmallows she had thrown at us. My eyes lit up. S’mores. This night was total déjà vu. There were supplies for s’mores tucked next to the chairs—chocolate, graham crackers, and roasting sticks.
I got to work making my favorite summer treat. I sat perched on Bower’s lap as I leaned over, tucking my marshmallow into a cavern of embers near the base of the fire.
His hand slipped beneath my shirt, right between the gap of my shirt and shorts that revealed the skin of my lower back.
Goose bumps peppered my skin even as the heat of the fire scorched me.
His fingers traced the bumps of my vertebrae, following the peaks and valleys of each knob, first traveling up to the bottom of my bra and then back down to the waistband of my shorts.
Each time his fingers grazed my shorts, I held my breath, squirming against his lap, wishing his fingers would continue their journey lower.
Bower let out a quiet groan each time I squirmed, only loud enough that I could feel the vibration of his low voice travel through his body and against the back of my legs.
“I didn’t know what s’mores were until I moved up here,” Chloe said.
“Really?” Ruby asked. “They aren’t a thing in Florida?”
“I mean, I guess they are. They just aren’t as common as they are up here.”
Bower’s fingers found their way to my waistband yet again.
I couldn’t help but wiggle against his thighs.
His fingers sent tingles down between my legs.
Bower’s other hand gripped my hip, his fingers tucking between the fold of my bent body, between my upper thigh and stomach.
His hand grasped me tightly, putting pressure on my body to still my movements.
He squeezed me tightly for a moment before releasing, his hand still close to that area of my body that was pulsing.
From then on, every time his fingers brushed my waistband and I squirmed against him, he squeezed me with his other hand on my hip in retaliation.
His fingers traveled closer and closer to my core with each squeeze.
My body throbbed for him, wanted him to keep reaching lower and lower.
My bike shorts were thin. I could feel Bower’s rough skin right through them.
“I’m due in about a month,” Chloe was saying. I was only vaguely following along to the conversation around the bonfire.
“It’s a girl,” Caleb said proudly, giving her belly a rub.
I smiled, trying to act like nothing was happening underneath my shirt or between the fold of my body. I watched my marshmallow go from a perfect golden yellow to a brown color. I didn’t want this game we were playing to end, damn my marshmallow.
His fingertips met the edge of my waistband again, my body full of sexual energy.
He had built that energy up every time his fingers dragged up and down my spine.
I adjusted myself against his thighs, trying to get comfortable.
I could no longer sit still, letting him torture me like this.
There was something innate about how my hips needed to move.
Bower’s hand reached lower, still over my shorts, pushing between my legs.
His wrist caught between my pelvic bone and the top of my thigh right as his fingers brushed over my center.
I must’ve been radiating heat; I was practically panting, bent over on Bower’s lap.
His fingers pressed down, right on top of my clit.
The sounds from the party became fuzzy. The bike shorts I was wearing felt warm against me, the fabric pushed between my folds. I was wet from the teasing and touching Bower had been putting me through—he was feeling that with his fingers.
I froze.
Bower stopped moving his fingers and slowly pulled them from between my legs, wrapping his arm around my hips.
He used the arm he’d been tracing my spine with to wrap around my collarbone, pulling my back flush with his chest. My back hit something hard, long, and warm, lying against Bower’s stomach.
Oh my god, he was hard. I could feel his warm breath against my ear and the scratch of his chin against my neck. I shivered against him.
“I’ve had enough. We’re leaving,” he whispered into my ear.
Bower lifted us to a standing position, keeping my body in front of his, obviously trying to hide the monstrosity in his pants. “We’re headed out,” he announced to the group.
Everyone went quiet, abruptly ending their conversations.
“Okay…I guess I’ll see you back at the cabin…” Ruby said.
I gave the group a wave before Bower’s arm slipped down, wrapping possessively around my waist, his erection grinding into my lower back with every step.
At this point, I would follow Bower wherever he would take me, so long as he promised to help me relieve the pressure that he had built up inside of me.