Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mia
Bower finally let go of me and helped me climb into the boat. I sat in the passenger seat, looking anywhere but at the beach. I didn’t want to lock eyes with Ruby—or anyone who’d watched Bower herd me toward the docks.
He made quick work of the ropes and started the boat, this time not pausing as long before he turned the key.
The engine vibrated the seat I was sitting on in a way I had never noticed before.
I squeezed my thighs together, crossing my ankles, and only looked up once Bower pushed down on the throttle, signaling we were out of the no-wake zone.
Bower was driving the boat with a look of determination I had never seen on his face before.
He didn’t even glance over at me while he was driving, the moon and stars lighting the way.
There were even fewer boats on the water than when we’d arrived at the party.
Lights from the docks of the houses along the lake had already flickered out, assuming that boaters were done for the night.
There was an uncanny stillness about the lake at this time of night that was both spooky and enchanting.
It had all my nerves standing at attention.
Bower pulled the throttle back, slowing the boat.
Where were we? He sat down in his seat as the boat puttered through a bay.
At least I assumed it was a bay. The surrounding foliage was getting denser, and trees leaned in closer to the water, their branches dancing along the surface of the lake.
They began scratching against the side of the boat, bending, flicking water once the boat passed.
It continued to get narrower and narrower the farther the boat went.
Bower’s eyes met mine for just a moment before returning his attention to steering the vessel. It was so tight that one wrong twist of the steering wheel could mean beaching the boat. It was hard to tell with the poor lighting, but I thought I saw a smile on his lips.
Our boat barely fit through the arch of trees and branches surrounding the waterway. Just when I thought we might get stuck, wedged between the branches of trees, the foliage opened, releasing the boat from its grasps. We squeezed through, and I could finally breathe again.
The circle of open water sparkled beneath the starry sky above us.
Trees surrounded us, not a cabin in sight.
Bower killed the engine, standing up holding a yellow anchor with rope attached to it.
He tossed it overboard, lowering it to the bottom of the lake before tying the rope to the side of the boat.
The boat floated in the bay he’d driven us to, and looking up at the sky, I saw why he’d brought me here.
There were no trees above us, just the night sky in all its glory.
There wasn’t any light pollution like where I lived in the Twin Cities.
It was quiet. Crickets chirped alongside frogs, creating a melody that, along with the occasional hoot of an owl, made my blood pressure instantly decrease.
I let all the air out of my lungs before drawing in a fresh breath. It even smelled good out here.
“Remember this place?” Bower asked. He stood at the bow of the boat, glowing beneath the moonlight. The shadows created from the light above him made the muscles in his arms look even more defined. I looked around in the dark bay, trying to orient myself. “It’s my secret fishing spot.”
I looked at Bower and smiled. I didn’t know if he could see my mouth, but he was right. It was the place he’d brought me for fishing when we’d been young. It was secret, secluded, and ours. No one would venture in here unknowingly. The passage was too tight.
“I widened the channel a little since I came back,” he explained. “I still come here, you know, to fish.”
“Do you think about me while you’re fishing?” I asked, then immediately regretted my brazen question. But I wanted the answer.
Bower took his hat off his head and ran his hand through his hair before replacing the hat. “I think about you all the time, Mia. But especially here.”
I stood up and walked over to where Bower was standing on the bow.
I needed to touch him, to feel him against me.
Once I was within arm’s reach, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me against him.
He wrapped his arms over my upper arms and down my back, gripping my waist. I pressed myself against his body, relishing in the warmth radiating from him.
“I think about you all the time too,” I whispered, looking up at him as he looked down at me.
I’d never forgotten about Bower. There hadn’t been a day that went by without Bower somehow working his way into my thoughts.
A commercial about camping or a billboard for an up north escape would bring flashes of what Bower and I had back into my head.
“You were just engaged, Mia,” Bower said. “I doubt you thought much about me at all.”
All the air exited my lungs. “Sure, I was engaged, Bower, but for all the wrong reasons. I thought Archer was the safe choice—the money, and my parents loved him…”
He scoffed.
“What I didn’t realize is how safe you make me feel,” I continued. “Archer paid for things and kept my parents happy, but I never was myself around him. I was always walking a fine line—I always felt like one misstep and I’d become a disappointment.”
Bower took a piece of blonde hair—the hair that Archer had wanted blonder, longer, styled down on my shoulders—and tucked it behind my ear.
“I never feel like that around you. I can be myself.”
“When you left that weekend, I didn’t know if you’d be back,” he whispered. “You had that ring on your finger and all your asshole friends with you.”
I looked down at my feet. So many things about that weekend had gone wrong…
“Once you came back, I didn’t know what to do.”
Oh, Bower. He didn’t know how bad I had it for him.
“I’ll always come back, Bower,” I said. “I come back every summer.”
I tilted my head and pursed my lips, giving him warning before I pushed myself up on my toes to meet his lips.
Bower kept his lips still for a moment before pulling my body against his, weaving his hand around the back of my head, cradling my skull. It was as if both of us needed to prove to one another how badly we’d always wanted each other.
I bit down on his lower lip, eliciting a groan from deep within Bower’s body.
I moaned against his mouth. He swallowed every sound, sucking my tongue into his mouth, rubbing it against his own.
My hips slammed into his body, my body in need of friction.
I’d never felt like this before, so out of control and sensual.
His massive erection pressed against my stomach, pulsing whenever I pushed against it.
“Bower…” I moaned. I was rubbing myself against him. My body acting of its own accord, seeking relief.
For the first time, I wasn’t embarrassed or shy about the reactions I was having. This was Bower. He’d seen me at my worst. I had a feeling this would be my best.
This was a new side of me, someone who didn’t hesitate when it came to sex.
Before, I’d always held back, never comfortable enough to make that big step.
I’d even told Archer that I wanted to wait until we were married.
He’d assumed it had to do with religious views, but really, I just hadn’t been looking forward to that part of being married to him.
I’d been trying to hold him off—hold any other guy I’d dated off because I just hadn’t had those feelings.
I hadn’t felt comfortable enough with them to let them have all of me.
There’d always been something I felt was missing. I could never put my finger on it, never give it a name…but now I knew what it was.
I’d been waiting for Bower. He was my safe spot, my comfortable place.
Bower pulled away from my lips, panting, his forehead still pressed against mine. “Give me a minute,” he said before letting go of my body.
I slumped over as he did, cold without his touch.
He started lifting seat cushions on the bow, flipping them up and pulling out boards with attached cushions that made the front of the boat into a giant triangle-shaped bed.
Bower grabbed me around the waist, pulling me in for another deep kiss before pushing me over onto the new bed he’d made.
My knees hit the edge of the pads and I fell backward, letting my arms land splayed alongside my head.
“Fuck, Mia. You’re so beautiful.” Bower stood over me, adjusting himself in his pants again before crawling alongside next to me, pushing his body against mine.
I lifted my head to let his arm snake under, laying it back down against the muscles there that cradled me softly.
With his other hand, Bower grabbed my jaw, pulling my lips over to his, kissing me as our bodies turned to face each other, like we were magnets snapping together.
Our mouths continued to touch and explore while Bower’s hand left my jaw and felt its way down my neck.
It traced my collarbone, moving along the bone before dipping into the notch above my sternum.
His finger circled the hollow there before following down to the softness of my belly.
He had to have felt how fast my heart was beating and how rapidly I was breathing.
Bower didn’t stop, though. He continued down toward my shorts, dipping between my legs, feeling the wetness that had only soaked further through my shorts. My arm shot out and grabbed his hand, stopping it from traveling any further.
“Is something wrong, Mia?” Bower pulled his face away from mine, looking at me with those big blue eyes like he’d done something to hurt me.
“No, no. Nothing’s wrong,” I said. “I…”
I didn’t know how to explain this in a way that wasn’t a turnoff. Bower probably expected me to be experienced—I’d been engaged earlier this month. But the truth was Archer and I had done nothing other than kiss.