Chapter Seventeen
Lake Michigan distorted the light around them.
What bit of dusk-hidden sun remained refracted off the lake’s surface and shrouded them in midnight-blue shadows.
Lily glanced down, past her dangling feet, into the lapping waves.
Darkness stared back. Soon, when all the light had faded, the fireworks would begin.
Beside her, Kieran released a contented sigh. She turned, finding the outline of his light skin in the falling night. He reclined on the dock with one arm tucked behind his head.
“Come here,” he whispered. Warm fingers brushed the back of her elbow and guided her into the curve of his arms.
His warm hand closed around hers, over her drink, and Lily allowed him to stow it away behind them. She abandoned her phone in the middle of the dock as well and set her head atop his chest.
Not every moment had to be for show.
“So,” she drawled and tucked her head under his chin. “What do you think of my friends?”
“They weren’t what I was expecting.”
“Yeah?”
“I sorta expected Alex to be some rich kid since he grew up in a beach house, but after seeing it I understand he’s just, ya know, not poor.”
Lily smiled against Kieran’s sun-warmed skin. The beach house was definitely dated and small, but that made it cozy. “Alex is a little high-maintenance, but he shops at Marshalls like the rest of us.”
Kieran shifted, wedging his hip further under her side. With his hands cupping her arms, he guided her until she straddled his lap. A flutter of nerves shifted in her chest, but she settled atop him and let her hands map the hard edges of his jaw up to the soft tufts of his hair.
“You keep surprising me,” he whispered.
Her fingertips circled over his ears and down the sides of his neck. “In what way?”
“You’re nothing like I assumed you’d be when we met.”
She found his eyes in the darkness. Two deep, shimmering shards of onyx against the pale surface of his face. “You’re not who I thought you were, either.”
“Who did you think I was?”
Lily touched her cool nose to his. “The most attractive, cocky douchebag I’d ever met.”
His white teeth flashed in a grin. “Nah, I think you hit the nail on the head.”
She rolled her eyes and flicked his bare chest. “What about me?”
“A mix of things.” His hands settled at her waist, and the warmth of his touch seeped through her thin cover-up. “When I watched those videos with Neal, I thought you were hot but probably shallow and vapid.”
“Ouch.”
He continued, undeterred. “And when I met you that first day, I knew if Neal hired you, I’d be done for. You were fucking gorgeous.”
“When did things change?”
He shrugged. “Our membership increased, and I realized I was wrong about you. You’re very capable.”
Her heart thrilled at the compliment. She skimmed one hand down his neck, tracing the golden pendant he always wore outside the gym. “And do you still think I’m vapid?”
His arms locked behind her back, urging her closer. “I think you could take over the world, Lily.”
For once, she was grateful for the vast night.
Maybe he wouldn’t see her smile falter or her shoulders tuck in.
Take over the world? It had taken everything in her to stand up to him when he was rude that first day.
More often, in the quiet of the night, alone in her shitty apartment, all she had to keep her going was the belief her future would be better than her past.
But right now? The present? It was uncertain. An in-between. One fuckup away from losing everything she’d worked so hard for.
“I wish I could have met you five years from now.”
Kieran’s trace of her spine stuttered only for a moment, then continued, stroking from the nape of her neck to the small of her back. “Why’s that?”
Wasn’t it obvious? Eleven months out from an abusive relationship. Less than a year in therapy. Cruddy apartment. Low-paying job.
In five years, she’d be more confident. Have a great career and a proper home. No timidness shrouding her. The love of life she displayed on-screen would be real, not an act.
“I’d be a better match for you.”
His brows furrowed—her sight was adjusting to the lack of light now—and he tilted his head in question. “I don’t think that’s true.”
Lily swallowed, the words thick in her throat.
Two weeks ago, he’d asked if she was afraid of him, and yes, she was, but not in the way he thought.
Afraid to fall for him. Afraid to need him more than he needed her.
Too scared of the embarrassment and inevitable rejection if she admitted how much she wanted him.
Because Kieran kept his life contained. The gym was his life, and of course there was his family.
His friendships. His reputation and his ambition he’d surely pursue again once Danny came of age.
There wasn’t room in that perfect puzzle for a broken piece.
A whistle tore through the sky, whipping her attention heavenward. Brilliant starbursts of violet and red broke against the night.
Thank God.
Lily rolled off of Kieran’s lap and grabbed her phone, quickly adjusting her settings for a night-capture video.
She sat up and scooted forward, carefully maintaining her balance.
Moving slowly and holding her phone steady, she did a sweeping shot first of her feet dangling over the lake, then of the waves painted with light, and finally the sky as fireworks exploded in beautiful bursts of color.
Some were shaped as stars, others as kaleidoscopes.
Some lingered and hung in the air; others sizzled out just as quickly as they appeared.
One strong arm wrapped around her shoulders. Kieran’s phone, the front camera on and illuminating them, appeared before her. “How about one of us?” He nuzzled her cheek with his and kissed her behind her ear. “I like you exactly as you are,” he whispered. “Right here. Right now.”
A rush of warmth spread through her chest. Lily tilted her head back, catching Kieran’s lips in a kiss.
This one wasn’t a moment anyone would see.
Kieran didn’t do social media. If he kept the video, it would be for himself.
Would he keep it after whatever was going on between them was through?
Watch it over and over, remembering the way their bodies fit together like the waves met the sand?
“Come on, no more phones.” He darkened his screen and took hers, doing the same before gently laying them on the dock.
He guided her away from the edge, sitting cross-legged so their knees touched.
He cupped her face, his thumbs caressing her cheeks.
“Tell me what’s in your head.” His voice was soft and low, pitched somewhere between a plea and worship.
Fireworks broke overhead, reverberating through them and bathing him in streams of emerald and gold. His dark eyes mirrored the night sky, reflecting the light like pools of fire.
He was like a god.
“I just want you.” Today. Tomorrow. In all the ways she couldn’t bear to admit. In ways he’d never give himself.
His lips curved up, and his gaze flitted over her face—still searching for the real answer in her eyes.
“I want you, too.”
Lily leaned forward, catching those supple lips of his in a kiss. This was where she would happily stay forever. Caught in the space between passion and lust. Kissing him was as natural as breathing.
The uncertainty mounting within her melted under his touch. They each rose to their knees, and she wove her hands into his hair. It was softer than usual, having soaked for hours in the lake and dried by the sun.
Seconds slipped to breathless minutes, and she curled into his embrace, her body coming alive with every pass of his hands over her skin. He broke their kiss long enough to remove her cover-up, leaving them each in their swimsuits.
Her hands skimmed down his chest, stopping only when they met the tie of his trunks.
Kieran nipped her lip and leaned back, drawing away from her touch. “Patience,” he whispered against her pout. “I want you to stand up for me, okay?”
That would mean not kissing him. “Do I have to?”
He trailed kisses down the length of her neck and between her breasts. Urging her to her feet, he kissed across her belly and bit the top of her bikini bottoms. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Lily, but I promise it’ll be worth it.”
The first drop of anticipation pooled in her belly and sank, dragging heat toward her sex. She leaned back against the wooden railing of the dock and feathered her fingers through his hair. “What if someone looks outside and sees us?”
Kieran kissed along the line of her bikini to her hip.
“Let them see.” His teeth first found the tie at her left hip bone, and he loosened it without ever raising a hand.
“There’s no one here who doesn’t know what you do to me.
” Kissing and nipping, he scaled her lower abdomen, until he found the second tie and undid it once again with his mouth.
Her bikini bottom silently landed on the dock.
He’d barely touched her, yet she ached, desperate for this tender and reverent side of him. “I missed this,” he said while nuzzling her core. “Did you miss me, too?”
His breath was warm against her clit, and Lily tilted her hips forward, begging for his tongue.
“Yes.”
“Tell me about it.” He slid a finger over her labia, spreading her open before sinking one digit into her pussy.
She moaned his name, soft enough to be lost on the wind over the lake.
“Tell me, Princess.” His hand twisted, and his knuckle brushed against a sweet spot within her. “Do you touch yourself and think of me?”
She nodded, distrustful her voice would work if she tried. She spread her legs further, propping one heel up on the railing behind her.
He hummed, the sound almost disappointed, and planted a chaste kiss atop her hood. “I have so many fantasies. I want to know yours. I can’t take a fucking shower without getting hard.” His lips closed over her clit, and he sucked.