Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
TAKE WHAT YOU WANT
T he sand felt strange under my feet and it was a feeling I wasn’t particularly fond of. Oliver insisted we take our flip-flops off as soon as we reached it but now I was wishing I still had them on. It felt crusty and scratched the bottoms of my feet as we walked out toward the ocean.
The sun hadn’t crested the horizon yet. There were a few people out here already waiting for the sunrise. Oliver made sure to have an alarm set so we could get out before the sky started to change colors. It was a deep, dark blue, but it was continuing to grow lighter with each passing second.
“I don’t think I’m a fan of the sand,” I admitted as we stepped onto wetter sand which felt even weirder. With the dry sand, there was a little bit of softness to it. Now, it just felt wet and cold and uncomfortable.
Oliver raised an eyebrow at me. “Not many people are.”
“So, everyone just comes here for the ocean and doesn’t worry about the fact the sand sucks?”
A soft chuckle escaped him and he led me directly to the water. It was cold against my toes, but there was a calming effect. It was soothing, the sounds, the smells. Feeling it on my skin. It was much more desirable than the feeling of the sand.
“You have to take the good with the bad. The sand serves its purpose, even if we don’t like it. Everything has a place and a purpose. If you want to appreciate the good, you have to accept the undesirable parts that come along with it.”
I stared at the side of Ollie’s face, my eyes traveling along his sharp jawline. His nose was perfectly straight and when he stood still like this, it was almost as if he were like a sculpted statue. The only thing moving was his firm chest, rising and falling with every breath. His hair danced as the breeze tousled the waves on top of his head.
“You’re missing the view,” he told me as he continued to stare out at the ocean, watching the sky as it transformed from the sun just beneath the horizon.
I didn’t tear my eyes away from him. “Quite the opposite.”
Oliver tilted his head to the side as he looked over at me. He gave me a knowing look, a fire blazing deep in his irises. Screw the ocean and the sunrise. None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was the person standing in front of me. Oliver Hart was my entire world and he didn’t have the slightest clue.
The corners of his lips lifted upwards and he reached out for me, pulling me closer to him. He positioned himself behind me, wrapping his arms around the top half of my torso before resting his chin on my shoulder. His lips were soft against the side of my neck as he pressed them to my skin.
“I promise you, you don’t want to miss this.”
I would have easily taken his word for it, but instead, I followed along. I didn’t know when I would have the opportunity to experience something like this again. I reveled in his arms, allowing his warmth to seep into my soul as I rested the back of my head against him. He straightened his back, resting his head on the top of mine as we watched the sky transform before our eyes.
The blue slowly changed into different hues of pink and orange. It was the most fascinating thing I ever watched and I was captivated by the beauty of it. The morning was quiet, the breeze salty and the ocean calm. There wasn’t a single thing wrong with this moment and it was one I would be saving in my brain for the rest of my life.
As quickly as it started, the sun popped up along the horizon and lifted higher into the sky with each passing second. It was amazing how fast the sky changed colors. And then it was over. The sun was in the sky where it belonged and the colors dissipated to a golden glow as it was slowly resuming to its blue color.
Oliver didn’t let me go. He held me in his arms as we soaked in the atmosphere and the scene in front of us. The other sunrise watchers had since disappeared from the beach, yet we remained unmoving. My eyelids fell shut and I breathed in deeply, savoring the scent of the ocean as I lifted my hands to hold onto Ollie’s forearms.
“Did you want to go get some breakfast?” he questioned me, his voice soft and silky as it floated across my eardrums.
“I do, just not yet,” I told him as we both stayed, unmoving. “Just a little bit longer.”
Oliver buried his face in my hair and I could feel him smile. “You tell me when, love. I have no problem spending the rest of my life right here, just like this.”
A soft laugh escaped me, and I turned to face him in his arms. “You know we can’t do that, Ollie. As nice as that sounds, you still have a life you need to live. Did you forget about college and football?”
His arms slid down my body, resting around my waist as I lifted my arms to link them around the back of his neck. Oliver’s eyes bounced back and forth between mine, in a slow deliberate search. What he was searching for—I would eventually find out.
“That’s not life, Luna,” he said softly as his gaze shifted down to my lips before resting on my eyes again. “That’s all just a part of it. This is all that has ever really mattered and all that really will. Don’t forget, you have a life you need to live too, but if you want to stay like this, I’m not opposed.”
This time, it was me who’s gaze shifted back and forth between his eyes and his lips. Oliver had been the one who always initiated everything and each time was with my consent. I didn’t want to strip that from him, but I also wanted to be the one to make a move.
Oliver’s throat bobbed as he swallowed roughly and I focused on his lips as I wet my own with my tongue. “What are you thinking about, love?”
“That I want to kiss you.”
The corners of his lips twitched and his grip tightened around me. “I’m yours for the taking, Luna. Take what you want.”
Lifting up on my toes, I pressed my lips to Ollie’s as my eyelids fluttered shut. My stomach was doing flips and my heart was pounding against my ribcage. I was tired of sitting on the sidelines and not being the one to act. Oliver told me to take what I wanted and that was exactly what I was doing.
His lips were soft against mine, his mouth accepting. He didn’t try to take control. Instead, he handed the reins to me and let me kiss him the way I wanted. There was a tenderness between us, yet a burning fire of curiosity. I was exploring parts of myself with him, while still exploring him. Kissing him came easily and it was something I would never grow tired of.
My heart was racing around in my chest and it felt like it was going to beat right out of me. A shiver pulled up my spine but I brushed it away. Nothing was going to ruin this moment between us. I was living life and anything that threatened to derail that could fuck off.
Oliver kissed me back as both of our tongues danced with one another. At one point, he lifted his hands to cup the sides of my face and he pressed his hips against me until we were flush against one another. The ocean rocked back and forth across my ankles and my feet grew cold, but none of that mattered.
All that mattered was him.
“You’re going to burn,” I told Oliver as I sat under the shade of our umbrella and put another layer of sunscreen on. “Your face always gets red when you’re in the sun for a long time.”
Oliver looked over at me from the towel he was sitting on. His body was wet from the ocean, beads of water rolling across the planes of his naked torso. Lifting a hand, he pushed his damp hair away from his forehead.
“I’ll be fine, Luna. I put sunscreen on earlier. I don’t need multiple layers like you do. You’re the one we need to make sure doesn’t burn with your fair skin.”
He wasn’t wrong. I never asked anyone if it was part of my disease process, but I assumed it was. I was anemic as it was, and the lack of oxygen in my bloodstream made me look pale in comparison to a properly oxygenated person. Perhaps it was just my skin tone, though. My father had fair skin, although he didn’t look ghostly like I did.
“Did you want to go back to the room soon?” Oliver questioned me with a hint of concern in his voice. “You look more pale than you normally do and that’s saying something.”
I shook my head at him. “It’s because of the sun. I always look more like a vampire in the sunlight.”
“At least you don’t sparkle,” Oliver said with a wink.
“Did you really just make a Twilight reference?” I asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow at him.
Ollie smiled sheepishly at me and shrugged. “Maybe…”
I couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled out of me. Giana and I went through the whole Twilight franchise kick when we were younger, and I made Oliver watch every single movie with me. According to him, he didn’t really enjoy it, but I digress.
“I knew you actually liked it even though you told everyone you didn’t!”
He chuckled along and then grew serious as he held his finger to his lips. “Shh. If you tell a single soul, I’ll deny it.”
I rolled my eyes at Oliver. “Who else could I possibly tell? You’re the only one I’m close to that I talk to about everything.”
The corners of his lips twitched. “Good. Let’s keep it that way.”
I stared at him for a moment, but he pulled his sunglasses over his eyes, shielding them from my wandering gaze. Oliver began to pack up our things and I followed suit, helping him. We left Tank back in the room since it was pretty hot outside.
As we made our way across the hot sand and back to the hotel, fatigue really began to set in and I was grateful that we were going back to our room. We stepped onto the elevator and I yawned as I pressed the button for our floor. I could feel a nap in my near future and was really looking forward to it.
The doors started to slide open and I adjusted the strap of the bag on my shoulder before I went to walk out. Oliver reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me back. “Where are you going? This isn’t our floor.”
I looked up at the number on the small screen above the elevator door. “Floor three. That’s not our floor?”
Oliver’s eyebrows pulled together. “No… we’re on the sixth floor.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Are you sure?”
He fell silent as he stared at me for a moment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small envelope that had our keys in it. On the front it said our room number and sure enough, it was on the sixth floor.
“Hmm,” I said before letting out another yawn. “I must have just confused the numbers.”
Oliver didn’t say anything. Instead, he slid his hand down to hold mine again and pressed the correct number on the panel in the elevator. The doors closed and we rode up to our floor. Oliver took the bag I was holding, and I didn’t object to it for once. My body needed to rest and I was beginning to feel lightheaded.
As we stepped into the room, a shiver rippled down my spine and Tank greeted us at the door. I walked over and grabbed his leash and Oliver set all of our things on the small couch in the room.
“What are you doing?”
I looked up at him, the room spinning slightly as I stood back upright. “Taking him out to go to the bathroom.” I paused for a moment as I rubbed my hands over my arms. “Can we turn the air conditioning off or something? It’s freezing in here.”
Oliver gave me another look of confusion. “I’ll mess with the thermostat and make it warmer.” He took the leash from me. “I got Tank. You get comfortable, okay?”
Another yawn escaped me and I nodded as I rubbed my eyes. “Okay,” I agreed.
I waited until Oliver and Tank left the room before I stripped out of my bathing suit and put on a pair of shorts and an oversized t-shirt. I climbed into bed and hooked myself up to my ventilator. My eyelids were so heavy as I settled against the pillows.
I didn’t always need it if I took a nap, but with how fatigued I felt, I knew it was probably for the best. Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, I heard Oliver and Tank come back into the room. Tank met me on my side of the bed and rubbed his wet nose against the side of my face as he whimpered.
“Hey,” I mumbled as I pet him on the top of the head. “I promise we’ll take you out later.”
“Luna,” Oliver said, his voice tender as he slipped under the covers with me. “We don’t have to do anything later. I feel like we’re overdoing it and I don’t want to exhaust you too much.”
I shook my head at him in protest. “You’re not. I know what I can and can’t handle. I’ll let you know if it gets to be too much.”
Oliver pursed his lips and I could see the disbelief written in his expression, but he kept quiet. Instead, he settled on the plush mattress with me, pulling me against him as he held me until I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I let the sleep pull me under as I slid into a dream world with Oliver, where none of our problems existed.
Into a world where we actually had a future…
Too bad it was just a dream.