Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
COLTON
The beach behind Maliah and Koa’s house looks empty when I get there. All I see is the endless dark ocean, the moonlight shining across the waves, and Kairi sitting alone near the shoreline with her knees pulled to her chest.
I stand there for a moment, watching how the wind pushes through her curls softly while her oversized sweater hangs off one shoulder, exposing the curve of her collarbone.
It’s only been five fucking days since I last saw her, and yet it feels longer.
Like something in me was off-balance the entire time I was gone.
I start walking again, and Kairi turns at the sound of my footsteps approaching. When our eyes connect, it’s like my lungs forget how to work properly.
God, I missed her face.
“Hey,” she says softly.
“Hey.”
I lower myself beside her in the sand, close enough that our shoulders almost touch but not quite.
“How was Bluewater Bluffs?”
I exhale slowly through my nose, staring out at the water. “Better than I expected.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” A small laugh escapes me. “My father and I finally stopped acting like stubborn idiots for five minutes.”
I tell her everything, from Cooper dragging me out horseback riding at sunrise, my dad sleeping on the couch because my mom kicked him out after their argument, the beers on the front steps, and the realization that maybe my father missed me more than he ever knew how to say out loud.
Kairi listens quietly beside me, fully focused in that way she always is when someone she loves is hurting.
“I’m really happy for you,” she says when I finish, smiling gently. “You deserve that kind of peace with them.”
I glance over at her, my eyes dropping to her lips for one dangerous second, and I almost kiss her right there.
Instead, I look away and clear my throat. “What about you? What’ve you been up to while I was gone?”
“Mostly work,” she says with a small smile. “I also went to see my parents for a bit to reset.”
“How’d that go?” Kairi doesn’t often talk about her parents but from what I understand they have a great relationship.
“It was really good,” she says with a nod. “They gave me some clarity about some things that were bothering me.”
“That’s great, Kairi,” I say with a warm smile, but she doesn’t smile back.
“Colton…” The seriousness in her tone immediately puts me on edge. “I don’t think our fake relationship was a good idea.”
Oh.
The words hit harder than they should, because even if it was fake at first, it stopped feeling fake for me a long damn time ago.
I force myself to nod casually like my chest didn’t just cave in. “Okay.”
Kairi studies my face carefully, probably noticing the exact moment I start trying to hide how wrecked I feel.
So I do the dumbest thing possible.
“I guess things with Zale went well after I left?”
She doesn’t answer immediately, her mouth slowly curving upward into a mischievous smile, and I realize I’ve misunderstood something.
“I told Zale I just want to be his friend,” she says. “Without benefits.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
“You did?”
She nods, twisting her fingers together in her lap, and for a while she doesn’t say anything. The only sound coming from the ocean as the waves roll quietly against the shore a few feet away, and the breeze shifts through the dunes behind us.
“Kairi?”
She lets out a shaky laugh. “I realized something while you were away.”
My chest feels tight as I watch her lip begin to tremble. “What?”
She turns, eyes finding mine. “I-I think I love you.”
The words knock every coherent thought out of my head. “Kairi—”
“No, let me finish before I lose my nerve,” she says quickly, taking a deep breath. “I think I've known for a while, if I'm being honest. I just kept finding reasons not to admit it.”
My pulse pounds loudly in my ears as I watch her fighting to keep it together.
“I was scared,” she admits softly. “Because if I let myself fall completely and it doesn’t work out...” Her voice cracks slightly. “I wouldn't just lose a relationship, Colton. I’d lose my best friend.”
A tear slips down her cheek so I reach over and take her hand in mine.
“You've become such a huge part of my life.” She releases another shaky breath as she looks down at our hands. “I keep thinking about what would happen if we tried this and fail,” she continues. “What if everything changes? What if things become awkward? What if I lose you completely?”
The thought alone feels impossible and I shake my head.
“Kairi.” She looks up at me. “You could never lose me.”
Her brow furrows. “Colton—”
“No, listen to me,” I interrupt, moving closer until our knees touch. “If we try this and somehow it doesn't work out...” I shrug. “Then we'll figure it out. But I promise you'll always have me.”
She stares at me and tears spill down her cheeks, before she roughly wipes them away.
“You're stuck with me, darlin'. Forever,” I say with a small smile as I squeeze her hand.
A watery laugh bubbles out of her. “Forever?”
“Yep.” I nod seriously. “You can marry somebody else when we're eighty years old and I'll still be there to annoy you.”
She shakes her head, laughing through her tears now, and I smile.
“I don't know what the future looks like,” I admit quietly. “And I can't promise everything will be perfect, but I can promise that you'll never have to wonder if I'm still in your corner one day.”
“You mean that?”
“With everything I’ve got.”
Kairi stares at me for a long moment before a slow smile spreads across her face. “Okay.”
I blink. “Okay?”
She nods before a nervous laugh escapes her. “I want to try, Colton.”
My heart nearly stops, but she keeps going.
“I want the dates.” Her smile grows wider. “The real ones.”
“And the kissing?” I ask, a grin forming.
Her cheeks turn pink. “Maybe.”
I laugh. “Maybe?”
“Don't push your luck, cowboy.”
I shake my head, grinning so hard my face hurts, and pull her into my arms. I hold her there for a long time as the tension that’s been sitting on my chest for weeks melts away.
A few minutes later, she stands abruptly and starts tugging her sweater over her head, causing my brain to short-circuit.
“Do you want to go skinny dipping?”
I stare at her as the moonlight catches against every inch of exposed skin, and suddenly every intelligent thought leaves my body.
“Yes.”
The answer comes out way too fast and Kairi laughs softly under her breath as she kicks off her sandals and starts peeling off the rest of her clothes.
My eyes drag over her before I can stop them, greedily taking her in, and when she catches me looking she bites back a smile.
“The last one in the water owes the other a drink,” she says suddenly before taking off toward the shoreline.
I get approximately one second to appreciate the way her ass bounces as she runs before my survival instincts kick in.
“Oh, hell no.”
I sprint after her instantly, undressing as I go, and she squeals when she realizes I’m catching up, laughing breathlessly as the waves rush toward her ankles. But I reach her right before she hits the water and wrap my arms around her waist causing her to yelp as I haul her up over my shoulder.
“Colton!” she shrieks, laughing so hard she can barely breathe.
I smack her ass once as I carry her straight into the cool waves. “Getting carried into the water counts as second,” I tell her smugly.
“You’re literally cheating!”
“Sounds like something someone in second place would say.”
Her laughter echoes across the beach while waves crash around us and I revel in the sound. I missed this; missed her.
When the water gets deep enough, I carefully lower her back down, her bare body sliding slowly against mine underwater, hands landing on my chest to steady herself once her feet touch the ocean floor again.
“I missed you,” I admit quietly. “During my leave, I had to keep turning my phone off to stop myself from texting or calling you first.”
“Yeah?” she whispers.
I nod once, heart pounding.
Kairi’s fingers curl slightly against my chest. “I felt the same, but I wanted to give you time to focus on your family” she continues softly. “While I focused on the brand collab stuff.”
I brush wet curls back from her face carefully. “How’d that go? Griffin mentioned that Gabriel was able to find the perfect brand to take the idea on.”
She smiles slowly. “Really good, actually…I almost called you after the meeting today.”
I laugh quietly under my breath. “Good thing you didn’t.”
“Why?”
“I would’ve cancelled on the boys and driven straight to you if I’d heard your voice.”
She smiles at that and we drift deeper into the water slowly while we talk, touching constantly without thinking about it. My hand keeps finding her waist. Hers keeps sliding over my shoulders whenever waves push her closer.
Eventually the ocean floor disappears beneath her feet entirely and Kairi lets out a surprised laugh before jumping up and wrapping herself around me. Her legs hook around my waist while her arms slide around my neck, pressing her naked body fully against mine.
Every muscle in my body tightens in response.
“Kinda deep out here,” she murmurs, raising her mouth closer to mine.
“A little bit,” I whisper, right as she kisses me.
The kiss is gentle in a way that somehow wrecks me more than anything else ever could because it’s not for pretend this time, not that it ever really was for me, but there’s no fake dating or lessons behind the reason for this kiss.
No, this is real. Every unsaid feeling between us pours into this kiss while waves gently rock around our bodies.
I savor every second of it. The taste of saltwater and her lips; the way her fingers tighten in my hair; the quiet sound she makes when I kiss her deeper.
But eventually the kiss starts changing into something hotter, and more dangerous.
And I already know there’s no chance in hell I’m walking away from her tonight pretending I still have self control.
“Colton,” she whispers.
The sound is so needy, and so raw that I immediately carry her back toward shore, never fully breaking the kiss as waves crash around my legs. She laughs softly against my mouth when I stumble through the sand, but her fingers stay tangled tightly in my hair the entire time.
When we reach the beach, I lower her carefully onto the pile of our discarded clothes, and as she pulls me back down to her, kissing me like she’s finally done being afraid, every thought in my head disappears except one—she’s finally mine.
“I need you,” she moans, grinding herself against my thigh.
I reach between her legs, her skin cold where I touch, and start rubbing slow circles.
“I thought about your tight pussy every single night,” I admit, pulling away from our kiss slightly to look into her beautiful eyes.
“Yeah?” she says in a moan. “What were you thinking of doing to it?”
My eyebrows lift in surprise because Kairi has never, ever asked me anything like that before. She bites her bottom lip, the corners of her mouth rising in a playful smile, and my insides turn to mush at the sight of it.
I slide my fingers through her slits, watching as her eyes flutter shut. “I thought about fingering you, until you came, then licking you clean.”
Her lips part, and I already feel her wetness seeping out.
“What else?”
“I thought about fucking you with my tongue util you couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Mmm, is that all?”
Fuck.
She’s turning me on far too much right now.
I chuckle, my eyes lighting up. “Mostly, I couldn’t stop thinking about fucking you so good that you wouldn’t know whether to beg me to stop or keep going.”
Her eyes flutter open, smoky and lust-filled. “So what are you waiting for, cowboy.”
And that’s all it takes for me to slide my throbbing hard cock into her tight cunt. She moans at the welcome intrusion, her nipples pebbling before my eyes. Oh god, I’ve missed the feel of her.
I rock into her slowly, allowing myself to enjoy her little whimpers and the way her thighs press firmer and firmer against my sides as she nears her first orgasm. It flows through her in waves, her moans slightly louder and her legs finally spreading wide so she can take all of me.
“I’ll never get tired of this, baby,” I groan before I pick up the pace.
I want to stay out and enjoy her all night, but she’s not exactly the quietest when she comes and we’re on a very public beach right now. All it takes is one person, on a late night walk to spot us and report us to the sheriff, and I refuse to bring that kind of embarrassment to Kairi.
Within a matter of minutes she’s coming again and I stifle her moans with my mouth, our tongues dancing, until I come too, filling her completely until my seed spills out of her. Kairi hides her face against my neck as she comes down from the high of it, her laughter soft and slightly embarrassed.
“I really hope we didn’t wake up Eliana or Maliah,” she whispers against my skin.
“Yeah,” I murmur, kissing the corner of her mouth. “They’d probably beat me up for fucking you on a public beach.”
She snorts, and the sound hits me straight in the chest because I missed the way she laughs with me. I brush another curl away from her face, my thumb tracing softly over her cheekbone while she looks up at me, studying me for a long while.
“Why’d you come back early?” she asks quietly.
Because I was starting to feel miserable without you, I think to myself. Because every time something good happened back home, I wanted to tell you about it first.
I don’t say any of that though. Instead, I lean down and kiss her slowly.
“I couldn’t stay away for long,” I admit against her lips.
She smiles that same smile that’s been wrecking me for months now. “I’m happy you’re back,” she says, softly.
I grin before I brush one last kiss against her forehead.
“Me too, darlin’.”