Chapter 41
He spins around toward the water’s edge, letting out a whoop, before running away from me in a flash.
My feet stay planted as time instantly stands still.
Remember every detail , I tell myself, knowing this moment will be a favorite to look back on long after it’s done. A memory I never knew I needed to have until it’s unfolding right here in front of me.
Watching the hardened muscles in each of his legs lengthen as he runs, propelling his lithe body toward a horizon of glistening waves. His tight ass disappearing into the dark. Thousands of miles away from anything that makes sense, from anything I ever thought I wanted. How did I get here? Running naked into the sea, with this unbelievably sexy, complicated man, under a moonlit sky.
Knowing simply, and with all my heart, that there is nowhere else in the world that I’d rather be. And no one else I’d rather be with.
When he dives head first into an oncoming wave, I take off next. Sprinting down the sand in his wake, my footprints smaller than his. The humidity in the air dampens my skin, making each nipple tighten up toward the stars as my breasts move freely while I run. Sand sinking beneath my feet with every step, arms pumping at my sides. I shriek into the midnight sky, the wildness in my own voice catching me by surprise.
Dom surfaces from under the water before I can make it past the blanket of waves. Spinning around, instantly taking me in. I catch his eyes grazing beneath my belly button, then shoot upward toward my breasts, before finally grinning, eyes locked into mine. Falling backward — like he can’t stand another second — into another oncoming wave.
I dive in head first just like I watched him do a moment ago, quieting the butterflies that quickly storm my stomach when the water shocks my skin. It’s all I can focus on. I gasp at the surface and shoot out of the wake, both feet sinking into the waterlogged sand beneath me.
Hopping back and forth, feeling weightless in the sea, I draw my knees up to warm my body, suspending my limbs beneath me in the salty water. Then I tilt, floating up on my back, and push my belly button up toward the sky filled with diamonds. Just like I was taught to do as a little girl. Filling my lungs with air, I close my eyes before letting them adjust to the familiar sting of the ocean. I don’t even care that I’m exposed, floating above the surface under such a perfectly beautiful sky. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters across the world, this far from home. Splaying my arms out to each side, like a starfish unfurling, I’m home. Untethered and free.
The gurgle of gentle waves rolls beneath me, tickling my ears on the surface of the water. It washes out the air, the sound. Just the muffled sea, and me.
“My God, you’re beautiful,” Dom says gently, over the sound of the ocean filling my ears.
I hadn’t noticed him come closer, but now I peek over at him with just one eye, watching him take me in. Feeling bold, and sexy. Uncharacteristically unmoored.
Dom makes me feel like few people ever have.
Like being beside him is the greatest adrenaline rush in the calmest moment.
It’s too soon, and maybe foolish to say, but I already can’t imagine another soul giving me that combination as long as I live. Safe yet unhinged, perfectly cradled, yet falling desperately into something new and exciting.
He clasps my hand in his. Then he scoops me up off the surface of the water, kissing me once again. Our bodies press together, his hands pushing back my hair, and I can feel his excitement growing between my legs.
“I’m on the pill, if you want to—” I whisper in his ear.
I part my legs for him, letting him know I’m okay to do this here, and now, if he is.
I feel him push into me, filling me again, like he did back in the kitchen, his body hot against mine. He buries his face in my neck, groaning. I feel weightless in his arms — he’s planted in the sand, becoming the anchor I need to push him deeper inside me.
He slowly starts moving, more carefully than he did back at the house with me pressed against the wall. He’s watching me in the moonlight this time, my breasts bobbing against the surface, our breath mingling between us. Gasping between kisses, watching each other’s eyes as they start to plead for a sweetened release.
“Fuck, you feel so fucking good.” He’s clenching his teeth. I watch his eyes burning, just an inch or two from mine, filled with the reflection of the moon in the waves. They churn into mine, daring me to come first. But I want to watch him this time. Want to watch a man like him lose his bearings on everything while he’s clenched deeply inside me.
“You feel like you were made for me,” I groan back. “You fill every part of me.”
His breath grows more ragged.
“I want to watch you lose control of everything when I make you come.”
His body starts to tense, his fingers digging into my waist. We move together faster as his breath starts to quicken.
“Fuck me harder,” I tell him. “Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”
I clench myself around him, swallowing his cock with throbbing pulses of my own.
His eyes close as his jaw locks into place, both of us tipping over the edge, stars bursting behind my eyelids, ripples of water fanning out from around us in a harsh rhythm, made from our bodies moving so fast together. Then he holds me in the waves, wrapped gently around me, in me, becoming a part of me, until I remember where I am again.
He kisses my forehead, then my lips.
“Come watch the stars with me,” I whisper when his mouth finds my neck, nipping and begging for more. “Float with me. I don’t want tonight to end.”
He kisses me once more, then lets me go. I tilt up onto my back again, cradled in the sea, watching him join me from the corner of my eye.
Our bodies rise and fall in line with each rolling hill of water gently spinning into shore. The ocean lulls us into a trance, rocking us gently in her sweet, rhythmic song. Black sky stretches above, moonlight shimmering off the water, bouncing light into the white plumeria blooms in the branches back on shore.
Our own little peaceful oasis, too beautiful to miss. I’ve never seen anything more enchanting.
I close my eyes again and squeeze Dom’s hand, lacing my fingers tightly between each one of his. My hair floats around me, tickling my cheeks, while water gurgles in my ears. Unable to recall another time or place I’ve ever felt so happy — so at peace — in all my life.