EMERGING FROM A VAT OF SYRUP
NICK
It was hard as shit to keep the surprise to myself.
And Tallulah was so excited. She kept throwing me looks, egging me on to reveal it. When we met the break in the trees, Tallulah whirled around on her sneakers.
“A waterfall!” she exclaimed.
A waterfall so remote, it was labeled with numbers and letters on the map. Nobody came out here. It was difficult to get to, and the waterfall itself wasn’t that tall. It’d never land a spot on a post card. But it was gorgeous and worth the hike.
I’d hit up Gordo’s running group for any secret places and this one had everything I wanted.
“It’s a real-life waterfall!” Tallulah turned to me, cheeks flushed. “What—what are you doing?”
I pulled my shirt over my head. “It’s hot. We’re swimming.”
“We are?”
I led her to the pebbled beach. The waterfall cascaded into a pool I’d been assured was deep enough to swim in. “Yes, we are.”
“I didn’t bring a swimsuit?”
“Hm…” I took her backpack to set our supplies aside, bending down to bite her exposed bra strap. “Feels like a swimsuit to me.”
I kicked off my shorts, leaving only my boxers.
Tallulah had the cutest shy smile as I pulled off her clothes.
Only her bra and panties remained. Her copper-brown skin was always gorgeous, but with the sweat gleaming, the blush in her cheeks, she was perfect.
I tugged at her dark braid, eyes wandering over her body.
I wanted to see her dripping wet.
I scooped her up, throwing her over my shoulder. “Let’s go—”
“What are you doing?! Nick!”
“Dunking you in—”
“What?! No!”
“No?”
Tallulah was no match for me. She squirmed in my arms, and that didn’t do anything but get me hard. I smacked her ass, bringing her up to a rocky outcropping, the perfect leap off point into the water.
“Nick, put me down!”
I peered into the water. It was so deep, I could barely see the bottom. “Hold your breath!”
“CELIBATE!”
Our safe word rocketed out of her and I froze, setting her down instantly. Tallulah scrambled away from the edge, breathing hard.
I grinned. “Chicken shit.”
Tallulah stuck her tongue out at me, still panting.
“Told you you’d need a safe word,” I taunted.
“Yeah?” She blew a few loose strands from her eyes. “You’re not upset that I used it?”
“Nope. If it means you’re comfortable with a safe word, I’m happy.”
“Well…don’t you want to use it?”
I arched an eyebrow, confused by the question. What was she talking about?
Tallulah rushed forward, hands out, and my stomach dropped. She shoved me, and I flew through the air with no time to react, crashing into the water. It was such a fucking rush—I bobbed in the pool, sputtering in surprise.
Tallulah laughed so hard, she bent over, grabbing her sides.
“Tallulah!” I belted, swimming broad strokes to the shore. “You better fucking run!”
She squealed, hightailing across the grass. I leaped from the pebbled bank, arms pumping at my sides, racing to her. She glanced over her shoulder and screamed in laughter. It was no contest. I had her in six seconds, wrapping an arm around her waist, dragging her back.
“Shit, shit, shit!” she yelled.
I brought her to where the deep water met the shore and plunged her in with me, dousing us in the pool. Tallulah emerged, sputtering and laughing, splashing me.
I splashed her back. “How could you do that to me?”
“It was so easy,” she giggled.
Her dark hair was plastered to her face, water dripped down her cheeks. She was gorgeous. So fucking pretty.
I crashed my lips to hers, curving her body against mine. Her arms slipped around my neck, and she deepened the kiss, stroking my tongue with hers.
A shiver ran up my spine. It was so fucking good.
I laid her on the pebbled shore, kissing her harder. It wasn’t sex, this was just fun. Grinding into her, slow, lazy humping, we kissed, tongues overlapping, tasting each other.
“So…you carried those books…” she breathed out.
“Right,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. “Books.”
I wanted to read the book for her, but every time I had the opportunity, Tomasini had some bullshit for me to do, or I was with Tallulah, and I didn’t want to waste the time by reading.
I took my last kiss, making it count. With a sigh, I pulled back. If it made Tallulah happy, I’d read for her.
We set up our blanket beside the waterfall. I had about thirty seconds of a conversation with her before Tallulah disappeared into her book, head resting against her backpack, sandwich in hand. It was pretty funny to watch. She’d take a bite, eyes unmoving from the page.
Wordlessly, she set aside the sandwich and picked up my book, pushing it to my chest.
“Okay, okay,” I sighed, laying my head on her stomach. “I’m reading.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I thumbed through the pages. There were a lot of them. More than a hundred. “What’s this book about?”
I turned it to read the back and Tallulah spun it around, still deep in her book. “Don’t spoil it.”
“Don’t spoil it?”
“No. Just read.”
I sighed, opening the first page. “Can I suck on your tits while I read?”
“No.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Reading is a silent endeavor,” she reminded me. “I’m sure if you put all of your concentration into it, you too could be silent.”
I blew out a long breath. It’d been years since I’d read a book. My barely-average grades reflected that. Ugh, but this was for Tallulah. How bad could it be?
I finally started reading, moving my finger under each line. It took me two paragraphs to realize why Tallulah picked this out for me. I snorted. “It’s a hiking book.”
“Mm-hmm. Keep reading.”
“What is this, a memoir?”
“Keep reading.”
I kept reading. It was about a group of four brothers on a hike together to scatter their father’s ashes. They needed a tour guide to go into the forest. I rolled my eyes. Tour guide.
The brothers got into a fight, and I was so engrossed, I didn’t realize the tour guide was missing until one of them pointed it out.
“What the fuck?” I mumbled.
“Hm?”
“The tour guide…?” I trailed off, my finger quickly crossing the page. “The tour guide disappeared.”
“Did he?”
“Yeah…?”
The brothers found blood splattered across the rocks. I stared at the page, my confusion growing by the second. The tour guide had been a main character. They talked about that dude’s wife. Where was he? Dead? Alive? What happened? What the fuck was the author thinking?
Tallulah’s fingers played through my hair. “How’s the book?”
It was like emerging from a vat of syrup. I stared at a sky that didn’t make sense. Why was the sun beating overhead? Why was I so sweaty?
“Holy shit,” I muttered. “How long have we been here?”
“I don’t know. An hour? Hour and a half?”
“Are you serious?”
“So, you like the book?”
“Dude, this book is insane.” I ripped out a few blades of grass to act as a bookmark, saving my place. “The tour guide’s gone, and they keep hearing this bear’s growl in the woods, and they spotted another hiker, and he disappeared, and—”
Tallulah’s smile was smug from ear to ear. “Mm-hmm.”
“What?”
“Told you you’d like it.”
I rolled my eyes, a flush creeping up my neck. “Whatever.”
“I told you that you’d like it. And you didn’t believe me.”
“Whatever.”
She burst into laughter, leaning down to kiss my forehead, and the flush morphed into a full blush, my skin hot. She smiled, her voice a teasing whisper. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
“Thank you for coming,” I murmured.
Her fingers played through my hair. “This isn’t how the date was supposed to go.”
“No?” I asked, leaning into her touch.
“Why didn’t you let me…?”
“It’s hard to plan stuff around my schedule.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I would’ve worked around it. I kind of…had something planned for your date already.”
“Yeah?” I grinned. “You have a favorite hiking destination?”
“Mm…you know my family has the Luxury Air miles thing. We could fly literally anywhere for free.”
“You want to hike the largest stack of books or something?”
“No…” Tallulah almost seemed nervous. “I was sort of wondering if you wanted to…go to Japan with me?”
I pushed up on my elbow, taken aback. “Huh?”
“Um, August and September are kind of busy on the rez, we’re going back to school, and you have hockey, but I figured out this five-day period where we could…”
“I—” I struggled to say anything at all. “I—uh—”
“The flights are free, which would’ve been the biggest expense,” she said quickly. “And you want to go on a trip with a girl, that’s on your bucket list too. It’d be a two for one.”
“You…you want to go to Japan with me?”
I was touched. Over the top touched, like Tallulah had kissed my soul. What could I say? My throat tightened, I was without words. This was what it was like to have someone who wanted to understand you and help you understand yourself.
“I know you don’t know anyone there,” Tallulah said quietly. “I’m sure you’d rather go with your family, but you said your brothers don’t care about visiting Japan, and…I thought it’d be fun…”
“No,” I said, my voice rough to my ears. “I—I want to go with you.”
Her soft brown eyes were on mine. “Really?”
“Yeah. I really do.”
My stomach was a mess, sick in a good way. Not only because of the trip, but the implications, the timing.
“That’s after we leave Toronto…” I said, watching her expression.
“It is…” she said carefully.
We were inches away from each other. The sounds of the waterfall basking in the silence between us. I didn’t want to push too hard. I didn’t want to ruin this.
“I was thinking—wondering—if maybe you want to keep this going at Marrs?” she whispered.
My heart soared in my chest. I was nodding before she finished the question. “Yes—yeah.”
“I know it’s not what we agreed upon—”
“That’s fine—”
“I thought maybe—”
“We’ll keep it going,” I interrupted before her anxious spiral could begin. I fought to keep my tone level. “The two of us—yeah.”
“I don’t want to sleep with anyone else,” she admitted, music to my ears.
“Me either,” I breathed out.
“Um, so, we both know this has to be secret—”