It was too perfect, too good. The taste of reality she’d given me before we’d left the beach house had shaken my confidence, the reminder that our lives were waiting for us back home — West, her rules, her past. It was a reminder that I didn’t know how she felt, didn’t know what she wanted.
I didn’t know if I was ready to find out.
I wasn’t ready for the day to end, but it would. The clock would tick and tick until the seconds piled up and turned into minutes, into hours. And then it would be tomorrow.
I didn’t want tomorrow at all.
I hung on to the hope that I would be enough for her. That she’d take a chance on me. I knew she felt what I did. I just needed her to want to feel it. I needed her to say yes.
I wasn’t prepared for anything other than yes. I couldn’t fathom it. I couldn’t imagine a universe in which Maggie wasn’t sitting across from me looking like everything I’ve ever wanted.
If no was the answer, I’d keep trying because I couldn’t walk away from her. Especially not now.
We walked to the ice cream shop after dinner, eating our cones in my Porsche like the irresponsible youths that we were. I took her hand and towed her out of the house and down the trail to the ocean. Her shoes hung on her fingers with the moonlight in her hair, on her skin, in her eyes as we walked along the shore, letting the waves wash over our feet.
She held my hand, shifting her fingers against mine as if she were paying just as much attention to the places where we touched as she was anything else, which was a lot. Maggie just experienced life that way — she was an open vessel, pouring the world into herself as if she’d never fill up.
I pulled her to a stop on the beach, and she looked back, confused for only the blink of an eye before she smiled and stepped toward me, reaching up to cup my face and kiss me. She breathed me in, and I breathed her, our lips tender and insistent.
My arms were around her. Her body was against mine. My heart was in her hands, and I knew.
There would never be anyone else.
She smiled up at me, turning to walk away without breaking her gaze as she tossed her shoes up the beach and reached for the hem of her dress. Her fingers hooked under it, and she pulled it up over her hips, over her ribs, over her head. She had nothing else on.
I tossed my shoes in the direction of hers and tugged at my tie, unable to get my clothes off fast enough as I watched her step into the ocean in the moonlight. I followed her in, reaching her once she stopped past the breaks where it was calm.
She turned to face me, and I reached for her, slipped a hand around her waist and pulled until our bodies met, her soft skin against mine. Her legs wrapped around me, and as she dragged her hands through the water, a soft glow trailed through her fingers. She did it again, and we watched in wonder at the magic of it all. When she looked up at me, her eyes were too open, too much.
I love you. Don’t leave me.
But I couldn’t speak. Not with words. So I told her the story of my love with the rest of me. With my lips and my hands. With a touch and a sigh. I loved her, and I didn’t know if I could keep her. But I would try.
I would never stop trying.
I made the silent promise with the ocean in my ears and her arms around my neck. And when I slipped inside of her and took her mouth, took her body, I could feel her heart, feel her soul. I only hoped she could feel mine too.
Maggie
My face was buried in his neck, my body humming as he pulsed inside of me. We were wrapped in each other, cradled in each other’s arms in the moonlight, my body his completely.
My heart reached for him with every beat.
I closed my lips over the salty skin of his neck, eyes closed and heart open. The day had been a dream, but the night — the night had shown me something I hadn’t even realized I’d been hoping for. It gave me a glimpse into what it would be like to be with Cooper. What it would be like to love him. What it would be like if he loved me, too.
I didn’t want to let him go.
His hands slipped into my hair, his lips finding my shoulder, and I leaned back so I could see him. The shadows cast half of his face into the dark, his blue eyes so full of moonlight that they almost glowed. Those eyes were full of adoration. I knew mine said the same.
His eyes disappeared behind a flutter of dark lashes as he leaned forward to kiss me, a kiss full of devotion and quiet worship, and I gave him the same, this beautiful man who showed me what it meant to be cherished.
He carried me back to the shore, setting me down once we were waist deep. I took his hand and followed him out of the ocean to the pile of clothes we’d thrown on the beach, gathering them with smiles on our faces.
Neither of us spoke. We’d already said it all.
My thoughts circled as we walked up to the house. I’d denied him, denied myself the chance to be with him, and why? The reasons that seemed so concrete a few days before had dissipated like fog in the sunshine.
I wanted Cooper, and he wanted me. It was that simple.
We climbed the stairs to the back patio and made our way into the dark house. He paused to kiss my hair.
“Mmm,” I hummed. “I think I want to take a bath.”
His hand skimmed down my back. “I’ll make us a drink. Bourbon?”
“Yes, please.” I turned and slipped my hands up his chest to his jaw, pulling him down to kiss me once more.
When he broke away, he trailed his nose against the bridge of mine, and we breathed for just a moment before he smiled and turned for the kitchen, taking my breath with him.
I couldn’t stop smiling. Not as I dimmed the bathroom lights and ran the bath or as I sank into the steaming water. Definitely not when he came in, still naked, carrying a scotch for himself and a bourbon for me. I took it graciously and sighed, sinking a little further into the massive tub.
He smirked and moved to the shower.
“No bath for you?” I pouted.
That rogue corner of his crooked lips climbed a little higher. “You look so comfortable. Wouldn’t want to disturb you.” He opened the glass door and reached in to turn on the shower, taking a sip of his drink while he waited for the water to heat up.
My eyes roamed up and down his body. “Oh, it’d be no bother. Really.”
He laughed and set his drink on the counter before stepping into the steaming stream.
I sighed again, my chest so full of emotions that I felt as if I didn’t exhale, I’d cracked open and they would spill out.
I’d told him earlier that I wanted to wait to talk. I saw the hurt and fear flit behind his eyes when he’d agreed. But in the ocean, in the moment when we were as close as we’d ever been, I’d looked into his eyes, and I knew there was no going back. I didn’t want to lose the feeling. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to be with him.
I wanted to try.
The second I thought it, my heart and stomach switched places. Doubt flew through me as I worried I wasn’t ready, worried he would hurt me. But it was gone just as quickly.
When I looked beyond our past, the answer was clear. I wanted to be with him. Everything else was just details.
I watched him through the glass as he ran his hands through his hair, face upturned to the light, eyes closed as the water ran down his body. I’d cared for him all along, I realized. Since the very first night.
I’d used everything that had happened to me as an excuse because I was scared. But deep down, I knew Cooper wouldn’t hurt me. I’d always known.
He turned off the shower and grabbed a towel, and I watched as he took a moment to dry himself off, running the towel over his hair before wrapping it around his waist. The second he stepped out of the shower and his eyes met mine, he shot me that smile that made my uterus do flip-flops. My gaze wandered down his chest, coming to rest on his hips where the towel was wrapped around that V that pointed straight to the Promised Land.