“When did you start coming back?”
“After I got home from my last deployment.” I swallow against the tightness in my throat. “I was in a bad place. Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t breathe in enclosed spaces. Couldn’t stop seeing—” I cut myself off. “I came here because I didn’t know where else to go. I sat on that shore, and I swear I could feel her. Like she was telling me it was okay to fall apart, as long as I put myself back together after.”
Delaney’s hand tightens on my shoulder. She doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t offer platitudes or empty comfort. Just holds on.
“I’ve never brought anyone here before,” I tell her. “Not my brothers. Not my dad. No one.”
“Why me?”
The question is barely a whisper.
“Because you’re the first person who’s made me want to share it.” I stop moving, cupping her face in my hands so she has to look at me. “This place is where I come to remember who I am. And I want you to be part of that. I want you to be part of everything.”
Her breath catches. Her eyes go bright with something that looks like tears.
“Daniel—”
“I know it’s fast. I know we’re doing this backward and sideways and probably wrong by everyone else’s standards.” My thumb traces her cheekbone. “But I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. You’re it for me, Delaney. You’re the one I want standing next to me when everything goes to hell. You’re the one I want to wake up to when the sun comes up. You’re?—”
She kisses me.
It’s not soft. It’s not tentative. It’s the kind of kiss that saysI hear youandI feel it tooandstop talking and show me. Her fingers fist in my hair, pulling me closer, and the slow dance becomes something else entirely.
Heat. Want. The electricity that’s been building between us for weeks finally catching fire.
I walk her backward toward the blanket without breaking the kiss, my hands sliding down her sides, learning the curves I’ve been dreaming about. She tugs at my swim trunks before we even hit the ground, and I love her impatience, love that she wants this as badly as I do.
“Slow down.” I catch her wrists, pinning them gently above her head as I lower her onto the blanket. “I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. I’m not rushing it.”
“Daniel—”
“I’m going to take my time with you.” I drag my mouth down her throat, feeling her pulse hammer against my lips. “Going to learn every inch of this body. Going to make you come so many times you forget your own name.” I bite down gently on her collarbone, and she gasps. “And then I’m going to bury myself so deep inside you that you feel me for days.”
Her whole body shudders. “God?—”
“Not God, sweetheart.” I peel the wet swimsuit strap off her shoulder, pressing my lips to the skin beneath. “Just me.”
I take my time unwrapping her. That’s what it feels like—unwrapping a gift I’ve been waiting my whole life to open. Every inch of skin I reveal gets my full attention. The freckle on her collarbone that I’ve been wanting to taste. The soft curve of her breasts, nipples already peaked and begging for my mouth. The scar on her hip that she’s never explained. I kiss it without asking because her past is part of her, and I want all of it.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” I drag my tongue across one nipple, slow and deliberate, and watch her back arch off the blanket. “Been dreaming about these tits. About getting my mouth on them while you make those sounds.”
“What sounds?”
I suck her nipple into my mouth, hard, and she moans—a broken, desperate noise that goes straight to my cock.
“Those sounds.”
I work my way down her body, kissing and licking and biting, mapping every response. She’s writhing by the time I reach her hips, her fingers clutching at my shoulders like she needs something to hold on to.
“Daniel, please?—”
“Please, what?” I press a kiss to her inner thigh, so close to where she wants me but not quite there. “Tell me what you need.”
“You know what I need.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
She makes a frustrated sound that’s half growl, half whimper. “I need your mouth on me. I need you to stop teasing and?—”
