The water is almost too warm, but my skin adjusts quickly to the temperature as I settle in. Jo places a hand on the edge, swinging one leg over first, and then the other. She sinks down, straddling me but still partially upright, both hands on either edge, and moans softly.
"This feels so good," she says.
She's talking about the water. I'm not inside her yet.
Jo leans forward, bracing herself with a palm pressed to my chest, and reaches down. She guides us together, and I feel the moment we connect. Eyes locked on mine, Jo sinks down all the way until there isn't a part of me that's not inside her. She has my body, yes, but my heart and soul too.
"I'm in love with you, Jo."
She moves up, then down, a hot breath hissing from clenched teeth. "I know."
My hands run over the dips and curves of her back, holding her upright. "How?"
She smiles, but it's fleeting, replaced by a look of pleasure as she sinks back down on me again.
"You bought a tub for me and filled it with hot water that you boiled yourself. If that's not love…" She trails off, because while she was talking I leaned forward and pulled her nipple into my mouth.
There's no more speaking after that. I grip her hips, helping her move. Water sways around us, wet heat lapping at our skin. Jo begins to tremble, her teeth gently sinking into my shoulder, and she cries out against me.
My back muscles clench, and Jo puts her lips to mine, kissing me so deeply that when I come, my groan fills her mouth.
She presses her forehead against mine, noses tip to tip, and we stay that way while our pulses slow.
I brush my lips across hers, featherlight, and when she says, "I'm in love with you, too," not only do I hear it, but I feel it.
Carefully, she lifts off me and turns around, settling between my legs. Her dry hair tickles my chest, and her wet hair fans out in the water on either side of us.
Her flattened palm skims the surface, and she asks me what I'm thinking.
"Right now, I'm pretty blown away." My fingers follow a path down both her arms. It's like a compulsion, this need to touch her. "It feels like I've been waiting forever for you."
Jo tips her head back and to the side so she can look at me. "I'm the one who has the market cornered on waiting forever."
"Hear me out," I argue, smiling down at her. "I've always felt like there was something more for me. Like a piece of me was missing. I couldn't find it at the HCC, or when I was spending time with my family. I've spent my whole life unsettled. Until you. Until Wildflower. Helping you here, listening to you talk about this ranch and your plan to help people, it makes me feel like I'm finally a part of something bigger. Bigger even than the HCC." All I can reach right now is her forehead, so that's where I plant my kiss. "And that is why it feels like I've been waiting forever for you."
"Fine," she huffs, pretending to be annoyed.
"So," I say, "You've been waiting forever for me, too?"
"Yes," she answers immediately, and I like how quickly the answer comes to her. "The difference is that I knew you were in the room. To you, I was only a bystander. A person on the periphery. An afterthought."
My knuckles run the length of her arms and I watch the water slide off my fingers and run over her. "I knew you were in the room." I always knew she was there. I also knew she was a hundred times too good for me.
She changes positions so she's facing forward again. "You most definitely did not."
I'm transfixed by her pointer finger, cutting a figure eight in the water, my mind busy recalling a very specific moment. "Senior year. Prom. You wore a light pink dress, and Ryan Ellington spilled a soda down your front."
Her head shakes against me. "That proves nothing. Most people in our graduating class remember that."
"Do most people know you bought that dress yourself with the money you earned from working at the Sierra?"
Her finger stills. "How do you know that?"
"I was shopping with my mom that day. I saw you pull cash from your pocket. There were so many small bills, and the cashier was obviously annoyed. She was sighing, like she had something better to do." I see her pinched expression, her judgmental stare. "Bitch," I add.
Jo's finger resumes the path it cuts through the water. "Such a bitch," she agrees.
"We left the store a few minutes after you. I told my mom I forgot something inside and went back in." I chuckle at the memory, causing Jo's head to follow the rise and fall of my chest. "I made sure the cashier was looking at me, then I knocked over a display. And walked out."
