“I don’t know,” he says. “Let’s just go.”
We end up outside in the botanical gardens that lead to the pool. “Two dates in one night?” I ask.
“Are we breaking records here?” he asks.
“I guess so.” I pull him ahead toward the other end of the pools, where I don’t usually spend much time. I guard the main pool, but we also have a lazy river that flows through waterfalls and between boulders covered in flowers.
“I spent some time in those floats this week. I don’t remember the last time I’ve spent so many consecutive hours relaxing. I think I’m lucky Aya enjoyed the floats as much as I did.”
“Did you see any action in the lover’s nook?” I ask him. It’s a joke, but the staff refers to it as lover’s nook because the flow of the river spits people out into this small area with a light waterfall. People think if they hide behind the streaming water, no one can see them. It can be entertaining.
“Lover’s nook?” he questions.
“Yeah, it’s right over here.” I step through the faux grass to lean over the edge, so I can show him. It’s nestled in between two of the boulders. “See it?”
“People don’t think they can be seen in there?” he asks, laughing.
“I guess not. We’ve all witnessed eye-burning sights at some point in time. I’ll just say that.”
“Hey, you better be careful leaning over the side like that. You’ve already had one mishap today,” he tells me.
“Thanks for the reminder,” I groan and run my finger over the butterfly bandage on my forehead. I almost forgot it was there.
I turn back around to move away from the edge, and my foot catches between two small rocks. When I pull my foot out, I slip backward, falling right into the water for a second time today. At least this time I didn’t hit my head. “Dammit. You jinxed me!” I shout as I get my head above water.
“Are you kidding me, Kai?” Denver asks with a look of shock. “Damn, girl. You’re going to make my hair turn gray before Aya has the chance to.”
“I’m fine,” I tell him. The words are just a repeat of what I was saying earlier when I had to be pulled out of the water.
I swim to the edge and wrap my hands around the side to pull myself up, but as I’m pushing off the wall, a cannonball-sized splash blinds me. “What are you doing?” I ask, gasping from the shock.
“Who cares,” he says, pulling me away from the wall. My heart is pounding so hard I’m having trouble catching my breath, but it isn’t because I swallowed water this time. “Close your eyes and hold your breath.” I don’t have a moment to argue as he drags me beneath the waterfall. I open my eyes when the pounding water eases into a fine mist. “This is why people think they’re hidden.”
“I can’t see a thing,” I tell him quietly. “It makes sense.”
“Everything makes sense,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and pushing my back against the wall. “Say okay, first.”
“Okay,” I exhale.
He lowers his head, meeting my gaze, then quirks his lips to one side. “Are you sure?”
I nod in agreement because I can’t speak. I can’t do anything except imagine what’s to come. He cups his hands around my cheeks and presses his forehead gently against mine, then softly brushes the side of my nose to his. Denver’s breath tickles my lips, and I loop my arms around his neck, squeezing tightly, needing to hold on like I’m about to freefall off the side of a cliff. His lips touch mine lightly as if testing the water, but with the pressure of his hands on my cheeks, the same sensation occurs between our mouths too. His lips part, taking mine hostage. I know now, kissing is a natural human instinct. It isn’t something learned, it’s something that happens when there’s a magnetizing force of nature pushing two people together into an unbreakable bond. I lose all sense of life around us, the mist from the waterfall disappears, and the light breeze is mixed with the heat of his body against mine.
It’s like a frenzy of escalating feelings and wants. I don’t want to be lonely or miss out on this anymore. I want to feel this over and over until I break down every wall I’ve built around my life.
The kiss is innocent, yet full of heat, and everything I never even imagined a kiss could be. I’m losing my breath, and he must be too as our mouths part. “That was life-changing,” he says.
I’m still holding onto his neck as if my life depends on him. “I don’t have words to describe what I’m feeling,” I tell him.
“I hope I didn’t let you down,” he says.
I look into his eyes, fighting the smile growing across my lips because it’s going to be hard to kiss again while I’m smiling, but I reach up and wrap my legs around his waist, feeling the falling water pound against my knees. I kiss him this time, inhaling his breath then holding it inside my lungs as if it would give me a high. I press my fingertips through his wet hair, and when I need air, I pull away shyly. I don’t know what came over me.
“You just skipped so many parts of the kissing game, I don’t even know what just happened,” he says.
“There’s a game?” I ask quietly.
“No, but I wasn’t expecting you to be so frisky.” His words mildly embarrass me, but I’m not ashamed. I obviously can’t control myself with him. I feel like he popped a cork that’s been holding in a lot of carbonation and angst. There’s no stopping whatever happens next. I’m already giving in and throwing my hands up with defeat.
