Once she’s calmed down enough to stop shaking, she shoves her hand down the front of her dress, retrieving the yellow flag, a small, exhausted smile on her lips.
“How many did we get?”
Henry pulls out the red and green flags Marco and I got, and Tia waves the blue one.
Addie’s smile widens as she gathers them all, holding her hand out for me to tie them around her wrist like bracelets. “I get to keep you for another day.”
Can you keep me for the rest of your life?
TWENTY-SEVEN
Colt
THESERENITYTAKES TO THE OCEANonce everyone’s back onboard. The final stretch of the trip. This time tomorrow, Addie and I will be on the plane back to LA.
I take her to our suite, having carried her almost a mile on my back from the top of the hill. Cuts and bruises mark her dirt-stained legs. She’s got a small cut on her cheek where a branch must’ve struck her and she bit through her lip while crying on the bridge.
“I’ll draw you a bath,” I say, setting her on the plush couch, having to force myself to let go of her.
“It’s okay, I can do it. I’m sorry I freaked out like that.”
“Don’t apologize.” Crossing the room, I grab a bottle of bubbly from the cooler. “Just promise you won’t ever do that again.” I crouch by her legs, holding a flute out to her.
Her expression grows serious as she reaches her small hand to touch my face, ghosting the line of my jaw in great concentration. “You didn’t sound worried when you were telling me what to do, but you were... weren’t you?”
I lean into her touch, craving contact, forgetting everything I promised myself about taking things slow. “Never more. Those ropes... those planks...” I let all the air out of my lungs, finally understanding why my brothers are so shaky about anything concerning their girls or kids. When you care about someone, you never stop worrying, and today, I had every reason to worry. “I couldn’t risk walking across to you, but if you fell... I’d have followed.”
Her eyes widen a little, lips parting. “What? Why?”
“So I cold hold you in the best way to not hurt yourself too much.”
Her fingers weave in my hair, gently scraping my scalp. “That was a hundred-foot drop, no one could survive that.”
“You were scared, Addie,” I say, brushing a lone lock of hair over her ear. “It seemed worse than it was. Fifty feet tops.” I bring her hand to my lips, dragging my mouth over her knuckles, the restless anxiety inside ebbing away now that she’s safe, but the feelings that have been blooming since day one long for a way out. “I’d catch you,” I whisper, convinced it’s true no matter how irrational. “I’ll always catch you, baby.”
A small smile touches her eyes as she wiggles her hand free to cup my face and plants a soft, lingering kiss on my lips.
It’s not enough. I need more. I need everything. All of her... mine. Always mine.
Fuck taking things slow.
Fuck downplaying what’s happening between us.
There’s no way in heaven or hell I’ll let this girl go. No way I can keep acting like I’m not falling in love with her so fast my head spins. I run my tongue along her bottom lip then sink deeper, tasting her sweet mouth while my heart swells till I think it’ll burst through my chest.
She gives in, her delicate fingers cupping my face as I lift her off the couch and into my arms. Her legs wrap around my waist, and her thumbs brush the soft skin under my eyes, our lips working in a slow, heated rhythm.
It’s too soon to say it. I’d scare her off if I vocalized how much she means to me already, how I can’t fucking imagine not being around her, but gestures... that’s a different story. I can show her. I can make her feel the three words dancing at the tip of my tongue.
Those eight letters I’ve waited too long to say.
I drop her on the bed, following her down, and she wraps her arms round me, squeezing until there’s no space between us.
This isn’t about control, so when she tugs my t-shirt off, I help, then lift her dress over her head and dive lower, kissing a vertical line from her navel up the valley of her breasts.
A soft moan fills the air, roping me into her more.
The room’s too dark for my liking. I’d install stage reflectors all around to see every detail of her. Desperate for more skin-on-skin contact, I flip us over, propping my head on the pillows, Addie’s face an inch from mine. With one arm curved around her back, I drape her leg over my middle, pulling her half onto me, enough that her clit rests directly over my hard cock, still hidden in my pants. I bend her leg at the knee, giving myself easy access.
