Nineteen came up hard. I hung at the bottom, elbows just short of locked, and felt the shake starting in my shoulders.
He was still going.
Of course he wasstill going.
I could feel the bar moving with him, every rise and fall bringing him against me. He rose again, his leg dragging even more slowly between mine, before lowering himself back down.
“One more, Selena.”
His voice was quiet, but he might as well have been shouting.
As we hung there, he leaned in again, the warmth of his breath ghosting over my ear.
“I know you can give me one more, baby.”
Fuck me.
I gave him one more.
Twenty.
I held it at the top for a full second, chin over the bar, jaw set, close enough to him that I could see the small scar through his eyebrow, my legs shaking.
Then my grip gave.
I dropped and he dropped with me.
We landed at the same time, and neither of us moved away. His hands found my waist, sliding around to the small of my back. The beach had become very quiet as his lip ring caught the afternoon light, and I was thinking about…the plan.
Of course.
The plan.
I became aware, distantly, that Tanner had made himself scarce.
“How many did you get?”
What the fuck was I even asking?
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It absolutely?—”
“Twenty-five.” His hands didn’t drop. “You did twenty.”
“So you win.”
“I win.”
He whispered it, like winning wasn’t actually the point.
“So, what’s your prize?”
He looked me up and down again, and for a moment his eyes went entirely black.
Wait.
Even in Crescent Cove, that wasn’t really something that happened.
