Maybe Once, Maybe Twice(71)

“You remember? You remembered that today was his…” Asher trailed off, wide eyes taking me in.

There was pain and longing stuck in my throat as I opened my mouth.

“Everything about you is impossible to forget,” I said.

He tilted his head at me, his body inching closer to mine.

“Do you want to forget?” he asked in a soft voice.

I shook my head.

“Me, either,” he said, exhaling with his full body.

He stood above me with ocean water dripping down his parted lips, his arms at his sides, and his palms facing me. I was his, if I wanted. If I wanted to wrap myself around his body, I could. I stared at the shape of my figure reflected in his gold shades: a blue bikini tight against my wet body, long curls dripping water down my chest. I looked like a vintage photograph of myself, like I was alive inside a real dream, with my heart beating outside my chest. The waves broke over and over against our naked spines, but we didn’t dare move. I looked down at my shaking fingers—as if I was losing solid ground by not holding on to him. Asher swallowed hard and took the sunglasses off his face. His eyes were somehow both hungry and tender, and I watched them scan every line on my face.

I took a daring step toward him. We stood inches apart, his body shielding me from the incoming waves. I lifted my hand up to his cheek and ran my trembling finger over the tiny white scar across his chin. Asher’s eyes closed at my touch, with his mouth parting. I settled my hand around the back of his neck, holding on to warm, familiar, solid ground. I took one step forward, letting my racing chest pound against his. He kept his eyes closed for a moment, as if the wonder of our bodies pressed against each other was too much—as if it had overpowered his ability to activate his other senses.

The air thickened around us as the heat of our mouths exhaled onto each other, lips unmoving. I felt his chest rise against my heaving breasts as he opened his eyes onto mine. His hand moved up the curve of my neck, sending a pulse through my entire body. He knotted his fingers in the back of my wet curls, with eyes on my lips.

All I could do was pull his mouth onto mine. The taste of salt water on our lips disappeared over and under our hot tongues. We held each other tighter and tighter in the cold water, wet limbs throbbing against each other. Asher Reyes lit my shivering body up like fireworks in a rainstorm.

In some ways, it felt a lot like our first kiss. Instead of a dock above the lake, there was an ocean, but the fervor and the romance swirled inside me the same way. Kissing Asher Reyes felt like exhaling sparks from my lungs. It felt a lot like “I found you.” Except this time, I knew what it felt like to let go.

I didn’t want to let go.





36

THIRTY-FIVE




SOMETIME LATER, MY WET BACK slammed against the tapestried wall of the sunny pool house. The guest bedroom was stark white on cream, with a view of the ocean in front of us. I wanted to mess up the entire place with Asher by my side. He kissed me hard, and I kissed him back harder.

I clenched my hands around Asher’s drenched hair, tugging him closer as he throbbed against me. His lips left mine, and I opened my eyes to the ceiling as the warmth of his mouth went around my ear, sending a rush of heat down my spine. His lips found mine again as his fingers etched up my rib cage, stopping at my bikini top. He pulled his mouth off me, kissing the sand on my clavicle, kissing me until his mouth was over the thin fabric separating my breast from his lips. Asher tugged at my nipple through the cold, wet fabric, weakening my knees. I felt his hands untie the bikini behind my back, effortlessly sending it to the floor. Before I could catch my breath, his warm mouth found my breast, and he kissed me down my rib cage, to my hip bone, biting the inside of my thigh as I leaned back against the wall, gripping his hair with trembling hands. He looked up at me, pulling back slightly with his mouth near my bikini line.

“You’re shaking,” he said.

I admired my legs, which were shivering. All of me was. I wasn’t sure how long we had been out in the ocean, but it felt like we had kissed until our mouths were numb—and maybe we had kissed until my body was as well.

He slowly appeared at my face, with his hands on either side of my arms—cold wet skin against cold wet skin.

“Come here,” he said, against my chapped lips.

I exhaled as he clasped his fingers in mine and led my body to a stone fireplace in the corner of the bedroom. I watched him toggle with a smart pad on the wall. Suddenly, I blinked back a roaring fire, which seemed to melt the outside of my cold, wet skin—catching up with my insides. Asher pressed another button, and the thick, blackout shades closed, turning the harsh afternoon light into a midnight.

He ran his two strong hands against my arms, watching me thaw as the fire blazed in his amber eyes. It was the way he looked at me, from every angle, that warmed every blue inch of me. I set my palm on his thumping, wet torso, letting my nails run over the sun-kissed hair on his olive chest. I inched my hand down one side of the deep V line at the base of his stomach, and I kept going until my hand was under his swim trunks. I wrapped my fingers around his dick as he bit his lip, swallowing hard. I let my other hand tug against the elastic, and his eyes didn’t leave mine as he stepped out of his suit, with his throbbing dick hard inside my hand, and my naked chest pressed against him. His hand clenched around my waist, and his hot tongue filled up my open mouth.

We both crashed backward, bodies against a new wall: the warm fireplace tile. He grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand off him, pinning both my wrists above my head, holding them against the wall as he kissed me hard. He kept my hands above my body as his tongue found the curve of my neck, inching down around my breast, until he took my breast full into his mouth, with my nipple between his teeth, my body writhing in place. His lips continued downward, finding the fabric of my bikini. The heat of his mouth against my insides sent my throat to the ceiling in a moan, my back arching against the wall, my arms itching to go free. His hand let my wrists go as he dipped his finger inside me. I felt wet and hot against his touch, my heart racing faster. All at once, his fingers left my insides and he used them to pull the bikini bottoms off my body, leaving me fully naked, wet, and panting against the firelight. He kissed the inside of my thigh, and then looked up at me with a grin.