My forehead falls against his. I close my eyes, trembling. His words are so beautiful. I want to believe each and every one of them. I realize a part of me does. I can’t deny how much my life has changed since Dom entered it. Nora is right. So what if we don’t like the same music or movies, or have the same hobbies? Dom is quickly becoming my best friend. My hot best friend.
“What did you think?” he asks me, his fingers caressing the sensitive spot behind my knee in the water. “The first time we met.”
I decide to tell him the truth. “I felt painfully average looking, you know, in comparison.” That makes him chuckle. “You were hot, put together, and super intimidating. I also thought we had nothing in common.”
He slants his head, studying me. His eyelashes—dark and long and unfairly wasted on a boy—have little drops of water clinging on them, like fallen stars. “I hope that’s changed.”
I kiss him hard in response. We grind against each other in the ocean. The friction and waves lapping on my skin bring me close to the edge. My breasts feel heavy and tender against his body. He lowers his head, takes a nipple between his lips, and sucks on it. His hot tongue is on my ice-cold nipple. I moan, watching my fingers disappear inside his thick hair.
“I need to be inside you.” He drags his teeth along my nipple, making it even more sensitive.
I grab his hand, and we both make our way back to shore. I shimmy out of my soaked underwear and walk backward, hooking a finger and motioning for him to follow. He does, but he no longer looks like Prince Charming. Now he looks like the big bad wolf.
“Lynne.” Dom’s voice has an edge to it now. He is moving toward me, cornering me against a wooden fence. I feel so alive. Oxygen scorches its way to my lungs.
“Yeah?”
“I need a condom.”
“Not necessarily,” I say. “I got on the pill a year ago to control my cramps and breakout situation.”
“So you’re into dirty talk, huh?” He narrows his eyes. “You’re good at it.”
I let out a surprised laugh. “Oops. That’s the definition of TMI, isn’t it?”
He steps forward. I stumble back, liking this game. The chase.
“Nothing you say to me would be considered TMI. I want to know you better than you know yourself.”
Dom takes another step. My lower back bumps against the wooden fence. I’m breathless from giggling and swimming and kissing. Positively buzzed.
He boxes me in place, resting his hands on either side of me against the fence with surgical precision. His face is so close to mine I can taste his breath on my tongue. There’s nothing I want in this world more than to have sex with this man right now.
“I’m clean,” he croaks.
“Me too.”
“Are you . . . ?”
“A virgin?” I resist the urge to smile. “Sorry to disappoint, but no.”
“Just wanted to make sure. I’m not completely confident in my ability to be gentle right now.” He smiles sweetly. I reach for him between us, running my index finger along his shaft, stopping at the tip teasingly.
“Hmm, what do you know? Turns out you like me back.” I revisit our conversation in the witchery store all those weeks ago.
“Guilty as charged. I like you too much for my own good, Everlynne.”
Dom lowers me to a dune of sand, his mouth moving over my jaw, drifting lower. His tongue trails a hot line between my breasts and toward my navel. My fingers sink into his hair. We’re grainy and cold and drowning in this perfect moment.
He pries me open with his tongue, kissing me where I’m the neediest, where I ache for him. My legs fall open. I buck my hips forward, wanting more. He takes his time, licking leisurely, until I come undone, physically and emotionally, clutching his shoulders.
“Please, Dom.”
He lifts his body and slides into me without warning. Bare. Several seconds pass, but he doesn’t move inside me. I’m guessing he is giving me time to adjust. But then he starts kissing my face, and I realize to my horror that I’m crying.
“Sweet Lynne,” he whispers, capturing another tear between his lips. “I’m sorry the last few years have been hard for you. I’m here to change that. Trust me?”
Nodding yes in response, I kiss him back.
Maybe Dom does get me, because he knows I don’t want to stop. Instead of retreating, he starts driving into me harder and faster. It takes me a few moments to gather myself, but after a couple of thrusts, I begin to loosen up. To enjoy it.