He swallows as he waits for me to finish my sentence, and now it’s my turn to be distracted by the long line of his throat. Finally, he prompts, “Like?”
“Well, to start, you can’t say things like that.”
He grins. “I can’t?”
“At least not if we can’t be alone somewhere later.”
He exhales, dropping his chin to his chest before straightening and stepping forward. Alec cages me in the shadows, against the side of the cliff. His body heat warms me all down my front, and I glance to the side. No one is paying any attention to us, but even so, I feel like we’re in a fishbowl.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
“Thinking.”
“You’re thinking very deep into my personal space.”
“Should I move?”
I lift my hand and rest it on his abdomen. “No. I like it when you invade my personal space.”
He tilts his face up, looking me in the eye. “I’m going to be honest.”
“Good. I like honest.”
“Very blunt, in fact.”
“Even better.” A bluff; my heart is halfway up my throat and out of my body right now.
He licks his lips, studying me. “I’m not a very casual person,” he admits quietly. “I’ve actually never slept with anyone outside of a long-term relationship before. I don’t think I’m very good at it.”
“Okay.” His admission is devastating. This would be so much easier if one of us knew how to navigate something light and temporary.
“I’m afraid I’m going to get attached if we spend another night together.”
He drags his focus from my mouth back up to my eyes.
This, I think. This is what it feels like to fall.
“Well,” I say carefully, “I’m okay with not spending the night together, if that’s what you need.” I reach up, tracing the line of his T-shirt along his collarbone. “But I’m pretty sure at this point it’s going to be hard for me when you go home no matter what we do. And I think it would be harder to know you’re here and not be able to see you than it would be to see you and have to remind myself what it means.”
“What it means, as in we agree it’s only this? Just these two weeks?”
“What else can it be?”
At this, he mumbles, “Right,” and bends, resting his lips on mine. My first instinct is to gently urge him away, to remind him where we are. But my stronger instinct is to lean forward, softening against him. He sends one arm around my waist, pulling me close. Even when he ends the kiss—we are in public, after all, and the beach is slowly filling—he holds me against his body, lifting my feet onto his in a chest-to-chest hug.
I drape my arms around his shoulders. “I thought we weren’t going to kiss outside today.”
“We’re hidden.”
“We aren’t at all hidden, you goober.”
He growls as he bends and pretends like he’ll take an enormous bite out of my neck. It turns into a tiny kiss, and then he whispers, “Maybe I could stay at your place tonight.”
“Really?” I pull back and grin at him.
“Really.”
Eight
With that sorted, I feel a certain amount of tension evaporate from the air around us. We leave our things and wander over to the rock shelf only a handful of yards away, watching the tide ebb, exposing the famous local tide pools. For the next hour, we clamber around the rocks, sharing every discovery: fluttery anemones, tiny rocklike barnacles, silvery fish, and coral. When the sun is high, we head back to our spot, spreading our towels out beneath the umbrella and staring at the unending cycle of waves.
He reaches over, pulling my hand into his lap, spinning the one ring I wear around my ring finger on my right hand. It’s a simple band of sapphires.
“Who’s this from?”
“My parents.”
“Pretty.” He touches my fingers, then turns my hand over, running the pad of his thumb over my wrist. “Birthstone?”
I nod. “September sixth. You?”
“April eighteenth.”
I do a double take. “It was your birthday the day we flew to LA?”
He nods, laughing. “I don’t usually make a big deal out of it. Sunny always goes overboard no matter what.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing you have a sister to make you celebrate yourself.”
He kisses my wrist before releasing my hand. “Do you ever wish you had siblings?”
I nod. “I used to a lot. Now I have Eden, and she’s like an irritating younger sister, even though she’s a couple years older than I am.”