I frantically scan the surface of the water looking for any sign of him. Then I spin around to find him just behind me.
“We made it,” he says, pulling me close and kissing me. “What a freaking rush!”
“What the hell is that?” Damian says.
“What’s what?”
Damian points at us. I look down in the water and see bubbles all around us.
“What the hell?” Aiden says too, scooping up a handful and examining them.
I start laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Aiden asks.
“I . . . have . . . bubbles . . .” I manage to choke out between laughs.
“Like, bubble bath?” Peyton says, trying to understand.
“Yeah, we took a bubble bath at my loft, and Aiden had that swimsuit on.”
“You took a bubble bath wearing a swimsuit?” Damian laughs. “There’s something just wrong with that.”
But Aiden and I don’t care. We can’t stop laughing.
Or kissing.
We make the long hike back to the top of the cliff, then drive to the nearest town, have fried fish at a shack on the beach, and head back to the house.
Totally did the deed.
2pm
Damian and I are lying in the sun while Peyton and Aiden are inside talking to their parents on the phone.
Damian squints at me. “You two are awfully tight today. You totally did the deed last night.”
I shake my head at him. “No,” I say, like the deed is the grossest thing ever.
“Something happened.”
I blush and look completely guilty.
“Tell me what happened,” he demands.
“Um, well, I touched it.”
“You touched what?”
“It. You know, his boy part.”
Damian snickers. “Seriously, Keats, you shouldn’t be touching it if you aren’t mature enough to say it. Besides, what’s the big deal?”
“Shut up. And it’s a big deal for us. I mean, I still haven’t actually seen it, but I kinda felt it.”
“Felt it, or did something to it?”
“Fine. I did something to it with my hand.”
“That would be called a hand job, Keats. Say it with me now. H-a-n-d J-o-b.”
I smack him. “I can say hand job. I just didn’t really want to. At least not in reference to Aiden.”
“He’s spent the weekend at your loft. He’s sleeping in your bed. Have you gotten naked with him?”
“Speaking of naked. I saw you and Peyton skinny-dipping last night.”
“Oh, that was fun. You should try it. And why haven’t you been naked? What are you waiting for?”
“You know why, Damian. Because it will just make it harder to say goodbye.”
He glances at Aiden, who’s beaming as he walks out of the great room doors, making his way down to the beach, spiked tropical smoothies in hand.
“The way he’s been grinning and all over you, I totally thought you guys fu—”
I cover my ears. “Don’t say it. Oh, God, I shouldn’t have touched it, should I? I’m totally leading him on. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“Now that sounds like more fun.”
“So, does the fact that you’re following Peyton around like she’s a piece of steak mean you haven’t yet?”
“I don’t want her to think this is just a hookup, so I’m trying to be good. But, damn, if she doesn’t have the most amazing mouth.”
“Like for kissing, you mean?”
Damian coughs. “For kissing something.”
“Oh. God. No. I don’t need that visual, please. You showed me yours when we were twelve and I still haven’t fully recovered.”
“It was so massive it scared you?”
“No, it was a disgusting limp-looking little thing. And I couldn’t possibly fathom how sex actually worked.”
Damian smiles. “So then I showed you that magazine.”
I cover my face with my hands. “Please make him stop,” I say to Aiden, who joins us, holding my drink out in front of me.
“Stop what?”
Damian smirks. “Why don’t you tell him what we were discussing, Keats? Peyton and I are going to kayak for a bit.”
When Peyton walks out of the house, Damian jumps up, kisses her in greeting, then grabs her hand and pulls her toward the boat.
Aiden puts his smoothie glass against mine. “This is really good. So, what were you talking about?”
“Seeing a, um, penis for the first time.”
“Is it an embarrassing story?”
“No, I just . . . it’s just hard to comprehend the mechanics of sex when you’re young and you see it in its, um, natural state.”
“Natural state? Like, out in the wild?”
“No, not in the wild. I saw a boy’s—” I wave my hand slowly across my body. “—in its natural state.”
“As opposed to its unnatural state?”
“Its, um, softer state,” I finally say, trying not to think about how his felt in my hand. How I wanted to rip those sliders off his body. Touch it. Feel it. Taste it.
He leans in. “You’re thinking about last night right now, aren’t you?”
I feel my cheeks turn red. Why am I such a prude about sex when it comes to Aiden? You’d think I’d never done it before. “I, uh . . .”
Aiden arches an eyebrow at me. “Maybe tonight you can see it in its, uh, unnatural state,” he says with a laugh as he kisses my cheek. “You’re adorable. What’s next on our list?”
“Swim with the dolphins. But that’s not going to happen.”
“Yeah, it is. We’re lucky when we’re together.”
“We’re not allowed to take the wave runners out if we’re drinking, but since we’re just going straight out there,” I point straight ahead of me, “and sitting, it will be okay. Are you sure you won’t be bored?”
“I’m never bored when I’m with you.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I laugh, grabbing my drink and heading to dock. I get the wave runner lowered off the dock and Aiden jumps on the seat behind me. I drive us straight out from the house where the water is deeper and turn off the engine. “So, we’ll just sit here and wait. The waves will float us back toward the shore, so if we haven’t seen any by that time, we’ll give up. Deal?”
“That’s fine with me,” he says, grabbing my waist, pulling me onto his lap, and kissing the back of my neck. “I’ll just do this. You can be on lookout.” He moves my ponytail off to one side and continues kissing my neck while his hands move up my stomach to caress my bikini top.
When his hand slides under my top, I laugh and say, “You’re going to scare them away.”
“Turn around so I can kiss you,” he tells me. Then he laughs. “Maybe I should untie these strings and toss your top in the water. I bet all the boy dolphins will come running.”
“I don’t think dolphins can run,” I reply teasingly as I stand up carefully then turn around and sit on his lap.
He immediately kisses me, muttering, “Much better,” into my lips.
Our kissing gets deeper, more intense, and I forget where I am and why I’m out here.
All I can focus on is his lips.
His tongue.
His hands roaming across my body.
The way my fingers feel in his hair. Across his back.
I grind myself into his lap with every kiss. With every suck.
My mind on one thing and one thing only.
All of a sudden, we get splashed.
I open my eyes quickly, worried that a boat came too close to us, but there are no boats around.
Then I hear a chirping noise behind me and a dolphin jumps up out of the water and does a flip, splashing us with water again.
“Oh my gosh!” I whisper to Aiden. “Did you just see that?”
“I think he’s showing off for you,” Aiden says. “He better not be trying to steal my girl.”
My breath catches, my stomach getting i
nstant butterflies, and my heart soaring. Because, his girl?
“Look,” he whispers, “there’s three more, right there.”
“And two more over here,” I whisper back.
“Don’t move,” he says, hugging me tighter.
“I’ve never been this close to one before.”
“Are you going to swim with them?”
“Oh, no. You’re not supposed to actually swim with wild dolphins. This is what I meant. Like being out here, seeing them, feeling like I’m part of it.”
One of the dolphins flies high out of the water with another one following him.
“It’s like they’re playing tag,” Aiden whispers, still holding me tightly on his lap. “They’re huge.”
We watch with wonder as they swim and play around us, but just as quickly as they came, they’re gone, swimming off into the distance.
My arms are still wrapped around Aiden’s neck, so I pull his adorable face closer to me. “You’re right. We are lucky together.”
We kiss a bit.
Okay, we kiss a lot.
Damian was right. Since last night, I can’t keep my hands—or my lips—off him. I’ve even stopped counting down the hours until he leaves. I’m just going to enjoy this.
Aiden pushes the pieces of my bangs that have fallen out of my ponytail and are blowing in the wind off my face, tucking them behind my ear.
“That was amazing.”
“You’re amazing, Aiden.”
He rubs his thumb across my cheek.
It’s a perfect moment.
Soft breeze, brilliant sun warm on our skin, beautiful scenery.
Every part of me wants to tell him. To say it out loud.
And, most of all, for him to know.
But I can’t.
I can’t do that to him.
So I say I love you, Aiden in my head.
“So, what’s next on the list?” he asks.
“Um, write our names in the sand, maybe. And we definitely we need to look for more seashells.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he says as I flip around, start the wave runner, and head back to shore.
When we get there, Damian waves at us from the beach, indicating that he wants me to bring it up on shore.
“Hey,” he says, walking out in the water. “The other wave runner won’t start. If you’re done with this one, I’m gonna take Peyton out and show her some of the island from the water.”
“Yeah, we’re done,” I say as Aiden and I hop off. “Did you see the dolphins that were swimming all around us?”
“No, we were, uh, in the house.”
“I thought you were kayaking?” Aiden asks.
“Oh, we were, but we came back in as soon as you went out.”
“So what were you doing inside?” Aiden asks them.
“Uh, relaxing,” Damian answers as Peyton says, “Watching TV.”
Aiden squints his eyes. “Which one was it?”
“I watched TV while he relaxed,” Peyton says smoothly.
Aiden grabs her by the elbow and pulls her aside. I’m pretty sure he’s chewing her out and she’s telling him to mind his own business.
She marches away from him and pulls Damian out toward the water.
Aiden’s scowling toward them, so I walk up to him and say, “She’s having fun.”
“She’s acting like she loves him already. They just freaking met.”
“She told me it was love at first sight.”
Aiden nods. “She told me that too.”
“And do you believe in it?”
“Yes, of course I do.”
“Then you understand why she needs to see it through.”
Aiden nods solemnly then grabs my hand. “Come on, we have some things to do.”
“Like what?”
He runs down the beach along the water’s edge, dragging me with him. Then he grabs me around the waist, lifts me off my feet, and kisses me.
And kisses me.
I feel like I’m starring in an amazing beach-set love story.
I don’t want this day to ever end.
“This looks like the perfect spot,” Aiden says, setting me down in the sand, but not letting me go. “Remember that bracelet you had on the day of the Gods of the Olympics competition? You had love written on your arm.”
“I remember.”
“Close your eyes and don’t move.”
A few moments later, he comes up from behind me, wraps his arms around my waist, and whispers, “Open.”
I open my eyes and look at the sand in front of me.
“Love in the sand,” he says. “I put it higher on the beach so the water wouldn’t wash it away.”
I want to cry. “The water always washes it away,” I tell him.
“Maybe the words, but not the feelings.” He spins me out of his arms in a dance move and says, “Go write your name.”
I move a little ways down the beach, fighting back tears, and wondering if he could be right.
I find a stick and use it to draw all sorts of doodles in the sand. Hearts, flowers, swirls, a castle, a frog, a wand, lips, stars, a moon, a rock, waves, a surfboard, the chaos symbol, fireworks, a soccer ball, pompoms, a four-leaf clover, and then, in big, bold, capital letters, KEATYN.
Aiden says, “I wish I had my phone to take a picture. That’s, like, a work of art.” He studies it more closely. “Is that the story of your life?”
“What?”
“Oh, it just looks like you drew all the things you love.”
I study my sand doodles more closely, realizing he might be right. I smile at him. “I was just messing around, drawing random things, but they are all things I love.”
He points over at his name written in the sand. Just a simple Aiden. “Mine looks pretty lame in comparison.”
“Actually, yours looks perfect,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “It says everything about you.”
“That I’m boring?”
“No, that you don’t need any embellishments to make you stand out. You just do.”
He gives me a hug and kisses my forehead. “I saw some shells down here by the waterline. Want to gather some up?”
“Yeah, let’s do that and then we’ll go make necklaces!”
We gather shells, filling his board shorts’ pockets with them.
When we get closer to the cabana, I stick my tongue out, splash him, and then run down the beach screaming, “Bet you can’t catch me!”
Oh course, I’m not as fast as him and two seconds later, he grabs me from behind.
I deftly spin out of his grip, kick water at him, then land in a karate stance, and go, “Ka-cha!”
“Oh, you’re gonna fight me?” he says with a laugh.
“Unless you’re a chicken,” I reply, kicking more water at him.
He makes one fluid leap and tackles me straight into the water.
I was totally not prepared for it and come up laughing. “What the hell was that? That wasn’t even fair!”
He rolls me over and pins me on the sand underneath him. “Maybe I’m tired of playing fair.”
I lean up like I’m going to kiss him, but instead elbow him in the ribs and slip away.
Almost.
He grabs my legs, pulls me back underneath him, and pins my arms above my head.
Truth be told, I totally could’ve gotten away if I wanted to. I’ve learned a lot from Cooper. But when he leans down to kiss me, I’m really glad I didn’t.
The waves rush up over our feet and legs, the cool water doing nothing to quench the fire inside me. I don’t even care that my hair is probably getting caked with wet, nasty sand.
Because when Aiden kisses me, I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks.
A ding dong ditcher.
7:30pm
We collect some more shells, watch the sun slide below the horizon, and then sort through our shells, deciding which ones will work best for our jewelry.
“Come on. We’ll go in
the toy shed to make them. There are tools in there.”
“We gonna hammer, nail, and screw?”
“Actually, we’ll use a drill.”
“Drilling sounds like fun,” he says with a naughty smirk.
As I clean the shells off with bleach, I say, “You know, you’ve become a tease.”
“I’m a tease?” he asks, pointing to himself.
“Yeah, you’re a ding dong ditcher.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Think about it. You act like you want in my house. You keep ringing the doorbell, but when I come to open the door, you’re gone. You’re totally a tease.”
He puts his forehead against mine. “I told you I won’t run away.”
“Honestly, Aiden, if you were smart,” I say, seriously, “you’d run far away from me.”
He tenderly touches my cheek. “My dad says love makes you do stupid things.”
I want so badly to say, Love? And for him to answer, Yes, Boots, I love you. But I can’t bear to hear it, so I let out a nervous chuckle. “That’s true. I think all of us have done some pretty stupid things in the name of love. So, back to these shells,” I say, patting them dry. “Next, we’ll drill them. Here are the little shells we picked for you. Do you want to have a single shell or a whole row of them?”
He slides the most perfect teeny pink seashell out of the pile and touches my four-leaf clover necklace. “Can I have this?”
He doesn’t wait for an answer; he reaches his arms around my neck and unclasps it.
He lays the shell on a piece of felt, drills a hole in the top of it, adds a little metal circle to turn it into a charm, and then slides it onto my necklace with the clover.
He puts it back on me, and I look in the mirror. The clover nestles perfectly on top of the shell.
I hold the charms in my hand. “I love it.”
“You know, they say the moon controls the tides. So now you'll have both luck and the tides of fate on your side.”
I smile at him as he pushes me up against the workbench and flirts. “Which means you're about to get very lucky.”
His lips land hard on mine, his tongue sliding into my mouth, and controlling the tides of desire that roll through my body.
The Keatyn Chronicles: Adore Me Page 10
