No one has ever touched me like this before. Some probably wanted to, but I never allowed anyone to get this close.
I hold him tighter, kiss his temple, breathing in the heavenly mix of jasmine and him.
I can’t name what we’re doing, but I want more of it, because when I’m with him, none of my mess means a thing.
He’s seen every part of me. The worst, the weird, the humiliating. And he’s still here, kissing me like I’m the only thing that matters.
SeaBreeze
Chapter thirty-four
Yosh
His index finger loops around my middle finger.
Right here in plain sight, where no one sees. It’s enough of a tease to make me ache. Too little to get caught.
The boulevard at Flamingo Beach is lined with palm trees on both sides. Their leaves rustle overhead, almost touching; close enough to feel each other, but the wind keeps them apart.
Tom tips his chin toward the sky, then glances at me. He sees art in those trees.
I think he wants us to be like them.
We’d spent the entire weekend in my pre-renovation house, or Villa Crumble Aparté, as he likes to call it.
Our days had been filled with all kinds of tiny discoveries. How he takes his tea. The way he kisses after. How quickly it starts to feel normal to have him around.
The nights were even more intimate. We lay tangled on beach towels, tasting, our hearts knocking against each other underneath the pale yellow moon.
Sometimes in bed. Sometimes on beach towels in the garden, pointing out constellations.
We learned the intimacy of skin in the dark, to match our breathing until it felt like there was no skin at all.
He told me about songs he never finished. How he could never find the right words for feelings like these.
I told him my ambition sometimes got the better of me, so I stayed late at work or hid in books to forget how lonely I felt.
He confessed he’d used sex with strangers to fill that void.
I admitted I’d done the same.
Then he said he loved how quiet it was in my garden of Eden.
I said I loved the sound of his laugh against my chest.
Sparkles had appeared in his eyes, fingernails digging into my arm like a content little cat. No words were needed after that, just the unstoppable hunger to kiss and the necessity of knowing we were sucking in the same air.
A drum in my chest is getting louder. Before it was his heartbeat, now it’s the bass of the music coming from the beach club.
We walk past the line outside SeaBreeze. Tom flashes his ID, security checks the guestlist, and waves us in.
SeaBreeze looks nothing like the minimalist beach club where I normally meet Erin and Laurent for dinner.
The DJ’s playing Afro-house at the ocean side of the infinity pool. Neon lights turn everything pink and yellow, dancers in tribal body paint twirling flaming rings in the air.
It feels like we’ve stepped onto another planet, and ironically, it’s exactly what I need to land back on earth. Erin hadn’t been kidding. Laurent and Calvin organized the party of the year.
“Sweet place.” Tom’s eyes fly over the crowd, he’s probably looking for Calvin.
