‘I know you’re in love with me.’ He said it so simply, so confidently. ‘You have been this whole time. You’ve just been too scared to admit it. So I’ll admit it for both of us.’ He tilted his head. ‘And although you’re probably going to run just now, I’m not letting you go this time.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means I’m coming after you.’
‘You’re . . . what?’
‘The biggest mistake I ever made was letting you walk away. But this time, that’s not going to happen. You can leave, you can go back to your normal life, but I promise you, I’ll be right behind you until you realise the truth. Maybe it’ll take a day, maybe a week, a month. But however long it takes, I’ll be there. Walking behind you until you admit what this is.’
I stared at him.
‘Whatweare,’ he said softly, ‘is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. And I’m not throwing it away again.’
He sighed and lay back in the water. So relaxed. So easy and confident. ‘Take your time, Lizzy. But not too long. I have this really large shower at home, which I haven’t really made the most of yet, and, well, I kind of have an idea what I can use it for.’
My mouth fell open, and I quickly tried to close it. I didn’t have a comeback for anything he was saying. The fight part of my brain had turned off. I was in freeze mode.
‘I wonder if we could do that in a bath too?’ he said, lifting his head and looking at me. He tilted it to the side and then nodded, as if I’d said something. ‘Yeah, maybe too confined.’
I shook my head. I hadn’t said that. Why was he acting like I was speaking when I wasn’t?
He sighed again, mock resigned. ‘Okay, fine, if you insist. We’ll try it in the bath.’
And then with this flourish, this undeniable confidence, the energy of a man who knew exactly what he wanted and was sure he was going to get it, he started making his way back to the shore. The water fell down his back like a waterfall, revealing all the hard lines of it. And that was when I saw them: the red marks on his back, criss-crossing lines from where I’d scraped my nails down him.
I’d marked him.
And he’d marked me too.
The question was, how deep did those marks go?
He stopped when he got to the shore, then turned around and looked at me again.
‘I’ll sleep on my boat tonight. You probably need some time to do a Vulcan meditation on everything I just said to you.’
I found myself nodding.
‘I’ll probably leave in the morning. I have a few things to do when I get back, some work things, but then I’ll see you.’
‘Where?’ I finally managed to speak. He smiled. Slow and sexy and mischievous.
‘I’m not telling you; that will ruin the surprise. But Iamcoming after you, that’s a promise.’ And then he turned and walked back up the beach, leaving me absolutely reeling.
I walked up the beach and didn’t look back. I didn’t need to. I knew she was probably still bobbing there, her brain scrambling for some sarcastic, witty retort. But she hadn’t been able to come up with one, and that was how I knew I’d got to her.
Because I knew Lizzy.
I knew how her mind worked. How she had to win. How she had to decide. You couldn’t force her to do anything, she wasn’t that kind of person. And if you did try, well that was when you landed up in a chokehold, moments from passing out. The more you pushed, the harder she pushed back.
So I’d learned to wait.
Even back then, there had been so many times I’d wanted to say something. Rush to her room in the middle of the night, bring my lips down to hers on the mat, grab her while in the middle of some mock-hostage scene and take her right there and then. But I also knew that if I’d said or done anything, she would have just pushed back. Her natural instinct was to disagree with everything, especially me. She always had to feel like she was the one in control. Winning.
Fine. She could have that. I didn’t need to win this round. I’d already won.
Because there was no way – no way – you could go through what we’d just been through and walk away untouched.
That thing in the shower? That wasn’t just sex. She knew that and I knew that.
