A smile spreads across his face as he shakes his head. “Finger-blasting?”
“That’s what it felt like, and it was glorious.”
He chuckles under his breath as his hands slip beneath mywet shirt, and he rubs soft circles against my lower back with his thumbs
“Being with you is easier than I would have expected. Easier than I’m comfortable with,” Landon says, that intense look returning to his face.
I swallow instinctively as my smile eases. “Yeah?” I rasp, my throat suddenly tight.
He nods and glances down at the water before looking back up at me. “If I’d met you at any other point in my life than now, I’d probably have run like hell in the other direction.”
“Why’s that?” I ask.
Landon rolls his lips together like he’s contemplating his answer. Eventually, though, he lets out a slow breath through his nose. “Because I would have known that you’d be the end of it.”
My brows pull together. “End of what?”
“Everything. Life as I knew it. Everything before you would be over, and there wouldn’t be life after you.”
My heart flips in my chest. There’s something so tender behind his words, so raw. It’s all blanketed with a layer of vulnerability, almost sorrow. Like our fate is so bleak.
I pull myself a little closer to him, pressing my body against his as I hold his gaze.
“What if there was no after me, only with me?”
He doesn’t react. In fact, he seems to almost stall out for a moment before he responds.
“Is that… something you would like?”
A small smile lifts my mouth as I raise my shoulders slightly. “Yeah, I think so. What about you?”
Landon nods. “Definitely.”
No other words can be spoken between us before his lips are on mine. My heart is beating out of my chest, and it feels like my body is soaring as he holds me close, our lips moving in perfect synchronization.
We drift through the water, and I can’t help but feel like we’re flying. Gliding through a euphoric, bliss-filled sky. One I hope we never have to come down from.
Out of all the words in the world that he could have picked, of course he picked the most perfect ones. Finding this connection with Landon is the most unexpected surprise of my life, but it’s one I’m growing more and more grateful for with each passing day.
Landon moves us through the water before he trips, dipping us both a little lower. I gasp in surprise as he attempts to regain his footing.
“Shit. Sorry. I don’t know what the fuck that was,” he says as he moves his feet around, his frown deepening by the second.
He lets go of my body, setting me a few feet to the side before he bends down, reaching for something at his feet before pulling it up out of the water. I lean in curiously, but once it emerges, my stomach free-falls and my eyes bulge out of my head.
I’m in shock. Clearly. Or I’m hallucinating because my brain cannot comprehend what my eyes are seeing.
“Is that…?”
“What the fuck?” Landon says as he looks at the severed head he’s holding by the hair.
This can’t be real. I have to be tripping or something. There’s just no way.
“Is that… Andrew?” I choke out.
“Christ!” Landon snaps as it officially sinks in for him.
He lets the pale head go and it plops into the water, a sound that has my skin crawling.
