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I chuckle, bracing my hands on his shoulders while my feet keep kicking the water below me. “Don’t you know by now? Haven’t you asked yourself why I’m still here?”
He huffs out a strangled laugh. “I figured I was coming dangerously close to your stay limit.”
“Silly man.” I shake my head. “I don’t want to leave. I never want to. I’ve been waiting for weeks now for you to ask me to stay.”
His eyes warm to a rich shade of brown, almost gold. “You have?”
I nod, all of a sudden, I feel so light. So at peace with that reality. “I don’t need to run anymore. I’ve found you. I’m exactly where I want to be.”
Oliver sucks in a breath, then dives straight for my mouth, claiming me as if the world were about to end. “Say that again,” he growls against my mouth. “Tell me you’re mine.”
“I’m not leaving, Oli,” I pant, grasping him harder. “I’m yours. I’m yours.”
I tie my legs around his waist and feel him already hard between my thighs. His hands clamp on my ass, tugging me flush against his length, and I yelp when his tip teases my clit beneath the water.
“My perfect girl,” he whispers again and again into the crook of my neck, like a prayer to a higher power, and with one arm holding me to him, he swims us back to shore.
When his feet touch the ground again, he effortlessly rises out of the water with me still in his arms and sprawls us out on the blanket, soaking wet.
In the glow of the fire still burning on the beach, Oliver maneuvers me onto my side and leans over me, folding my upper leg to my chest. I want him so bad I can hardly think, and I could scream in relief when he finally pushes inside me in one long thrust, holding on to my hip like he might shatter into dust without an anchor point.
“Charlee, Christ, look at you. Look at you,” he groans as he pounds into me, hard and unyielding. “You’re fucking glowing for me.”
I understand exactly what he means, because the sight of him dripping with water that trickles down the muscles of his torso as if he’s been fucking me for hours, his wet hair in a wild mess, makes me lose my sanity. The last rays of sun dance behind him, and with the gleam of the fire and the reflection of the light on his glistening skin, he almost looks godly.
“You’re mine,” I gasp as he sinks deeper inside me. His hand grips the flesh of my thigh like a saddle handle, and I know that tomorrow morning, I’ll wake up to the mark of his fingers there.
“Again. Say that again.”
My inner walls grip him tighter. “You’re mine,” I moan, pressure building low in my belly. “You belong to me.”
“I’m yours, sweetheart. Mind, body, and soul.” Oliver thrusts into me a few more times before his orgasm tears through him and echoes in the young night, my name on his lips as he spills inside me. It’s enough to push me into my own abyss and make me see stars.
Oliver slumps against me and buries his head between my breasts, his chest heaving. “Welcome home, sweetheart.”
I burst into laughter, half-delirious from my lingering climax, and hold his face to my limp body, stroking his damp hair. “I love you.”
Neither of us moves. We lie naked under the stars, his head on my chest, my fingers in his hair, gazing up at the constellations. After a while, Oliver’s gentle breathing lulls me into my own slumber, so I close my eyes.
The perfect first date to start the perfect rest of our lives. Just like he promised.
Epilogue
EVERYWHERE, EVERYTHING
SIX MONTHS LATER
Charlee
“I’m gonna bring this to the car, and I’ll be right back,” Riley says, with a box full of glasses in her hands.
“Wait for me. I’ll bring my equipment too.” Avery grabs her camera and lens bags and meets Riley by the door.
I stack the rest of the cups, food, and bottles of champagne into the boxes on the kitchen counter. “I think we might need to take two cars to get there.”
“Josh and Miles drove with Lola’s car, so we can use your rental, Riley,” Avery says when they come back.
“Sounds good!” my sister yells as she walks out with another box in hand.
