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“I can. Our family has something very similar to it at our vacation home in Italy. Care to see what it can do?”
“Yes. Oh yes.”
“Then slide into the water. We’re going to have to swim out to the boat.”
I spin around in his arms. “Slide? Sliding is for babies.” I pull the glasses from my face, fold the bows down and grip them tightly in my hand before I kiss his chest and leap into the crystal blue at my feet. The water is so clear I can see all the way to the bottom and for several feet around me.
I bob for air, slicking my hair back as I watch him laugh at my cannonball-like skills. “You certainly know how to make an entrance.” With a wink and a smile that could melt any woman’s heart, he pencils into the water off the end of the dock. He pops up right next to me, quickly wrapping me in his arms as we tread water together.
The warmth of the sun and the bay that’s like bathwater envelops us. His right arm flexes and contracts around my waist, as his left hand tucks a few stray strands of my wet hair behind my ear. I swear I can see the pounding of his heart just below the surface of the skin on his neck. “I could stay here forever,” he tells me just before his lips part with an exhale, sealing over mine.
“Maybe we should,” I tell him. I mean it too. I don’t know who I am or who I’ve been since it’s just been us, but I like it.
“We have careers, Bella. I think we would be missed.”
“I know. Maybe we each need twins. They can live the work life and we can live this life.”
“I’d be too jealous of the other person who’d be with your clone.”
“Oh, you would? Are you possessive?”
“Not usually, no. You’ve made me reconsider my position.”
“Are you saying you want to possess me?” I place my hands on his chest and push back away from him.
“E possibile.” He smirks. I’ve heard a couple of the languages he speaks. Italian is by far my favorite.
“If you think it’s possible, you have to catch me first.” I push a wave of water over his face and start a race to the boat. His throaty laugh, even sputtering through water, is one of my new favorite things. I think I get a couple of body lengths ahead of him before I can hear his hands slicing through the water as he swims.
By the time I reach the ladder at the back of the boat, Rafael closes in. I make it to the captain’s chair before he binds me to his body with his arms. My laugh echoes all around us. I try to squirm to get away, but he’s too strong… and determined.
He places a suckling kiss on my left shoulder, drinking in the water drops formed on my skin and tasting me at the same time. Even in the heat, I’m shivering. He’s found a spot on the curve of my neck no one knew about, including me, that I can’t say no to. All the nerves fire at the same time. I can feel a gentle bite from just beneath my ear to the tips of my toes.
I pull my right arm free and arch it behind me so I can drag my nails down his neck. Rafael’s right hand draws up my left arm slowly, massaging every inch of skin he can feel. “How did I go so long without you?” he sighs. I giggle lightly and bow my head away. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No. You never do. That’s the point. You treat me like a princess and say things I would swear are not of this age. You’re overwhelming, but in a good way. I guess I’m not used to it.”
He gently guides my shoulder around so I’m now facing him chest to chest. Rafael’s finger sweeps the wet strands of hair away from my face, guiding them behind my back. “This man you were with. He didn’t treat you like this?”
“Nothing about us was like this. He wasn’t bad until the end. It was just…different. We were comfortable. We were friends. I know he did love me. He still does, just not in the way I need.”
“What do you need, Bella? Tell me.”
I contemplate his question. It’s the same question I’ve had for weeks since my shower-time revelation. “I don’t have a concrete answer.”
“Then let me ask it another way. How do you want to feel?”
“Like this. I want to feel like this. I want to feel warm. I like feeling this beautiful and desired. I love the feeling of being curious again. I want to know everything about you. We’re so different.”
“Different is good. It’s very good.”
“I need to ask you for something.”
“You need only ask and it will be yours,” he tells me.
“I want our time together to be equal. I don’t want it to be just about me feeling like this. I want you to relax like you intended, unplug like you intended. I don’t want to take away from that.”
Rafael leans in and places a kiss on my forehead. “I don’t think you have it in you to take, Ava. You give by simply existing. If you want me to ask for something, I have a request.”
