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Chapter Fifteen
I opened my mouth to shout her name, but nothing came. When I got closer, I noticed she was shaking, her bare shoulders covered in cascading drops of rain. Lizzie crossed her arms, holding herself together, and when I stood feet away from her, my mouth wide and eyes full of everything I felt, I watched tears join the drops of rain trickling along her cheeks.
“I don’t care, Noah,” she yelled through the storm, no other greeting given.
“About what?” I wanted to scream but couldn’t. In fact, my heart stopped speaking to me. It felt Lizzie’s and left my sleeve, leaping across the sand to nestle next to hers.
Lizzie stood in front of me, and it took everything not to touch her. My wet fingertips twitched with the need to hold her, to feel the softness of her delicate skin beneath the pads of my fingers. I waited for the next boom of thunder to rip open the sky before trying to reach for her. Her muscles soften under my hands, and mine did too…like we’d been desperate for the fix. I knew I was. The last week alone was running rampant through my brain, like a disease I couldn’t cure…until she spoke again.
“I’ll be there for you. I’ll do whatever you want me to do when your baby comes. I don’t care that it isn’t with me, that it’s with your ex. I just care about you.” I listened to her, walking as close as I could to Lizzie without hugging her. In the rain, I could smell how sweet she tasted, the strawberry of her lip gloss, the coconut in her shampoo, the vanilla in her perfume.
I couldn’t handle it anymore. I glided my hands up her arms, over the curve of her shoulders, and along her neck, stopping only when her face was in my hands, and I lowered my mouth to hers. Rain dripped along our skin, pooling between our lips while competing with us. Lizzie’s tongue demanded more from mine than ever, savoring every taste it could master while licking and twisting with mine. Her lips were softened with the rain, and neither of us cared about the storm in our periphery. Every burst of thunder challenged us, the lightning invigorating us with our own electricity.
“I’m sorry, mermaid,” she uttered, her voice cracking as her lips left mine. We stared at each other, green flicking between blue in the storm.
My ribs struggled to contain my heart as it rattled out of control. Lizzie must have felt it because she smiled at me before binding her wet fingers to my face and softly tugging on my bottom lip with her thumb. I followed every movement with my stare, unable to move under her control. Her fingertips pressed against my lip, unmoving and gentle, while Lizzie’s lost eyes flickered between mine.
“I’m so sorry,” she repeated. “I shouldn’t have left you. We’re not like everyone else, Noah. We can get through anything, and I—”
“You’re not like anyone else, Lizzie,” I interrupted, finally finding my words. “We’re not like anyone else.” Her gaze fell to my lips again, watching the mindless way her thumb glided across my bottom lip. I’m going to bite that finger. I rolled my lip in, taking her thumb with before lifting my hands to hold her head and kissing her again. And again. And again.
“You’re going to get electrocuted out here,” I whispered, a smile in my voice.
“Good thing my boyfriend can save my life.” She laughed, a sound I’d waited too long to hear.
I grinned at her, our wet foreheads pressing together as she shivered against me. “You saved mine too, Lizzie.”
She smiled at me and pressed her face to my chest, the heat of her breath against my body amplified with our saturation. Lizzie’s hands spread against my shirt while she spoke. “Can you walk me home? There’s something I need to show you.”
I pressed my lips against her forehead. “We need to talk.” She nodded, letting her hands fall from my chest. I searched for them, hopeful when the subtle caress of our fingertips gave us a chance to intertwine our hold.
I wanted her back so badly, I didn’t care about what happened when we were apart. Maybe that was foolish, reckless even, but that’s the thing about love. Sometimes, nothing else matters. It took her text about the stars to make me forget, but I knew we needed to talk. I dropped a bomb, Lizzie left, and neither of us had a chance to discuss why.
“Why didn’t you answer my calls and texts?” I pressed while we stood under the overhang of the boathouse. “I tried to talk to you. I tried to explain. You shut me out, Lizzie. You ran.” Oh, dammit. Foot, meet mouth, stay there…with my heart, because I just ruined the moment. Her hold around my fingers tightened, both of her hands squeezing mine.
“I don’t run from conflict, but what was I supposed to do? Tell you I was happy you and your ex were having a kid, a kid that’s been growing since we met?”
“Hell no,” I shouted, shaking my head as I interrupted her. “You were supposed to stay with me.” Lizzie turned to lean against the wall, our hands still locked as her eyes rolled up to mine. “Stay with me, Lizzie,” I pleaded, closing my eyes when her left hand lifted to hold my jaw.
“I will,” she whispered, standing on her tiptoes to kiss me. Her body pressed into me, and I almost lost it, held together by fraying threads of hope left for Lizzie. “Walk me home,” she breathed against my neck, her teeth grazing my skin.
The thunder crackling above us, the pulse of lightning flashing in our periphery, echoed just how I felt. With a growl I barely restrained, I tore Lizzie from the wall, spinning us around as I held my arms around her back, never letting go. Our lips met, her kiss incredible, with the drops of storm tickling against our skin before we ran from the park toward her condo.
Lizzie and I splashed into the puddles collecting on her front steps, keys sliding through her fingers as she fumbled with the lock. I kept my hands anchored around her hips, ready to spin her against me the second we entered the foyer. It was frantic. Desperate. And hot as damn hell.
An hour later, we were knotted on the floor of her kitchen, not even making it to the couch, finally warmed from the storm but not yet dry. I twirled her damp curls in my fingers while Lizzie’s eyes fluttered closed, her naked body pressed against mine. I trailed tickles along her back, smiling when her eyes opened.
“Can we go to my bedroom?” She nuzzled her face into the crook of my neck.
“We just…already? I mean…”
She swatted at my chest, erupting in giggles while she sat up. “I want to show you something.” She was already showing me everything I wanted to see, every piece of her I’d craved in the time we weren’t together. It was difficult to get up, but her throwing a towel onto my face helped move things along.
Once I’d tugged on my damp pants, I followed Lizzie into her bedroom. The space was dimly lit by a string of lights spread along the wall like a banner above her bed.
“You redecorated?” I watched Lizzie move around the room, throwing on an oversized t-shirt and underwear before pulling her curls into a knot, smiling at me.
“That’s not all. Look what Jesse helped me build.” She pointed with her foot to a dresser opposite her bed.
