AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My shoulders rolled.
He wouldn’t jump in.
We couldn’t go to the island.
The fantasy of forgetting who we were and spending a night beneath the stars was gone—
“Finish what you were going to say,” he whispered. “Ask me.”
I met his eyes. I saw true fear shining there. Unresolved ghosts haunting his mind.
I shouldn’t ask this of him.
I should honour his wishes about the sea.
Just because I’d endured something that’d irrevocably changed me didn’t mean—
“Ask me, Neri.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his stare. His smile was tight and stern but given with all the love he held. “Ask.”
Inhaling hard, I licked my lips and whispered, “Come swim with me, Aslan Avci. Swim to shore with me.”
For the longest moment, he didn’t reply.
His eyes closed as if he was saying goodbye to a part of himself that he still couldn’t bury or get free from. But then he nodded, placed his hand over mine, pressing my palm against his erection, and murmured, “For you, Nerida Taylor, I’ll swim in every sea.”
He kicked his jeans away, sending something spinning in the starlight.
He grabbed my hand, tucked his hardness back into his boxers, and positioned us by the open side.
I tugged on his hold. “Wait.”
He immediately let me go. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel trapped.”
“It wasn’t that.” I gave him a grateful smile. “Something fell out of your pocket.”
“Did it?” He shrugged. “Ah well, it will be here when we get back.”
“What is it?”
His gaze skated away; a fib tumbled from his lips. “Nothing important.”
I scowled. “You just lied.”
“No, I—”
“Tell me.” Marching away from him, stepping over our discarded flip-flops, I collected the small secret thing.
The instant my fingers cupped it, I swayed under the onslaught of bone-deep, soul-slicing emotions.
The shell.
The spiny frog shell that I’d clung to, all while he’d brought me back to life when I was fourteen. Three years since he’d saved me. Three years.
Turning on trembling legs, I held up the peach and cream shell. “You kept it?”
He rubbed bloody hands over his face, streaking the ribbons of blood already on his cheek. Dropping his arms, he gave me a despairing smile. “Of course, I kept it. It was from you.”
“Do you use it? Do you speak to your family through it?”
