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I take his hand as we wade through the current as it pushes us forwards, towards our towels. The sea air nips at my wet skin as we leave the water.
“Oh, I saw your mum yesterday,” he says casually, whilst I feel anything but casual about that comment.
A feeling of dread sneaks into my subconscious like a heavy weight and I try to act unaffected. My pace quickens, focusing on feeling the sand slipping beneath my feet like quicksand. The light, happy feeling that I felt minutes ago is slipping away faster than I can hold on to it.
“Oh, you did?” I say, trying to keep my voice even.
“Yeah, she was talking to someone on the street. They both looked pissed.”
“I don’t… I mean, I saw her last night, and she didn’t say anything. She looked fine.”
I’m lying. When I saw her last night, her eyes were rimmed bright red and within two minutes of being home, she had passed out on the sofa. I hadn’t woken her when we left this morning to tell her where I was going, either.
Liam nods, smiling at me, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
I blow out a quiet breath, turning my head away from him, hoping that he doesn’t ask any other questions. And he doesn’t.
My teeth chatter as Liam wraps his giant beach towel around my shoulders. I cling to the edges of it, bringing it to my nose and inhaling a deep breath, smelling his washing powder, smiling at the soothing fresh scent. I plop my body onto the damp sand and Liam follows, sitting next to me, our shoulders touching. I reach out in front of us to prop up my giant unicorn and a breeze drifts around us, knocking over the giant fluffy toy, causing me to shiver. Liam chuckles lightly.
“Come here. You're always so cold. My little ice queen.”
He lifts me under my arms and pulls me into his lap, so I’m straddling him, my towel coming undone. He wraps it back over my shoulders and cocoons his around him too, creating our own bubble of warmth.
His thick legs brush against my inner thighs and I beg my body not to react, but I already know it’s futile as I feel that heat spreading over my skin like wildfire.
I pull him close to me, enjoying the scent of suncream and salty water filling my head as he snuggles into my chest. My lips meet the top of his head, then the tip of his nose. He looks up at me, his eyes shining, swirls of green and ochre dancing in the sunlight. My heart bounces around my chest like a space hopper. I have no way of controlling this new feeling I have when he looks at me like that; like I have all the answers to all the questions in the world.
His arm wraps around the curve of my back, his towel dropping to pool around the floor where we sit, letting a brief chill enter our warm space, but he doesn’t flinch. He holds me safely against him. His hands continue to slide down to the back of my legs to pull me closer. How much closer I could get, I wasn’t sure, considering I was on his lap.
His fingers grip onto my thighs shakily, as he bites his bottom lip, exhaling a long minty breath, he locks his eyes on mine.
“I’m falling in love with you, Jess. I think I’ve been in love with you for a long time. I mean, I’ve never actually been in love, but I just know it would feel like this.”
He presses his searing hot lips against the skin over my heart, and a thousand goosebumps scatter over my body. The contrast of his grip on my thighs and the soft kisses on my chest makes me delirious.
“Tell me what it feels like,” I whisper, placing my hands over his that rest on my thighs, needing to feel his warm skin.
“It feels like I have to be near you—touching you, kissing you, even breathing the same air as you all the time. My skin burns for you. My heart feels like thunder in my chest when you kiss me. And when we aren’t together, I think about you all the time.”
I lift my hands from where they rest on his and bring them to his face, holding his gaze. “If that’s how being in love feels, then I feel it, too.”
His hands drift upwards to the middle of my back as he pulls me down. He seals our lips together so softly it feels like a feather brushing over me as my eyes flutter closed. I tilt my head as the kiss deepens, burying my fingers in the short hair at the nape of his neck, making a soft moan fall from his lips. Our tongues moving, gliding, tasting each other, stealing all the air from my lungs.
The world around us has all but disappeared, leaving only the sounds of the waves and our hearts beating against each other.
“I love you, Jessica Scott.”
“I love you too, Liam Taylor.”
I’m diving, flying, falling and floating, all because of him.
The world slowly comes back into focus, the eternally restless sea softly whispers around us. The seagulls call to one another along the shore. The bustle of people chatting filters back into the moment as I shift from his lap to face the ocean once again.
I love this time of day; the moments before the sun sets. It feels like the world is quieter somehow, like everything stills while the sun takes its last chance to remind people how beautiful it is before it disappears into the horizon.
“Promise me something?” Liam rests his head on my shoulder, so I can feel his breath on my neck.
“Anything,” I reply, reaching up to wrap one arm around the back of his neck from behind me.
