Now it’s just us. The water. This heat between us. The weight of years sliding off my shoulders with each second I hold her in my arms.
She blinks up at me, cheeks flushed, eyes wide. Her breath comes in shallow puffs as her fingers roam down my chest, slow, reverent, like she’s memorizing every curve of my abs, just as I feel her soft skin under my finger tips and trace my hand down her ribcage feeling her heart racing under my palm taking in all of her.
“You okay?” she whispers.
No. But I will be. If she stays. If she keeps looking at me like I’m worth more than my worst day.
I don’t answer. I just nod and guide her closer toward the shallows, the water lapping warm around our waists. Her skin is slick beneath my hands as I pull her to me, fitting her against my chest like she was made to be there.
My mouth trailing kisses down her jaw, her throat, stopping just at the curve of her shoulder. Her body arches toward me on instinct, wet against mine, every curve fitting me like a secret she’s waited too long to tell.
My hands find her waist beneath the water, and I lift her, pulling her flush against me. Wrapping her legs around my hips and it’s all I can do not to groan. She’s heat and softness, pressed to me like she’s not letting go.
My hands slide under the water, to cup the perfect curve of her ass, drawing her flush against me. I anchor her at the waist, and when her forehead rests on mine, the river and the world fade to nothing.
“You have no idea what you do to me, Mia,” I murmur, voice low and wrecked.
She shivers, breath brushing my jaw. “Then we’re even.”
She kisses me again, harder this time, and I bite her bottom lip with a tease, the sound she makes driving my blood pulse harder than it should. I shift my grip, palm spreading across her lower back, grounding her to me. She lets out a gasp, as her hips roll against mine, the contact lightning sharp.
The water laps around us. Crickets chirp at the edges.
Her skin tastes like all the most delicious things I never knew I was starving for. The river doesn’t care if I’ve been carrying guilt like a second skin for years. Doesn’t care that I stopped believing I could feel anything good. It just flows, steady and calm, like it’s been waiting for this too.
I nip and kiss down her neck, savoring every inch, and when she moans—soft, broken, raw—I nearly lose my damn mind.
“Grant…” she breathes, tilting her head back for more.
Yeah. That’s it. That’s everything.
I’m completely lost in this moment and so is Mia as she whispers broken curses, carried away by the light breeze. I’ve never wanted anything the way I want her right now.
Not in the bedroom. Not in a bed. But right here.
Here where it all began with the element that binds us together.
The river. The loss. And now—herand new beginnings.
I shift slightly, anchoring my feet against the rocks, water at my waist, her wrapped around me like she was made for this.
“You’re killing me,” I mutter, nipping at her jaw.
“You like it,” she murmurs, her breath hot against my ear.
“I like you. More than I probably should. More than I ever meant to.”
My voice coming out rough. Raw. True.
She moans as I press her against me, my hardness joined with all the places she is soft, her thighs tightening around my hips. Her hands roam my chest, my stomach, sliding lower with a hunger that turns the world to static.
“I want you,” I whisper against her mouth. “All of you. Here. Now.”
Her fingers fist in my hair, dragging me closer. “Then take me.”
And I do.
Right here, in the river that once haunted me. I let go of every ghost. Every regret. Every version of myself I’ve been trying to bury.
