“What’s your colour?” He righted my swimwear but continued to hold me firm.
“Sky blue with glitzy gold,” I rasped, still trying to catch my breath “Yours?”
“Bittersweet shimmer,” he replied, and I wondered if that was a reflection of the raging hard-on I could still feel in his pants or if it went deeper.
“I could try and change your colour tocerise,” I teased with a scrape of nails along his thighs.
He laughed, easily manoeuvring us up and over the waves but reached for my hands to stop me going further.
“Shelbs,” his plea held an undercurrent of nostalgia. “I can’t help myself when I’m with you.” His melancholy gave me pause and before either of us even realised, I’d flipped myself around to face him.I wrapped my arms around his neck to steady myself and as expected, the crease of his brow held an element of sorrow.
“So don’t,” I consented, before brushing my lips against his tenderly. I wanted to slip my tongue into his mouth and writhe against him, already aching to have him again, but he was in his head, and I didn’t want any rash decision to further complicate things.
Was he struggling with the uncertainty and ambiguity of our impulsive relationship? A pivot which felt years in the making but sudden all the same? He despised the unpredictable, so maybe he was wondering what would happen when I went home, and we were nine thousand miles apart in different time zones - most of the time on a different day.
And despite doing my best to ignore those thoughts and wonderings, it was starting to creep up on me too. My life was transient. Never something I needed to plan. The candles gave me more than enough to keep me going, my expenditure was low, and my social life was practically non-existent, unless you counted colouring-in with a set of characters each week as I binged another new TV show. And other than Blake, and the few clients who collected their orders, I didn’t see many people.
But Corbin was busy, and his life was more stable. An unplanned complication probably the last thing he needed.
His grip still held me firmly, just like he always had in a metaphoric sense. Emotionally I knew he was only a call or message away, but having him beside me now, filled a physical ache I didn’t even realise was present. If returning to Australia and scattering my parents across this gorgeous land sent splinters through my heart, Corbs was right there, filling them as fast as they formed.
There was no doubt being here over the last few weeks had changed me.
Changed us.
And not just because of the monumental reasons behind the trip, but because it afforded us an opportunity to get to know each otheron a level we never had before. We were no longer children vying for five more minutes of play before the other had to go home, all decisions in the hands of someone older and wiser. The decisions were ours now which meant we also wore the consequences, although, it was hard to remember all of those things when his scent wrapped around me and I could feel him rigid against my needy centre. Or worry about the future heartache I knew was coming when I boarded a flight and left him again. Because under the press of my mouth against his and his hands on my hips while we swayed in the shallows of the water, I felt his body soften. Relent.
And I knew the second I felt his acceptance with a subtle nod of his head, as if he too was tired of fighting.
I spoke against his mouth, brushing the salty water spray from his forehead before it ran into his eyes. “Can we just be? Do what feels natural and the rest can wait?”
Be us.
Be this.
Be everything.
I thought but didn’t dare say aloud.
His eyes flickered as I again smoothed his brows with my thumbs, imploring him to trust me, to trustusand whatever this connection was. It might not be there tomorrow. It might not need to be. But for now, it was there, and I needed him.
“You’ve always been the most natural thing in my world, Shelbs,” he said with his infamous smirk, his concern still lingering behind his soft smile.
“Thank you,” I met his grin. We stayed like that for a while, his arms wrapped around my waist anchoring me to him while we were lost in our thoughts. And it was only as we eventually made our way to stand on the shore, the white water of the waves running around our ankles that he spoke.
“Okay,” he nodded, his decision made. “Let’s just be,” he agreed, before pulling me in for a kiss which made the subtle push and pullof the ocean feel like a gentle echo of our own rhythm – unstoppable, endless, and evermore.
Shelby
Chapter Eight
Lagoon Bar and Spa, Australia
The barren highway to get to this dream location was stunning. The air was warmer, the land drier and by some small miracle, the drinks stronger and that is exactly what Ashy and I were hoping.
I have never been as hungover as I was yesterday and it took four hash browns and two large McDonalds’ cokes to even muster the energy to get out of bed. Thank God Ashy could drive because the Outback Mirage cocktail lived up to their name - leaving me dehydrated and mildly dizzy. But how could we refuse the $3 fishbowl sized monstrosity. I’m not even sure what was in it but it was deliciously intoxicating and we partied like we had no cares in the world. I’m pretty sure I spent half the night with my tongue down someone’s throat but I’m not even going to try and remember.
What happens at Lagoon stays at Lagoon!
