I groaned and took her, molding our lips and our bodies and our souls so that there would never be a reason for us to be apart again. So thatthis moment was the beginning and everything else was the prequel. This was the rest of our lives. The second we’d finally given in to the need and the heat and the passion that had always lain between us, we were forever sealed together.
Her hips rocked into mine. Her lips and tongue journeyed down my chest as we moved together, seamlessly and perfectly. The pace was frantic and not the slow, lingering one I’d wanted for our first time, but there was no way I could slow down. And I knew it was the same for her because I could read Violet like she could read me. This was how we had to be. Fast and powerful and full of emotions drifting around us.
Love and sin, passion and belonging.
Us.
Her body shook, and she cried out, and I completely lost any last strain of control I had as the pure beauty of it overtook me. The inner peace I only ever felt on the water coursed through me. It wasn’t a blur of sky and ocean causing it, but a blur of light and lilac. Home.
We both lay there, breathless, lost in the magic of five years of anticipation finally becoming a reality. It had been so much better than any dream I’d ever had of her, the sensations of touch and scent having magnified those two-dimensional thoughts.
With a groan, because I didn’t want to take my hands away from her body, I momentarily left her side to clean up. Then, I almost ran back to her, pulling her naked body tight up against mine. Her leg went over my thigh, her arms slid around my waist, and we were crushed together again. I rested my chin on the top of her head.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m angry,” she said.
I pulled away enough that I could look down in her face. Her eyes were flashing, and my heart thudded.
“Why?”
“I’m angry you denied me this for so long. Denied us this. Angry that my first time, and every time after, could have been this beautiful. This joyful movement of souls colliding instead of the mangled mess of bodies it’s been for me.”
God, I was angry now too. Angry that others had claimed her. Angry at myself for letting it happen, but also angry at the cosmos for having put her in my life when she was sixteen and I couldn’t have done anything about it.
“Vi,” I groaned out.
She shook her head, touching her forehead to my chest, hands slowly sliding over my hip and my body, making me awaken again. I was pulsing between us, and that reaction had her looking up at me, eyes wide. “How are you ready again?”
“Jesus, how could I not be? You. In my arms with your tantalizing body and smell, and just you, Vi. You,” I told her honestly.
The anger left her, replaced by a smile so wide I thought it might take the entire world around us and pull it in. I was lost. I’d always been lost with her. In her.
“You have a lot to make up to me, Dawson Langley,” she teased.
“Since we’ve already done amazing, maybe we should work on the sweaty part?” I grinned back, reaching for the drawer and another condom. Because I was in no way ready to be done with Violet Banner.
Violet
THIS LOVE
“In losing grip,
On sinking ships,
You showed up just in time.”
Performed by Taylor Swift
Written by Taylor Swift
Music was playing, muffled, as ifhiding in a pile of clothes, and it woke me. Woke me to the reality where I was tangled up in Dawson’s arms and legs. Our bodies were so tightly wound it was hard to see we were two instead of one. A smile crossed my lips. This. This was how it was supposed to be.
I hadn’t had many partners. Three. The guy I’d lost my virginity to, a lab partner who I’d dated for a few weeks, and then Silas. Each time I’d given myself, I’d hoped I would get more of what the hype was all about. It was…satisfying…but not earth-shattering.
Silas had tried to please me the most of any of them. I’d tried to please him, but somehow, it had always felt…awkward.
Last night with Dawson had been anything but awkward. It had been seamless. Fluid and beautiful. Like watching mercury pool around gold to form an amalgam. Thick, shiny, smooth. That had been Dawson and me. Rare and fascinating and perfect.
