The moan that tore from her chest when she started to come?—
Her body clenching, fluttering around me, dragging my release right out of me with it.
I let go, spilling into her with a groan that rumbled up from someplace ancient. My arms locked around her as we rode the wave together, hips moving even through the aftershocks.
She didn’t pull away.
Didn’t speak.
Just pressed her forehead to mine, both of us panting, trembling, too full of it all to do anything but hold on.
The blanket had slipped beneath us, but neither of us moved.
I stayed inside her. She stayed wrapped around me.
The creek kept rushing. The wind stirred the trees. And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel the need to run.
She stayed folded into me, her heartbeat fluttering against my chest, skin damp with sweat and the sun’s warmth. My hands were still curved around her ass, holding her in place like I didn’t want the world to come back.
I didn’t. Not yet.
I pressed a kiss to her temple, closed my eyes, and let the moment stretch, the sounds of the creek filling the silence between us. That water had been running long before we foundthis place. Before I found her. It would keep running when this was over. And that was the problem.
This peace wasn’t mine to keep. But I wanted it like it was. Like she was.
She shifted slightly, her breath catching again, more sensitive now. I cupped the back of her neck and held her close, pressing my forehead to hers.
“You good?” I murmured.
She nodded, a lazy smile tugging at her lips. “Mmhmm.” Her lashes lifted, and those eyes met mine. Soft. Searching. “You?”
I couldn’t answer right away.
I wanted to say yes. That I was more than good. That for the first time in my entire damn life, I felt still. Settled. Like something inside of me had finally landed.
But I was lying to her. Every minute I didn’t tell her the truth, I was lying.
And she deserved more than that.
She deservedeverythingfrom me.
I slid my fingers along her spine, kissed her again. This one softer. A whisper against her lips. “You don’t know what you do to me.”
Her smile faded slowly. Her eyes held mine for a beat too long.
I wondered if she felt it too. The shift. The weight of whatever this was growing between us, how impossible it would be to walk away untouched.
She sat back, brushing her hair away from her cheek, and finally moved off of me. I missed her warmth instantly, even as she grabbed her water bottle and took a sip. I tucked myself away, still half-hard, my body unwilling to believe it was over. My mind… still chasing what it all meant.
We laid side by side after that, her head on my shoulder, one leg thrown over mine, our bodies cooling beneath the filteredsunlight. Birds moved overhead. The scent of lavender carried through the trees again. Somewhere downstream, water slapped stone.
I thought about all of it—this land, this retreat, the plan my father handed me, the report I hadn’t written. I thought about Micah’s warning. My silence. How I hadn’t told her who I was, what I’d really come here to do.
And I hated myself for it.
Because whatever was growing between us didn’t deserve to rot under a lie.
But if I told her now, I’d lose her.
