“Yeah. It’s getting to be about that time.” He flips his sunglasses up and shamelessly drinks me in from head to toe as I slide my shorts off and yank my tank top over my head. “Is that new?”
I pluck one of the strings of the neon peach bikini that covers my body. “You like?”
“I love.”
Taking the seat beside him, I swipe the bottle of suntan lotion he’s holding and slather myself in coconut-scented cream. I’m going to miss these lazy summer days. The smell of chlorine in my hair. The taste of Zane’s lips on mine. The feel of our skin, warm and melded together.
I let out a sigh, staring ahead at the way the breeze kisses the top of the water and sends a wave of ripples rolling across it.
“You going to swim today?” I ask.
“Yeah. I’ll do some laps.”
He’s awfully quiet. More so than usual. And when he slides his sunglasses over his eyes, it does very little to mask that contemplative look on his face.
“What are you thinking about?” I ask. I’m sure he has a lot on his mind. Since we got back from Chicago last week, I’ve only seen him twice. Between his meetings and personal training sessions and charity events and team socials, he’s been almost unreachable.
But he gave me today. Said he was all mine. So I’m taking it. Happily.
Zane groans, lifting his hands behind his neck just enough that his biceps flex, and for a second, I’m willing to forgo this relaxing poolside encounter for a quick romp inside. But I’m sure we’ll get to that later.
“I don’t know.” He stares ahead. “Just keep thinking about how you’re leaving next month. Just went by so fast. And I’m so busy.”
“Aw, so you are going to miss me.” I reach over and gently pinch his shoulder, getting nothing but steely muscles in my grasp.
He turns to me in a moment of rare Zane seriousness. “Of course I’m going to miss you, Delilah.”
Ever since my emotional, naked meltdown in his kitchen a few weeks ago, I’ve stayed completely mum on any talk of what we are, what this is, or how confused it makes me. We’ve focused on fun and fucking, just like we agreed.
But it hasn’t changed the way I feel about him.
I can’t fake the butterflies. I can’t deny the excitement I feel when I know I’m going to see him again. It’s like my entire being comes alive, and I’m weightless, and nothing else exists but him.
I don’t even know what to call it. It’s less than love. More than lust. Better than anything I’ve ever experienced before.
“Is that why you’re sulking?” I insert a teasing lightness in my tone. “Because you’re going to miss me when I’m gone?”
He shrugs, his mouth hardening. “Something like that.”
“Whatever happened to living in the moment?” I ask.
“Sometimes things happen,” he says. “And you have to think about the future because you don’t have a choice.”
I laugh, confused. “What happened?”
He shakes his head, swallows, and lets his arms fall to his sides. Exhaling, he turns back to me.
“Can we talk about something else?” he says. “Like how fucking sexy you look in that string bikini?”
Leaning back in my lounger, I shield my eyes and give him a wink and a smile.
I like us like this. Fun. Carefree. We’ve evolved from the people we once were, turning into even better versions of ourselves.
Fun-Policing his party last month was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.
“Get over here,” he says with a playful growl, reaching for me.
I climb into his lap, straddling him, and his hands slink up my sides. With his fingers slipping under my bikini top, I glance around.
“Come on, it’s broad daylight,” I say, placing my hands on his.
Without hesitation, he lifts me up and carries me inside. He’s always carrying me, this brute of a man, making me feel light as a feather and safe at the same time. I suppose he’s well equipped for it with all those muscles. I’m not complaining. It’s actually pretty hot.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off me for very long.” I cup my hands around his strong, square jaw and steal a kiss. A minute later, he lowers me onto his bed, his gaze intense and focused as he tugs my bottoms down my thighs with one slow drag. “For the record, I’m going to miss you, too, when I’m gone.”
Lowering himself over me, he dips down, pressing his lips into my neck and working his way up to my ear. My heart races and my body’s electric. Every time with him feels like the first, and I can never get enough.
With his hands on my hips, he rolls me to the side, lying down and pulling me on top of him.
“Show me.” His voice is low, animalistic, and his hands explore the heat between my thighs, massaging the head of his swollen cock against my pussy. “Show me how much you’re going to miss me.”
Chapter 30
Zane
I think I love her.
That or I’m losing my mind.
Maybe a little of both?
In the last three weeks, we’ve flown to Chicago and back, watched every available episode of Game of Thrones, took private cooking lessons with a Spanish chef to learn the art of the perfect Galician empanada, and challenged each other in dozens of Madden NFL games.
Delilah Rosewood truly is the quintessential girl next door – only better.
“Hey, that superhero movie you wanted to see comes out in two weeks.” She’s hunched over an iPad, sitting at my kitchen island on this Sunday morning as I simultaneously slave over the waffle iron and flip the eggs over easy. “That’s my last weekend here. Did you want to go see it? Maybe we can drive a couple hours to some random small town movie theatre and slip in when the lights go down?”