“We can miss today,” I grumble, and the covers are thrown off us, and the cold air hits my body right away. “Ethan, it’s cold,” I say, covering my nipples that are starting to pebble, and he moans as his hand reaches out to roll one of them. “Go away and watch the sunrise.”
“It’s better with you there.” He leans down, taking a nipple in his mouth. “Just put the robe on,” he says, and I know what that means. He wants easy access to me, and of course, I’m going to give it to him.
“Fine,” I say, huffing out of bed. “But you’re doing all the work.” I look over and see his eyes go big. “What?”
“I didn’t think I hit you that hard,” he says, and I turn to see that his handprint is on my ass, and I laugh.
“You didn’t. At least, I don’t think you did.” I grab my robe. “If something happens to me and they have to cut off my clothes, I don’t know what they are going to think.” I look down. “I have hickeys on both breasts, two on my stomach, and on my thigh. And let’s not forget your teeth marks everywhere.” I shake my head.
“Why do they need to see you naked?” he says, getting up. His cock is already at half mast, but it’s always at half mast.
“You never know. I could get into an accident,” I say, putting on the robe and tossing him his shorts. “It’s still dark outside.”
“I know,” he says, slipping on his shorts. “You know I like to slide into you when the sun rises.”
I shake my head. “You like to slide into me no matter what time it is.” He laughs, holding my hand and pulling me outside. I look down, but when we step outside, the soft yellow lights make me look up. I stop walking when I see that the backyard has been transformed.
There are tea lights hanging from every tree branch and lanterns form a path to the middle of the yard. “What’s going on?” I ask, looking around at how magical it looks in the moonlight. “What’s all this?”
“This,” he says, looking at me, “is part of your fifth birthday gift.” He kisses me, bringing me to the middle of the yard. The lights hanging from the trees above my head light up everything.
“This is so beautiful,” I say, smiling. “When did you do all this?”
“As soon as you fell asleep, I got to work. I mean, I had some help. Quinn and Keith started before I came out.”
I gasp. “We had sex in the kitchen.” I hold the robe closed at my chest. “And then the counter.”
“I closed the shades,” he tells me.
“But,” I start to stutter. “We aren’t exactly quiet.”
“No.” He taps my nose. “You aren’t quiet.”
I put my hands on my face. “What if they heard us?” I close my eyes now and put my hands to my stomach. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I teach Keith.”
“They didn’t hear anything,” he tries to tell me. “Trust me, if they did, they would have told me about it.”
“I don’t know if that makes it better or worse,” I say and see that he is looking at me strangely.
“Sunrise,” he says my name, and then I smile at the softness of his voice. “I don’t even know what to say,” he starts, and my heart beats faster.
“Oh my god,” I say, putting my hand to my mouth. “You’re leaving.”
He looks at me, not saying anything. “I can’t believe this is happening.” I put my hand to my mouth. “Oh my god.” The tears come automatically. “How could you do this?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he says, holding my face in his hands. “Baby, I am not going anywhere.” He kisses my lips. “It’s the opposite of that.”
“What does that mean?” I ask, not sure what he is trying to say.
“It means …” he says, getting down on one knee in front of me. My hands fly to my mouth this time. “It means that I’m here to stay. When I woke up in that hospital bed five months ago, my mind was all over the place. They tried to fill in the blanks,” he says. “Tried telling me about the mission that went wrong, but I didn’t hear it. I didn’t see it. I had nightmares for months. I spent night after night piecing everything together. The doctor told me that it was my brain’s way of protecting certain things. Then one night, it just all came crashing back. I had spent the day sitting by the lake near the house, dissecting every single dream. That night when I went to bed, it was as if I was transported back.” The tears run down both our faces. “The guy was beating the shit out of me. Kicking my ribs, and then he took his gun out and shot me. The sound echoed so loud in the room, all I heard was loud buzzing, and then they came in and rescued me.”