“Dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun!” He launched out of the water, landing on the other half of her board, and slid on his belly like a seal until his nose touched hers.
Her grin was bright and happy, filled with the kind of joy he remembered from their early years together when they were so in love and believed anything was possible.
And here they were again—in love, with all sorts of possibilities ahead of them. So many more, in fact, than there had been then.
“Well, hello there, beautiful.” He tilted his head and kissed her. “Mmm.” He tilted his head the other way and kissed her again. “Mmm.” Then again.
She smiled. “What are you doing?”
“Deciding which way you taste best.”
“How about this way?” She wrapped her hand around the back of his head and moved in for a hot, slow, openmouthed kiss. Sliding her tongue against his, she sighed into his mouth, and Troy’s head went light. Despite the cold water, his cock hardened. But what monopolized his attention was the deep twist in his heart.
When she pulled away, his eyes fluttered open. He caught her chin between his fingers, dropped a soft kiss on her lips, and met her eyes when he murmured, “I love you so fucking much, it hurts.”
Her smile brightened, and her face beamed like the goddamned sun, which made Troy feel invincible. Then she rubbed his nose with the tip of hers, and he melted like butter. He was so fucking gone over her, it was pathetic. “I love you too.”
He kissed her again, still unable to believe he was hearing those words from her mouth. They’d shared them a lot over the last two days together. Days filled with long, slow lovemaking sessions. Extended naps curled together on the sand under the sun. Laughing and teasing and tickling.
Definitely some of the best days of his life.
“I’ll let you show me just how much as soon as you ride a wave.” He slipped back and off the board, then dragged her out to sea.
She dropped her forehead to the board and groaned.
He turned her toward the beach. “Scoot up so you’re ready to jump.”
His attention turned out to sea as he gauged the waves while holding her board with one hand.
“Here you go, Ellie. This one’s perfect. Get ready.”
As the wave rose in a smooth swell of beautiful sea green about ten yards behind them, Troy kicked off the bottom, got up some momentum while watching the wave over his shoulder to time his send off, then shoved the board into the wave’s path. “Go.”
She paddled, gauging the wave’s speed.
“Up, El,” he yelled. “Pop.”
With her hands braced on the board, Giselle jumped, pulled her feet underneath her in a wide stance, knees bent.
“Yes,” he murmured, watching her use her arms for balance as the board pitched beneath her feet. “That’s it… You got it…”
And when the wave broke beneath her, and she was still standing, Troy’s excitement exploded in applause and whistles. She pushed her fists overhead with a scream of triumph just before the surf tipped the board sideways and Giselle dropped into the water.
Troy swam toward shore, ready for a break from the sun. He stopped a few feet away from where she sat, waist-deep in the ocean on the mostly vacant, residents-only beach and shook his head like a wet dog.
“Troy…” Giselle complained.
He grabbed the board, hoisting it to his shoulder as he pushed to his feet. Then offered his hand and pulled her up, wrapping his arm around her waist for the walk to the porch. There he propped the board against the railing and stripped the surf skin from Giselle’s top half, laying it over the rail to dry in the sun.
“Okay,” she said. “That sport’s fun versus work ratio is way out of whack.”
He chuckled. “That’s because it takes practice. For your first time in the ocean, I’m pretty damn impressed.”
She gave him a sassy little grin. “Why, thank you, Mr. Jacobs. I had a fine instructor.” She reached out and ran her fingers down the center of his chest. “And I do mean fine in so many different ways.”
He grabbed her hand and kissed it. Life was perfect. He couldn’t ask for anything more. At least nothing more than to keep Giselle in hi
s life, because she was all his life was missing—a thought that brought their dwindling time together back to the forefront of his mind, and angst to the forefront of his heart.