Fighting the Undertow
Page 25
“A question, for starters. Did you, at any point in time, want to leave me? Not the problems, the complications, and the stress ‑‑ but me?”
Val took a deep breath and offered the response he deserved. “I never wanted to leave you. I was scared. Overwhelmed. After I left that message ‑‑ and I’m sorrier about that than I can say. It was a lousy thing to do, not facing you in person. Anyway, after I called, I almost drove over to the beach house to delete the damn thing before you had a chance to hear it.”
And I wish I had. Wish so much I hadn’t ruined things, hadn’t been too frightened to take a chance on having my heart broken again. Hadn’t hurt you, first, before you had the chance to hurt me.
Silence stretched between them, and Val almost expected Kev to appear in some last-ditch effort at playing peacemaker. But the moments ticked by, and lying side by side on the sand, she and Ian might as well have been the only two people in the world.
“I should have rushed back from Boston the moment I got the damn message. Hell, I should have let you know I was thinking of doing my writing in New Mexico, or wherever the hell you ended up.”
Val swallowed hard. “I didn’t want to move away. Though it took me a while to figure out what I did want.”
“I know.”
When he reached out and grasped her hand, she held on, as if his fingers were the only thing between her and certain drowning.
“One last thing before the good parts. I cleared up some loose ends when I talked to Jon the other day. He knows, now ‑‑ that Kev was driving. All these years, I thought Kev chose to hang around because, on some level, he blamed me. Didn’t fucking get it until he burned that damn altar.”
“That he’s bound here by what your mother did to him. By his anger at her.” Swallowing hard, Val moved closer until her side pressed against his, and they lay snuggled together in a warm bed of sand. “Kev crazy loves you. Enough that he included me in the bargain right from the start.”
“Got that now. Never let it be said that I’m emotionally adept, but I’m not hopeless, either.” He stroked his fingers across her cheek before sliding his hand under her hair to rest it at the nape of her neck.
“We’re going to do this, aren’t we?” Please, please, please let us get this right. “Make things work this time?”
“I can’t imagine not making this work. Remember that evening with Jeremy?” Ian stroked her ribs, and she shivered at the memory of their skin pressed wet and hot against hers. “When you said you felt free? I never thought I’d feel free again, except maybe when I’m in the ocean. I already knew how to swim, but you’ve taught me how to fly, Val.”
For a moment, she felt as if her lungs were full of water, unable to breathe, or swallow, or move. And then he kissed her, smoothing her tears away with his palms, and the salt she tasted wasn’t just her own.
When they came up for air, she lay back on the sand, beyond giving a damn that it would take hours to wash the beach out of her hair. The sound of the ocean pounded at her senses, rhythmic and insistent. Unfinished business aside, she was half tempted to crawl on top of him, surrender to the heat, and…
“I love you, Val. Will you start over with me?”
“I don’t think I could start from the beginning.” She rested her hand on his thigh. “But I’d like to pick up where we left off. This part’s important, though ‑‑ our friends…”
When he tensed against her, she pressed a finger to his lips. “I don’t want anything to change. It’s like we’re the tide, and they’re the current, moving in us and through us.”
“Inseparable.” Ian touched her forehead and traced the slope of her nose with his thumb. “It’s not what you planned on ‑‑ the ring, the white picket fence…”
Frustrated to be back at that, she struggled to her feet and tugged Ian’s arm until he joined her. “For a bright guy, you can be insufferably stupid.”
Grabbing his hand, she took off at a dead run, and they crashed through the dunes, tripping over bayberry bushes and yelping when they stumbled over clumps of sharp beach grass, but never halting their headlong dash toward the water. When they reached open beach, Val shed her clothes, and Ian slipped out of his trunks.
Naked in the moonlight, they raced each other into the water, and she stifled a squeal as the icy waves hit her thighs, then her belly. Waist-deep, she spread her arms and spun around, turning fast so that the stars swirled into a blur overhead.
“You’re crazy.” With a throaty chuckle, he tackled her and pulled her under.
Still sputtering, she surfaced and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Not by half. Give me this, Ian.” She spread her arms to encompass the waves, the sky, and the trail of moonlight on the water. “Don’t talk to me about picket fences. Just give me this.”
When he grasped her hips to move her into position, she groaned her approval. He lost his balance as he entered her, and they both went under. By the time he found his footing, she’d swallowed a good deal of water, but the taste of salt on her tongue only added to the crazy energy between them.
Holding on to his shoulders so tight that she felt his flesh give under her fingernails, she pressed forward to meet his thrusts. The current tugged at them, and Ian swayed on his feet, staggering now and then as he struggled to keep his balance. She reached up to pull his head down to her and kissed him so hard, their teeth bumped. If moonlight and water could make you drunk, they were well past intoxicated.
Despite the chill of the waves, her pebbled nipples, and the goose bumps that covered her arms, heat flared inside her with each stroke. A wave surged up around their shoulders, and Ian half staggered, half swam into shallower water. She grabbed his hips, desperate to hold on, because if they came apart right now, with her pussy clenched tight around his cock and the water dragging her headlong toward release, she didn’t think she could stand it.
With a few quick thrusts, he hit her sweet spot one too many times in rapid succession, and gasping for air, she threw her head back and called his name, beyond giving a damn how far sound traveled over water. He surged against her, his body shaking like sand shifting under the force of the water, and when a wave caught him off guard, she had just enough time to take a breath before they went under again.
Rather than struggle toward the surface, he dug his fingers hard into her hips and buried himself so deep that she winced at the aftershocks of pleasure, feeling him throb inside her as the water lifted and tumbled them. He kissed her under water, his tongue warm and salty against hers, and then kicked to propel them to the surface. She shivered at the tug as their bodies separated, and squeezed his hand to let him know she was still with him.
Her feet found the bottom, although they’d been pulled deep enough that the water covered her breasts, and she laughed as she gulped for air. Weak-kneed and giddy, they made their way toward shore. When they reached the shallows, Ian pulled her down beside him and they sat staring up at the moon as waves broke over their legs.
“I can give you this.” He lifted his hand, letting water trickle through his fingers. “This, and a bunch of crazy friends, and my trust, and my promise that I won’t ever leave you.”
“Mmm. Don’t forget the ghost.” She laughed when he swatted halfheartedly at her thigh. But the tenderness of his kiss when he brushed his lips across her forehead, then her nose, and finally, her lips, made it hard to whisper her half of the promise around the lump in her throat.
“All of this” ‑‑ she brushed her fingers across the surface of the water ‑‑ “and all of my love.”
Val shivered as the wind gusted against her ocean-wet skin. Ian stood and helped her to her feet, and she huddled close as they made their way onto dry sand.
“All of our love, Miss Vee.” He leaned down to kiss the side of her neck. “All this, and all of our love.”
THE END
Eden Rivers
Eden Rivers lives in the Midwest with her husband and daughters. Like many writers, she followed a number of
career paths over the years before returning to writing. In her spare time she enjoys reading, yoga, gardening, and listening to music outdoors under the full moon. Eden loves to hear from her readers, and can be contacted through her website at www.edenrivers.com or her author blog at http://edenrivers.blogspot.com.