Adore Me

He immediately kisses me, muttering, “Much better,” into my lips.

Our kissing gets deeper, more intense, and I forget where I am and why I’m out here.

All I can focus on is his lips.

His tongue.

His hands roaming across my body.

The way my fingers feel in his hair. Across his back.

I grind myself into his lap with every kiss. With every suck.

My mind on one thing and one thing only.

All of a sudden, we get splashed.

I open my eyes quickly, worried that a boat came too close to us, but there are no boats around.

Then I hear a chirping noise behind me and a dolphin jumps up out of the water and does a flip, splashing us with water again.

“Oh my gosh!” I whisper to Aiden. “Did you just see that?”

“I think he’s showing off for you,” Aiden says. “He better not be trying to steal my girl.”

My breath catches, my stomach getting instant butterflies, and my heart soaring. Because, his girl?

“Look,” he whispers, “there’s three more, right there.”

“And two more over here,” I whisper back.

“Don’t move,” he says, hugging me tighter.

“I’ve never been this close to one before.”

“Are you going to swim with them?”

“Oh, no. You’re not supposed to actually swim with wild dolphins. This is what I meant. Like being out here, seeing them, feeling like I’m part of it.”

One of the dolphins flies high out of the water with another one following him.

“It’s like they’re playing tag,” Aiden whispers, still holding me tightly on his lap. “They’re huge.”

We watch with wonder as they swim and play around us, but just as quickly as they came, they’re gone, swimming off into the distance.

My arms are still wrapped around Aiden’s neck, so I pull his adorable face closer to me. “You’re right. We are lucky together.”

We kiss a bit.

Okay, we kiss a lot.

Damian was right. Since last night, I can’t keep my hands—or my lips—off him. I’ve even stopped counting down the hours until he leaves. I’m just going to enjoy this.

Aiden pushes the pieces of my bangs that have fallen out of my ponytail and are blowing in the wind off my face, tucking them behind my ear.

“That was amazing.”

“You’re amazing, Aiden.”

He rubs his thumb across my cheek.

It’s a perfect moment.

Soft breeze, brilliant sun warm on our skin, beautiful scenery.

Every part of me wants to tell him. To say it out loud.

And, most of all, for him to know.

But I can’t.

I can’t do that to him.

So I say I love you, Aiden in my head.

“So, what’s next on the list?” he asks.

“Um, write our names in the sand, maybe. And we definitely we need to look for more seashells.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he says as I flip around, start the wave ru

When we get there, Damian waves at us from the beach, indicating that he wants me to bring it up on shore.

“Hey,” he says, walking out in the water. “The other wave ru

“Yeah, we’re done,” I say as Aiden and I hop off. “Did you see the dolphins that were swimming all around us?”

“No, we were, uh, in the house.”

“I thought you were kayaking?” Aiden asks.

“Oh, we were, but we came back in as soon as you went out.”

“So what were you doing inside?” Aiden asks them.

“Uh, relaxing,” Damian answers as Peyton says, “Watching TV.”

Aiden squints his eyes. “Which one was it?”

“I watched TV while he relaxed,” Peyton says smoothly.

Aiden grabs her by the elbow and pulls her aside. I’m pretty sure he’s chewing her out and she’s telling him to mind his own business.

She marches away from him and pulls Damian out toward the water.

Aiden’s scowling toward them, so I walk up to him and say, “She’s having fun.”

“She’s acting like she loves him already. They just freaking met.”

“She told me it was love at first sight.”

Aiden nods. “She told me that too.”

“And do you believe in it?”

“Yes, of course I do.”

“Then you understand why she needs to see it through.”

Aiden nods solemnly then grabs my hand. “Come on, we have some things to do.”

“Like what?”

He runs down the beach along the water’s edge, dragging me with him. Then he grabs me around the waist, lifts me off my feet, and kisses me.

And kisses me.

I feel like I’m starring in an amazing beach-set love story.

I don’t want this day to ever end.

“This looks like the perfect spot,” Aiden says, setting me down in the sand, but not letting me go. “Remember that bracelet you had on the day of the Gods of the Olympics competition? You had love written on your arm.”

“I remember.”

“Close your eyes and don’t move.”

A few moments later, he comes up from behind me, wraps his arms around my waist, and whispers, “Open.”

I open my eyes and look at the sand in front of me.

“Love in the sand,” he says. “I put it higher on the beach so the water wouldn’t wash it away.”

I want to cry. “The water always washes it away,” I tell him.

“Maybe the words, but not the feelings.” He spins me out of his arms in a dance move and says, “Go write your name.”

I move a little ways down the beach, fighting back tears, and wondering if he could be right.

I find a stick and use it to draw all sorts of doodles in the sand. Hearts, flowers, swirls, a castle, a frog, a wand, lips, stars, a moon, a rock, waves, a surfboard, the chaos symbol, fireworks, a soccer ball, pompoms, a four-leaf clover, and then, in big, bold, capital letters, KEATYN.

Aiden says, “I wish I had my phone to take a picture. That’s, like, a work of art.” He studies it more closely. “Is that the story of your life?”

“What?”

“Oh, it just looks like you drew all the things you love.”

I study my sand doodles more closely, realizing he might be right. I smile at him. “I was just messing around, drawing random things, but they are all things I love.”

He points over at his name written in the sand. Just a simple Aiden. “Mine looks pretty lame in comparison.”

“Actually, yours looks perfect,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “It says everything about you.”

“That I’m boring?”

“No, that you don’t need any embellishments to make you stand out. You just do.”

He gives me a hug and kisses my forehead. “I saw some shells down here by the waterline. Want to gather some up?”

“Yeah, let’s do that and then we’ll go make necklaces!”

We gather shells, filling his board shorts’ pockets with them.

When we get closer to the cabana, I stick my tongue out, splash him, and then run down the beach screaming, “Bet you can’t catch me!”

Oh course, I’m not as fast as him and two seconds later, he grabs me from behind.

I deftly spin out of his grip, kick water at him, then land in a karate stance, and go, “Ka-cha!”

“Oh, you’re go

“Unless you’re a chicken,” I reply, kicking more water at him.

He makes one fluid leap and tackles me straight into the water.

I was totally not prepared for it and come up laughing. “What the hell was that? That wasn’t even fair!”

He rolls me over and pins me on the sand underneath him. “Maybe I’m tired of playing fair.”

I lean up like I’m going to kiss him, but instead elbow him in the ribs and slip away.

Almost.

He grabs my legs, pulls me back underneath him, and pins my arms above my head.

Truth be told, I totally could’ve gotten away if I wanted to. I’ve learned a lot from Cooper. But when he leans down to kiss me, I’m really glad I didn’t.

The waves rush up over our feet and legs, the cool water doing nothing to quench the fire inside me. I don’t even care that my hair is probably getting caked with wet, nasty sand.