Summer's Last Breath

Part 12

Jamie: I forgot to kiss you again.


Me: I think you're a tease.


Jamie: dock 3 minutes.


Me: you can't get here in three minutes.


Jamie: time it. I'm on my way.



I set the timer on my phone then dilly-dallied on my way down the stairs. I checked to make sure my dad was in his study. The door was cracked and Band of Horses played through the speakers hooked up to his computer. He was leaning back in his chair, his feet on the desk, glasses pulled down to the end of his nose, fully engrossed in whatever it was he was reading. My dad wasn't an idiot. This sneaking around stuff wouldn't last long. 


I tiptoed through the kitchen and slid quietly out the back door after disengaging the alarm system. When I got to the dock, Jamie was already waiting for me. I looked at the clock. Two minutes and twenty-three seconds. 


"No way," I said. "You weren't at your house."


"I was." He descended on me, three long strides that shook the dock. He took my face in his hands, and I had to crane my neck back to look at him. He hadn't seemed this tall on the beach earlier. "I've been forcing myself to wait to do this again."


I thought he'd kissed me before, but this was different. This was possession. This was deep. The touch of his lips, the invasion of his tongue, reached into my soul, branding it. My hands clutched at his hard and unyielding biceps, and when he lifted his mouth, I might have whimpered. We were both breathing heavily. His cool eyes burned into me while his fingers on my jaw were gentle. All I cared about in that moment was his mouth, and getting it back on me.


"Again," I said.


He picked me up, hands on my waist. My arms slid around his neck, legs wrapping around his hips. I'd never been held like this before. He was a mountain, and I clung to his strength, my mouth waiting for his. His next kiss was gentler, a slow exploration of tongue and lips that went on forever but was over too soon. Then he set me down, releasing me. I swayed into him. He backed up a few steps, his smile as possessive as his kiss. He poised himself on the end of the dock, toes curling over the edge. 


"Tell him," he said and dove into the bay, leaving nothing but a quiet ripple behind.