that night in London—the night we first hooked up—echo in my head.
I want to find out what you look like when you let loose.
I take a step forward so that our bodies are nearly pressed together. “That’s funny coming from someone so straitlaced.”
“It’s bloody sexy seeing you move like that,” he growls.
I bite my lip a bit to keep myself under control. “Let’s keep going, then.”
Callum pulls me by the hand to the very edge of the dancing mass. He takes a sip of the drink before letting me finish it off. I set the coconut at our feet, letting the alcohol and the electronic beat pulse through me.
He presses his front against me, swaying his body slowly at first. The beat speeds up, and I move my hips faster. One of my hands clutches Callum’s shoulder; the other holds my long hair back and out of my face. With the elastic band on my wrist, I tie it up into a ponytail.
Callum leans his lips to my ear. “Always prepared,” he muses.
“Always.”
Under the influence of alcohol and electronic dance music, I feel a whole new kind of ease, moving my body however and wherever I feel. I haven’t felt this good—this free—in ages.
Maybe it’s the juice-laden alcohol pumping through my system. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been out like this in almost two years. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve got this hot man pressed against me in public and I can touch him, grab him, and grind against him, without a single worry as to what anyone around us will do or say. Because of these masks, we’re hidden in plain sight. And it drives me the best kind of crazy.
Spinning around, I press my backside against his front. I lean my back into his chest and grip the back of his neck with my arm. He peers down at me gazing up at him; our stares lock. Despite the barrier our masks provide, I can tell exactly how he’s feeling. It’s all in his eyes. Those normally hazel-green stunners are dilated to hell. Jet-black spheres overtake the green. The way I’m moving my body, the show I’m putting on for him, it’s having quite an effect on him.
Something hard presses against my ass, sending a grin to my face. He’s really, really enjoying the effects of me grinding on him, it seems.
“Fuck,” he grunts.
Immediately, I stop grinding against him, moving myself just a few inches away. “Getting all worked up?” I shout over the thundering beat.
“A bit,” he mouths, then chuckles. He is adorably flustered.
I turn around to face him, my head still mildly dizzy from quickly downing that gigantic cocktail and the music thundering around us. With my arms wrapped around his neck, we shuffle our feet back and forth in a slow dance. It doesn’t matter that our soundtrack is upbeat or that everyone else around us is jumping and raving. Nothing outside of me and Callum exists right now.
A few minutes pass, and then Callum takes a breath. “All good now. Thanks,” he yells over the music.
I nod and pull him by the hand back to the coconut stand for a refill. We share a few sips, then Callum looks at his phone. “Christ. We danced for nearly an hour.”
It only felt like minutes.
“Is that how you always used to dance?” His eyes bore into me.
I chuckle. “Hell no. When I went out dancing with my friends, there was a lot more jumping and a lot less grinding.”
“Ready to go again?”
I take another sip, which sends me into solidly buzzed territory. “I’m a little tipsy, actually. Any more dancing, and I’ll be on the floor.”
Callum swipes the drink out of my hand before taking a long gulp. He looks in the direction of the beach. I can’t see it from where we’re standing, but every time there’s a break in the music, I can hear the soft crash of the waves. I close my eyes, humming at the soothing sound.
“How about we take a walk? Maybe stop by the beach for a bit?”
“Okay.”
The sound of the ocean churning intensifies as we make our way down the street to Baby Beach. A gust of ocean wind hits my skin, and I smile. When we reach the sand, we take off our masks.
“You know, there’s a spot not far from here in Paia called Secret Beach,” I say. “It’s clothing optional. You could come here and do your naked swimming if you ever get tired of