when the one in front of him was so altered. “I was bitter and closed off. Other than Tobias, I didn’t really have friends, and I didn’t want any.”
I paused and stared at the snow-capped mountains beyond him. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell Hayle the whole truth. I just didn’t know how to. Thinking back, I wasn’t even sure I understood my behavior enough to adequately explain it.
“Everything was about the minimum. I did the minimum required from me at school and at the farm and with people. For the most part, I didn’t give a shit about anyone or anything. It’s almost like I spent eight years sitting on my bed, watching my life fly by out the window. At best, I might have waved at someone who floated by, but I wasn’t participating. Not really.”
Returning my attention to Hayle, I asked, “Does that make any sense?”
“Honestly, I can’t picture it. You were relatively withdrawn when you first showed up, but you always cared. That was obvious.”
“Maybe you weren’t as correct about you, Tristin, and Leo needing me as you thought. Maybe I was the one who needed you.”
Instead of answering, he moved through the water until he was kneeling right in front of me. “How about we agree that we needed—need—each other?”
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer to me. “That, I can agree to.”
“Good.” His gaze fell to my lips. “Can we talk about something else I need? Something I hope you need too?”
“I have a better idea.”
“Oh?”
Pressing my mouth to his, I whispered against it, “Let’s stop talking.”
I felt rather than saw his responding smile. “I take it all back. You’re the brilliant one.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Thea
Hayle dragged his mouth over mine, his touch light and pace leisurely. We’d kissed before, but it was different this time. There was no guilt, no uncertainty, holding us back. I was free to love Hayle and have him love me in return.
And that knowledge was pretty damn intoxicating.
Wrapping my legs around his waist, I sank into him and the kiss. He groaned against my mouth and encircled my waist with his arms to pull me tighter against him. In no time, I felt his hardness against my center and released my own groan. With only our bathing suits between us, he was too close and nowhere near close enough.
He slid a hand up my back and tugged on the string holding the sides of my bikini top together. Feeling it release, I reached behind my neck and did the same to the strings around my neck. Hayle pulled back from the kiss and locked his stare on my face while he tugged the garment off and tossed it onto the deck behind him.
I grinned. “That was kind of sexy.”
His deep brown eyes glinted. “Only kind of? I’ll have to do better than that.”
As though I’d challenged him, he kept one hand anchored on my waist and trailed a path from my back, along my ribs, and then to my chest with the other. He slid his thumb along the underside of one breast before cupping it.
“I can’t believe I’m touching you,” he said with undisguised reverence as he followed his movements with his eyes.
“Believe it.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. I’ve spent months believing I would never get this chance, and it’s been killing me.”
His gaze caught mine, and a shiver raced through me, despite the hot water. Hayle had always exuded his own kind of intensity, but this was something else altogether. If I had to guess, it was the culmination of want turned to need, restraint dissolved to expectation, and missed opportunity transforming to reality.
“I never want this to end,” he whispered against my mouth.
“Then, let’s not let it.”
Taking my statement as the vow I’d intended it to be, he kissed me again. This time, there was nothing leisurely about the touch. He claimed my mouth and my tongue as he’d claimed my heart. All of our past doubts didn’t matter. We’d chosen to be together in spite of, and maybe because of, the struggle.
I dug my fingers into his hair and moved against his erection as he sucked my tongue into his mouth. It felt so good, and yet, I had to have more. It wasn’t a question. It was an imperative.
Tearing his mouth from mine, Hayle said, “It’s about time to get out of this bacteria factory, don’t you think?”
I sputtered out a startled laugh. “Wow. I had no idea