MY FAVORITE TIME TO BE ON THE BEACH is after midnight, when the water is calmer, the sand cooler, and the conversation deeper. Leaning back on my palms, the heels of my feet just barely touching the sand at the edge of my blanket, I listen to the waves roll in.
The last night of Spring Break is coming to an end.
I thought it would be weird, coming with Skyler, her sisters, and Omega Chi Beta without a single other brother of my own. Somehow, though, I managed to have the best time of my life. It was never weird, it was a constant high. Funny enough, I’m one of the last ones standing tonight. It has to be at least three in the morning and the only other people on the beach that I recognize are Cassie, Ashlei, and Bo. They’re all gathered around the last beer pong table set up on Smathers Beach, playing against three Omega Chis I don’t recognize.
We started our night on Duval Street but moved the population from half the bars to the beach around midnight, wanting to take over the Key West sand one last time. Skyler and Jess turned in pretty early, both exhausted from the week, and Clinton dragged Shawna off not too long after. But I’m still buzzed, not ready to give up vacation just yet.
“Hey.” Cassie’s voice catches me off guard, I didn’t realize she’d stopped playing. Lifting my eyes up her long, lean legs, I note the way the beach fire makes the edges of her silhouetted hair glow a fierce orange. She points back at Bo and Ashlei. “I think we’re about to head out.”
I frown, nodding. “Okay. I have a key.”
“You’re not coming with us?”
I shrug, rolling my neck a little and turning back toward the water. “I don’t know, I’m not really tired.”
“Me either,” she says.
“Hang out with me?”
Even with the fire light behind her and her face hidden by the dark night sky, I see the faintest smile. “Okay. One sec.” She jogs back over to the girls, saying something I can’t quite hear before hugging them both and watching them leave. The last straggling Omega Chi brothers follow suit and then it’s just me and Cassie. As she makes her way back across the sand, a familiar ache settles in my chest. It’s the same one I’ve been dealing with every night sleeping next to her — like heartburn, but worse.
I slide over, making more room on my blanket for her to sit. She plops down, pulling her knees up to her chest and threading her arms under her thighs. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“It’s not,” I correct. “Not yet.”
She grins, laying her cheek on her knees, her green eyes curious as she watches me. She’s quiet for a while before she bursts out in a fit of laughter. “I still can’t believe you danced on stage at the Red Garter.”
“Hey, I got a few dollar bills in the waistband of my boxers that night,” I tease, throwing her a wink.
“Yeah. Until the security guards threw you out.” She laughs harder, her lightly-tanned cheeks flushing.
“I love how I’m getting picked on by the girl who took fifty-seven seconds to do a beer bong.”
“It was my first one!” She smacks my arm and I grin, pulling her head under my arm and ruffling her wild red hair. She pokes me hard in my chest until I release her, both of us still chuckling.
“It really was an amazing trip,” she breathes, stretching her legs out on the blanket, her eyes on the waves, mine glued on her. I’ve never seen her look so free before. Even with her pink lips chapped from the sun and fresh freckles on her cheeks, she’s absolutely beautiful in the low glow from the half-moon. Crossing her arms over her chest, she shivers slightly.
“Are you cold?”
“A little.”
I smile, opening my arm. “Come here.” Her green eyes assess me, as if she’s afraid of my touch. “I radiate heat like a werewolf. Seriously, come here.”
Cassie hesitates, but slides over, letting me wrap my arms around her. She settles into my grasp and sighs. “Wow. You really are warm.”
“Told you.”
A small curve meets her lips and she rests her head against my chest. The moment she does, I feel the energy change. I can’t explain it. It’s like the ocean blanketed us in an electric mist the minute her skin met mine. My throat constricts as I battle with what I should do and what I want to. I don’t know if it’s the moonlight or the sand or the energy from the night, but I give up trying to fight my urge when it comes to her. I don’t want to fight it tonight. I want it to consume me.
Attempting to swallow the lump in my throat, I lift my hand from where it was holding tight to her middle and trail it up her arm, rendering chills in my wake. She stiffens when my fingers graze the bottom of her chin and I lift it, just slightly, tilting my own down toward her. My thumb grazes her jaw and her emerald eyes flick to mine, pupils large and dark. She holds my gaze, her breaths as hard as mine when she lets her eyes fall to my lips.
“What are you doing?” she breathes, so quiet against the sound of the waves that I almost don’t hear her.
“Kissing you.”
I feel her heart stop and start again with a kick beneath my forearm as I lean in closer, my hand sliding into her hair.
“Adam,” she starts. “You’re drunk.”
“Just because I’m drunk doesn’t mean I’m stupid, and I’d be stupid not to kiss you right now.”
My hands frame her face and I pull her into me, our lips barely touching before her hand finds the center of my chest. “I have a boyfriend.”
I rest my forehead against hers, breaths sharp as they escape my open lips just centimeters from hers. “So tell me to stop.”
I wait, expecting to hear the word and praying I won’t. My hands slide back into her hair, tilting her mouth up to mine, and her eyes plead with me for something I’m not sure I can give before she lets them flutter closed. Permission granted, I close the distance, pressing my lips to hers as the energy band snaps around us.
Our first kiss flashes through my mind and I let my hands fall to her hips, pulling her closer, knowing it will never be close enough. It’s then that I realize Cassie took a piece of me with her that night and she never gave it back. I never asked for it back. And something tells me she’ll always have it, no matter what happens after this.
Her fingers weave into my hair, tugging, her back arching toward me as my tongue glides between her lips to meet her own. She whimpers, soft and sweet, and I’m thankful we’re sitting because that sound alone would have brought me to my knees. I tug at the belt loop on her shorts and she takes the cue, straddling me, every inch of her shaking as everything we’ve held back for so long breaks through the fog we’ve tried to cover it with.
I take my time, massaging her tongue with my own, peppering her neck with kisses, her jaw, sucking the skin behind her ear before finding her mouth again. My hands are everywhere, holding her while she trembles beneath each new touch. She flexes her hips against mine and I wince, my fingertips gripping her hard to stop her from doing it again. It’s too much. I know we can’t take it there, not tonight, not when she’s technically someone else’s. Tonight, I’ll kiss her, for as long as she’ll let me, and hope that, eventually, she’ll be able to give me all of her. I’ll be able to give her all of me.
Tomorrow will come, and neither of us can stop that. But for now, on a blanket in the sand, beneath a sky of stars, we have tonight.
We have tonight.