SHOULD I BE worried about where you’re taking me?” I said the next morning, as I pushed a wayward branch out of my way and continued up the secluded dirt path leading up an unmarked hill an hour northwest of Floyd Hills.

“Definitely. I think that head bump turned me into a serial killer.” Reid looked over his shoulder at me and grinned, and I quickly forced my eyes away from where I’d been staring at his ass. If he didn’t want me to look, he wouldn’t make me follow him, that was my way of thinking. Hiking up a secluded trail was giving me a prime view, especially with the shorts he wore showing off his leanly muscled legs. It was impossible for me not to think about those legs wrapped around me, which was making my shorts tighten around my hips—not exactly comfortable for a hike.

Stop thinking about him naked, I reminded my dick. This is a friendly day out, that’s all. Even if the tension in the car on the way up hadn’t exactly been what I would call friendly. Not with the looks Reid had been throwing my way when he thought I wasn’t looking.

“We’re almost there,” he said, then stopped and held his finger to his lips. “Listen.” Without our footsteps crunching over fallen twigs, I could hear the sound of rushing water.

“A waterfall?” I asked. “Is that where we’re going?”

Reid zipped his lips and started walking again. The sound grew louder as we traipsed along, and a few minutes later, we were rewarded with one hell of a gorgeous view.

“Wow.” That was all I could manage as I gazed up at the towering falls that looked like water pouring out of the sky. Lush green trees and plants surrounded the rocky face, and at its base, mist rose to give the place an ethereal look. It was breathtaking.

“You like things off the beaten path, so I thought you might want to see this. I mean, if you haven’t already.” Reid chewed on his lip. “It doesn’t have a yellow brick road, but…”

Holy shit. He remembers our trip up to the Hidden Land of Oz? “This is incredible,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the falls, because even as beautiful as it was, it had nothing on Reid. “I can’t believe you remembered.”

“I’m starting to remember lots of things,” he said, holding my gaze, which made me wonder if those other things involved what happened at the end of that date.

As that thought entered my mind, I almost forgot how to breathe until he gave me a small smile and inclined his head. “Come on,” he said, walking out onto the rocks that surrounded the pool of water at the base of the waterfall, and I followed.

“We’re not, uh, gonna be diving from up there, are we?”

“Definitely not,” he said. “The water’s not very deep, maybe five feet or so. One head injury is enough for me.”

Thank you, Lord. “What a shame. I wasn’t nervous about jumping or anything.”

“Of course not. Superman’s not afraid of much, right?”

What did he just say? Did he call me Superman?

I swallowed. “Right.”

Reid took off his backpack and took out an oversized towel, big enough for at least two or three people, and spread it out along a flat surface. Then he gestured around us. “Welcome to Valentine Falls.”

“Is that really the name of it?”

“Nah. This is where my mom and dad would bring us on weekends in the summer sometimes. No one ever comes up here, so we thought it was a cool little hidden spot just for us.”

Reid peeled off his shoes and socks, and then lifted his shirt up over his head, letting it fall down on top of the backpack. His lean body was creamy perfection, not a blemish or marking anywhere, and I could still feel the way his taut abs felt beneath my fingertips. I didn’t try to hide the way I watched him undress—that had always been my favorite part. Watching him slowly reveal himself or letting me do the honors. It didn’t escape my notice that after the compliment I’d given him about his red shirt yesterday that he’d chosen to wear a pair of red swim trunks. It made me want to pay him another compliment now, but held my tongue as I toed off my shoes and socks and then stripped out of my shirt.

Reid’s eyes trailed down my body, and I stood there unmoving, letting him look at me. It was almost shy the way he looked at me, like he wasn’t sure he should but couldn’t help himself. I wondered if he remembered me this way, remembered the way my body felt to him, and if it made him want to touch me again.

He backed into the water. “You coming in?”

“I’d love to, but I wish you had told me to bring swim trunks.”

Reid stopped moving, and his forehead wrinkled. “I did. Didn’t I? Shit.” Then he visibly flushed. “You don’t really need them, I suppose…”

Smirking, I enjoyed the way he tried to avert his eyes as I reached for the button of my shorts, but I caught him peeking as I lowered the zipper and then let the material fall to my feet.

Reid shook his head, a mixture of disappointment and relief on his face when my swim shorts came into view.

“That’s not right and you know it,” he said.

“I can take them off if you’d prefer?”

“No, don’t do that.” He quickly turned away to wade deeper into the water, but not fast enough that I didn’t see the way his shorts bulged in the front.

Damn. The thought of me naked had turned him on. And that had me feeling empowered, to know that the attraction Reid had held for me seemed to be making a reappearance. It was almost enough to have me kicking the swim trunks off too, but that might be pushing it for a first date. Wait, was it a date? It sure as hell felt like one to me.

I dipped my toe into the water, and was surprised to find it wasn’t freezing cold.

“I thought the water would be unbearable,” I said, stepping into the shallow depths. “This isn’t too bad, especially in this heat.”

Reid swam out past his hips before turning around. “Now you see why we came up here.”

“Mhmm. I’m surprised you wanted to share this place with an outsider.”

“Well, you’re not exactly a stranger, are you? And I knew you’d appreciate somewhere a bit hidden. Not so run over with tourists trying to take selfies and not actually seeing the beauty here at all.”

“You’ve got me pegged, all right,” I said, wincing as the water hit the edge of my shorts. “Okay, now it’s cold.”

“It’s less painful if you dive under and get it over with.”

“I don’t see you in such a hurry to go under.”

I barely got the words out before Reid ducked below the surface and emerged a few seconds later. Water dripped off him, his skin deliciously wet and glistening, and as he ran his hand through his hair, he grinned at me. “Your turn.”

Not one to back away from a challenge, I dove underwater, swam over to where he was standing, and knocked him off his feet. He was sputtering out a laugh when I stood up, and then he slapped the surface, sending a spray toward my face. Before I could retaliate, he swam out toward the waterfall, and I trailed after him.

It was too loud to hear each other under the falls, so I closed my eyes and let the water beat down over me, washing away all the months of heartbreak and sadness, of anxiety and fear. All the things that had tortured me in my waking hours and again while I slept. The nightmare of Reid forgetting who I was, the reality that I would never be a part of his life when he woke up…I let all that suffering pour out of me. I didn’t need to be afraid anymore—my gut told me that. The minute Reid had come over to apologize and open himself up to understanding us was the minute I knew all hope wasn’t lost. And the more time we spent together, the more I could see the change in him. The way he looked at me had gone from disoriented to curiosity to interest. His body responded to mine even in the smallest ways, the briefest of touches; the electric current that had always run through us had come back stronger than before. But this time, I didn’t have any expectations. I was simply happy to just be with him. Just be.

When I opened my eyes, Reid was watching me through the curtain of water, and my dick instantly reacted. I stepped out of the falls and pushed my hair back off my face to see his eyes dilate, and was that…hunger?

“You’re”—he slowly shook his head—“really something else. I’m not sure what the right word is.”

There was no way he couldn’t hear the way my heart faltered for a few beats, but I tried to brush off what he was trying to tell me, because otherwise, I wasn’t sure I could keep my hands away from him. “Persistent? Ginger? Bonkers?”

“Beautiful,” he said, the word coming out shaky, but without an ounce of sarcasm or a trace of humor. He stood utterly still, memorizing every line of my face, my chest, my arms, and the craziest thing in that moment was that I believed him. The most striking man I’d ever seen thought I was beautiful. He kept blowing me away at every turn.

“Reid, you can’t keep looking at me that way.”

His lips tipped up. “How am I looking at you?”

I let out a groan and swam back a bit. “Like you don’t want to take things slow.”

“So I can’t look at you now, huh? Does that mean it’s time for truth or dare instead, then? That’s going slow, right?”

I snorted. “Not if our past history is anything to go by, it’s not.”

Reid dragged his lip between his teeth. “Hmm. You’re right about that.”

Ahh, so he remembered our past conversation and the after that came with it. That meant truth or dare was too dangerous a game to play until he knew for certain that something more was what he wanted.

“Well, if you’re in the mood to confess, there is something I’ve been wondering about,” I said.

“You already know what I look like naked.”

With a groan, I plunged back under the water, and when I came back up, I said, “You are not making this easy on me.”

Reid smiled, that knowing smile that said he knew what effect he had on me, and if he’d only come a bit closer, he would feel the evidence of my arousal. I needed to veer to another subject and fast.

“The first time I ever saw you, it was at Joe’s and you wore this pin on your suit jacket. Like right here on the lapel,” I said, running my fingers over the spot. “I never saw you wear it again, and I always wondered if it meant something to you.”

“Damn. You really did notice me, huh?”

I rolled my eyes, but knew I sported a cheesy grin on my face. “Well, you don’t see many guys wearing one.”

“No, I guess you don’t,” he agreed as he dropped lower so that his shoulders were covered. “It belonged to my grandmother. She was obsessed with birds. She had about fifty birdhouses in her backyard, which was huge, at least a couple of acres. Every day she’d go out there and make sure the feeders were full and dry, and then she’d sit on her back porch and point out what kind they were to whoever was with her that day.” His lips quirked up as a faraway look entered his eyes. “Her favorite was the cardinal. She always said those birds were your passed loved ones coming to visit, so all the paintings inside featured them, and she swore my grandfather came to sit on her porch railing every day. He’d given her so much jewelry over the years, but her favorite thing to wear was the silver pair of cardinal wings he’d had engraved with their wedding date. She gave it to me before she passed, and I always wear it for shows or for good luck. I’m guessing if you saw me wearing it, then it was my first day teaching.”

“Yeah, you would’ve needed luck for that. Damn kids,” I said, chuckling as a shiver racked my body.

“Cold?”

“Isn’t it supposed to warm up the more you swim?”

“Not this one. I think there’s a fifteen-minute max. Kinda like a reverse hot tub.”

After we got out of the water, we stretched out on the towel, side by side, soaking in the vitamin D as the sun dried us off. Even with room to spare around us, Reid had scooted in close enough that our arms barely touched, and somehow, it was enough. Completely content, I felt myself drifting off into sleep slowly, as I thought about the man beside me. It was an absolutely perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky. No one else around. Nothing could’ve been better—

“Ollie?”

“Hmm?”

“Am I still your Bluebird?”

—except for that. My eyes opened, spots dotting my vision as I pushed up onto my elbow. Reid stared up at me, his hand shielding the rays, and I found that I was…speechless.

His lips quirked at my stunned expression. “Nothing to say?”

I could only blink at him, and he chuckled. “I always liked that nickname. When I remembered the night at the bowling alley, I didn’t understand what it meant, but then I heard your voice telling me to hold on, telling me how you came up with it. I couldn’t see you, but I heard you.”

Without thinking, I put my hand on the side of his neck and ran my thumb over his lower lip. “You will always be my Bluebird.” I felt his chest hitch as I leaned in and pressed a kiss against his forehead. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

Fully dried off now, and with the sexual tension creeping back up, I knew if I lay there anymore, I was liable to take this much further than it needed to go, and he wasn’t ready for that.

“I think I’m gonna go cool off,” I said, getting to my feet, and I didn’t bother trying to hide the hard-on I knew was on prominent display. He knew how I felt about him, just as he knew I would never push him to do anything he wasn’t ready for.

The water felt even colder after having sunned for a few minutes, but I hadn’t gotten past my shins when I heard Reid behind me.

“Ollie?”

I turned around to see him standing at the edge of the towel. “Yeah?”

He took a few steps forward, his stride purposeful and his hands coming up like he was going to reach out for me, but at the last second, he hesitated and dropped his arms by his sides.

There were one of two things I could do. One, I could pretend I hadn’t noticed what he’d been about to do, or two, I could say fuck it and go for it. After all, Reid wasn’t looking at me with indecision. No, he was looking at me like he was dying to make the first move but couldn’t figure out how to do it, and that was what made my decision for me: I fucking went for it.

I reached for him, my hands going to either side of his neck to bring his mouth to mine, and his lips instantly parted. I didn’t hold back as Reid’s arms wrapped tightly around me, keeping us crushed together, his short nails scouring my back like he couldn’t get close enough. My tongue dipped inside his mouth, and I savored my first taste of him like I’d never had a chance before.

It was like coming home. The way his body fit so perfectly against mine, the way we moved in sync to take greedy sucks and licks of each other…and I knew it would be the same way once he was back in my bed.

“Ollie,” he said, gripping my hair tight before diving in to tangle our tongues once more. His cock punched against mine, rock hard and begging for attention, but even though I was dying to get on my knees to suck him senseless, my self-restraint won out. I’d waited too long, had wanted him too much, and I wasn’t gonna fuck this up. He was too important to me to rush things, and I wanted him to be sure of me, not just caught up in the moment.

But one thing was for damn certain—Reid Valentine was mine.