“T

his is ridiculous,” I groaned. “I look like a bag lady.”

The curtain made a swishing noise as I opened it, stepping out of the dressing room at the tiny shop that sat along the main drag of Seaside.

“You look like an Oregonian,” Aiden replied.

I looked down at the baggy sweatshirt that said Seaside across the front, and the black yoga pants that also had the word Seaside posted over my ass in rainbow colors.

“Unfortunately, all they have for shoes are crocs or flip-flops.”

He held up a pair of both, cringing a little, like he understood how horrible the choices were.

“Why do I need different shoes?”

“You can’t wear high heels where we’re going. Crocs will work better, but they’re fucking ugly,” he said with a laugh.

“I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing crocs, Aiden. I’ll take the flip-flops.”

“But it’s cold out.”

“I don’t care.” I snatched the flip-flops out of his hands, unwilling to even consider wearing the other ones. I slipped them on and then gathered up the clothes I’d worn to work, and we headed to the register.

The store was full of souvenirs. T-shirts, sweatshirts, personalized license plates and keychains, knickknacks, toys, and over-priced beach accessories.

I knew better than to argue with Aiden about who would be paying for the outfit change. And honestly, I didn’t want to spend my money on those clothes anyway. I’d never wear them again, so I let my eyes wander, my attention coming to a spinning rack of cheap jewelry. There were earrings, rings, and bracelets. One ring caught my attention and I took it from the display, putting it on the ring finger of my right hand, then examining how it looked on my hand by holding it out and tilting my head—the only way to look at a ring.

It was a simple silver ring, but it looked hammered, and there was an open heart formed from the silver. It was pretty. Simple and nothing fancy, but sweet.

“We’ll take the ring too.”

Aiden’s voice pulled me out of my haze and I turned to him just as he was handing his card to the cashier.

“Aiden, no. I don’t need the ring.”

“You like it. I can tell. You smiled when you saw how it looked on your finger. Plus, it gives me another reason to call you sweetheart,” he said with a wink.

My belly flipped at all the different thoughts running through my mind.

I liked that he wanted to call me sweetheart.

I liked that he didn’t take no for an answer sometimes.

I liked that he wanted to buy me jewelry, even if it was an inexpensive piece from a twirly rack at a souvenir shop. I was almost certain I wouldn’t love a diamond ring more.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling wider than I could remember in a long time.

“See? That smile makes it all worth it.”

My cheeks heated and I knew I was blushing, so I turned away. But not before I snuck another glance at the simple yet beautiful ring on my finger.

We stashed my clothes in his truck and then he checked his watch.

“We’ve got to hurry. They’re going to close soon.”

He took my hand and led me toward the ocean.

The skin-to-skin contact took me by surprise. Not only because I wasn’t expecting it, but I definitely wasn’t prepared to enjoy it.

I liked his rough hands against mine. My smooth skin against his callused hands was oddly arousing. I wanted to know what his hands felt like against other parts of me. His palm was huge, completely enveloping mine, and that was sexy too.

I spent most of my twenties trying to make sure I felt powerful. Being a female business owner was an uphill battle sometimes, especially when dealing with other businesses that were run by men. I strived to never cower or let a man make me feel inferior.

So, it was odd to enjoy being less powerful than Aiden. There was a strange security that came with just his hand wrapped around mine.

I could handle myself and navigate through the world on my own, but I couldn’t deny how much I liked the idea of having Aiden by my side.

He led me toward a building that sat along the boardwalk, facing the ocean. My eyes trailed over the horizon, wishing it weren’t so cloudy so I could see the sun setting on the water.

He pulled a door open for me, motioning for me to enter first.

“What is this place?”

“This,” he said as he reached to his back pocket for his wallet, “is the Seaside Aquarium. It’s not the fanciest aquarium on the coast, but I’ve been coming here since I was a kid.”

He told the woman sitting at the register he needed admission for two and then we walked through some old-school style turnstiles.

The aquarium was, in actuality, one big room lined with a bunch of fish tanks. There were a lot of them, though. We took our time wandering around the perimeter, looking at all the different kinds of fish, stopping every now and then to read about a particularly interesting species.

“What are those?” I asked, pointing toward the group of tanks in the middle of the room. They were set up in a rectangle with an employee standing in the space between them all. There were a few families at the aquarium, most with smaller children, and a few groups were sprinkled around the tables in the middle of the room.

“The touch tanks,” Aiden replied.

“Touch tanks? Sounds dirty.” I laughed.

“Wanna touch?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows at me.

“Maybe.” I shrugged one shoulder.

He winked, then took my hand again, leading me toward the center of the room.

“Hi, there,” the employee greeted us. He looked like he was in his late teens, probably still in high school. “Feel free to touch anything in the tank. Please don’t remove the starfish if they’re attached to anything and only hold the crabs over the water, not the concrete.” He’d clearly given his spiel a million times, but he still did it with a pleasant attitude.

“We can pick up the crabs?” I asked. There wasn’t even a small part of me that wanted to reach into the tank and pick up anything.

“If you can catch them,” he replied with a smile.

“Go on, Rose. Touch something.” Aiden’s tone was clearly a dare.

I pushed up the sleeve of my too big sweatshirt and slowly reached into the open-top tank.

The water was colder than I expected, but I didn’t let that stop me.

I reached for something pink and puffy, but ended up yelping when my finger made contact.

“It feels so weird,” I cried out while laughing at my own behavior. “Okay, I can do this,” I whispered to myself, slowly reaching back into the water.

“That’s a sea anemone,” Aiden informed.

“It’s sticky and slimy at the same time.”

“Sea anemones are covered in nematocysts. To us the feel sticky, but to their prey it’s a deadly sting. Then they use the tentacles to pass the prey to their mouths.” Clearly, this young man knew his touch tank facts.

“You’re so brave, Rose,” Aiden teased.

“I don’t see you touching anything.”

“Which one is the biggest crab?”

“Uh, probably goliath over here,” the kid said, motioning to the next tank over. “There he is.”

I watched as Aiden fearlessly, without hesitation, reached into the tank and then pulled out the biggest hermit crab I’d ever seen.

“Don’t worry, Rose,” he said, smiling widely. “I’ve done this plenty of times before.”

His words had so many effects on me. They irritated me, they made me laugh, and finally and most importantly, they totally turned me on.

Clearly, he implied that he knew how to handle more than just crabs, and suddenly the idea of Aiden handling me was all I could think about.

I wasn’t used to being so attracted to anyone. Sure, there were men I thought were handsome, but never had I ever wanted to be naked with someone more than I wanted to be naked with him.

It was bizarre. And wonderful. And confusing. Also, scary. Scary as fuck.

We spent the next thirty minutes touching everything in the tank we could. We laughed when a crab escaped from Aiden’s hand, flopping back into the water with a plop, and I screamed again when a sea urchin poked me.

“Come on,” he said finally, after we’d seen all there was to see. “There’s one last part I want to show you.”

He took me around the corner to where there was another cashier.

“Two, please,” he said, handing her a ten-dollar bill.

“Toss them over the top of the fence and do not stick your fingers through the grate,” she replied grumpily without even glancing at us.

She was less friendly than the kid at the touch tank. She reached under the counter and I heard what sounded like a refrigerator opening, and then she handed Aiden two containers with small fish cut in half.

“What the hell are those for?” I asked, unable to keep the disgust from my face.

“You’ll see.”

We walked up a ramp and he handed me one of the containers of fish. The ground was wet and it smelled, well, fishy. As soon as we were high enough up the ramp I could see we were standing beside a giant tank filled with water. It must have been thirty feet long and ten feet wide.

“Ready?” he asked, an excited smile on his face.

“As I’ll ever be.”

He picked up a fish head and tossed it over the fence and into the tank. Suddenly there were at least five or six seals, all trying to reach the piece of fish first. And then the chaos began.

As soon as the seals realized we were there and we had food for them they instantly began performing, doing anything they could to get our fish.

One was rolling in the water like a synchronized swimmer, one was racing back and forth along the wall, and a few were just splashing us.

I screamed as soon as the first drops of water hit me, completely unprepared to be drenched.

All the seals were barking, yelling at us, trying to get our attention.

“Rose, you’ve got to feed them,” Aiden yelled over all their noise.

“You feed them!” I scrambled behind his back, trying to use him as a shield for all the water they were splashing our way.

He threw a few pieces of fish into the tank, trying to reach all of them fairly, giving each seal a chance to get a fish, but they just came back, splashing for more.

“I’m out of ammo,” he yelled, laughing through every word.

“Here,” I said, reaching my container of fish out to him, still trying to use his massive body to my advantage.

His hand wrapped around my wrist and he pulled me in front of him, our positions reversed.

I screamed and laughed, now directly in the line of fire.

“Oh my gosh!”

It was like it was raining, they were splashing so much.

“Jesus, Rose. Feed the freaking seals!”

“Fine!” I yelled, throwing the entire container over the edge of the fence.

There was a flurry of activity as all the seals dove and scrambled for the poor fish, and water went everywhere. Laughing, I turned toward Aiden, burying my face in his flannel shirt.

He was laughing too, his chest shaking against me as his arms wound around my shoulders. He turned so his back was to the tank and he took the brunt of the splashing.

The seals were relentless, trying to get our attention for more food, so he picked me up, wrapping his arms tightly around me, and carried me back down the ramp, both of us laughing the entire way.

When he finally placed me back on my feet, we were both drenched with smelly fish water.

“That was insane,” I said, shaking my hands and trying not to touch any part of my body.

“They do that every time.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?” I laughed.

“Because then you wouldn’t have done it.”

He was right. If I knew they were going to toss smelly water at me, there was no way he would have gotten me up that ramp.

“Come on, we can wash up over there,” he said, nodding toward a counter with sinks.

We both used copious amounts of soap to wash the fishy smell from our hands and forearms, but our clothes still smelled. I used paper towels to get as dry as I could, but there was only so much I could do with single ply, dollar-store paper towels.

“Okay, one more thing before we move on to our next adventure.”

“What now? Are we going to wrestle some alligators?”

“Interesting suggestion, Rose. I didn’t realize you were so adventurous.”

“Ha. Ha.”

“No, we aren’t wrestling alligators. Or any other animals for that matter. There’s just something I get every time I come to the aquarium. It’s kind of a tradition.”

I let out a sigh, pretending to be put out by his silly rituals, but I followed him more than willingly. I liked a lot that he was including me in his life in that way.

He took my hand again, making me smile, and led me to the gift shop we’d passed on the way in. He didn’t peruse the shelves, though. He walked with purpose straight back to some sort of machine.

“Ever pressed a penny?”

I shook my head. “Can’t say that I have.”

“Really? That’s odd. I’ve done this a million times, it seems. Well, you just put two quarters in here and a penny, and then crank the arm.”

I blinked up at him, unsure of what he was talking about.

“Here, I’ll show you.” He put the coins in their designated slots and chose one of four designs and then turned the crank. After a dozen or so rotations, a coin made a tinkling noise as it fell into the receptacle at the bottom. Aiden reached down and pulled out an oblong-shaped coin and handed it to me.

“It’s the penny I put in there,” he said, his voice sounding more like an excited child’s than a grown man’s.

“It’s warm,” I noticed, turning the penny over in my hand.

“And look,” he said, flipping it to one particular side. “The picture of the seal is embossed in it.”

I looked closer and sure enough, the seal design he’d picked was pressed into one side of the coin.

“That’s so neat!” Now I sounded like a child. “What a fantastic little souvenir.”

“Want one?” he asked, his smile so breathtaking it was difficult to even form an answer.

“Sure,” I managed with a small nod.

His hand dove into his pocket again and he put the necessary coins in their designated slots.

“Pick which one you want.”

I cranked the arm until it hovered over the same seal design he’d picked. “I can’t imagine I’ll ever forget feeding the seals, but this will guarantee I remember forever.”

He inserted the coins and then told me to turn the crank. At first it was simple, but after five or six turns it got progressively harder until I was really struggling. “How in the world do children do this?” I asked as I pulled down on the arm with force.

Aiden placed his hand over mine and pulled the arm down the rest of the way until I heard the tinkling that told me the coin had fallen free. “They just need a little help sometimes,” he replied with a wink.

I bent down and collected my coin, flipping it in my hand, inspecting it.

“I love it. Thank you.”

When my gaze met his, I was shocked by the softness there. He liked giving me the tiny gift, something other people might view as insignificant. It was literally worth nothing, but it was the nicest gift anyone had ever given me. I didn’t have my purse with me as Aiden had convinced me to leave it hidden under the seat of his truck—he clearly knew we were going to get drenched—so I grasped it between my fingers tightly, not wanting to accidentally misplace it.

“I’ve got a few extra shirts in my truck. Let’s go get changed so we can head to the next activity.”

“There’s more?”

“Of course there’s more. I know the seals are entertaining, but if you’ve given me the day, I’m going to take full advantage. And I won’t end it smelling like fish.”

“All right,” I agreed all too easily, and followed him back to his truck, a smile on my face the entire way.

“I always keep a few spare shirts in the truck since my job can get dirty sometimes,” he said, pulling a small duffle bag out from under the backseat of his cab. “Here.” He handed me a flannel shirt and then immediately started unbuttoning his.

I was frozen for a moment, completely caught up in watching Aiden unbutton, but when he smirked at me, I focused on myself. Well, I tried, anyway. Pulling the sweatshirt over my head, I aimed my gaze low, knowing if I looked up I’d get caught ogling. I’d never wanted to watch a man take off his clothes as much as I wanted to see that flannel disappear off Aiden.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw his flannel shirt hit the seat in the cab of the truck and my eyes flashed to his torso, disappointed to see white cotton there instead of bare skin. I quickly shoved my arms through the flannel, enjoying the softness of the fabric more than I thought I would. It was warm, too. Something I wanted to curl up in bed wearing. While it rained. Listening to a fire crack a roar in a hearth.

I pulled my hair out of the collar, then watched as Aiden finished buttoning up his own shirt.

“Ready?” His eyes found mine, his smile tipping up on one side, and for the first time in my entire adult life, I was.

“Yes,” I breathed, completely aware that my answer was to a different question.

He took my hand again. We’d held hands so many time already that day it was beginning to feel normal. We walked back toward to ocean, only the sound of the waves in the air. It was dark already, but not too cold out.

We walked along the boardwalk and my eyes were drawn to tiny bursts of orange light out in the distance. People on the beach were having campfires and the glow of the flames were soft and soothing when coupled with the lull of the ocean.

We came to a cement staircase that led down to the sand and Aiden sat, unlacing his boots.

“You might want to take your shoes off.”

“We’re going out there?” I asked, motioning toward the roar of the sea.

“You said you’d never been to the ocean before. Of course we’re going out there.”

“I am not going into the ocean at night. For a multitude reasons.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’re not going swimming. It’s too cold for that anyway. But we can put our feet in.”

“If you pull any shenanigans and I end up soaked, I’ll find a way to get you back.”

“Trust me, Rose. The first time I get you soaked, you’ll enjoy it.”

I choked at his words, surprised by his forwardness, but also so desperate to experience what they promised.

He didn’t wink to indicate he was joking. In fact, the smile was absent from his face. His gaze was locked on mine, his face serious, his expression...needy? Was that a thing? He looked like he needed me. Almost as though if he didn’t get me soon, he’d, well, I’m not sure. But from the way he looked it seemed as though he was determined to get me in the end.

“Come on,” he finally said, standing and placing his shoes right next to the staircase.

“You’re just going to leave your shoes there?”

“No one wants my work boots. And your flip-flops were, like, five bucks. Besides, I’m planning on needing my hands.”

Oh, my.

“Okay,” I gulped.

We walked in silence toward the sound of crashing waves, and eventually they came into view. White caps breaking on inky black water. The sand went from being cool, dry, and unstable, to wet, cold, and solid. The waves were getting louder and my heart was beating faster, anticipating the moment when my feet would hit the water.

Suddenly, my feet and ankles were stinging with freezing cold water and the ground beneath me felt as though it was moving.

“Oh, my, gosh,” I stammered, my entire body locking up at the shock of the water. “That’s really cold.”

“Shit, yeah. I forgot how frigid it feels at first. It’ll get better. Give it a minute.”

I laughed, squealing out of shock, trying to force myself to get past the almost painful sensation of the cold water against my skin.

“Nope,” I shouted, giving up just moments later and running back to dryer land.

“Hey,” he yelled after me, laughing. “You can’t run away from your first steps in the ocean.”

“Yes, I can. That’s stupid-cold. I can admire the ocean from the dry sand.”

I heard his footsteps coming after me and another yelp jumped out of me, running away out of instinct, giggling like a silly schoolgirl being chased on the playground.

“Aiden, no!” I screamed as I ran into the dark oblivion. I’d never seen such darkness before. There were no streetlamps, and a thick cloud cover, so not even the moon was lighting the night. I could hear him coming after me, closing the distance I’d put between us with my puny head start. I yelped again when his arms closed around my waist, lifting me into the air and spinning me around.

“Oh, Rose, you can’t run from me,” he said as he carried me back toward the water. “I’ll always catch you.”

“Aiden, please, don’t put me in the water,” I begged as we neared the frigid sea.

“I’m willing to accept bribes.”

I wiggled in his arms, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good and that any attempt at escape was futile.

“What kind of bribe?” I panted, out of breath from our silly game of chase.

“I’ll let you down on dry sand if you promise to kiss me.”

“You want our first kiss to be forced?” I goaded, even though my heart jumped in my chest at the idea.

“You say our first kiss like you’re sure there’ll be more than one.”

His words made my heart pound and other parts of my body vibrate. All of it was a lovely feeling, if not a little scary at how much I enjoyed it.

“Not if you don’t put me down.”

“Promise me.”

“Fine,” I exhaled, pretending to be irritated by his antics. “I promise I’ll kiss you.”

“Tonight.”

“Tonight.”

He promptly turned around and walked me back to the sand that wasn’t too wet, far away from the water, and placed me down gently. His hands slid back around my waist as I got my footing, his fingers gripping me through the flannel. I wanted his hands to stay there, to turn me, for him to take his kiss, but he just let his hands rest on my hips, neither one of us moving away.

I leaned back, letting him take some of my weight, wanting the warmth of him against me, even if he still felt far away. Too far.

“There’s one more thing I want to show you,” he whispered, his breath against my ear making me shiver.

“More?”

He’d already shown me so much. What more could there be?

“Just one last stop, then we can head back to Portland.”

The idea of going back home made me frown. I wasn’t ready for our meeting to be over. The heat of his chest disappeared from my back and he stepped up beside me, linking his fingers with mine. We walked back toward the boardwalk quietly. When we were about fifty yards from the hotels lining the beach, he pulled me away from the direction of the stairs.

“Where are we going?” Confusion set in and I looked up at him with a questioning glance.

“You’ll see.”

“So mysterious,” I teased.

“I’m just looking for any reason to keep you to myself for as long as I can. I know as soon as we get back to Portland you’ll disappear on me again.”

His words, although he said them playfully, struck something inside me.

“I don’t disappear.”

“You do. You ran away from me so fast the first time we met. If there’d been cell service at the site you would’ve never gotten in my truck.”

“I didn’t know you then.”

“And that’s okay. I hope you don’t make a habit of accepting rides from strange men, but even after that you’ve kept your distance.”

I thought about his words, my brain ticking through the days since we’d met, cataloguing all the time I’d spent thinking about him—or trying not to—and how my first instinct was, in fact, to push him away.

“I’m not good at this.”

“At what?”

“Dating? I don’t even know if that’s what this is. And it’s not just dating, it’s relationships in general. Romantic or otherwise.” The words spilled out of me and for some reason I didn’t want to stop them. Somehow, on that beach in the dark, it was okay to tell Aiden things I’d never told anyone before. Not even my closest friends.

“I have a few girlfriends, but those were all girls I met in college who I was forced to socialize with because we shared a suite. I am not a people person. I’ve never been able to just make friends. Or date. Or hold normal conversations.”

“Unless you’re the boss, right? You don’t have any trouble at work.”

“Work is different. I’m in my element there. I know what I’m doing. When it comes to people, to you in particular, I feel like I’m drowning.”

“I hate that you feel that way. And I hate that it’s me who causes it.”

“It’s not you,” I tried to reassure him, giving his hand a squeeze. “I’m just not cut out for this.”

He tugged on my hand, pulling me back toward him gently, stopping in the middle of the sand.

“Stop it,” he said, his tone firm and strong. The timbre of his voice made my body do all kinds of delicious things. “Maybe you’re not adept at personal relationships, but you’re not incapable. And, by the way, not being social isn’t the worst character flaw someone could have. There are plenty of worse traits, trust me.”

I shrugged, looking up at him. “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything.”

“Things can change, if you want them to.”

I wanted things to change, so badly. Never had I wanted to be comfortable around people more than when I was with Aiden. And the fact of the matter was, Aiden did make me comfortable. Something about him, about being around him, made me come out of my shell a little. It was scary. And wonderful.

“I think you’re pretty perfect just the way you are,” he whispered. “But I’m more than happy to show you the way of dating adults.”

“I think you’ve already gotten a pretty good start.”

His face was so near to mine, if I just pushed up a little I could touch my lips to his, give him the kiss I promised. The idea made me so crazy nervous, my heartbeat was thundering through my body. Just when I’d gathered enough courage to do it, rising ever so slightly on the balls of my feet and tilting my head slightly, he moved in quickly, pressing his mouth to the shell of my ear.

“Not yet, sweetheart.”

His voice was soft and teasing, like he enjoyed the fact that I was just about to kiss him.

“We still have an activity. No distracting me with your mouth.”

Again, his words sent an exhilarating shiver up and down my spine.

“Come on,” he said, pulling me through the sand.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Here it is,” he announced as he came to a stop, holding out his free hand toward the hotels lining the beach.

I looked around, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

“Here what is?”

“The swing set.”

I squinted, trying to see through the inky darkness, when the metal structure finally came into focus. There, in the middle of the sand, was an honest-to-goodness swing set built from metal poles and chains. It looked old, like it had been put to good use. And even though the beach was the last place I’d expected to see a swing set, it looked oddly like it belonged there.

“I’ll give you a push,” Aiden said playfully. He dropped my hand and pushed the small of my back gently toward the apparatus.

“I can’t remember the last time I was on a swing. Probably elementary school.” I sat on the swing, gripping the chains tightly. I yelped when Aiden pulled me back suddenly, but then laughed as he sent me swishing through the cool evening air, my legs instinctively straightening as I leaned back, my eyes trained on the dark, cloudy sky.

“You want an underdoggy?”

“No,” I cried out, laughing as he pushed me harder, sending my higher into the air. “This is high enough.”

I couldn’t have been more than ten feet off the ground at the highest point, but it was so dark and the endless black sea stretched out in front of me, making it seem as though I was about to float into an never-ending abyss.

“Jump,” Aiden called out.

“What? No! You’re crazy,” I cried as I leaned back in the swing, my hair swishing through the sand as my head skimmed the ground.

“You’ve never jumped off a swing?”

“Not since I was nine and fearless.”

I pulled myself up, leaning forward and bending my knees back as the swing changed direction, heading back toward Aiden. As I reached the top of the arc, I felt his hand very low on my back, gently pushing me forward.

“You can totally do it. It’s like riding a bike. You never forget how to jump off a swing. Plus, you’ll land in sand. Almost impossible to get hurt.”

The idea was thrilling. Even more thrilling than just swinging in the middle of the beach in the darkness with salty air whipping against my skin and flowing through my hair. I was afraid, but the excitement was overpowering.

Could I really fling myself into the unknown? Launch myself from this safe swing and hope I landed on my feet? Trust myself enough to know what I was doing?

It took a few more moments for me to gather enough courage, and each time I swung back toward Aiden I felt his reassuring hand against me, giving me strength even if it wasn’t intentional.

I counted backward from five, my heart thundering harder with each beat, and when the swing hit its farthest point, I leapt.

I also screamed.

Loud.

I looked like a starfish flying off that swing, arms and legs splayed out, squealing as I soared through the air, my hair crazy in the wind.

To my astonishment, I landed feet first in the sand. Not surprisingly, after I hit, the momentum continued and I fell forward, chest hitting the sand with a thud. It was a hard impact, but Aiden was right. I wasn’t injured.

I was delirious, though.

My first instinct was to laugh. It was either laugh or scream some more, and laughing seemed less crazy, so I laughed. I laughed maniacally, until I could hardly breathe. Until there wasn’t much sound coming from me at all, just gasps and wheezing.

“Jesus, Rose. Are you all right? I didn’t think you’d really jump.” He collapsed onto his knees in the sand next to me, his eyes assessing.

“Me neither,” I managed to rasp out on a breath between laughter.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.” More laughter surrounded the word and I rolled onto my side, holding one hand to my stomach and the other to my chest where my lungs ached from laughing so hard.

When the urge to laugh finally fell away, I rolled to my back, exhausted and exhilarated, my hands resting on my stomach, the cool sand beneath me, Aiden still by my side. I took in a much-needed deep breath and let it out, smiling all the while.

“You’re beautiful.”

My head snapped to the side, looking at Aiden, who was staring unabashedly at me, now lying on the sand, head propped up on his hand.

“You’re beautiful all the time, Rose. Prim and proper, wound up tight, or wild and uninhibited, lying on the sand at night, not a care in the world.” He reached out and touched a strand of my hair that had fallen across my forehead. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

I rolled back to my side to face Aiden, and before I could think too much about it or analyze it to death, I moved closer to him until our chests met. I looked up into his eyes and his fingers moved down my cheek, hooking behind my neck, giving me all the permission I needed.

He waited for me to move in, let me make the first move, pressing my lips softly against his. Gentle at first. Tentative and unsure. Slowly tasting him.

He let me lead the kiss, let me kiss him, get acquainted to the way his body pressed up against mine, get used to the fact that the closer I got the more I never wanted to be away from him again.