The house is a ranch, an older model beach house with windows that overlook the ocean. It isn’t flashy new construction, and it’s not on the best plot of beach. But to me, it’s perfect.

Two bedrooms and two and a half baths, a kitchen that was designed in the nineteen eighties, and a deck that you could see the tide from. It was everything I’d wanted when I moved back, and now I had it.

Well, I was renting it. When you’d gone to school for the last nine years, it was kind of hard to work towards any kind of savings. And I wasn’t about to take my parent’s money to buy a house, although they’d offered. No, I was happy to rent my little beach hut and live off Goodwill furniture. I wasn’t fancy, I didn’t need much else.

“What is this place?” Blake questions me as we get out of the car.

The sunlight is turning orange and pink with the night hour, and she looks like a beautiful painting against the sky.

“This, pretty girl, is my rental house.” I beam proudly at the ranch that is missing some tiles on the roof.

She laughs, clapping her hands. “I always knew you were a surfer dude. Living in some old ranch out in the middle of the beach. And in Duck no less! You would.”

Duck was the town just south of Corolla, and one that was very much filled with tourists. But this strip of beach barely had any houses on it, and I’d likely be the only year-round resident. I kind of liked it that way.

“Come into my humble abode.” I took her hand and pulled her toward the front door.

She giggled and it was like music to my ears. Unlocking the front door, which stuck a little but I’d fix it, I didn’t let go of her hand as we stepped over the threshold.

Giving her the tour, I took her around to see the shabby decor. I had one old couch in the living room that faced a small TV propped up on a dinner tray. In the kitchen was a mismatched set of table and chairs. I was eating off of paper plates and plastic silverware as I hadn’t been able to buy anything of the sort yet.

When we got to my bedroom, I opened the door.

“How bachelor of you.” Blake crooked an eyebrow at me and walked in to sit on my mattress on the floor. “Hey, it’s still pretty comfortable.”

She looked like an angel, sitting on the edge of my mattress, my white comforter and sheets tossed from my sleep the night before. Her blond hair was wind-swept and up in a ponytail, the edges of her face framed with small wisps of it. Her face, bare of makeup, was so natural and beautiful that it almost hurt me to look at her.

I couldn’t help what happened next. Moving slowly, and keeping my eyes locked on her, I sank down to where she sat.

And leaned her back, covering my body with hers.

At the same time, I mold my mouth over her own, nibbling at her lips, feasting on their cherry taste. Her moan is my reward, vibrating on my tongue and down my spine straight to my groin.

It seems like eons since I’ve held her this close, since my heart has felt this heavy with happiness and desire. She twines her arms around my neck, gently tugging at my hair. Her tongue does the most erotic dance with mine, and suddenly, my clothes feel too suffocating.

But I need to see her.

“I want to see you. All of you.” I move my hand down to the zipper of her fleece, hesitating as if I’m asking permission.

Blake gulps, and nods.

With slow precision, and agony to my thickening tool, I pull it down. Stripping that off of her, I start on her long sleeve shirt.

I make an art form of undressing her, layer by layer peeling back the walls we’ve put up between one another. With each article of clothing removed, Blake’s breathing picks up. With every kiss of my lips on a new piece of skin, her body squirms.

Here, in the dark, we can start over. In this house that holds no memories for us, we can create new ones.

She matches my pace, taking off the clothes that hinder my passion for her. There is a wild, vibrant energy surrounding us, trapping us in a bubble of lust and intimacy.

“There are no words to describe how beautiful you are. Beautiful is not even a word that should apply to you, because you are so much more.”

I breathe the words as I take her in, all of that creamy skin, vulnerable and nude for my eyes only. Our eyes clash, and I see her giving me all permissions. The gift of her trust is even more special than the gift of her body, and I swallow thinking about how big this responsibility is. But this time, I will hold on to it even if it kills me.

I make love to her body with my lips and teeth, pausing to explore every inch of her. “It’s been too long. I’m a starving man when it comes to you.”

“Yes, Carson. I need you … there.” Her eyes hold a plea.

And I answer it willingly. My body, the air hitting my hardness and making me hiss, moves down to the apex of her thighs. And when I dip my tongue in for that first glorious lick, I nearly pass out from the shock of it. She tastes like my prayers, the memories of my past, and the hope of the future.

I work her, listening to her moans and mutters, the way she chants my name like it’s the only word she knows.

“Let go, Blake. Let me feel everything you have for me.” I repeat the words she always needed to hear to lose herself in the past, and she comes undone.

She’s the most gorgeous, ethereal being as she drowns in her orgasm, her hands gripping at the white sheets. I catalogue it in my brain, memorize the look on her face so I can think about it in my dreams for a lifetime.

“I waited so long, so long for you,” she whispers quietly, a tear in her eye when I cover her with my body again.

“I’m here now. We’re here now. I’m never letting you go again.” I cradle her head, searching her eyes like I’ll find the meaning of life.

And maybe I will. Since she gives my life the only meaning it needs.

“I’m sorry it took me so long …” She stroked a hand over my jaw.

“Shh. None of that now. Because … I love you.”

I don’t give her a chance to answer me with her own declaration, because I don’t want to hear it in this moment. I want to see it. I want to make love to her, with her. I want to prove that my love never died, that the torch in my heart has always been slowly burning for her.

I push my hips in, my rigid length being swallowed by her raw heat. I was blinded with love and desire, Blake the only thing standing out in my vision.

Sensation fueled me as I stroked in and out of her slickness, her moans and fingers running down my back the only affirmation I needed.

When she lost herself again, clinging to me like the lifeboat in stormy seas, I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

My release shoots through me like a tsunami, rolling over my body in vicious waves.

We drown in each other, swimming through the ecstasy that we’d been missing for years. And finally, even through the emotion clogging my lungs, I can breathe again.