The sun sinks, hot orange on the cool-blue ocean. We could be watching the sunset. We’re watching each other instead. Curled up close, our limbs intertwining. The evening light turns Delilah’s skin caramel, and her eyes gleam like old gold. She’s so beautiful she makes my heart hurt.

I press a kiss to her cheek and am rewarded with the sound of her breath hitching. I want to explore her mouth for hours, days. I’m beginning to think I’ll want it for endless years. For now, I’ll do as she wishes and go slow, starting with chaste, relatively innocent touches. My reward is her hand smoothing along my neck to rest there, warm and lazy. I feel that soft touch down to the bone, a throb of warm happiness that lingers.

She snuggles closer, her calf sliding along mine. It feels so good I’m momentarily distracted. My arm wraps around her waist, securing her against me. Her body is all curves and warmth. I’m trying my best not to get distracted by her breasts or the way they tease along my chest with her breathing. But damn, I want to touch them.

“Macon?”

“Hmm?” I stroke her arm, touch her fingers. If I’d known on that fateful prom night that wrapping myself up in Delilah would be this good, I’d have hunted her down, thrown myself at her feet, and begged.

“Have you been avoiding me today?”

My hand pauses at her waist. “I wanted to give you time to get used to this.” Us. We were an us. Fucking unbelievable.

She worries the inside of her lip with her teeth as her thumb brushes my jaw. “I thought as much.” Her gaze lowers to my mouth. She has my total attention now. “Thing is, I missed you.”

I can’t help myself. I lean in and kiss her like I’ve wanted to all day, deep and sweet. She makes a small pleased sound that licks along my skin, and then her mouth opens to mine, the gentle touch of her hand turning into a desperate grip.

I’m not going anywhere. I tilt my head, drawing her halfway under me, knowing she has no idea how much I relish the freedom to touch her, taste her. “This okay?” I whisper before suckling her plump lower lip. “Kissing you like this?”

It feels okay. More than that. And she’s responsive. But I want the words. I need to know she’s as into it as I am. Delilah hums into my mouth, tickling my lips. Her body arcs into mine, pressing those glorious tits against my chest.

“Yes,” she says.

Yes. My new favorite word.

A grin slips free. Then I lose myself in Delilah. I’ve never kissed like this, kissing because it feels so damn good my body throbs with lust. I swallow down her soft sounds, learn the contours of her mouth. The simple slide of her tongue along mine has my dick so hard it hurts.

Delilah kisses like she does everything else—all in. She kisses me like I’m an indulgence, a secret treat. And it turns me on so badly my movements become clumsy, fumbling and uncoordinated. I want to touch her everywhere, and my hands can’t decide where to start.

I’ve never felt like this.

By the time we part for air, we’re both panting slightly, and my hand is halfway up her shirt. A little closer, and I’m in heaven. But she pulls back, a pretty blush spreading over her cheeks.

“Damn,” she murmurs, glancing at me with a wry smile.

“Damn?” Leaden with lust, I can only lie there, trying to control myself so I don’t reach for her again.

Blushing, she shakes her head as if to pull herself out of a fog. I want to pull her back into it.

“I never thought I’d be making out with you on a lounger,” she says. “I never thought . . . realized it would be so . . .” She takes an unsteady breath. “So good.”

Her confession sends another bolt of heat through me. I cup the back of her neck and kiss her again. Harder, maybe a little fucking desperate. Because she’s killing me here.

Delilah’s leg climbs up my side, her body curling around mine. Her hands fist my shirt, the short strands of my hair. Aggressive, greedy. A grunt leaves me, and I roll to press her into the lounger, when she makes a sound of protest, and she breaks off.

Her lips are swollen and parted as she gasps. “I . . .” I suckle her lower lip. She murmurs a sound of approval, licking into my mouth before trying to talk again. “I think we should . . .”

“Stop?” I’m hard as wood; my abs actually ache with need. Take it slow. She wants slow. I’ll give her anything she wants. “Okay. Give me a minute—”

She touches my cheek and gently turns my head to meet her gaze. There’s so much heat in her toffee eyes that my mind goes blank. “Forget what I said about taking it slow. I want you now.”