“Devin, this is so awesome. Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

Sometimes it was weird to think he had enough money to take her to any beach in the world. He could buy her—not just rent—any car she wanted. But he knew that wouldn’t appeal to her. Because this was more real.

“The first time I saw the ocean was when I went overseas on my first deployment,” she said. “I remember being on the troop transport plane, and I snuck over to stare out the window because I’d never seen so much water. I mean, you watch TV shows and stuff and know it’s there. But flying over it for hours and hours with no land in sight f**ked with my head. Standing on a beach like this seems more manageable.”

“Same thing happened to me, that feeling of almost panic when there’s nothin’ below you but miles and miles of water. I’d never been on a plane before, so it seemed like it took forever to get there. Although the flight wasn’t nearly as long as the one you took to Iraq.”

“Where did you go?”

Devin felt that same jab in his heart whenever he spoke of it. “Hawaii.”

“Sounds fun. I’ve never been there.”

“We did have fun, but at the same time, it seemed forced.”

“How old were you?”

“Fifteen.”

Liberty spun into his arms and looked at him. “You went with your family?”

“Yeah. It was a vacation of sorts, but it wasn’t for us. It was for Michelle. It was her Make-A-Wish trip. The organization is wonderful; everything from our hotel to the sightseeing stuff was top-notch, and they treated Michelle like a rockstar. But for my folks and my sister Renee and me, there was a layer of sadness there the whole time. We all knew it’d be her first and last trip.”

She framed his face in her hands. “Devin.”

Something about her made him keep talking, allowed him to share a piece of his past he’d never told anyone. He closed his eyes, letting the memory wash over him, almost as sharp and painful as when he’d lived it. “The last night we were there, my mom, dad and sister were packing. Michelle wanted to walk on the beach, so she and I took off. We did all the things kids do when their parents aren’t around; we picked up shells, jumped over the waves just as they broke on the beach, splashed each other, kicked sand at each other. She talked nonstop about how much fun she’d had swimming with dolphins earlier that day. As soon as she’d gotten out of the water, before they’d even wrapped her skinny body in a towel, she’d informed everyone that one day she was gonna be a dolphin trainer.

“We’d walked farther down the beach than I realized and she started to get tired. We’d had so much fun just bein’ a normal big brother and little sister that for an hour or so I’d forgotten how easily she got tired out and how frail she really was. So I swung her up for a piggyback ride. Since she’d gotten so quiet, I talked for a change and didn’t notice that it was a different kind of quiet with her. When we reached the beach house, I turned to let her down and she clung to me. She said, ‘No, wait. I wanna look at the water and pretend.’ I said, ‘Pretend what?’ She said, ‘Pretend that I really will grow up and be a dolphin trainer.’ Then she paused and said softly, ‘But I’m not gonna grow up, am I?’

“I wanted to lie, be the protective big brother and assure her that she’d grow up and annoy me for years to come. But I couldn’t do it. For a year and a half Michelle had been living with people tellin’ her that she’d be fine. Yeah, she was young, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew bein’ in that kind of pain wasn’t normal. Neither was living in the hospital. Or seein’ her family cry after a doctor’s visit. Or getting a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Hawaii. So I didn’t lie. I said, ‘Nope, bug. Probably not.’ She was quiet for so long, I thought maybe she’d fallen asleep. But she finally whispered, ‘Then promise me that you’ll think of me every time you go to the ocean.’ That’s the one promise in my life I’ve been able to keep.”

Liberty’s thumbs swept away the tears he hadn’t tried to stop. When she buried her wet face in his neck, he knew she’d been crying too. She wrapped herself around him, showing him without words she was a woman strong enough to hold him up.

After a while he felt a little ridiculous. He forced a laugh. “Sorry if that put a morbid spin on what was supposed to be a fun date.”

“Don’t apologize. We’re standing on the beach and it was bound to cross your mind. Although it breaks my heart all around”—her voice caught on a sob—“I’m happy you trusted me enough to tell me.”

Tell her she’s the only person you’ve ever told.

But Devin’s lips remained sealed. Until Liberty kissed a path up his neck to his mouth and urged him to open up to her kiss. She teased and tormented, licking his teeth, sucking on his tongue. As she used her mouth like a weapon on his, he wanted the same treatment on his cock.

In the time they’d been lovers, whenever she dropped to her knees or slithered down his body to take his dick in her mouth, he’d let her get in a couple of good licks and sucks, but he wouldn’t let her finish the job. He wanted more than that with her. Stupid reasoning, but he wanted all the other aspects of sex besides blow jobs that he’d denied himself with the groupies.

When she shivered, he broke the kiss and murmured, “I brought a blanket if you’re cold.”