Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“You look beautiful like this,” I admit, unable to control the words spilling from my lips.
“Like a wet dog?” She laughs.
“Nah, you look… happy, carefree. I haven’t seen you like this since—” I cut off my words, stopping myself just before I say the night we spent together.
“Since when?” she prompts.
“Since before the accident.”
She nods even though she doesn’t fully understand since she doesn’t remember. “I feel different. I’ve been so frustrated lately, like someone trying to fit a square into a circle. I kept searching for the right size, trying other shapes, but this morning, I said fuck it and threw it all in the trash, realizing it didn’t matter, and now, it feels like I’m free.”
Kendall’s legs tighten around my waist, and her center grinds against my crotch. Not wanting her to feel the hard-on that’s undoubtedly to come, I back up and release her, thankful when she lets me.
“Wanna race?” I nod toward the other side of the pool.
“Sure.” A small smile tugs at her lips, but I don’t suspect she’s up to anything until I count to three, thinking she’s going to take off next to me, and she instead jumps onto my back.
“Giddyup!” she jokes, squeezing my sides and tugging on my hair like I’m a damn horse. “Let’s go!”
“Keep it up, and I’m going to buck you off like a bull,” I warn.
“Ha! What you don’t know is, I’ve ridden one before and almost lasted the full time.” She tightens her hold on me, and I twist around, determined to send her flying. When she doesn’t budge, I hold my breath, submerging my body in the water to make her let go and swim to the surface.
Of course, her crazy ass never does what I expect, and she stays on while I swim from one side of the pool to the other. When I come up for air, she’s still holding on for dear life.
“Better try harder than that to…” Her words trail off, followed by a gasp. “‘Drunk on Your Love.’”
Fuck. My tattoo…
In her shock, she releases her hold on me, so I’m able to pry her from my back, but instead of getting off me, she slides around to my front, encircling her legs around me once again while she looks me dead in the eyes.
“You,” she breathes. “You tattooed the title of our song on your body.”
Since she didn’t ask a question, I don’t say anything.
“You don’t have tattoos. All the guys have tattoos, but you always said…” She swallows thickly. “You said you wouldn’t get one until there was one worth getting.”
She still hasn’t asked me anything, so I keep my mouth shut.
“Declan, say something.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me why.”
“It was worth getting.”
“Why?”
I told myself I would wait and take it slow, but I’m not going to lie to her. Not when she’s asking me a direct question. “Because the song means something to me.”
“It’s about two people falling in love…”
“It is.”
“Are you… in love with someone?” she asks softly.
“I am,” I admit truthfully.
Her eyes turn sad. “I didn’t know.” She shakes her head. “Do I know her? Is that why we wrote the song? For her?” Her brow furrows together in confusion, and for a second, I wonder what the hell she’s talking about because everyone knows I haven’t dated anyone in a long time. And in the past year, the only person I’ve hung out with is Kendall, but then I remember… she doesn’t remember. She’s heard the song, so she knows we wrote it. She can remember us writing the beginning of it, but she doesn’t remember us writing the entire song together. She doesn’t remember that when I wrote my verse, she was sitting across from me, smiling softly as I scribbled across the paper with only my feelings for her in mind. And even if she did remember, I never actually told her that every word I wrote and sang was about her.
She tries to scramble away, but I grip the curves of her hips, holding her to me. “There’s no one else,” I say, looking her in the eye. “There’s only you.”
Her eyes go wide. “Me?” she squeaks out.
“Yeah. Just you. Every word was written for you. There’s only ever been you. You’re the only person I see.”
“You wrote that song for me?”
“We wrote that song together,” I remind her. “You wrote about falling in love for the first time, and I wrote about falling in love with you.”
“I…” She releases a harsh breath, and since I’m not ready to handle her rejection—where she tells me she had no idea, doesn’t feel the same way, and only considers me a friend—I speak first.
“You don’t need to say anything. It was a while ago, before you were engaged.”
“Okay, but—”
“Please… Just drop it.” The last thing I want is for our trip to be cut short because of this. I finally have her all to myself and a chance to show her what it would be like to be with me, but I can’t do that if I send her running scared. I never should’ve taken my shirt off. I wasn’t thinking.