Page 89 of Truly, Madly, Deeply

She frowned. What a bizarre question. “Of course I do. I care about them.”

His brows crept up his forehead and—

“Oh.”

“Yeah, Truly. Oh.” Colin laughed. “I care about you. Is that seriously a surprise? Because if it is, I’ve been doing a seriously shitty job of courting you.”

“Courting—” Her head slipped under the water. She broke the surface of the lake and coughed. “Who says that?”

The nineteenth century called and asked for their verbiage back.

He snorted. “Says the girl who asked me to go steady. Glass houses, baby.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I jumped the gun.”

Colin looked like she’d punched him in the gut. “We had a fight. Fuck, not even. It was—it was a disagreement, Truly. I know I said some things—”

“It was far from our first disagreement.” Maybe she should’ve taken their first fight as a sign, a portent of what was to come. “Look, Colin, I like you. I like you a lot.” So much. Too much, probably. More than she had any business liking anyone when she was as messed up as she was. “But I told you I wasn’t in the right headspace for a relationship. All things be told, my parents are likely on the brink of a divorce and my faith in love is...” Questionable at best. “My parents are the blueprint for me, okay? And if they can’t make it work... if I can’t believe in love, I...” What could she believe in? “I don’t know what the point is, okay? You don’t want to date me.”

“And what if I do?” he demanded, obstinate as ever. “What then?”

“Are you not hearing me? I am—I am far, far from girlfriend material,” she said—no, warned. “I’m a mess right now. I’m more trouble than I’m worth, okay?”

Colin was sweet. Against all odds, despite his WASPy mother and taciturn, judgmental father, his asshole of a brother, and his—his cow cod of an ex, he still tried.

He was putting in all of this effort and for what? A gun-shy girl who craved a forever love, but flinched in the face of affection?

“That should be for me to decide, shouldn’t it? Not you. Me. Whether or not I want to be with you is my choice,” he said. “You said it yourself; we’ve all got flaws. But the day I don’t want you is the day the earth starts rotating backward, okay?”

“That’s a hell of a bold statement from a guy who’s known me two months.”

“Remember this moment in twenty years. Can’t wait to tell you I told you so.”

Well, shit.

Truly ducked under the water, needing a second to gather herself before she did something ridiculous like burst into tears.

She surfaced to the sight of Colin scrubbing a hand against his jaw, stubble dark and thick. The late-afternoon sun bathed his face in sherbet shades of pink and orange, so handsome it made her breath catch.

“Are you gonna sit there and look pretty? Or are you gonna join me?” she asked, the muscles in her thighs starting to fatigue, her lungs heaving only partially from exertion.

Colin stood and stripped.

Clad in just his shorts, he executed a perfect swan dive into the water, surfacing a foot away, paddling the distance with ease. Droplets of lake water clung to his lashes and flattened his hair against his head. His tongue swept against his bottom lip, and she wished it was her that he was licking off his lips instead of lake water.

“I missed you,” he whispered, hands finding her waist, dragging her against him. She locked her legs around his waist and—he was already half-hard against her.

Goose bumps broke out across her skin.

Colin dragged his lips across her cheek, stubble rough against her as he pressed openmouthed kisses along her jaw. He found the pulse pounding away in her throat and nipped, soothing the sting with a drag of his tongue. “Missed how you taste, missed how you sound, missed how good you feel in my arms.”

She arched her neck, giving him more room to work with as he sucked stinging kisses along her throat. “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours. Eighteen, maybe.”

He was making it hard for her to think.

“Eighteen too long.” He stole her lips in another kiss, hips jerking, cock pressing against her exactly where she wanted, only two layers of soaked fabric separating them.

Water lapped at their chests, making it hard to get the friction she desperately craved as she rocked against him.

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