Page 35 of Riverside Reverie

We’d held hands while we walked back, and he’d kissed me when we reached my tent, his hand cupping the side of my neck, his fingers tangling in my hair. There was something about that kiss that told me whatever we’d started here was far from over.

I passed out again as soon as my head hit the pillow, exhaustion from the adventures the day before hitting me hard. When I woke up a few hours later, it was to the sound of raindrops on our tent.

It was darker than it should have been with the sun obscured by the greyish rain clouds overhead. I could hear people moving around outside, voices rising and falling from the bottom of the hill, and what sounded like a tarp flapping.

Jasmine stirred beneath her blankets, letting out a long sigh and stretching. I sat up, reaching for my sweater to tug it on. It was a little colder than it had been yesterday, and there would be no sun to warm me up.

“Where’d you disappear to last night?” Jasmine asked, her voice croaky from sleep. But her shrewd eyes were studying me, not missing a thing.

“I went to the bathroom, then noticed Theo was still up stargazing…so I joined him.” I felt no need to lie to my best friend about it.

“Really?!” Jasmine’s entire face lit up. “Did you guys do it?”

“No!” I half whispered, half laughed, my face heating. “We kissed a little, but we didn’t do anything else.”

I’d wanted to, especially after he’d started kissing me and I all but melted into it. I’d never had such an intense reaction to a kiss before. Kissing Scott had never made me feel so sexually aroused, but Theo’s lips upon mine had made me want to peel back my clothes and submit myself to him completely. Each stroke of his hand over my body had ignited more flames of desire.

I had no doubts that if kissing him was as explosive as it’d been, that actually having him inside me would blow my mind in the best way. Now I wanted it more than ever, but…I had no idea how to be that girl, the one that went for the things she wanted without thinking about the consequences. How to be the kind of woman that could separate an amazing sexual experience from their feelings.

Because I knew without a shadow of a doubt now, that I could easily fall for this man. I didn’t know if I even had a causal bone in my body, heck, I already felt a lot of dangerous things for him. How could I have a fling with someone I was already feeling things for? There was nothing casual about that.

A pillow smacked me in the face, rousing me from my rumination.

“You’re thinking too loud,” Jasmine complained, frowning at me.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes and tossing her pillow back at her. “I’ll try to keep it down.”

“I’m just saying, Lux. Don’t overthink it. Let whatever happens, happen. What are you so afraid of, anyway? That you’ll actually have an orgasm?”

“Very funny,” I frowned. “No, I’m afraid that I’ll get attached, and this is doomed to go nowhere.”

“Who says it’s doomed to go nowhere?” Jasmine said through a yawn, stretching her arms over her head. “You’re two consenting adults, you can decide what things look like after. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

“He lives in Sudbury, I don’t. He travels for work, I don’t even know where I’m going to be in three months. The only thing we can decide on is here and now.”

“So, decide on it then. And whatever happens in the future, happens. You have to let yourself be okay with whatever it is.” Jasmine stood up, hunting around the tent for her sweater. She tugged it on when she found it, then she peered out the tent window. “Looks like he’s already up, constructing a rain shelter with Desmond and Baz.”

I couldn’t deny it; knowing Theo was down there had me wanting to hurry up and join everyone.

“Is it going to rain all day?” I asked, regretting that I hadn’t packed a raincoat.

“Pretty much, but don’t worry. I got you,” Jasmine replied, turning back to her bag and rooting through it. She pulled out two plastic packages and tossed one at me. It was a clear rain poncho. “This will keep you relatively dry.”

“Thanks.” I stood up, opening the package. “Wait, how are we supposed to cook food if it’s raining?” The site had two fire pits, one on the rocks and one on the beach, but both were exposed to the rain.

“We brought some propane stoves, it’ll be okay,” she assured me as she unzipped the tent.

Jasmine and I left, zipping the tent up behind us. We headed to the thunderbox first before walking down to join the others who were awake.

Baz, Theo and Desmond had constructed a rather large rain shelter halfway up the hill, tying tarps to trees with ropes. All our chairs were arranged under the shelter, and someone had dragged up the coolers from the beach.

Jasmine gestured to where Desmond had set the propane stoves up along the wooden table built into the circle of trees. It was big enough to hold two camping stoves and not much else. Theo was across from him in front of one with the percolator, brewing coffee, while Desmond heated up breakfast on the other stove.

Theo’s eyes met mine as we walked past, his lips kicking up in a smile that had the butterflies swooping low in my belly. I smiled back shyly, letting my hair fall over my shoulder and obscure my face.

“Coffee?” he offered, cocking his brow.

“Please,” Jasmine answered for the both of us, and Theo poured the coffee into two tin mugs. His fingers brushed over mine when he passed me the tin mug, his smile deepening. My cheeks heated, remembering how his lips had moved against mine last night—and how those hands had felt on my body.

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