Page 63 of Burn for You

“You wanted to teach?” I ask.

He shrugs, as much as he can while he’s treading water, anyway. “But how was I supposed to do that when everyone was gone? How could I leave that place and let it become whatever someone else wanted it to be? I couldn't let everything my family had worked to build crumble just because I wanted to do something else. Keeping this place running was more important—it still is.”

My heart aches for a younger version of Rafael who had everything ahead of him, for the guy who lost everything that mattered to him. “But it’s not what you love to do anymore?”

“Sometimes I just have the urge to knock it down and start fresh. That’s when I come out here, when I think too much about destroying the place that my nonna created. The place where she taught me to cook.”

My mind turns, spinning with an idea. “Maybe you don’t so much as need to start completely fresh. Maybe you just need a refresh. A renovation.”

He looks up at the sky with a sigh. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

The fact that he didn’t shut the idea down straight away is already a good sign. “Well,” I swim a little bit closer. “When you close your eyes…” His stay open, looking at me. “Do it.” I flick water across at him.

“Think of Olive&Vine, but not like it is today. Imagine the walls are stripped, and the floorboards are torn up. Imagine only the bare bones. What would you do with it?” His brows furrow together, but his eyes stay closed.

“Imagine people there, customers. What atmosphere do you see them sitting in? What energy is floating through the room?” His eyes finally open to meet mine. “That’s what you should do with it. Whatever you see in there, that’s what you should create.”

He looks at me like I’ve just spoken a different language. “Would you help me?” I don’t mean to frown, but I didn’t expect him to say that.

I nod. I can help.

His eyes don’t leave my face. They’re glued to my own, so I study them. They look like they hold so much. Like he sees so much more than he lets on. They finally drift, trailing down my neck and over my collarbone before they dip to where I know my white bralette is see-through under the water. I might as well be naked by the way his eyes are undressing me.

The vulnerability between us in this moment gives me the courage to ask the question I've been holding onto for weeks.

“Why did you watch me?”

His eyes snap back to mine. “When?”

“Was there more than one time you watched me come?”

His eyes turn darker than night. Just the way they did that night, the way they did at the club. “I couldn’t help it.”

I don’t know when we got close enough that I can feel his breath on the apples of my cheeks. This conversation is raw and open, something we don’t do often, and it feels like it's charging the current around us.

“I came to tell you that I could hear you, but then I saw you, May.” Shivers trail down my entire body when he says my name. “And I couldn’t walk away.” My entire body tingles at his admission, my heart beating at a deadly pace. “And then I saw you with Jack.” He huffs a laugh as he breaks our eye contact, but it’s humorless. Like he has any right to be upset with me over that.

I scoff. “You never mentioned anything after that night you saw me. You think after that I just fell head over heels for you, Rafael? I didn’t.”

In a second, he grabs me by the back of my neck, yanking me closer to him. “Head over heels? No. But you think of me, I know you do. I bet you even wished his hands were mine, didn’t you? Wished it was me gripping your hips?—”

“Oh, fuck you.”

“It’s about time you do.” And then his lips are on mine. My entire body sparks at the sensation of his mouth closing around mine. I can’t help but open up to him. He gives me no choice, his tongue forcing it’s way into my mouth. I moan as I finally meethis tongue with my own, licking and twisting as I yank on his hair hard enough that he groans into my mouth. I wrap my legs around his waist and am immediately met with his hardness, and it just spurs me on. I grind my hips against him, making both of us moan into the open air around us.

“Whitley,” he groans. “If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to tell me.”

His lips meet mine as soon as the words leave his mouth. I’ve never been kissed like this in my life. Never been kissed with so much anger and frustration, but with so much need.

“Don’t stop.”

The doorof the cabin bangs against the wall as Rafael storms in, my body still wrapped around his.

“Fuck,” he groans when my nails scrape against his scalp as he walks further into the room. He’s been kissing me the entire walk here, not giving either of us a minute to second guess this.

And then I’m falling.

The mattress bounces under my weight as I land on the bed. Rafael stands at the edge of the bed, his chest heaving as he looks over me, almost like he’s deciding what he wants to do with me.

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