Page 179 of Deliverance

I close the distance between us with two large strides and rest my palms on her shoulders, my fingers getting lost in the thickness of her hair. I love the wildness of it when she lets it loose.

We share a soft breath, our gazes locking.

“I’m not sure what the rules are or when exactly you’re supposed to give a Valentine’s gift to your boyfriend,” Drew says. “My online research proved to be inconclusive. So I think late morning is as good as any other part of the day.” She stares at me from beneath her thick fringe of fluttering lashes and my heart kicks and screams in my chest.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” I tell her in a very clichéd, very smitten way because, really, she didn’t. Having her in my life is more than enough.

“Oh, so you’re allowed to get me presents and I’m not allowed to reciprocate?” Drew laughs.

“Well…” I clear my throat. “The activity is designed for two.” I was very vague at explaining what I prepared for us for today.

“Hmm.” She bites the inside of her cheek. “What might that be?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter, woman.” I slide my arms around her and pull her to me, forgetting that she’s still holding my present behind her back.

A small trip.

That’s what I described my gift as a couple of weeks ago when I called her right after the idea struck me and told her not to make any plans. I’ve already seen what gets her off and I wanted to show her my own passion. I wanted to show her why I love the ocean so much.

So I rented a yacht.

Drew brings her hands to my face, one holding a small square velvet box, and I take it and pop the lid open.

“I didn’t want to be obvious and give you a portrait of yourself.” She grins.

“There’s a portrait of me?” I arch a brow at her and then flick my gaze back to the necklace inside the box—a cylinder-shaped gold pendant with tiny blue stones around the sides. “Is it a snare, baby?”

“Duh? Of course it’s a snare.” She laughs. Are you a drummer, or not?”

I pluck the jewelry from the box and stare at it, the bright light catching in the golden chain links and reflecting from the stones.

“These are aquamarines,” Drew explains as I continue to study my gift. “It’s your birthstone and…they match your eyes.”

“Wow.” I’m lost for words all of a sudden. I was never one to care about presents or jewelry much, but somehow, this one feels important because she thought it through.

“Do you like it?” Drew asks, the curtain moving in the light wind across the cracked door casts a dancing shadow across her face, and I touch her cheek as if I can catch one, but it slips away from me.

“I love it,” I say finally, setting the box on the nightstand. “Will you help me put it on?”

She does, then brings her lips to my neck and kisses my nape, her arms coming around my waist to lock on my stomach. We stand like this for a while, just staring at the view outside my house, at the ocean, at the beach, at the sky.

Six months ago, my life was an express train with no destination and now…my life finally makes perfect sense.

Aria, a luxury three-deck motor yacht with a crew of four and a gourmet chef, is waiting for us at Dana Point, just outside the marina parking lot where I left the Lexus earlier. We take an Uber there from my house on the account of me not wanting to drive since we’re having drinks and dinner on board.

The captain, a middle-aged fella with a gray beard, who looks a lot like Santa Clause, shows us around and then politely retreats to his duties while Drew and I get comfortable on the upper deck to watch dolphins and whales.

It’s the strangest thing that we don’t even have to talk to understand each other. We can just be, still and quiet, and the intensity of the emotions between us doesn’t change a single bit.

“What are you thinking?” she asks me hours later when the sun is almost gone and the yacht is on the way back to the marina.

“I’m thinking”—I turn to see her face better, leaning against the railing, the ocean beneath raging—“that I don’t want you to go.”

Drew doesn’t respond. At least, not right away.

“I feel like I just got you, like the world just gave you to me, and I have to give you back to the world now because our time is up.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re crazy, Zander Shaw?” She laughs and pushes a lock of my hair behind my ear. The wind rips it back out seconds later.

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