Page 71 of The Last Sunrise

“I’ve always loved watching the sunrise from my boat. It sounds cliché, but it’s such a good reminder that every day is a new start, every sunrise is a new beginning. No matter what happens during the day and night, we get another chance, another beginning each time it rises.”

It’s hard to remember what my life was like before I met him, how empty my heart was compared to now when it feels so full it could burst. We sit in near silence as the sun rises, filling the shore with its spectacular light, starting a new day, a new beginning like he said.

“What does it look like to you?” I ask him, wondering how muted the tones of red, yellow, and orange are.

“Mostly gray… I can tell the differences in light reflection, though, so I know that it’s bursts of color, and even though I don’t see the same sunrise as you, I know it’s still just as beautiful, and now my view”—his eyes meet mine—“is even more incredible.”

My eyes sting with emotion and I look back toward the horizon. The feeling washing over me is all the proof anyone needs that we are meant to experience life, sunrises and sunsets, laughter, birds singing in the sky, waves crashing against the coastline. I’m overwhelmed by the beauty, by the years I’ve wasted sitting in my room, in my bed, with the curtains drawn shut. I promise myself to never close my curtains again.

“I love you, Oriah. Insanely so.” Julián’s lips press against my shoulder just as orange bursts across the sky. The sun is flaming yellow, no clouds obstructing its full glory.

“I love you, Julián. More than the sun.” I face him once again and throw my arms around his shoulders, causing both of our bodies to fall back onto the blanket and the sand.

The light reflecting on Julián’s face takes my breath away.

“Déu meu ets tan bonica, Ry. So, so beautiful.” He lifts his chin to reach me, licking softly at my mouth, and I straddle him.

A hiss of pleasure comes from him, and I swivel my hips, settling in, enjoying the feeling of his hardness between us. Julián’s hands grip my hips, digging his fingers into the bone, nearly shaking to keep himself under control. One of his hands moves to my belly, and it aches as he makes his way up my chest, palming my breasts as they tighten and he runs his thumb against a peak, flicking the sensitive bud, making my eyes roll back, friction growing between us as I move slowly. Every groan he makes, every quick breath from him has me high, so high. I cover my mouth as he sucks on my nipple, one then the other, his palm spread across my spine to keep me upright. When I can’t take it any longer, I shove him back, yanking frantically at his shorts, and move to ride him. He gently stops me, and confusion rolls over my mind.

“Look at the sunrise while I fill you,” he orders. My mouth goes dry, and I turn around on my knees, the morning air caressing my bare skin as he licks and kisses down the length of my spine. My back arches, a cry falls from my parted lips. The wetness pooled between my thighs is dripping between them. I feel it run down my skin as Julián’s tongue catches it, licking all the way to the apex of my thighs.

The pleasure ripping through me makes it so hard to hold myself up on my hands and knees and just as my climax gathers, the warmth of his mouth disappears and he fills me with alow growl, his hands holding my hips in place, his cock filling me to the brim. Stillness, the stillness and feeling of being so incredibly full of him with the sunrise and sea in front of me, is pure ecstasy. As he begins to thrust in and out, I clench around him, saying his name, telling him how much I love him, how good he feels, matching the rhythm of his free hand between my thighs, pinching and circling my bundle of nerves as I come, losing all sense of whatever blissful reality he’s created for us. He continues to move his cock and hips, dragging slowly, gripping one of my breasts in his hand as he reaches his own climax, shouting my name as the warmth fills me. His body goes rigid, and his chest falls against my back, heaving slightly as he catches his breath.

I turn and fall onto his chest, our bare skin on the sand and each other’s bodies, and the light of dawn washing over us is better than any dream I’ve ever had, any imaginary world I’ve fantasized over while reading my favorite novels, inserting myself as the main character. To be loved is to be seen, and to be seen is to be loved. I’ve heard and seen different renditions of the quote throughout my life, but I never fully understood it until right now, in this moment, with this man.

Eventually we get dressed and make our way to standing. I wipe and swipe at the sand stuck on my skin as Julián helps adjust my bathing suit top.

“Do you want to swim?” he asks, nodding toward the ocean. The sun has taken her place high in the sky now and the idea of the warm water washing my body is too good to pass up.

He leads me to the edge of the water, and we walk into it, side by side, soul by soul, heart by heart, the warmth of the water kissing my skin matching the warmth inside my chest.

Nothing could be more perfect. Nothing will ever take this memory from me. The sea will remember us, the imprint of our bodies in the sand, the whisper of our promises made and love shared. I won’t be forgotten, and that gives me unexplainable peace.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

We walk hand in hand down the sandy shore. The feeling of the warm sand under my feet is something I know I’ll never forget once I leave this magical place. The summer is nearing the end now. Time hasn’t made a lick of sense since I arrived, and I have no idea what I’ll do when the clock strikes and it’s time for me to go back home. I can’t imagine going back to my normal life now that I know what it feels like to live.

“What are you thinking about, Ry?” Julián stops walking and pulls me into his side, wrapping his arm around my waist.

He always knows when I’m lost in thought.

“Just thinking about when the summer is over. Am I supposed to go back to Dallas like none of this happened? That seems impossible.”

“Go back to Dallas? You really think I’m going to let you leave?” he says, hugging me tightly to his side.

I look up at his expression, landing somewhere between serious and not.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll send for my stuff and just tell my mom this is my new home.” I play along, but a part of me wonders if I could actually do it.

I could travel back and forth for doctor stuff if I had to, but there must be a medical system here, maybe not on the island, but somewhere in Europe there must be a tuberous sclerosis specialist, and I’m sure Julián would help me find the best of the best. I look at him, knowing he would do anything for me, knowing that I need to tell him more about my condition and stop sprinkling bits of information here and there. My life has become so complicated and so full of excitement and intimacy and love, but, most of all, confusing as hell.

“Would you ever move to the States?” I ask out of curiosity as we continue to walk.

The sun on my shoulders feels so good, I’ve never been so tan in my life. Never been so happy.

He shakes his head. “No. I would never.”

The happiness evaporates in an instant. His quick and certain response reels me for a second, even more so because I thought we were being hypothetical and daydreaming.

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