Page 64 of The Boyfriend Boycott
“It doesn’t change her, and it doesn’t change me. I am who I am because of her,” Spencer says, almost a whisper. Her eyes cast downward again, so I take her chin between my thumb and forefinger, and tip her head back, holding it there so she has to look at me.
“You are magnificent. Everything in your life has brought you to this moment. You are who you are because of everything you’ve experienced, and I wouldn’t change any of it for the world, because it brought you to me.” I’ll say it over and over andover again. She’s perfect in her beautifully flawed way, and I’m just so grateful to know her. I’ll say it until she believes it, until the words become part of her very identity.
My hand wraps around the nape of her neck as I lower my face and brush my lips against hers. They’re red and puffy from crying but I kiss them tenderly. The soft pressure makes her respond, and she moves her lips with mine. A sweet, blissful moment, and then it’s over and she’s pulled away, leaving me with a void in front of me, needing more.
“Okay. I’m okay.” She huffs a breath, steeling herself. “Show me around, then.”
“Are you feeling up for a walk?” I offer. If Spencer wants me to show her around, I know just the place I’m going to take her. My last shot at showing her what Heartwood has to offer, why she should stay for good.
“Sure,” she says, her mouth lifts into a grin, one that I haven’t seen since earlier at the council meeting. I missed that smile. It’s so fucking gorgeous that seeing it now feels like a relief.
“Well then let’s go. We only have a few hours until sundown.” I clasp her hand in mine and lead her away from the campsite, down the road until we reach a break in the trees. The trail head is still here, and just the way I remember it.
“You said this was a walk,”Spencer groans behind me. I haul myself up the rocks that form big steps up the trail.
“It is. We’re walking, aren’t we?” I say over my shoulder. “It’s not long, I promise.”
“That’s what you said twenty minutes ago. I’m all sweaty now.” She whines like a child askingare we there yet?The evergreens break up ahead, daylight shimmering through thebranches that are becoming less and less dense. I can just about see the clearing.
“I’ll have a solution for that soon.”
We reach the top of the stone steps and I stop, allowing Spencer to catch up. She halts next to me as she takes in the waterfall up ahead. The water cascades over the rocks in sheets and trickles, landing in a calm pool of water at its base.
“Grady, you have to stop doing this,” Spencer says.
“What?”
“Taking my breath away.” She turns to look at me, her face brighter and more open than it has been all afternoon. My heart swells. Nothing feels better to me than making Spencer happy.
“You take my breath away every moment of every day,” I say, earnestly. Every day since Spencer walked into my life, I’ve been trying to find a way to make sure she never walks back out. “Come on, there’s more to show you.”
I lead her over the stones that rim the pool until we reach the spot where the rock is carved away and steaming water fills small basins. I drop my backpack on the ground and begin removing my shirt, my jeans.
“What are you doing?” Spencer says, and I turn to her, my mouth sliding into a lazy, flirtatious grin.
I hold her gaze and remove my boxer shorts, and I watch something flash in her eyes.
“I’m going swimming,” I say blandly. “It’s up to you if you want to join me.” I lower myself into the water, crouching to let it cover my shoulders, to cover my arousal as I imagine her stripping down in front of me. Steam rises around me, as if it’s my body alone heating the small pool.
Spencer grins, her mouth working as she considers.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea, Grady.” I know the hidden meaning behind her words. Words that are laced with desire,but also knowing. This thing between us is still temporary, the expiration date looming closer.
“Why? Because we’ve broken the rules of our agreement and now you don’t know what this is between us anymore? Just say it. You don’t know what this is and that scares you. It doesn’t scare me, Spencer. So, get in the water. If at the end of this, you still want to leave, then we will have had an incredible last few days together.”
Desire flares in her eyes this time again, and she removes her T-shirt, her jeans, everything, until she is bare. A forest goddess extending her impossibly long, smooth legs into the hot spring.
I stand on the bottom of the pool, and she extends her arms up to wrap around my neck.
“This doesn’t scare you. Like, at all?”
“No. Even if you leave, and you go off on your world travels for another decade, you’ll come back. And I’ll be here. So, no. I’m not scared.” I dip my mouth so it’s right next to her ear, so she can feel every syllable. “I told you, Spencer. You and I areinevitable.”
Spencer’s breath hitches, and I take the opportunity to bury my face in her hair, finding the column of her neck with my mouth. I trail a line of featherlight kisses against her jaw, and her weight slackens in my arms. Crouching in the water, I lower Spencer down to me and wrap her legs around my waist.
She throws her head back, giving me access to the soft, vulnerable spot beneath her jaw and I nip it gently before planting a soothing kiss. A display of trust, that I won’t hurt her. Her response is a deeply satisfying moan that stirs a primal part of me. I grip her hips, my fingertips digging into her flesh as she bucks against me.
I lift her up, her body near weightless in the water, and lower her onto my length. She settles onto me, and rather than rocking against me, she holds herself still. Her hands cup the back of myhead, her fingers gripping my hair, and she touches her forehead to mine in soft reverence.
