Page 8 of Wilder Love
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“Where are we going?”I asked as he led me across the street—we’d parked in a lot next to a library about twenty minutes from Costa del Rey—and up a winding tree-lined drive to a fancy hotel. It was pink sandstone and looked like something from the 1920s. “This is what you call off the beaten track?”
He laughed and took my hand in his. It was warm and strong and callused, probably from surfing.
“Just pretend you own the place,” he said as we waltzed right through the front doors and across the marble lobby dotted with potted palms and orange trees. I was wearing a skull print tank top with ripped jeans and my beat-up Chucks, finger-combing my wind-blown mane. Nobody would ever believe that I belonged here or that I’d even be a guest at a hotel like this. It dripped with money, the guests milling around wore designer clothes and the scent of expensive perfume filled the air.
I glanced at Shane in his surfer-dude clothes, his expression chilled, yet he exuded confidence.
“Good evening,” he said as we breezed past a man in a hotel uniform.
My palms were starting to sweat. Shane was unflustered, greeting hotel employees with a good evening and a charming smile that stopped the words from coming out of their mouths.
We exited through a set of French doors onto a stone patio set up with rows of Adirondack chairs occupied by guests waiting for the fireworks display, sipping cocktails and champagne.
“Oh wow,” I breathed, as we weaved through the people sitting on the lawn in front of the hotel, with a prime view of the ocean. It was the view that made my heart beat faster. Shane guided me along a coastal trail that snaked its way along the bluff and I imagined myself falling over the side. Down, down, down, I’d go, my body crashing on the rocks below. Did everyone do that—imagine themselves falling off a cliff or down the stairs?
We were alone out here, and it seemed strange that nobody from the hotel would venture out of their comfort zone and strike out on their own. But people liked being catered to, they liked their luxuries and fancy surroundings. Shane and I found a spot on a patch of scrubby grass with an unobstructed view of the ocean and the twinkling lights of the towns along the coast.
“From here, we’ll get to see fireworks from two different towns. The Costa del Rey fireworks are that way,” Shane said, pointing left. No sooner were the words out of his mouth when a burst of red, white and blue lit up the sky.
“I should have brought cocktails and canapes,” he joked.
“We could have enjoyed them before you tossed me over the cliff and buried my body.”
“But first, I wanted to give you this.” He swept his hand across the night sky as if the view and the ocean and the fireworks exploding in the distance were all his to give me.
“You have a Mona Lisa smile,” he said a few minutes later.
I turned my head to look at him. “What does that mean?”
“Mysterious. Hard-won. It makes me want to do just about anything to see your smile.”
“I get the feeling you don’t usually have to work that hard.”
“I get the feeling you’re worth it.”
I wanted to tell him that was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. Instead, I just smiled. “Tell me a secret.”
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the minute I saw you.”
“That’s not a secret.”
His lips curved into a smile. “No?”
“No. So obvious.” This didn’t feel like my real life. Girls like me didn’t meet guys like him. This kind of thing—this night, being with him—it was fleeting. I knew it couldn’t last, so I decided to make the most of it.
“Mmm.” He leaned in and wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, pulling me closer. I closed my eyes as his lips touched mine and everything around us went oddly quiet. Like that moment of calm just before thunder strikes and lightning splits the sky in two. His tongue swept inside my mouth, gentle but demanding, like nothing I’d ever experienced, and I understood why people describe kissing as melting because every cell of my body dissolved into his. My fingers gripped his hair, tugging him closer. I had never wanted anyone like this before. Never. Ever. He pushed me onto my back and we were lying down, making out on the scrubby grass on a bluff above the sea, like we were the only two people in the world. The weight of his body on top of mine was extraordinary, and I could feel every inch of his toned muscles and the scruff on his jaw rubbing against my skin. I breathed him in… the sea and sunshine and limes and something that was just him… masculine, intoxicating. I was dizzy from his scent. His hands were everywhere and even though his mouth was on mine, our tongues tangling, I wanted more. And more. And more.
Boom.
My veins throbbed, and my heart exploded.
Neither of us cared that we were missing the fireworks display.
* * *
I wasn’tsure how we’d gone from kissing to laughing so hard my stomach hurt to baring the secrets of our souls, but we had. “Tell me something you’ve never told anyone,” I said. “Something big and important.”
