Page 14 of Count the Ways

“Me, too,” she admits.

“Show me,” I croak the words, already losing my mind at the visual. Isabel snakes her hand down her chest, then slowly lifts the hem of her dress, tempting me with peeks of her thighs as it rises…and the ink adorning it. “Is that…?” I already know the answer, but I need her verification. Crave it. She memorialized us, permanently, despite believing I ghosted her.

She nods and I lean closer to trace the numbers with my tongue. When she reaches her panties, the gusset so damp with her cream I can see through it, I snarl and rip them from her. Putting them to my nose, I inhale. “These are mine now.” Her pussy is, as cliché as it sounds, a sight for sore eyes. I thought seeing her in that white sundress again, and yeah, I know she wore it on purpose, was a kick to the gut, but knowing I’m seconds from shoving inside her and reestablishing my claim….

The fact she isn’t denying that she’s mine helps me calm down enough to savor her, wanting her to know nothing but pleasure before I rut in her like an animal.

But the mischievous grin she’s giving me as she deftly unbuttons my pants and grips my cock lets me know she won’t mind at all.

A ravishing she shall have.

**Isabel**

When Parker leaves the bed, reluctantly yet necessary as we never ate dinner, I gasp at seeing his back. “How did I miss that?” I ask as I run to him, fingers gliding over the image.

“We were kinda busy.”

Tears fill my eyes and I angrily wipe them away. I don’t want anything to blur the beauty I’m looking at right now. Like me, Parker wanted a reminder of our time together, even after not hearing from me.

There’s the lighthouse we couldn’t get enough of, many of our evenings on the beach ending with us staring at it in awe. At the top, watching the ocean surrounding it, which is the exact color of the water we loved to swim in, is a bear. A perfect replica of the one he gave me. It’s as if the stuffed animal is searching for its lost love, like Parker was for me, the height giving them the perfect view to find her. The coordinates that match mine are on the left of the structure as is the date which fills the right.

“It’s perfect.”

“Even though I feared I’d never see you again, I wanted you with me.”

“But what if,” I shut my mouth, unable to finish the thought, the possibility that he might’ve found somebody else and she would hate a constant reminder of me.

Like he read my mind, Parker pivots and stalks toward me. “Baby, that would never happen. It was you and only you. Always.”

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