Lengths (26 page)

“You have a house?” she breathes, looking around the tiny beach cottage. “Are you renting?”

I shake my head. “All mine. Pretty sexy, right? I was kinda hoping you could hang here. With me.” I’m careful to keep it cool. It isn’t exactly an engagement ring, and she did just tell me she loved me, but I’m not about to set her running again.

Her hand tightens around mine. I have no idea if that jerk of her fingers is from panic or excitement. So, before I can get an answer I may not like, I drag her to the bedroom.

The rest of the house is pretty moderately furnished, but the bedroom is all colossal excess, focused primarily around the enormous bed I got her into the day before Mom and Rocko’s wedding. It’s warm and dark and inviting in this room, and I pull her in with every intention of seducing her into every crook and corner of my life again.

“Deo,” she whispers as I click the door shut.

For one second, we stare at each other across the space of a few inches. Then she rushes the gap and her lips cover mine.

“Whit.” I pull back and work her sweatshirt over her head. She’s wearing a thin t-shirt with nothing else underneath. I tug that up too, and she hooks her thumbs under the bottom of my hoodie and rips it off in one jerky movement. I press her cotton shorts down her hips, and Whit Conrad is officially standing in all her naked glory in my bedroom.

Score.

She pushes me down on the bed with one eager pounce and seals her mouth over mine, sliding her hand down my shorts to press her hand against my hard-on. I arch into her, my hands on her hips, pressing up and down her back, running over her hair, and gripping her shoulders.

“I want you. I’ve wanted you for weeks,” she says between clenched teeth, her hands clawing at the waistband of my half-unzipped shorts. I drag my hands away from her body for a quick second, just so I can kick the rest of my clothes off. She presses down on me, hot and so wet it’s pure torture. “I love you. I love you so fucking much, Deo.”

“I love you, Whit.” I sit up and pull her close, our mouths fierce and fast, like we’re trying to make up for all the time we wasted like two morons. I knock the drawer out of my side-table getting a condom. She tears it out of my hands and then the package and grasps down, takes my painfully hard dick in her small hand, rolls the condom on, and fits me against her, pushing down with one hot, tight thrust of her hips.

The focus in the room blinks in and out, and I dig my fingers into the soft skin of her thighs, kissing her until her quick, gasping moans transfer into my mouth. She’s whimpering, her mouth suddenly still and pulled tight.

I brace one hand on the center of her back and lean her against my arm, lifting and pumping into her with quicker, deeper thrusts until her body starts to tighten, like a slowly twisted spring that finally, in one shattering, quaking release, explodes against me.

Her skin is under my hands, her taste is in my mouth, her smell on my skin, the slick heat of her body is wrapped around the rigid length of mine, and it all crashes into me, so much, too much, and everything I wanted. For one perfect, incredible pulse, Whit and I are twined together, anchored to each other, sunk into a love so deep and incredible, neither one of us has a chance in hell of pushing back out of it. I’m part of her now. She’s part of me. And we’ve each traveled the lengths of our own crazy, impossibly tangled paths that seemed to be driving us in opposite directions, but circled us back into each other’s waiting arms.

Epilogue

“Are you sure you can’t come?” I ask. I’m aware that the boat looks a little worn, but Whit knows I’d never ask her to come if it wasn’t one hundred percent safe. She trusts me to take care of her because I always do. And I love doing it.

Her dark hair comes out of the loose braid that’s lying over her shoulder with the rising wind. “You know I can’t. My finals are in three weeks, and you might need longer than that. Plus, even if you could get me back in time, I’d miss too much school. And you’d never let me get any studying done.”

“I could totally do flashcards with you after I eat you out. You know you study better when you’re relaxed.” Her blush goes root-deep. “Come on. How could you say no to this adventure?”

Her smile curls on her lips and goes right to her eyes. “This is your adventure. And I’ll be right here waiting for you when you get back.”

“With the wheelbarrow?” I put a hand behind her neck and rub my thumb along her jaw. She presses her face against my palm.

Her brown eyes narrow slightly. “You really think we’ll need a wheelbarrow for all your treasure?”

“Probably three or five. We may need to hire some day laborers to transport all our mad loot.” I reach for her hand and run my finger over the anchor tattoo, then bump along her knuckles and brush the sapphire ring I put on her finger three weeks after she moved into my beach shack.

I guess a wiser guy would have waited so she wouldn’t spook again. But the fair was only around for that one week, and I wasn’t about to wait a whole year for my next chance. And I needed a ferris wheel, because I was hell-bent on starting everything with Whit on a lucky note. Nothing could have been luckier than starting things the same way my grandparents did, and the cotton candy, root beer, Cracker Jack magic landed me with a deliciously hot, extremely turned-on fiance. Awesome all around.

She rubs her fingers over the anchor on my hand, identical to hers. “Aren’t you scared I’ll only want you for your money?”

I pull her close. “Nah. You loved me when I was a poor surfboard shaper. I know you don’t care about my money. It was always my huge cock, and I’ve accepted that.”

She laughs, so loud and happy, it twists my gut, because I know I’m going to miss the fuck out of that laugh.

“You’re so conceited, it’s probably dangerous.” She says that, but she’s kissing me with that wild kick of passion that lets me know we’re definitely going to christen my bunk again before Cohen gets here and we set sail.

“Speaking of my huge package, my mom got a box together for you so you won’t sink into a depression when you don’t have access to my penis.” I lead her onto the boat, equipped with a decent amount of used gear for treasure hunting. Business has been alright for me, and Cohen’s credit is immaculate, so we were able to get the bulk of what we needed together in time to follow my father’s insider lead on a fairly promising dive. I’m excited. Not that I think we’ll actually hit the mother-load, but I’m doing it. I’m going on the dive for treasure that was always just a pipe-dream before.

Whit opens the box and smiles. I try to peek, but she crushes the box to her chest. “Girl secrets,” she says.

I catch sight of the cover of a book with a grey tie on it, a bottle of lube, and a sparkly purple vibrator. Thanks for keeping my girl happy while I’m gone, Mom.

“Come on over here and share some of your girl secrets with me before I go on my long trip out to sea.” I pull her on top of me and enjoy the press of her sweet, warm body has me whispering the words that make her moan and wiggle out of her clothes.

A while later, she’s in my arms, relaxed and satisfied. “You sure you don’t want to come? I’ll let you be captain.”

“Mmm. Tempting.” She kisses me softly. “I’m proud of you for doing this, Deo. But it’s your thing. I’ll be here when you get back.”

“You sure?” I slide our hands, palm to palm, and thread my fingers through hers, so our anchors are aligned. “I sometimes have this crazy fear I’ll get back and you’ll have drifted away.”

“Nah.” She presses her lips over our two thumbs, twined one over the other. “I’m sunk too deep into you to ever drift away.”

I feel the beat of her heart against my chest, and I swear my heart answers hers in time. And I know, in that second, that our love is so deep and strong, years of sinking fast and fierce won’t even scratch the surface of the lengths we’ll go to keep it that way.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to
Katie Medvegy
for knowing all the things. Like, how to spell Eleanor.

Thank you to Abbi Glines, who cheer-leaded us to the finish like a champ.
 

Thank you to Todd Maloy for our gorgeous cover.
 

Thanks to The Black Keys for writing amazing and inspiring music.
 

Thanks to all of the awesome bloggers and readers who support us and help spread the word about our books. We love you for respecting what we do and sharing what we all love.

Thanks to our families, who let us get all tangled up in fictional worlds for hours….days…weeks…months. We love you so much.

And..

Thanks to all the writers out there who make us cry, swoon, and want to throw books at the wall from sweet frustration. Keep on keeping on and pushing every boundary set up for you, because you are inspiring us every single day.

About the Authors

              Liz Reinhardt was born and raised in the idyllic beauty of northwest NJ. A move to the subtropics of coastal Georgia with her daughter and husband left her with a newly realized taste for the beach and a bloated sunscreen budget. Right alongside these new loves is her old, steadfast affection and longing for bagels and the fast-talking foul mouths of her youth.

She loves Raisinettes, even if they aren't really candy, the Oxford comma, movies that are hilarious or feature zombies, any and all books, but especially romance (the smarter and hotter, the better), the sound of her daughter's incessantly wise and entertaining chatter, and watching her husband work on cars in the driveway.

You can read her blog at www.elizabethreinhardt.blogspot.com, like her on Facebook, or email her at [email protected].

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              Steph Campbell is a So Cal Native, happily married mother to four evil geniuses, a nail polish addict and YA Junkie. When she isn't reading, writing or wiping someone's nose, you can usually find her baking something.

Novels Currently Available by Steph Campbell are:

DELICATE (Contemporary YA) (July 2012)

GROUNDING QUINN (Contemporary YA Mature) (June 2011)
MY HEART FOR YOURS - co-written with Jolene Perry (Contemporary Romance) (May 2012)
 

Steph blogs at http://stephcampbell.blogspot.com/ Stop by and say hello!
https://www.facebook.com/stephcampbellwrites
Twitter: stephcampbell_
Group Blog: http://fortheloveofcontemporary.blogspot.com (Blog devoted to Contemporary YA Fiction)