My eyes roll into the back of my head.
My body goes rigid underneath his hand, my neck arcing over the side of the hammock, and Luke’s warm, wet mouth falls on my exposed throat. I let out a moan as a tiny explosion goes off inside of me, my legs shaking, my hands gripping on to something—I don’t even know what at this point. He drags his teeth gently down my throat, and then his tongue, a low growl moving through his lungs. As my body slowly calms and my breathing begins to even out again, his fingers move more slowly until finally he pulls his hand from my panties. We lie here quietly together, looking up at the blue sky peeking through the green palm leaves above us.
He kisses me.
“I’m going to miss you, Sienna.”
“I’m going to miss you too.”
I feel like crying. Maybe it’s the overwhelming emotion I always feel after an intense orgasm, but I know it’s not only that—I don’t want to leave.
I shake off the tears and choose to make our last few moments together more fun and memorable than sad and dark. Carefully, I try to roll over on top of him, but it’s not an easy thing to do in a hammock and it sways precariously side to side, threatening to spill us both. But he catches me, wrapping his arms around me, steadying the hammock and us within it, his long, tanned leg dangling over one side.
I kiss his lips. He smiles.
“I think since I have to leave soon,” I say with a coy grin, dragging the tip of my index finger over his bottom lip, “maybe we should spend what time we have left in bed.”
He grins.
“That is so tempting,” he says, grabbing my butt with both hands and squeezing.
“Well, the offer still stands,” he says and kisses me again. “Let me take you inside—unless you want to do it out here. I don’t mind either way.”
My cheeks feel hot. “No, let’s go inside.”
After very carefully finding our way out of the hammock without falling out of it, Luke carries me piggyback up the steps of the lanai and into the house. And instead of hiking, we spend the entire day in bed. Sometimes napping. Sometimes lying curled up next to each other listening to the rain patter on the roof. Sometimes having sex. But mostly what we do with our time left together is talk. We talk about everything. And the more we talk, the more we feel like we’ve known each other forever and the more we know that my leaving is going to crush us both.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Luke
Why didn’t you tell me before about the BASE jumping?” Sienna’s lying against my stomach, her cheek pressed near my navel; her long, soft hair is splayed outward against the mattress, tickling my side. I reach down and comb my fingers through her short bangs and trace the curvature of her jaw and chin with the edge of my thumb.
She had asked this question before, the night she came back from Oahu and found me painting, the first night we slept together. I know she didn’t forget that she’d asked, so this must be about something else.
“I didn’t think any of that mattered at first,” I say. “No reason to drop a shitload of drama on your lap if you were only going to be here for two weeks and we wouldn’t see each other again.”
The palm of her hand is warm against my stomach muscles. Her eyes stray from mine and she looks off at the wall, seeming lost in thought. I get the feeling she’s all of a sudden rethinking the topic altogether.
“What is it?” I ask curiously. She seems nervous, off in her own world.
Finally she looks back at me and smiles warmly, the tips of her fingers brushing my abs.
“Nothing,” she says. “I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“I dunno,” she answers timidly, looking away from my eyes again. “I guess I just imagine it might be difficult for you to be in a relationship with a girl who doesn’t … do the things you do.”
Oh, now I see what this is all about.