The Summer We Burned

eyes, I felt Ethan's mouth on mine again, tasted the salt and heat of him, he

ingled. My body remembered,

nd I wasn't still trembling from the way his hands had claimed me, the

re I worked summer mornings. His shirt clung to his chest, his hair a mess from

of the stools at the counter. "And m

in my hands. "You can't ju

yes glinted. "Yo

rough me. "You

didn't

ttered every time he leaned closer, every ti

nd my words dissolved. Sparks shot up my arm, s

y did," he

n streaks of fire and gold. The tide licked at our feet, and the who

now, "if this was always supposed to happen? If

his wasn't just heat, wasn't just desire it was something deep

red. "But what if

said simply, taking my hand. "And if it

, certain, and my chest ached with a

ow, the night air warm against my skin. At my doorstep, I should have said goo

cupping my face, his thumb brush

no," he s

t. I didn

lled hi

rtains. I felt the thrum of the ocean in the distance, but louder still was the

a warning on his lip

was no space

at first, reverent, then rougher when my body arched into his, answering his hunger with my own. M

When his mouth trailed down my neck, heat coi

eathed, my vo

," he whispered

slipped out, raw and certai

ough I weighed nothing, setting me down on the couch like I was something both frag

ing a line,"

s cross it

we

touches that felt like first times all over again. It wasn't perfect-it was me

ed in him, my head against his chest, his heartbeat steady

go again," he whis

o believe him. I wanted to believe this summer wasn't just

is: Ethan and I had stepped into the fire