Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
Exquisite.
I’m happier than I’ve ever been with this trip, this husband, this life.
And I almost have to pinch myself to remember we get to wake up and do it again tomorrow.
Against the fading light, the sea glimmers. Faintly at first, then brighter with every wave.
Vaadhoo beach is famous for its ‘sea of stars,’ a series of bright lights on the ocean. It’s actually bioluminescence created by some special plankton.
It’s one of nature’s biggest miracles.
At night, it’s like diving into starlight.
When I turn around, I find Shepherd already grinning at me.
“Dinner can wait. Let’s go,” he says.
We shut Molly in the bungalow before we go diving in—a little too quickly.
Water sprays up my nose and plasters my hair to my scalp, and I come back up a sputtering mess.
Shepherd makes it look too easy.
He slices through the waves, his body sleek and strong and heroic, drawn like a bow.
It reminds me of when he first taught me to kayak and insisted on proof I could swim.
Back then, I thought he was a stubborn safety freak. Obsessed with minor details and things that didn’t even matter.
Could he not just take my word for it?
Now, I appreciate the caring heart he hides behind all those layers.
And okay, fine, so maybe it was sensible to not just trust my word.
I cut through the water after him, letting it stream past my body. I force my eyes open and look at the royal-blue fish darting around us.
I’m living in a painting now, vibrant and colorful and alive.
Just like everything about being with Shepherd Foster.
We paddle out into the bay, hearts pounding, laughing through mouthfuls of surf. When he flings a few handfuls of water my way, I scream and toss a few back.
He takes a direct hit in the face and goes under.
For a second, I’m worried—until he pops up and splashes a wave over me.
I’m still screaming as he takes me in his arms, the little water spat over. We swim through the sea of stars and so many laughs.
The glow is ethereal against his bare chest.
He doesn’t look like a man here. He could be something otherworldly, every muscle bathed in luminous light. The starlight highlights all his perfections—and there are plenty.
He takes a lock of my hair and twirls it, staring. “Have I told you how beautiful you are?”
“Only every hour.” I preen. “But you can tell me again anytime.”
“Dess, you’re fucking gorgeous.”
The last sunlight disappears around us in a symphony of color and the bugs start up their night songs as we kiss in the ocean’s second sun.
Bioluminescence coats my hands as I reach up to cup his face.
Soon, we’re both smeared in it like war paint.
I wrap my legs around him and we kiss.
It’s heady and intense and I think we’ll never get enough. Then we go deeper, hand in hand, cutting through the silky waters and bobbing under the rising moon.
This is, without a doubt, the happiest night ever.
Later, when we head back inside, Molly bounces like a rubber ball in excitement. After greeting her, Shepherd drags me into bed, impatient as always but not just possessed by physical need.
This is real life.
It’s never just been about the sex.
It’s always been infinitely more, right from the start, even before we could admit the truth and put a neat label on it.
His face is so handsome, cut from pure granite in sharp lines of adoration and heat.
Inside me, I feel him pulsing, grinding me so deep with slow, deliberate strokes that mark me from the inside out.
“Shepherd,” I whimper.
“Patience, sweetheart,” he growls. “We’ve got all night. I want to take my time watching you go over.”
It’s not wild tonight.
It’s slow and steady, building so perfectly I know I’ll go to pieces when I finish.
And when it hits, I’m too shattered to even scream.
I just catch a final, searing glimpse of his eyes as his thrusts quicken, as he makes me come, as he empties himself inside me with a rough noise like a mountain falling down.
Holy buck falls.
I guess this is my wedding present.
Without doubt, one of the best orgasms of my life, and that’s saying something for a relentless beast who delivers them daily.
After we come down from the high and clean up, I’m tangled in his arms. I smile as his fingers skim my thigh, stop between my legs, and squeeze.
“This is mine. And this is yours,” he says, keeping his eyes locked on mine as he grabs my hand and lays my palm on his chest.
His heart drums like a machine.
Yours.
I smile up at him. Our shower washed off the bioluminescence, but his eyes still glow sharper than the starlight.
“Mine,” I echo. “I’m a lucky, lucky girl.”
“Every part of me, Dess.”
“You know I’m yours, too,” I whisper.
His eyes close. “Tell me again.”
“Yours. Now and forever.”
He pushes inside me to the hilt again.