Page 59 of My Grape Crush
“Are you going to drag me to the raft?” she asks, like she’s daring me to.
Despite being jostled in the waves with the muddy ground untouchable, I feel grounded and brave, alive with determination.
You need to be the aggressor.
“Nope!” I shout over the wind. “I’m dragging you to me.”
Invigorated by a sense of purpose, I tug her closer. I don’t know how it happens—if I divine her arms to wrap around me—but our bodies collide, and the air leaves my lungs in a rush.Then, everything goes still. The seconds tick by. Lake water splashes into my face. The warm sun from three hours ago is like a memory from a distant world.
“Are you okay?” Dani sounds a little nervous. The trill in her laugh wasn’t there before.
“Absolutely.”
My arms circle her slim waist, and I soak in how safe and secure I feel holding her, our legs churning beneath the surface to keep us afloat. The wind whistles through the narrow gap between our damp bodies, and it feels like the temperature dropped by ten degrees.Dani clings to me, and I watch the silver in her irises darken into charcoal. Her lips part, and my heart lurches in my chest.
“Do it,” she whispers.
I want to. I really, really do. I’m ninety-nine percent sure I’ll self-destruct if she refuses my kiss, but that awful sense of being adrift is finally gone, and if that’s not the inspiration I need, I don’t know what is.
My mouth crashes against hers, and Dani opens up for me, just as ready. Our first bruising, ravenous kiss, and my pent-up frustration dissolves into a soft, aching groan. She swallows my sounds, twirling her tongue to claim mine. She tastes like cherries and sin. I feel her warmth spreading through me, and then I feel her everywhere. Breasts pushed against my pecs. Fingers digging into my hair. In the greedy blur of roaming mouths and tongues, I barely register the first fat drops of rain splattering onto my skin.
Then a blinding flash of white illuminates the sky.
We tear off each other’s mouths, and I pull Dani tighter against my body as thunder rumbles like a thousand stomping feet above us.
“Holy fuck,” I mutter.
Dani glances skyward at the dome of midnight blue darkening to black. “Let’s get to the raft.”
“It’ll be safer on shore,” I tell her.
She tugs on my hand, her touch blazing through me. “But this is closer.”
I nod, mute. I guess we're doing this.
We swim to the raft, the warm wind slapping water into my eyes. I haul myself up first, offer Dani my hand, and hoist her out of the lake with one sturdy yank. Roiling waves tip the raft at crazy angles.
It feels wild. Electric. Daring and violent. My heart is beating like crazy.
“This is incredible!” Dani shouts, laughing, half-crazed as she twirls on the dock like a kid, arms splayed wide and face tilted to the sky.
I’m caught in a crossfire of too many conflicting emotions.My entire body is still processing our kiss—the heaviness of it.
I need more.
“C’mere,” I say, and seal her in my arms.
Our kiss is dirtier this time, wickedly addictive, fingers buried in each other's hair. We ravage each other without finesse, without game. Lost in the whiplash of the storm and each other, Dani moans, rolling her hips against my erection and devouring my mouth with naked hunger. I want her so bad it feels like nothing else matters.
Nothing exists except us.
And then another bolt of lightning splits the sky, turning it violet as a spike of adrenaline burns a trail of stardust into my lungs. Our kiss fumbles, my breath sharp, ragged bursts, Dani’s body trembling against mine. We are nose to nose, forehead to forehead, no space between us. I’m reeling, feeling almost too much. She pins me with a look that makes my pulse climb a notch.It’s not the look from the photo shoot. This one is a little nutso.
“What are you thinking?” It’s a scary question for any man to ask a woman.
Her long, tanned fingers anchor onto my waist. “I think we ride out the storm on the raft.”
I swallow hard, getting the gist of what she’s saying. But this untamed environment feels wrong. Not for our first time.
