I hadn’t even realized he’d noticed what book it was that Travis stole before he rescued me. But of course he’d noticed. Riley noticed everything about me. How he could know my very soul so well when we’d only met two weeks ago was a mystery that the selfish, secretly indulgent part of me hoped I could somehow spend the rest of my days figuring out with him.

I was so lost on my dreamcloud of paradise, that I didn’t realize where he’d driven us until we got there.

He had brought me back to the beach.

Chapter Sixteen: Cleansed

Riley pulled the BMW off the road and brought it to a stop at a rocky outcropping that overlooked the ocean. The rocks circled off on either side to create a small cove. It was a section of the beach I’d never been to before, and from the looks of it, neither had many other people. Somehow in the vicinity of Portsmouth, we had discovered a swatch of unadulterated nature. And despite my particular predispositions, even I had to admit the scenery was absolutely beautiful. A moment later, I noticed a narrow path between the rocks that led down to the sandy strip where the low waves crested quietly in the shelter of the cove.

Was this what Riley wanted to show me? But I’d seen the ocean countless times. He had to know that. No, he must have had something more in mind.

My entire body tensed. “Riley?”

“Hmm…?”

His distracted tone made me pull my eyes from the darkening waters below as the last of the dusk faded into night. He was leaning forward in his seat, his strong chin propped on the steering wheel, his bright green gaze seeming to pierce the windshield straight through to the ocean.

The look of pure serenity on his beautiful face took my breath away and I forgot what I was going to say.

A moment later, he seemed to snap back to reality and he turned to me with a smile, his eyes sparkling. “Come.”

He was out of the car before I had a chance to react. “Your bathing attire is in the glove box,” he said as he moved toward the rocky edge.

I blinked. “Wait. What? You can’t mean we’re going swimming.”

Looking at the ocean was one thing, but going into it? That was what he wanted to share with me? The one thing I could never sanely do? I pulled his jacket tighter around myself and tried to shrink down and disappear into the leather seat.