After a minute, he huffs. “Jesus. You weren’t kidding.”

“Told ya.” My voice is smug.

“Who designed these?”

I push his hands away and take over. “They’re supposed to make my butt look good. They’re not meant for wading in the ocean.”

He sits back on his heels, a secret smile spreading across his face. “Well, in that case, you’d better stand up, so I can judge them on that.”

“I saw you get a good look earlier.”

“You did, huh? Wouldn’t you have had to be looking at me to catch me looking at you?”

“I guess I get how you got there.”

Gray laughs before his gaze settles back on my ankles. “How long is it going to take you to get those all the way off later?”

“Don’t assume you’ll find out.”

“I’m not even expecting a goodnight kiss,” he assures me.

“You’ll get one,” I confide. I might make him wait for sex, but there’s no way I’ll get through this whole night without reuniting with his mouth.

His eyes dance as he pulls me upright. I use our joined hands to pull him back toward the water, no longer caring if my jeans get wet. Some moments are too special for practical matters.

Gray raises a brow as the denim below my knees gets soaked, but he says nothing. When he does speak, it’s unrelated to wading while fully clothed.

“You know,” he says as the salty water swirls around our calves, “there was a moment.”

A gust of wind blows half my hair in front of my face. I brush it away so I can see him without the blonde curtain. “A moment?” Another breeze, and he’s half-hidden again.

“When I realized I was in love with you.”

I forget about my hair. “Oh?”

Amusement lights up his face in response to however I’m looking at him. “That day we went to the base? I wasn’t supposed to fly that day. I hadn’t flown—not since Sam had died. He was a damn good pilot, as good as me. What happened to him humbled me, I guess. Before that, I’d thought I was invincible. Sam’s death reminded me there’s always something bigger at play up there.”

He sucks in a long breath between his teeth. His eyes wander to the endless stretch of water we’re standing in before returning to my face.

“As soon as I invited you in that Raptor, I knew. I knew if you were up there with me, I’d be fine. Knew I would never—could never—let anything happen to you. Knew I loved you.”

“But…that was a long time ago. We’d only slept together a few times.”