“Stop talking in circles. Stop talking around me.” The water slammed into me. Fat, heavy droplets soaked through my shirt.

“Let’s get back in the car.”

I planted my feet. “No, not until we get this all out. One second you’re following me everywhere, popping up in places I don’t want to see you, and the next, you’re avoiding me like a psycho ex-girlfriend. I’m not getting into the car until you tell me everything.” He was a hazy figure in front of me. My glasses were streaky and wet.

“What’s there to tell? Do you want to know how you made me feel?” He stepped closer, rounding the front of his car. The street was empty, deserted except for me and him, finally ready to bare everything to one another. Water trailed down his strong, straight nose dripping off the end in a steady stream.

“How it was like you reached down deep into my soul and started planting your mark without me even knowing it?”

His hair was plastered to his forehead.

My chest squeezed tight. I didn’t breathe. I couldn’t make a single move that might stop Dare from telling me what I needed to hear. Screw the consequences.

“How it makes me crazy knowing you’re going to California in a few months and I don’t even know where I’ll end up? Is that what you want to hear?” He stood in front of me, staring down at me, panting. Like this exertion matched what he did in practices or during every game.

I nodded. Water poured down my face, trailing off the bottom of my chin continuing to soak my shirt. “Yes. Do you think I haven’t thought those same things? I’ve stared at my ceiling, looked out my window trying to figure out how my excitement at going away to college in a few months now has a bittersweet tinge to it because you won’t be there.”

He moved so fast I had no doubt there wasn’t an opponent he’d gone up against on the field who could stop him, only I didn’t want to.

His lips were on mine, fierce, hungry and unyielding.

My chest pressed against his, my softness crushed against the hard set of his body and his determined mouth.

His hand was on the side of my face, his fingers cupping the back of my neck and his thumb along my jaw, keeping me where he wanted me. Keeping me where I wanted to be.

The storm raged around us, showering us as our unquenchable thirst for one another overwhelmed every other sense.

A horn honk and a car blazing down the road broke us apart.

I stared at him, panting, trying to remember if I’d ever felt more alive before. Every cell in my body yearned for his touch again.

He shielded my body from the road and ushered me back to his car.

“I’m soaked.”

“It’ll dry. Let’s get you home.” He opened my door and held my hand when I sat inside. I cringed, the wetness seeping through the seat.