“I’ll save that for when I’m sick. I’m a horrible patient—you’ll see—and you’ll hate taking care of me.” He slid his fingers down my chest, stopping over my pounding heart. “The only thing I need from you is this.” His pressure was gentle, each pass sending shivers across me. “This relationship isn’t about you clocking in every morning and clocking out each night.” His stare intensified. “It’s about us and what we can build together.”

I breathed in the salty air as he kissed me.

“This is going to be our new life, Whitney.” He clamped down on my bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth, a low growl coming from his throat. “Now, I want to taste you in the water.”

He took me toward the back, lifting one of the seats, creating a pass-through that led us onto a platform where the motors were connected.

I sat on the open space, my feet dangling into the sea. “How deep is this?”

“About five feet.” He got in, and the water only came up to his chest.

His hands surrounded my hips, and he pulled me in. It was much warmer than the Atlantic. Still, a chill moved through me that I didn’t have time to get used to as he was swimming us away from the boat, the bottom getting deeper with each stroke. Once we were several feet away, he turned onto his back and floated. I followed, my curls soaking, the sky swallowing me from above.

I had thought the sunset was overwhelming, but there was something about the night sky that just owned me. The way the stars shot across the darkness, wishes falling each time. “Nothing is this beautiful.”

“You don’t have my view.”

I glanced at him, and his eyes were on me.

“Whitney, those stars don’t even compare to you.”

“You have this way”—I took a breath, my chest fluttering—“of constantly making me feel like I’m the only woman in the world.”

“That’s never going to change.”

I flipped around and moved on top of him, his arms and legs keeping us afloat.

“The salt tastes delicious on you,” he said, licking me off his mouth.

He took us back toward the shallow area, my hair dragging behind us, his lips working their way across my neck. Now that he didn’t have to tread, his hands could wander, reaching as low as my ass before rising to flick my hardened nipples. The wetness between my legs had nothing to do with what we were submerged in, but the way he was touching my body.

Each inch, my breath turned more labored, my sounds loudening as he continued to move us until my back was suddenly pressed against the boat. His hardness was teasing me, and I rubbed myself over his tip.