On the Record (Record #2)(53)
Her eyes drifted from the waterfall to her boyfriend standing shirtless over her. He ran his hand back through his wet hair. His biceps were defined as he held his arms over his head, and she could make out each line in his abdomen as the water ran down his body. His little tease from earlier came back to her in full force, and she felt her body warming just from looking at him.
“I thought you would like it,” Hayden said, sinking into the space next to her.
Liz nuzzled into his chest and slid her hand down the slick surface. “About you making it up to me,” she whispered huskily.
Hayden laughed deep in his throat. “Is that where your mind is?” His hand trailed the length of her body.
“Is that not where your mind is?”
“Oh, it is,” he said, rolling over on top of her and pinning her back against the ground.
As he pressed his body down against her, she felt him stiffen through the thin material of his swim trunks. His mouth crashed down on top of hers with none of the hesitancy that he usually exhibited. They were alone in their own world out here, and the exhilaration of being out in the open like this fueled their passion.
His fingers wound into her hair and she exposed her neck to his mouth. Her hands found the waistline of his swim trunks and it took every ounce of effort not to just rip them off. She gripped on to them for dear life as he ravaged her neck, down to her collarbones, and found the strap of her bikini.
“Hayden,” she groaned. “I want you.”
Not having any more willpower, Liz started tugging on his trunks and dragging them down his thighs. Hayden sat up and pulled them off as she easily stripped out of her bikini, baring herself before him.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” he said, leaning back over her.
Their lips met hungrily as he pushed himself forward inside of her. Her eyes fluttered closed and she groaned at the feel of him filling her. It had only been a day and it felt like forever. She felt insatiable; she couldn’t figure out why she had waited so long initially, and now that she had tasted him she couldn’t get enough. She wanted to explore every inch of his skin. She wanted him to trace every curve.
Her heart swelled as Hayden pulled back slowly and then lunged into her swiftly. She met his rhythm, always craving more, desiring more from him. And he gave it to her over and over again. She felt her body giving in to the intensity and elation of the moment.
She didn’t even think about the rocks digging into her back or the grass scratching up her arms and legs. What mattered was this feeling, this right here. Knowing that Hayden had done all of this for her, and that he was going to keep doing things like this for her. Knowing that they created their own memories, they had control of the future, not the past, and they were doing that together. Knowing that in love, the strongest emotion of all was the connections . . . in proving to someone day in and day out that this was what they deserved and accepting nothing less. That was what Hayden was giving to her.
Liz’s back arched off of the hard ground as he drove forward into her forcefully enough to scoot her backward. All pretenses of taking her slowly were gone, and he was demanding all of her. And she was giving it back.
Her body spasmed with climax as he pushed into her once more. He pumped a few more times before grunting and coming with her.
“Fuck, Lizzie,” he murmured against her neck.
“That was amazing.” The words were wispy and she suddenly felt as if she was floating on a cloud.
Hayden collapsed on the earth next to her and she buried her head into his chest. Their breathing began to slow as they lay there recovering from the intensity of what had just occurred. Liz tried to wrap her mind around what she had just felt and experienced.
She had been giving Hayden everything she had for a month now. She knew that wasn’t a very long time, but she was glad that at least she had figured it out. She had wasted too much time obsessing about something that was never going to happen, never going to go the way she wanted. When the thing she had wanted for two years, the person who had been giving her everything for months and months, was right in front of her. And to be honest, the last month had been better than all the others combined. She felt them grow and mature with each other in a relationship . . . in a healthy and sane way.
And she knew what this feeling meant that was bubbling up inside of her. She had known for a while, but it was never clearer than now, when she was lying in a secluded area in Hawaii, surrounded by nature, listening to the beat of Hayden’s heart and the sound of the waterfall splashing.
“Hayden,” she breathed, sitting up on her elbow and staring down into his hazel eyes. They were practically gold in the sunlight, and it made her shiver at the sight.
“Yeah, gorgeous?” he asked, pushing her hair off of her face for her.
“You know I love you, right?”
He smiled that brilliant smile up at her and nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m glad you finally figured it out.”
Chapter 14
EDITOR
Liz spent the majority of her summer in Hayden’s new one-bedroom apartment in Charlotte. She wasn’t taking any classes, and the paper practically ran itself; Hayden had been absent all last summer and it had still continued just fine. She knew that once school started she wouldn’t have as much free time to come see him, so she wanted to spend as much time as she could with him now.
Right before the summer ended, Liz met with Professor Mires and her scholarship advisement committee to determine how she was going to spend her scholarship intern hours. Liz had been planning to work with the Raleigh News reporting staff that she had contacts with, but Dr. Mires had something else in mind. She had gotten in touch with her colleague Nancy from the New York Times and had secured Liz a spot working with their team on a political journalism reporting portfolio. It included some travel to and from New York City to meet with the team and perfect on-site reporting skills.