Chapter 7

The humidity of the indoor water park still clung to my skin, a heavy, sweet scent of chlorine and tropical fruit punch that seemed to have seeped into my pores overnight. I didn’t open my eyes immediately. Instead, I lay there, listening to the deep, rhythmic cadence of his breathing, feeling the solid weight of his chest against my back, his arm draped heavily over my waist like a protective anchor. The sheets were tangled around our legs, a chaotic mess of white cotton that spoke of restless sleep and the frantic energy of the night before. I shifted slightly, and he stirred. His hand moved instinctively, fingers digging into the soft flesh of my hip, pulling me closer until our bodies fit together like puzzle pieces. I could feel the heat radiating from him, a furnace that had kept me warm through the cooler air of the hotel suite. We hadn’t made it all the way back to our actual apartment; the exhaustion had been too great, the intimacy too potent. We had crashed here, in the master bedroom of the executive suite overlooking the city, but in my mind, I was still floating in that lazy river, wrapped