The blood-orange sun fades into the purple sky as we skate across the water, and the soft spray whips around us, kissing the air as we speed through the bay. I open my mouth to question our destination when the hum of the boat motor subsides, and the crashing water settles. He ties off the boat while I glance around the familiar area. Tall sycamores wrapped in vines mark the entrance to my best friend Ave’s family home. I close my eyes, inhaling the delicious scents of flowering honeysuckle and fresh-cut grass lingering in the evening air when his warm breath fans across my neck, and his deep rasp liquifies my insides.

“The sun is a halo of fire around you—beauty and chaos in its purest form. You’re a pure masterpiece of hope and danger, an ethereal little fireball.” My breath catches as I turn toward his fervid words. A knot tightens in my stomach with the gentle caress of his fingertips along my cheek. and graze of his lips. His siren song lures me in. My knees weaken. I’m engulfed in flames. Waves of burning seduction ripple through me as the graze of his lips stoke the volatile inferno within. “May I show you the serenity and security of the night, sweet sunshine?” His tight, searing touch melts through the thin fabric between us while I nod like an idiot. A smile twists the corner of his lip, and he grips me harder, fanning his amusement along my nape. “The temptation to destroy every virtuous piece of you is difficult to resist when you’re this agreeable.”

His large palm slides along my side, the constriction in my lungs aches as his warmth spreads through me. He thinks I’m a temptation and yet I’m a malleable mess in his hands. A blur of words, a fury of trepidation and unremitting need steal my ability to resist. I’m the puppet, he the master, and damn, I’m in trouble.

Fire erupts along my neck, my thighs clench without provocation, and warmth floods along my skin as his sinister chuckle vibrates through me. The cool metal mixed with the warmth of his tongue’s lave steals my resolve and I melt against him. “D-did you bite me?”

“I claimed you, Sunshine.”

Four parting words, and I’m left a mess in the aftermath of another moment I was unprepared for. With his growing distance, the chaos inside me eases as I swallow small gasps of air and watch while he gathers our things into a black backpack. He slings it over his shoulder, places a small envelope in my palm, laces his fingers through mine, and tugs me behind him as I struggle to read the bouncing words.

 

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