I shook my head, feeling the sand lightly scratch my scalp.
“Don’t stop,” I said.
Aiden smiled as he pushed his free hand further up my stomach and over my breast. He kissed my throat, and the wetness of his tongue caressed my flesh, leaving it cool as he moved to another spot. His fingers pinched lightly at my nipple, and grains of sand rolled around on my skin.
“You’re getting sand all over me,” I said.
“And I’ve barely even started,” he replied.
He covered my mouth, stifling any further protests, and I gave in to the feeling of his mouth on me, quickly forgetting the discomfort of the sand. He ran his thumb over the waistband of my pajama shorts with his free hand, then hooked it inside and pushed them down my legs and off.
He released my wrists, and I reached for his boxers, sliding my hands inside and moving them down his thighs. He arched his back to lift his hips and help me remove his clothing completely. I stroked his inked skin with my hands, marveling at the beauty of the markings on his flesh, the intricacies and the flow of the lines as one image merged into the next. I wanted to memorize them all, but there wasn’t enough time. I marveled at the story the pictures told, laid out on his skin for everyone to see but no one to understand.
The hidden truth was both beautiful and sad at the same time.
Aiden knelt over me, kissing down the center of my body and brushing sand from my skin as he moved toward my stomach. His tongue circled my navel, and then moved down as he took both my legs in his hands and lifted them over his shoulders.
I groaned shamelessly as his tongue met my sensitive flesh. He covered me with his mouth, teased me with his tongue, and nipped at me with his lips. I clenched my ass, reflexively raising my hips off the sand to increase the pressure as Aiden’s grip around my thighs intensified, holding me to his mouth.
With a gasp, I tossed my head back and stretched down to grasp his shoulders. I couldn’t quite reach him, and had to sit up slightly to feel his skin on my palms as my body started to convulse, sending waves of pleasure from the point where his tongue circled, outward down my legs and up my torso.
I felt a moan begin in the back of my throat, and I held my lips together to keep from screaming out loud as my body shuddered. I dropped back into the sand, unable to hold myself up any longer as my breath exited in short pants into the air.
Aiden lowered my legs and crawled back over me, covering my mouth with his. I could taste myself on his smooth lips and tongue as he parted my legs with one of his knees. He poised himself over me as he kissed down my throat. He stopped at my shoulder and turned his head toward the water.
“Look at that,” Aiden whispered in my ear.
I turned my head in the sand and watched as the sun rose over the horizon, igniting the water and sand in brilliant rays of red, orange, and yellow. A group of seagulls took flight with their raucous morning calls, announcing the sun’s reappearance to the world. The whitecaps on top of the waves sparkled in the light; the sand glistened, and a new day began.
Aiden’s hand brushed over my cheek.
“Do you see that, Chloe? Do you realize what it is? The sun over the ocean, the beach, the gulls flying over the waves…and you and me, like this. That’s life, Chloe. That’s living.”
He kissed my mouth and then made a trail down my neck to my chest. Each of my nipples received the attention of his lips and tongue in turn. He sucked briefly, licked, and then sucked again. I moved my hands down his sides to grip his toned ass as he entered me slowly, allowing me to feel every inch slide into my depths.
He held himself buried inside of me, not moving. I touched his cheek with my hand, and he opened his eyes to stare down at me, the glow of the sunrise lighting up the side of his face.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, his eyes wide as he stared down at me, “every part of you bathed in the red morning sun. You’re like a painting in brilliant light and color. I want to capture you like this, keep you exactly as you are right here and now.”
I swallowed as his words poured over me. I could see what he was imagining, reflected in his eyes, and the image transformed in my head until I saw myself captured in ink on his skin—forever part of him, forever part of his story.
He shifted then, pulling out only slightly before tilting his hips to bury himself again. He wrapped one arm under my shoulders, and I raised my legs to lock them behind his back as me began to move inside of me.
All the roughness was gone. The fast, hard strokes I had come to expect were replaced with unhurried, deep, and methodical penetrations. He kissed me with every movement, his hand caressing me softly from my neck to my breast as I let my hands memorize the feeling of his back against my fingertips.
“Oh, Chloe…Chloe…Oh, God! I don’t want this to end…”
My body began to tense. Sensations from my breasts down to the pit of my stomach and then focusing between my legs caused me to shudder as I pushed up against him with my hips and dug my ankles into his back. I bit down on my lip, not wanting my screams to be heard down at the beach, and let go.
My body relaxed into the sand, and I wrapped my arms around his head.
“Aiden,” I whispered. “Oh, Aiden…”
“You feel so good,” he moaned. “So good, oh, baby…”
Aiden squeezed his eyes shut and held himself against me as he let out a muted gasp. I tightened my legs around his waist as I felt him fill me, holding on to him as tightly as possible.
I didn’t want to let go. I never wanted to let go.