"Mmm, Tess," Hardin moans and tightens his hands on my hips.

"I know," I breathe into his mouth

"N-no..." Hardin pulls back and gently brushes the hair away from my face. "You have no idea how good it feels to have you back in my arms, where you belong."

"Hardin..."

"Tess, I missed you, so much. I mean... I didn't know I could miss someone as much as I missed you."

"Hardin..."

"Tess..." Hardin cups my cheeks. "You can never leave me again. I mean it. I wouldn't survive it..."

"I'm sorry," I say quietly and look away from his piercing green eyes.

Hardin forces me to look at him again. "No. I'm sorry. I understand why you did what you did. Molly was awful to you and I'm so sorry for that. But I need you to promise you won't leave me again. Please, baby... Sorry, I mean Tess."

"I won't, as long as you always call me baby."

"I-I thought you didn't like that."

"I was mad at you. The truth is hearing you call me that made me want to run into your arms and forgive you for everything."

"That's good to know for next time." Hardin gives a small grin.

"Next time?" I raise my eyebrow.

"Kidding!"

"Shut up and kiss me, Mr. Scott." I smile.

"Mr. Scott, huh? Hearing you call me that makes me want to do so many dirty things to you," Hardin whispers in my ear as his thumb draws circles on my hip.

I surprise myself by whispering into his ear, "Okay..."

"Later, baby. Right now we have somewhere to be."

"Where?"

"Nice try, Theresa." Hardin laughs as he helps me off him and back to my side of the car.

"Seriously, where are we going? I thought we were just going home now that you got me to forgive you."

"Nope! And we better hurry because we have to get there before the sun sets." Hardin starts the car and pulls out of the parking lot and back on to the road.

After driving for ten minutes, I start to complain. "Hardin..." I whine. "Where are we going?"

"It won't be too much longer."

After another ten minutes, Hardin finally stops the car. "Okay, we're here!" he says cheerfully.

"And where is 'here'?" I ask before turning my head to look out the window. I can't help but let out a gasp. We're parked in front of a forest... with a trail leading somewhere I can't see, but I think I have a pretty good guess.

"Is something wrong, Tess?"

"Um, no."

"Okay, then let's go." He smiles.

We get out of the car and Hardin takes my hand as he leads me down the path. It's both amazing and a little eerie how similar this looks to my dream. As we continue walking, I start to get butterflies in my stomach. Hardin continues to pull me along the trail until we finally walk out of the forest and the crystal clear lake from my dream comes into view. "Wow... It looks just like my dream," I say quietly to myself.

"Did you say something, Tess?"

"N-no..."

Hardin continues to guide me until we reach a dock. "Welcome to my favourite place. What do you think, baby?"

"The view is absolutely breathtaking," I say as I look out over the crystal clear lake in front of me.

"I agree. The lake's not too bad either." He chuckles.

"What?" I squeak. Hardin has already said this to me... in my dream.

"Baby, what's going on? You've been acting really weird since we got here."

"Hardin..." I pause and take a deep breath. "I think there's something I need to tell you."

"Tess, you're scaring me."

"There's a reason I'm acting so weird. I've... been here before."

"You've been here before?"

"Sort of."

"What? You're not making any sense."

"I... Well, I have these dreams. They're about you and me."

"Okay... That's a good thing, right? I have dreams about you, too, Tess."

"But these dreams started before I ever met you. And they predict things that are going to happen. Like the day you kissed me under the stars... I already dreamed that was going to happen. Or this place... I had four separate dreams about you bringing me here."

"Tess..."

"And now you think I'm crazy." I sigh.

"I don't think you're crazy, just a little confused..."

"I can prove it."

"How?"

"I've never seen you without a shirt on, right?"

"Um... I guess you haven't."

"Okay, so there would be no way for me to know you have a tattoo of a tree covering most of your stomach."

"I—"

"Or a ship on your shoulder blade!"

"H-How did you know that?"

"I told you. I dreamed it."

"Tess... this is... this is unbelievable."

"Is this where you dump me because you think I'm crazy?"

"No, Tess. It's unbelievable, but amazing. You knew we were going to meet?"

"At first I thought they were only dreams, but then it all became too much to ignore. Emma tried to convince me I was dreaming about you because you were my soulmate."

"But you didn't believe her?"

"Not at first, but she kept pushing me to go for it with you and I really started to believe it was true."

"Is that why you were so upset and said I wasn't what you thought I would be like?"

"Yeah. In my dreams there was no Molly."

"I don't know what to say to all of this..."

"I've scared you away, haven't I?"

"Tess, nothing could make me leave you," Hardin promises as he reaches up and caresses my cheek. "I may not have been having dreams like you were, but I already told you about how drawn I felt to you, how you got inside my head and I couldn't stop thinking about you. In a way, I think my feelings were telling me we were soulmates, just like your dreams were telling you."

"Y-you think we're soulmates?"

"I do. I don't know how else to explain everything." He gives me a smile and rubs his thumb across my cheek.

"I'm so happy you don't think I'm crazy." I laugh.

"You'd have to be to want to date the likes of me." He chuckles.

"I'm so glad this is all out in the open now."

"So, you really weren't having sex dreams about me?" Hardin teases.

"No. At least not yet." I giggle.

"Hmm... Maybe I can change that." Hardin gently places his hand against my neck and lightly rubs his nose against mine before finally kissing me. He pulls away after a single kiss. "Now... the reason we came here."

"To swim?"

"How did you— Never mind." He chuckles. "It's going to take some convincing to get you to swim with me, isn't it?"

"Just give me your damn shirt!" I huff.

"Wow. That was easy." He smirks and takes off his shirt, then passes it to me.

As I hold it in my hands, I'm lost in thought as I stare at Hardin's tree tattoo. This is the first time I'm seeing it in real life and it's even sexier than in my dream, if that's even possible.

"Tess?"

I shake my head. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I know I'm a work of art."

"And modest. Don't forget modest." I playfully roll my eyes and Hardin laughs. "Um, turn around."

"Really?" he whines.

"Yes!"

"One day you'll let me watch, Theresa. And I know you'll enjoy it." He winks and then turns around.

I quickly remove my shirt and pants and slip Hardin's shirt over my bra and panties. "I'm done!"

Hardin turns back around and starts to take off his jeans. "Don't worry. I don't mind if you watch," he says and shoots me a sinful smile.

"Hardin!" I shriek and he laughs.

"Come on, baby." He grabs my hand and we walk to the edge of the dock. Hardin jumps in first, then gently helps me into the water.

Hardin starts to swim away, so I paddle toward him. When he turns around, I splash him and start to giggle.

"That's not funny," he says with a serious look on his face.

"It really is."

"It's not." He swims closer to me. "This is funny!" He lifts me up and tosses me into the water.

"Hardin!" I come back up choking and Hardin starts to snicker. "That's not funny!"

"I disagree." He slowly paddles away from me.

"You jerk!" I say and jump on his back, causing him to go under water. When he pops back up, I lose my grip and fall back into the water.

"Come here." Hardin lifts me up and I wrap my arms around his neck and legs around his waist. "You're the sexiest woman I've ever met, Tess." He continues to help hold me with one arm, while he reaches the other up and brushes the wet hair from my face, then starts to kiss me.

I can't help but moan into his mouth. "Hardin..." I feel him start to get hard against me. Part of me feels shy and wants to pull away, but another part of me craves more. I wrap my legs around him tighter, pulling him even closer to me. I can feel him lose control as his kisses become rougher and sloppier. When he pulls back to take a breath, I take the opportunity to start kissing along his neck.

"Fuck... Tess... Tess?"

I stop kissing him and pull back, so I can look at him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, but the sun is starting to set. The water will be too cold to swim in soon. I don't want you to get sick."

"Oh, okay, Hardin."

Hardin cups my cheek and looks into my eyes. "Believe me, I didn't want to stop either," he assures me.

We swim back to the dock and Hardin helps me out. I dry off as much as I can before changing back into my clothes, then Hardin and I walk back to the car, hand in hand.

Once we're in the car, Hardin starts the car, but doesn't start driving. Instead, he turns to look at me.

"Hardin, is something wrong?"

"Tess, will you stay with me tonight?"

"Hardin..."

"Nothing has to happen that you aren't comfortable with. I just really want to hold you again. It's been too long."

"Hardin, that's really sweet."

"So, what do you say? Will you stay with me tonight, baby?"