She hasn't said anything. She's just standing there, staring at me with a blank face. I just told her I want her to let me love her and she's become an emotionless statue.

"Rae, say something." I run my hand through my hair while she just stares at me. "Please."

"What do you want me to say, Seth?"

"Something." I shrug. "I don't know... anything?"

"How can you want to be with me after what I just told you? You're not... not disgusted by me?"

"How could I be disgusted by you, Rae?" I put my hand on her cheek tenderly. "You're still, you. No matter what's happened, this girl in my hands, this woman, is the one that keeps me coming back. Bad shit or none, I want to be with you. Whether you want to tell me more or not, I still want to be with you."

She searches my eyes for a moment before whispering, "I'm fucking damaged, Seth."

"But you're not broken." I caress her cheek with my thumb. "No, not broken at all."

She closes her eyes and leans into my hand, taking a deep breath. "We have until the end of the summer."

I cock an eyebrow saying, "what?"

"We have until the end of the summer to show each other what you just said you wanted to show me. If by the end of the summer things don't work out then I'm moving to New York."

"To be with Liam?"

"Yes and no." I frown automatically. "He said I need to make a decision and even if I don't decide to be with him there's still The School of Visual Arts."

"What decision?"

"He basically broke up with me last night and said if I don't move to New York we're completely done." I feel a large smile take over my face. "I wouldn't be smiling like that if I were you. I was about to call him and tell him I was going to New York with him before you showed up last night."

That one kind of hurt but it also makes me believe I'd made the right decision by ending things with Chrissy and coming here last night. "Are you going to tell him?" She makes a questioning face. I nod over to the bed. "About that."

She glances at the bed with eyes full of shame. "I don't know, Seth."

"You don't know?" I asked incredulously. "Rae, you've got to tell him about the two of us. That we're trying to make things work."

"I'm not telling him about that." She pulls away from me, putting her hands over her face. "I can't tell him about the sex. That can't happen again."

I cross my arms over my chest. "What do you mean that can't happen again?"

"The sex."

"Why?"

"Because this needs to be about things other than sex. When sex is involved it just becomes too complicated."

"This isn't just about sex, Rae." At least I thought we'd established this point already several times. Especially after what she'd just told me and the moment we'd just had. "How can this be about just sex? You know it's not."

"Right." She takes her hands off her face. "So, if we're going to see where this can go, other than sex, we need to stop having it. It's not like we don't know we're compatible in that particular department. We just need to see if we're compatible in others."

"Uh," I have no idea how that's going to happen when every time I look at her I want to be buried inside of her but I continue with, "okay. We can take things slow if you'd like." I look her up and down wondering how on Earth I'm going to make that happen.

She puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" I ask it even though I know exactly what she's talking about.

"For Christ's sake, Seth. We've already had sex so many times." I give her a smirk as I shrug and she lets out a long sigh. "This is never going to work."

I wrap my arms around her and look down at her. "It will work." I peck her lips. "We'll work." I kiss her again and this time she wraps her arms around my neck. "We can make this work." I lift her up in my arms and fist my hands in her hair as she deepens our kiss. "I'll show you." She wraps her legs around me. "Just how much I can lo-." She kisses me again, stealing my words, stealing my very breath away.

I walk over to the bed and lay her down, never once leaving her lips. Her hands go up my shirt, my hands go up hers. Our hands caress one another's bodies longingly. Rae breaks away from our kiss, "just... just one last time."

"One last time." I nod in agreement.

I slide her pants down her legs then her underwear. I strip down and so does she even though we had just put our clothes on. She's lying there on the bed looking up at me with a look of something more than just lust. Hope, maybe.

I stroke myself a few times before seating myself between her legs. I go slow, real slow, as I enter her. Pumping in and out of her languidly, I can't help but smile down at her. I'd missed her so much and I can feel this was going to be different this time.

She reaches up to touch my face, cupping my cheek. I lean into her palm just like how I'd done with her just moments ago. "Seth?"

"Yeah?" I slow down even more, just barely going in and out of her.

"Please," her eyes look up at me desperately "let's not hurt each other again."

I pause, fully seated inside of her. "I promise I won't hurt you again, Rae." I start to pick up my pace. "I'm going to show you just how much." I can't help but moan out as she tightens. "Fuck."

"Seth, I'm almost there." I have no idea what number this is for her, since I've already made her orgasm so many times. "Finish with me?" I nod and pick up my pace inside of her. "Oh god, Seth-"

"That's it." She clamps down on me and I can feel myself throbbing and one step away from - "ooooh fuuuuck!" I grunt out loudly, feeling my face contort, as my orgasm overtakes me.

Bliss, pure bliss. Every single time we're together it feels like this. It feels like perfection.

✩✩✩

"We've got an event at the gallery coming up in two weeks." She sips her fruity drink, digging her feet in the sand as she looks out at the ocean. "You should come."

"I'd love to but uh," I glance over at her "I don't really know if that's a good idea because of Chrissy. Do you think she'd care?"

She lets out a sigh before looking back at me. "You're right, it's probably not a good idea. Rhys is going to come."

Rhys and I haven't spoken since I'd left the apartment. "Oh uh, well-"

"What? He's your best friend. You could go with him. It wouldn't be weird if you came with him."

"You don't know?" I asked it like a question but she obviously doesn't know since she's making the suggestion she is.

"Don't know what?" Her eyebrows scrunch together.

I lean back in my beach chair and let out a deep breath before I continue. "Rhys and I haven't spoken since the night I left, Rae."

"Wait, what?" She leans forward and looks over at me. "Are you fucking serious? You guys are best friends."

"Were. Past tense, sweetheart." I reach over, grabbing the glass bottle out of the sand, and take a sip of my beer. "You don't fuck your best friend's sister and then leave her in the middle of the night and expect him to stay your best friend."

"I had no idea you guys weren't talking. That's so stupid though you guys grew up together. I'm sure if you just talk to him you guys can work it out."

"It goes both ways, Rae." I glance over to her. "He can't know there's something going on between us and keep trying to separate us."

"What are you talking about?"

"He knew about you and I. He knew what was going on and didn't say anything. He just tried to set me up with different girls and keep you with Liam." I take another sip. "Then he has the gall to fucking yell at me when I leave because you'd made up your mind to be with another guy. I don't fucking think so."

"You're telling me that he knew? He knew and he still brought Liam to Thanksgiving dinner?" She looks furious. "On the anniversary of-"

She doesn't continue she just grits her jaw but I know she wanted to say on the anniversary of your mother's death. That's exactly how I felt about it. My own best friend did that to me, something so fucked up that he knew would hurt me and I, in turn, hurt his sister because of it. Just a fucked cycle of pain and, what we had both thought at the time, unrequited affection.

"He knew you liked me since we were kids." I run my hand through my hair. "I didn't know that though."

"He knew that?"

"So, you did?" She looks away from me and slips her sunglasses on her face. "You did."

"Yup."

"Now I'm just picturing a younger Rae fantasizing about me while play-"

"Oh would you just shut it." She stands up in her two piece, displaying her perfect body. "I'm going for a dip." She doesn't say anything else before walking out to the edge of the water.

I watch her as I sit back in my chair and sip my beer. It's mid-July but Massachusetts waters are never really that warm and you can tell by the way she's tensing the moment her feet touch the water. I set my beer down and hop up feeling mischievous. Her back is still facing me as I run quickly up behind her. I pick her up in my arms the moment I reach her which makes her let out a loud yelp.

"Don't you dare!" She screams out but I don't listen as I trudge deeper into the water. "Seth McCaslin, so help me god, if you throw me into this water I will-"

"You'll what?" I give her a giant grin.

"I'll-" I don't let her finish before tossing her into the water.

She pops up with a loud scream. "Jesus!" She starts splashing the water at me and I can't help but laugh. "You're such an asshole!"

"At least I'm your asshole." I can't stop laughing as she continuously splashes me.

"My giant." She wraps her arms around my waist and looks up at me. "All mine?"

"Yes, little dragon." I lean down and peck her on the lips. "My little wet dragon." She pouts up at me. "What? You know I'll take any opportunity I can to get you wet." I wriggle my eyebrows at her.

She rolls her eyes at me. "There will be none of that," she scolds. I pout at her and bat my eye lashes. "Stop it."

"You once told me its impossible to say no to me." I grab a handful of her booty. "I want you."

"No." She pushes off my chest and backs away from me toward the shoreline. "See? Not impossible."

"Wait until I get you in the shower later." I stalk toward her slowly.

"There will be no showering together." She continues to walk backward until her feet hit the sand.

"We'll see about-"

"Rae?" A voice interrupts, making Rae's face pale.

I look up to see a familiar face walking toward the two of us. Great. Just fucking wonderful.