Page 61 of Beautiful Rush
He chuckled. “You’re so cute when you’re embarrassed, Buttercup. My mom doesn’t care.”
His mom held up her hands. “Pretend I’m not here.”
Deacon turned me around and planted a big kiss on my lips and pinched my ass, a playful grin on his face. I glared at him. He pretended to cower. “You’re so scary.”
I rolled my eyes and tried to suppress a smile but failed. For the rest of the day, he was charming and playful and fun. We spent it with his family, sitting on the deck that spanned the back of the house, talking and laughing into the evening and as the sun went down, the fireflies came out to play. It was easy and stress-free, and I felt the tension leave my body. The Ramsey’s were everything a family should be. They enjoyed each other’s company and the conversation flowed. I got to see firsthand what Deacon had meant when he said his parents had an equal partnership. They listened to each other and even when they didn’t agree on something, they respected each other’s opinions. It was nice and not something I was used to.
Abby was easy to talk to as well and we bonded over our mutual love of Jax Teller.
“I think that’s the look Deacon’s going for,” Abby teased.
Deacon was lounging on a deck chair next to me and cracked one eye open. “Do you fantasize about Jax Teller when you’re with me?”
I leaned close and whispered in his ear. “No. I fantasize about Batman. All day. Every day.” I winked at him and leaned back in my chair.
Deacon sat up, eying the hot tub on the deck. His parents had told me they’d put it in last year, and I knew what Deacon was thinking even before the words came out of his mouth. “Are you guys about ready to hit the road?” he asked his family.
Well, that was subtle.
* * *
“If you had toldme there was a hot tub, I would have brought a bikini.” I twisted my hair into a loose topknot and secured it with an elastic on my wrist.
“What would have been the point of that?” He lifted his beer to his lips and took a pull. He was already in the hot tub, his arm draped across the ledge. “Get naked, baby.”
I stripped off my clothes quickly and climbed into the hot tub, sinking down in the water until it covered my shoulders. Deacon laughed. “Nobody can see you out here.”
I glanced out at the woods, not so sure about that. I felt like we were being watched. Earlier, I had thought it was so quiet, but now my ears picked up all the strange noises I wasn’t used to. Crickets chirping. Leaves rustling.Was that an owl? It was so dark out here, with only the lights from the hot tub. There were spotlights on the back of the house, but Deacon hadn’t turned them on. “Maybe we need to turn on some lights.”
Deacon nudged my leg with his foot. I looked across the hot tub at him, his face lit up in a soft glow, beads of water running down his chest. “Look up.”
I tipped back my head and looked up.
“Oh,” I breathed. Without the city lights to compete with, the sky was darker, and the stars shone brighter. I leaned back against the side of the hot tub, heated jets of water massaging my back and shoulders and watched the stars reeling in the sky. It made my problems feel smaller, almost inconsequential compared to the vastness of the star-filled sky above me. I lowered my head, meeting Deacon’s eyes across the hot tub. He was watching me, not the star-filled sky, and for a few long moments, we just stared at each other. As if a magnetic pull drew me toward him, I moved across the hot tub and straddled him, my fingers sifting through his hair as our lips met. I closed my eyes, drinking in the taste of him as his tongue swept over mine, his hands cradling my face. I could feel his erection pressing against my stomach, but he took his time kissing me. Without warning, he stood up, bringing me with him, my legs cinched around his waist and he carried me into the house and up the stairs, leaving a trail of water in our wake.
“You’re crazy,” I said, laughing as he tossed me on the bed and dove on top of me.
“That’s what you love about me.” He nudged my thighs apart and settled his narrow hips between them.
“Love is a big word.”
Deacon pinned my arms above my head and plastered his forehead to mine. I looked into his eyes and saw his heart and his soul and his secrets. He thrust into me, slowly and deeply, and I began to rock into him, wanting more of him. Wanting everything he had to give me. I didn’t want to fall in love with him, but it was too late, and his smile told me that he knew that.
* * *
I wokeup to sunshine and a warm mountain breeze streaming through the open windows and a warm body wrapped around mine, our limbs tangled, his arm around my middle. We had lazy morning sex and Deacon made us breakfast—eggs, toast, bacon, and coffee that we ate at the farmhouse table. After breakfast, we packed a lunch, drove to Overlook Mountain and climbed a steep, rocky trail through the woods that was mostly in the shade. Two miles up the trail, we stopped to wander around the ruins of an old hotel. Trees had grown inside the frame and through the windows, and I thought the skeletal ruins were tragic and beautiful, especially after Deacon told me the story.
“The first building on this site was a lodge in the early 1800s. Business never took off, so they closed it. A new developer came along and built a luxury 300-room hotel. Four years later, it burned down. Then two brothers came along and rebuilt it. That one burnt down in 1921. For the third rebuild, the guy figured it would be better to use concrete. But he gave up and never finished building it. In 1970, there was another fire on this site, but the concrete withstood the blaze.”
He told me this story as we climbed a staircase leading to nowhere and I had “Stairway to Heaven” playing in my head.
We ate our lunch on the mountaintop, with views of the Hudson River Valley and the Catskill Mountains. We still had a few hours to spend together, but I was already sad about leaving.
“We can come back anytime,” Deacon said, making it sound like we had a future together, that this wasn’t going to end on top of this mountain. Or after we drove home separately.
That was the day I stopped fighting it, stopped fighting the idea of an us. Because I wanted there to be an us. Not just today, but tomorrow and the day after. I wanted all his tomorrows.
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