“Fuck, what have I done? Josh, I like you, like really, really like you, but that? I would need to tell Austin. He’d either tell me I was crazy or tell me I was awesome.” She paced my bedroom as she completely freaked out.

“Why are you freaking out so much? I didn’t think buying a cat together would cause you this much stress.”

Suddenly, she froze . . . and I waited. She spun around and her eyes shot wide. With two steps, she was standing beside the bed. “What did you just say?”

I couldn’t contain my smirk any longer. “I said, I didn’t think buying a cat would cause you this much stress. Why, Ashy, what did you think I was talking about?” I grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto the bed beside me, then rolled to my side to face her.

“I hate you,” she muttered as she buried her face into the pillow and stifled a laugh.

“No you don’t. You really, really like me. You just said, they were your exact words.”

She lifted her face and attempted to glare at me, but her smile dismissed it all. “Well played, Crawford. Way to make the hungover girl feel even more humiliated. I thought I had proposed or something. Was I like ridiculously drunk last night?”

“You were cute drunk. Do you remember everything?”

“Yes, unfortunately. I’m surprised I didn’t try to jump your bones.”

“I’m not into fucking girls who are passed out. Now, enough with the chatting. You need to go have a shower, get dressed in your sexiest bikini, and meet me back here in an hour. We are going on a date.”

“A date?” she asked with a smile.

“Yep, a date. Fifty-eight minutes, Ashy.”

For someone who was suffering a hangover, I had never seen her move so quickly.

I entwined our fingers as we walked along the boardwalk that allowed us views of the Atlantic. Ashlyn was ready in record time, and had come back to my apartment within forty minutes. Maybe she was as eager as me for this date.

“I still have no idea where we are going,” she said with a laugh beside me.

“You’ll like it, I promise.”

We continued walking for another ten minutes before we turned off and headed down a track that led to a secluded part of the beach that looked like a cove. Not many people knew that this place existed, and I hoped that we would have it to ourselves.

As we came through the clearing, Ashlyn suddenly stopped. “This looks exactly like Lilac Cove,” she whispered. “My favorite place in the world.”

She dropped my hand, took off down to the water’s edge, and dipped her toes in the clear blue water. When she turned back to look at me, I was greeted with a smile that reached her eyes, and I knew I had made the right decision in bringing her here. I set down the picnic basket and placed the blanket under the tree, before pulling off my T-shirt and heading down to the water to meet her.

“Let’s go for a swim before we eat,” I said softly into her ear as I wrapped my arms around her waist. “Show me that body of yours, Ashy.”

“I think you should undress me,” she said.

She didn’t have to ask me twice.

I unwrapped my arms from around her waist, then my eyes roamed over her body, which was covered in a light pink dress that showed off her perfect curves. My hands landed on her thighs and slowly pushed her dress up over her hips to reveal purple bikini bottoms and her pert ass. Her eyes fluttered shut as my fingertips swept over her stomach then trailed over her tits before I pushed the dress off her shoulders.

“It’s like unwrapping the best present in the world.”

She shivered as I ran my fingertips down her spine. I loved the effect I had over her.

“Turn around,” I whispered, and slowly she turned to face me. I looked at her body in all its glory, and felt my cock swell at the sight of her. “You are absolutely stunning, Ashy. Never let anyone make you feel otherwise.”

Her cheeks flushed, and I knew I’d continue telling her until she believed it.

We walked into the cool water until it reached my chest. I lifted Ashlyn into my arms, and her legs twisted around my waist while her arms wrapped around my neck.

“So, are we good?” I asked softly.

“We are good. I just wasn’t expecting you to tell me that. I think it just shocked me, and I reacted badly. It was a beautiful thing that you did, and I never want you to regret it. We just need to concentrate on what is, not what could have been. The here and now.”

“That sounds good to me.” I leaned in and covered her mouth with mine. Her sigh of contentment spurred me on, and I pulled her closer to my body. As our kiss intensified, her body started grinding against mine in a perfect friction. Her fingers raked through the back of my head and my fingers dug into her ass. “How do you feel about public sex?” I groaned against her lips.

She giggled and broke our kiss, and then her face disappeared into the concave of my neck. “If we are going to have sex in water, then it has to be in the real Lilac Cove.”

“Let’s go there next weekend,” I said.

Her laughter made me feel like I had finally found my home.

After I calmed down and my cock decided to relax, we left the water and moved to the shade, where I pulled out the picnic basket that I’d purchased from the local café. It contained sandwiches, fresh fruit, juice, and chocolates. We ate and spoke about everything and anything. I teased her about cats, and she told me that she’d hold back, not only those pussy cats, but hers. That was the last I’d tease her about cats.

Once we finished eating, she moved down until her head was resting in my lap. Silence fell between us, and her eyes drifted shut as I ran my fingers through her hair.

“I was frightened that this was too good to be true, because the moment I met you all those years ago, I knew I wanted something with you. When I came back from Australia, you were the one I went to. I chose you. That first morning when I climbed into your bed was the beginning of this. The beginning of something that I still can’t name, but I’m working on it. All I ask is that you be patient with me. I would rather suffer a hundred heartbreaks at the hands of other men than to ever suffer heartbreak from you, Josh, because I know I wouldn’t survive it. But I can feel something between us, something like I’ve never felt before, and I don’t want to fight my future with fears of my past anymore. Especially if my future includes you,” Ashlyn said softly.

I looked down at her, and she gazed up at me with the most peaceful of expressions. It was beauty in its purest form. “I tried to push you away,” She continued. “But you kept coming for me. And you know what? You are all I see, Josh. You are my anchor in the craziness of life. You give me the chance to go a little off course at times, but you always pull me back in. You scare me in the best possible way, because you are the only one that could give me the one thing I’ve always wanted, the one thing I had given up on.”

I pulled her up until she was straddling me. My world as I knew it just shifted. It was completely turned on its axis by her admissions. The enormity of what she had just shared wasn’t lost, now that she had admitted that she was locked into the thought of us as much as I was. The fears, insecurities, and worries that had been consuming me in silence over the past five years began to lift.

“You’re my girl, Ashy. Always have been and always will be.” I whispered, with a voice swamped with emotion.

“I think this is the perfect time,” she said softly, and a glimmer of cheekiness hit her eyes.

“Perfect time for what?”

“To say one thing and one thing only.”

I waited for whatever the hell she wanted to say. Knowing Ashlyn, it could be anything.

Her lips twisted into a sassy smile before she leaned in close to my ear. I waited expectantly for whatever she had to say. “Only one thing needs to be said to end a perfect date.”