On this side of the current is a little handmade sign with the words “Winterberry Falls” scrawled across it.

“Get in,” he says. “I’m right behind you.”

The waterfall isn’t very tall, but it’ll more than enough for me to comfortably stand underneath it.

I step to the edge of the water and unbutton my pants. I take off my clothes, piece by piece and shiver a little in the cool morning air.

Naked now, I take my first step into the pool.

The water’s cool, but not freezing.

The rocks beneath my feet are smooth from decades of erosion, and I slowly make my way into the falling water itself.

Although it’s not a deluge, the water presses me down in a firm massage. It’s when I turn around and come out of the current enough to see that I want to cry.

Ahead of me is the stream issuing from the waterfall, and the trees are sparse around it. Directly ahead is the brightest spot on the horizon, the patch of sky where the sun is going to make its appearance, and the clouds above are already turning shades of purple and pink with the closing proximity of the sunrise.

It quickly becomes obvious that sex in the waterfall is going to be a bit much to handle with the force of the water itself, but only a few feet into the alcove is a mostly smooth, mostly flat rock.

I walk over to it and turn back toward the opening. There’s a good deal of mist, but the colors of the coming sunrise are bright enough from back here to fill me with a dual sense of peace and excitement.

“What do you think?” Dane calls from the other side of the falling water.

“I think this would be a lot better with some company,” I tell him.

A few seconds later and he’s naked beside me, placing an already soaked towel onto the rock just behind me.

“It might be a little cold,” he says.

“That’s okay,” I tell him and, as the mist surrounds us and the sunrise grows more intense, I wrap my arms around him, saying, “I love you, Dane. Thank you.”

He smiles and I kiss him tenderly.

This moment is peace and romance and sex at once, and I lie down on the towel, wincing slightly until the towel absorbs my heat and Dane’s on top of me now, his hair dripping wet.

I reach down between his legs and feel him.

He’s already hard.

I’m dripping wet.

He slides into me easily and I’m immediately plunged into a new realm of existence where there is nothing but sensual pleasure inside and all around me.

He leans forward, kissing me softly and as he pulls away, I can’t hear the words, but his lips say, “I love you.”

I wrap my legs around him, pulling him into me deeper as the first glimmer the sun catches the water, forming prisms of light, casting colors in the spray of the waterfall.

The water is cold on my skin, but Dane is so warm inside me.

My arms are around him, his skin so fluid against mine.

His warmth fills me, and as the first half of the sun comes above the horizon through the translucent distance, I start to quiver.

With his body firmly, but gently pressed on and into mine, I gasp as my body becomes so incredibly sensate that every drop of water coming over the falls, every particle and wave of light passing through grows into me.

My breasts push tight against him with every deep breath, and my eyes are watering as the surge permeates my body, making me feel, for a moment, immortal.

I hardly notice when my eyes close, I’m so aware of every tattered piece of touch.

My own voice echoes in the alcove and is washed away by the rushing torrent so close I can taste it.

When my eyes open again, Dane is smiling above me.

I move my mouth, but can barely form the words.

He leans in closer.

“Pick me up,” I tell him.

My limbs encompass him so tight, so completely and he lifts me with ease. Being a true gentleman, he turns so I’m looking at the sky over his shoulder, and I kiss his neck as this beautiful man brings my fantasies to life.

Part of me wants him to walk beneath the water, but the rest of me is so much more content right here in his arms with only my thighs and gravity to careen through this other plane.

Through the open air to the side of the waterfall, I can see the trees swaying gently in a sightless breeze.

“I want you to come inside me,” I tell him, my voice barely a whimper.

I kiss his neck and then his lips, leaning back a little, but still secure in his arms.

He gazes at my breasts as they heave with every ragged breath, and as I look out the side of the waterfall once more, I lock eyes with a woman standing on the bank.

Adrenaline soars through my body, but the woman just stands and watches us, her hands at her sides.

I don’t take my eyes off of her as I press myself again into Dane’s body, the warmth in my skin rekindled.

Dane’s erection heats my core, and I imagine the mist as steam coming off our bodies, through which I can still perceive that woman as she sits on the dry ground and leans back, taking in what we’re giving off.

It’s not an attraction that I feel for the woman, at least not a sexual one, but I lick my lips as I lean back once more, exposing more of my body to the open air.

With both arms clasping each other behind Dane’s neck, I roll my hips, wondering just how much that dark-haired woman can see of us.

It’s not attraction: it’s understanding, recognition between artist and subject, though I can’t claim to know who is who.

Dane holds me with only one arm now as with the other, he guides my breasts, one by one, into his smoldering mouth.

I tilt my head back, allowing him greater access to me and my hair hangs down, heavy with water, behind me.

The woman on the shore is still there, her eyes ever intent on mine, and I start to climb toward that threshold once more.

Dane feels the quickening of my breath and he lifts me, his whole length entering and then retreating again and again, the sounds of our love crackling against the walls of the nook.

“You’re slipping,” Dane tells me, and I immediately pull myself against him once more.

The shock of his words, any words, delays my gratification and I tell him to lie down on the towel behind me.

He turns around slowly, every step deliberate, until he can sit on the edge of the rock. I lean forward as he leans back and he rotates his body just enough for the whole of him to lie back.

Every moment, he’s inside me.

I let my hair fall to cover my face, focusing my gaze onto the man who brought me here to this place of trance and frenzy. As I rise and fall on his firm erection, I tense the muscles in my center, gripping him tight.

My hips flip and rock against him, and I can see in his eyes that he’s going to come.

I lean forward, putting my mouth to his ear and telling him once more, “I want you to come inside me,” and I ride him hungrily, the sun now well into the sky.

Dane’s chest expands and contracts quicker now, and I can only hope to meet him there.

His mouth comes open, and he gasps as I feel new warmth inside me as I skyrocket toward the stars we’ve discovered again together.

His body is still jerking in and against mine as I fall into him, hardly able to breathe, barely able to move, and our muscles contract and release in a strange rhythm as I lay my body against his, exhausted and satiated.

We lie here together for what seems like a jilted eternity, until he slips out of me.

“Gotta tell ya,” I breathe, “I don’t know if I can move right now.”

“Right with ya,” he says.

I lift my head to look for that woman again, the shore is bare.

I’m still not sure if she was there or if I just imagined her.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Backsliding

Dane