Page 57 of Unlocked Dive

Byrd

I’m grateful Lara insisted on the extra-large tub, even though I’m sure she never expected I’d be sharing it with a twenty-one-year-old princeling who never learned the word “no.” I’m drained, shaken—I’ve never unleashed myself on anyone like that before, and I keep expecting to feel guilty beneath the wonder.

“Don’t poke at it,” Echo says into my hair, trailing his fingers through the wet curls on my chest.

“Reading my mind now?” I close my eyes, resting my head on his shoulder.

“You’re gearing yourself up to feel guilty. It’s not mind reading. It’s called paying attention.” He nudges his hips into my lower back, a teasing reminder of when I said the same words to him in the Mac House cottage.

“Doesn’t it scare you?” I ask. It scares me. Not the words, but the implications.

You’re afraid he doesn’t know what it means.

I’m afraid of what will happen if he does.

“BecauseI’m a fuckboy, I’m not allowed to fall in love?” His fingers tighten where they’re clasped around mine, draped over the edge of the tub.

Reading my mind again. And missing the point entirely.

“You really are fearless, aren’t you?” I tilt my head back to study his profile, the blue tips of his hair plastered to his forehead like the day we met.

“I’ve led a charmed life. Marked by one spectacular tragedy.” He leans in to lay a kiss along the corner of my mouth. “Which turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.”

He means it.

No, no, no.

At least I’ll be gifting him the lesser tragedy.

How much more will it hurt when I have no one else to blame?

“And Iwasterrified,” he continues, oblivious to the dark twists of my not-regret. “You saw how I was when I got here. I thought I’d never find my way back to myself. You took that fear away.”

“So you love me because you think I saved you?” Simple. Understandable. Almost cliché.Am I hurt or relieved?

“No.” This time, he shifts so he can see my face, water sloshing over the rim to splash on the tiled floor. “You were able to save mebecauseI loved you.”

Not simple.

“I loved you for kissing me when I was a total wreck. I loved you for being jealous of Josha. I loved you for seeing me broken and believing Icouldbe saved.”

I push up to meet his lips. All the lines I’ve drawn to protect him, to protect myself, have washed away, and he deserves to be kissed, at least once, with none of my fears between us. He melts into my mouth, releasing my fingers to draw his hand up my arm and tangle in my wet hair, pressing me closer, giving memore. As if he hasn’t already given far more than I should have let him.

Could I have stopped it? Or was it already too late when he leaned through my window in the rain, smelling of smoke and wiping the image of Gabriel from the expectation of memory? The absolute novelty of his relentless, unashamed pursuit; my hollow resistance. How much of my fall was the catalyst for his recovery?

“I’m not the Echo you want,” he said, not understanding. There’s only ever been one Echo. Brazen, flirtatious, broken, determined,fearlessEcho, and I wanted it all. Something—someone—more than I’d ever allowed myself to claim.

“Besides,” he says, smiling against my lips and going back to my original question. “You’re scared enough for both of us.”

Scared for both of us. Well, that’s true enough.

“I know you think I was holding out to torture you, but I did have actual reasons for caution.”

“Because you knew playing hard to get would turn me on?” He rolls his hips again, and I feel the thickening length of his cock along my spine.

“That was an unexpected consequence.” I capture the hand wandering down from my chest and trap it against my abs before he can completely disarm me. “And probably tortured me more than it ever did you.”

“Pretending it was about the condoms was a pretty good ploy. Although what we’re gonna do with the lifetime supply I’ve hidden all over your house now…”