Chapter 82

His father keeps a car ashore for mainland visits, and Jake’s as good at driving the low, rumbling sports car as he is the speedboat, effortlessly confident and capable, and it’s seductive. Seeing a man capable of driving an expensive, powerful machine is a turn-on. He drives fast, but I don’t feel unsafe. He molds to the roads and the curves like a pro while I’m left to ogle the surroundings in awe. The scenery is breathtaking, and we don’t talk much as music blares from the speakers, wind in my hair from the open roof.

We don’t need to talk; we mastered this companionable silence through forced proximity long ago, and I’m glad of it now. We have scatterings of meaningless small talk but mostly quiet. I glance at his profile and watch the concentration etched on his face; he’s too handsome to be real sometimes.

I can’t help but linger on his mouth and get lost in the memory of how his kiss had felt last night, of how it had made me feel. Allowing myself the brief memori