addicted vol 1 | rafe cameron

𝟓 | 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬

I lift my hand toward him so he can help me up, but I actually just pull him into the water with me. I quickly lift myself onto my board and paddle back to shore.

"Juliet!" he yells and starts to hurriedly paddle close behind me.

The second I reach the shore, I stick my surfboard into the sand and run back to the blanket. Once I make it, I turn around to see Rafe close behind, trying to catch up to me. Before he reaches me, I hold out my hand. "I'm on base, sorry."

"Base? What are you, five?" He pulls me into a bear hug and begins to kiss my neck and tickle me.

"I said I'm on base!" I giggle uncontrollably, barely able to get my words out.

He lifts me up into his arms as we begin to kiss again. No siblings around, nobody calling me, no Topper. Just me and Rafe.

Eventually, I lay in Rafe's arms on the blanket as we look at the stars together. He starts to point out all of the constellations that I taught him the other night.

"How do you remember all of that?" I turn around to catch a glimpse of his face.

"What do you mean how do I remember?"

"I thought you didn't care." I lean close to him and lay my head on his chest.

Almost on cue, he wraps his arms around me tighter and rests his chin on my head. "I remember everything you said." he replies. "I don't really care about stars, but I still care about you."

It's only now that I realize I've been fidgeting with his hands for a while. Twisting his gold signet ring around in circles, holding onto his fingers, brushing my thumb against the back of his hand. He stays silent for a moment, which makes me self-conscious of my actions. This is probably weird.

"...Sorry." I mumble.

"For what?" He laughs as if he knows what I'm talking about, but just wants to know why I'm stopping.

"I don't wanna be weird."

"Making out and sleeping together is okay, but holding hands is where you draw the line. Got it." he says, so sarcastically that I have to roll my eyes and laugh.

"That's different."

"That's not different." he says, picking up my hands to look at them. He proceeds to do the same thing I was doing to him.

After what feels like minutes of watching him play with my hands, he finally links his fingers between mine and kisses me sweetly. I kiss him back before opening my eyes and carefully looking at every feature on his face. He has a strong jawline, but at certain angles, his face is soft. His skin is crazy tan, but I'm assuming it'll fade when winter comes, just like mine does.

"You have a dimple." he says, out of the blue.

I pause my own analyzing to process what he said before laughing slightly. "No I don't."

"Mmm-hm. Right here." He indents his thumb into one side of my face.

"Not really." I say sheepishly.

"I mean it's not crazy prominent, but, you know." He nods his head. "Seeing you this close, it's... it's obvious, now."

I begin to blush super hard, but this time I don't try to hide my face. I lean toward him and kiss him softly before resting my head on his chest. He places his hands on my torso, lifting me up and slightly closer to him. I get butterflies at how easy it is for him to move me around, but I quickly ignore them and instead lay my hand on his cheek.

"Three in a row." he whispers after a moment. Our faces are so close that I can feel his jaw move gently with every syllable.

"What?"