Summer woke late the next morning. For a few blissful moments she felt totally at ease and then the stark reality of the previous night came back to her. She sat up too fast and her head spun. The house was quiet. Sunlight streamed in through the window. She didn't know how to act anymore. Everything was out of control.

She picked up her phone to see a dozen messages from Brady. It was his birthday. She was almost glad she wasn't with him - she knew no matter how much effort she'd put in he'd still find her lacking. Being hundreds of miles away afforded her the luxury of texting back a simple 'happy birthday' followed by an assortment of emojis. She’d reached the point where trying any harder would feel like an invitation for criticism.

But he was still on her mind as she walked to the bathroom. Her cheeks flushed at the thought of the previous night. The way Abel had watched her. His cock centimetres from her face. His voice. The way he instructed her like she was his to control. And, oh god, the helpless way she'd listened, performed, mindlessly addicted to the way he'd made her feel.

Summer tried to expel the thoughts. Setting her phone on the counter, she switched on the shower and stood under the spray of water, shivering as it warmed up. It'd have been easy to blame last night on the wine but it went deeper than that. Abel had always gone deeper.

But there was Brady. God, if he knew… the thought was unbearable. She didn’t know how he’d react but it wouldn’t be good. If he found flaws in everyday things she did, this would be off the scales. He’d hold it over her forever. For the last year she'd been hanging onto the man she'd first met rather than the one he'd become. She was tired of feeling like she wasn't enough. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be confident in herself. But the way Abel had looked at her in her barest, most exposed form … god, he made her feel like enough and then some.

Was he like that with every woman? She wanted to be more than any of the others, wanted to mean more to him, to affect him more profoundly. Her mind flashed back to Cheri West and she wondered with a start whether Abel was still seeing her. Everything she thought she knew seemed uncertain now. She realised that she hadn't even kissed him. She'd barely touched him. She still didn't know very much about him beyond the way he sent her insides into freefall.

It felt good. It felt thrilling. He’d made her feel beautiful and alive and nasty all at once and she’d loved every second. 

Reaching for the soap, she washed herself methodically, like the process could cleanse her conscience. Did it count as cheating if she’d been planning to break up with Brady as soon as she got home? Besides, it wasn’t exactly cheating, per se. She hadn’t even touched Abel. She’d just - touched herself exactly as he told her to and let him cum on her naked body. Fuck. The thought made her shiver and clench hard.

She inhaled the clean smell of soap and busied herself with scrubbing her body clean, trying to think of anything but the previous night. 

"Summer?" It was Abel's voice. For a second she thought she'd imagined it but then he said her name again, closer this time. Her heart thudded in her chest as she heard the door. He was in the bathroom. She could see him through the glass screen of the shower and for a mad second she thought he was intending on joining her but he was fully dressed and leaning against the wall by the sink.

She reached warily to turn the water down so as to hear him better. He was facing her. How much could he see? The shower was steamed up a little but surely he could see the impression of her body through the glass. Naked everything.

"I was thinking we should probably go and get some groceries," he was saying, "We're running low and it'll give us a change of scenery. What do you think?"

"Uhhhhhh, yeah, sure," Summer soaped herself cautiously, hands running wet and slick over her breasts. Could he see? Did it even make a difference after he'd seen her last night, naked and lost in orgasm? Somehow it did. It felt starker in daylight. He didn't move, just stood there watching her. 

"Your phone's ringing," he said just as she heard the insistent buzzing. She slid her hand down past her stomach to wash between her legs. He was glancing over at the screen of her phone.

"Who's Brady?" he asked.

Summer watched the water flow down her body. It made her skin glow brown. 

"He's my boyfriend," she said after a beat. She didn't elaborate but he pressed harder.

"You never speak about him," Abel's tone wasn't accusatory but somehow curious. "How long have you been together?"

"A few years," Summer said. The buzzing of the phone shut off abruptly. Her eyes felt hot. She wanted to hate him for acting the way he was. For standing there watching her shower while asking about her boyfriend. It felt as though he could see all the way through her. She wanted to tell him everything, and not just about the mess of her life but everything about him; the way he made her feel, how he was the one she'd fucked in her mind over and over and over again. 

"Do you love him?" Abel asked. 

She wanted to turn up the water and pretend she'd never heard the question. Brady. Everything was effort with him. A constant struggle to please a man unrecognisable from the one she'd first fallen for. He made her feel like a series of disappointments. 

"Summer?" Abel's voice cut into her thoughts. He'd moved closer. She wondered if he could see her wet, naked body more clearly now. He'd made her feel essential the night before. Alive and beautiful. If she'd needed anything to assure her that the relationship with Brady was over, Abel had done it. 

"No," she finally said, "I don't love him."

A smile came to his mouth but it disappeared just as quickly. Was he disappointed? Could he have been hoping to simply play with her only for her to go back to Brady when the lockdown was over? But nothing about him read that way, until the thought of Cheri West invaded her mind. Curiosity overpowered her sense of better judgment.

“And what about Cheri?” she asked. As soon as the words passed her lips she hoped the water would muffle them.

Abel heaved a long, deep sigh. “Cheri,” he repeated the name, making it sound like an impossible math equation.

Summer started to tell him he didn’t owe her an answer if he didn’t want to give her one. But he kept going.

“Cheri is basically the biggest, most public mistake of my life,” he said.

The tone of his voice made her ache for him, even as cautious relief trickled through her veins. 

"You don't have to talk about it," she said. Turning off the water, she slid open the shower door and stepped out.

He stood there. He didn't look away. Their eyes met.

"You don't have to tell me anything," he said. His eyes swept over her body once before settling on her face again. "Unless you want to, or need to.”

“Are you sure?” Summer asked.

“Of course,” he said, “We don't need to know each other's entire lives to know each other, do we?"

He'd reached for her towel but he took his time handing it to her. She wasn't sure how he made her feel even more naked than she was.

"I think you're right," she said, and hoped life could be so beautifully simple.

***

Abel pulled the car around the front of the house and waited for Summer with the engine idling. He thought about watching her shower. He’d gone into the bathroom with the full intention of taking off his clothes and stepping into the stall with her without asking. After everything that happened by the pool the night before it would’ve been okay. Wouldn’t it? It wasn’t something he’d normally just assume, but it felt that way. But then they had to talk about being involved with people they didn’t love.

Abel had been with Cheri long enough to know that no one would love her for years. Not until the noxious fog of her fame had settled enough so she could reconcile who she was. She would dope herself through a long series of self-destructive relationships with men who expected her to be hollow underneath.

Summer was an alternate universe. Under the trickling spray of the shower, she was a dusky jewel shimmering like a dirty secret she was the last to hear.

She came out of the house wearing the biggest shirt of Abel’s she could find. She’d cinched one of his belts around the waist and made it look as much like a dress as she could. It almost worked, but it only made him think of her naked and wet all over again - that body, pure, raw and spare as the way she twisted his words into something worthwhile.

Alternate fucking universe.

He could taste her just by looking. He could taste the memory. Then she was getting into the car and arranging herself on the seat so the shirt she was trying to get away with wouldn’t ride too high on her legs. She belted herself in and pulled down at the hem of the shirt. She turned to look at him. He waited to see if she was going to say something, but she didn’t. He started the car but his mind was on the way the water had been running down her body, the way it welled up briefly in the smooth V of her bare pussy before cascading down her inner thighs.

Abel drove out of his driveway into traffic that was barely there.

“We can try to find you some clothes,” he said, distracted. “But most everything is closed.”

She seemed to bristle slightly but then righted herself. “In times like this I suppose we just have to make do with what we have.”

Abel nodded, silently hoping they wouldn’t find anything. He liked seeing her in whatever she scavenged from his wardrobe. There was the odd sense they weren’t his clothes anymore, but their clothes.

When he pulled into the market parking lot, there was a line of people waiting to go inside, all standing a metre apart. Abel handed Summer one of the bandanas he’d taken from his room.

“We can use these for masks,” he said. 

“We look like a pair of bank robbers,” Summer said once they finished tying them in place.

Abel laughed briefly, but he became distracted again as he studied the shape of her features under the scarf. He didn’t think she could tell he was smiling as he decided how much he liked knowing how beautiful she was under the mask. He liked knowing her face that well. It struck him that he’d be the only person inside the store that would truly know what she looked like behind the fabric, and he decided he liked that as much as the rest.

They got out of the car and headed for the queue. It was moving faster than it looked at first, and when they finally got inside the door Summer stopped.

“Oh,” she said, simply, as if remembering something.

Abel tried to give her a questioning look, but then realized it was lost behind the mask. “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t think so.” She hesitated a moment. “Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just silly.”

“What’s silly?”

“These masks,” she said. “They match.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Of course not.”

But there was something else, Abel could tell. 

“It makes us look like a couple.” Summer finally said.

Abel stopped a moment, then laughed. “And that would be ridiculous, of course, right?”

“Preposterous,” she replied emphatically.

“A bank robbing couple.”

“Exactly,” Summer chuckled.

Abel stepped closer and put his arms around her, letting his hands settle at the small of her back.

“This makes us look like a couple, too,” he said.

She felt warm and elegant against him. He wished he’d gotten into the shower with her after all while the pressure of her body made his cock ache. Then he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers through the double layer of scarf masks. It took a moment, but then her lips responded. The heat of her breath sifted through their masks against his mouth. It was all warmth and no air, and yet he felt like she was inflating him. It was a kiss without being a kiss. He didn’t think he would have kissed her without the masks in between. Kissing was personal. More personal than watching her take a shower. More personal than touching her from the inside and making her cum.

Their lips parted but nothing could pass through the fabric between them. One of Abel’s hands dropped to Summer’s ass, caressing the spherical shape of her cheek. She wiggled out of his grasp without pulling out of his arms.

“This is a supermarket!” she hissed under her breath.

“That’s true,” Abel said. “But we’re a couple. Couples do this.”

“Not in public.”

Abel laughed. “Some do. Besides, our masks match. Everyone thinks we’re a couple and no one has a clue who we are. We even have matching boxers.”

“You’re a perfectly horrible man,” she told him.

This time the smile went all the way up to her eyes. There was no mistaking it. It felt as if their veiled jokes about looking like a couple had cemented something between them. Something still formless yet growing solid. Abel kept his hand on Summer’s back until the queue finally reached the door and they got their turn to go inside.

Together, they filled a cart with at least a week’s supply of food. The market was fairly large, with a pharmacy section and another small area with cheap beachwear for impulse shoppers. There wasn’t much left, considering that the market probably wouldn’t see any new deliveries for weeks or even months. Summer sorted through what was left with a horrified look in her eyes. Abel suggested using bikinis in place of bras and panties, and there were a couple of beach cover outfits that could have passed for outfits. But it was only the cheapest, most tawdry looking items that were left.

“I’m better off wearing your clothes,” she remarked.

Abel knew she couldn’t see his grin beneath the mask. He liked seeing her in his clothes, but he still grabbed a couple of the remaining bikinis and cover-ups and tossed them into the cart while Summer rolled her eyes dramatically. Then she promptly grabbed the items from the cart and tossed them back.

When they got back to the car they stashed everything in the boot. Instead of driving back to the house directly, Abel took Summer on a tour of a few parts of the island she hadn’t seen before. Their masks were off now and studying the reactions on her face to the scenery made Abel feel light. He started to feel like he actually fit in his own skin.

He finally drove to a low-standing cliff that overlooked a long stretch of sparsely populated beach. The road was so narrow that Abel’s car was still blocking part of the lane as he pulled to the side, but there was so little traffic on any of the roads there didn’t seem much need to worry about it. He got out and walked around to the passenger’s side, which was also on the view side. Summer was out of the car by the time he reached her.

“It’s stunning,” she said, standing by the car and watching light waves lap at the white sand.

Abel gave her a few minutes to gaze at the scene before he leaned against the car and pulled Summer in front of him. He held her close, his arms circling around the front. She stiffened at first, but it was only a few seconds before he felt her body relax. He rested his chin on her shoulder.

“You’re right. It’s stunning. But not as stunning as you.”

“Oh my god. You’re insane.”

“Maybe. But Summer, how many beautiful beaches do you think exist in the world? Hundreds at the very least. Maybe thousands. And how many of you are there?”

“Only one, as far as I know.”

“Exactly. Only one. That makes you one out of billions. Oceans and beaches don’t have a chance.”

She didn’t say anything, but leaned her head back against his shoulder. He could tell she was smiling.

“That’s quite a departure from the things you were accusing me of when you were watching something you were never meant to see,” she finally said.

He kissed her neck and unbuttoned the top button of the shirt she had on. “You didn’t seem to mind in the heat of the moment.”

“That’s because I was in shock. I wasn’t responsible for my actions.”

He kissed her neck again and opened another button. He slipped a hand inside the shirt and felt her breast. Her nipple was already swollen as he took it between his fingertips and rolled. “I think your symptoms suggested something else,” he said.

He pulled his hand from inside the shirt and unbuttoned it the rest of the way, pulling it open and exposing Summer’s breasts to the ocean breeze.

“What are you doing?” she asked, without moving to stop him.

“Couples do this sort of thing. We have matching masks.”

“But we’re in public,” she admonished weakly.

“Only if someone else comes along. Otherwise, I’d say we’re perfectly alone.”

“Anyone on the beach could look up and they’d know.”

“You mean they’d know we’re a couple?”

“Abel, I have a boyfriend, remember? You have … whatever you call … her.”

He reached into the boxers she was wearing, slipping his hand over the smooth warmth of her mound. He pressed a finger along the silky furrow of her slit, gently massaging. She answered the gesture with a sigh.

“Sure looks to me like we just have each other,” he said, raking along her pussy lips as they began to swell and flush.

“Abel, no.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. Not sure.”

He kissed her neck again and went on massaging her pussy while she moved her feet wider apart. Her slit quickly grew warm, then hot and slick with a rush of nectar. Abel pushed a finger inside her, driving deeply and then curling into her sweet spot, making her gasp.

“I’m sure, Summer. I’m sure about you and pretty much nothing else.”

“Fuck,” she sighed.

Abel soon pushed a second finger into her pussy along with the first. Pumping and curling at the same time. Then he pushed his other hand into her boxers and slid a fingertip over the rigid bud of her clit. She pulled in hard breath after hard breath, her body stiffening against him. He was so hard against her squirming ass. He wanted to lay her out on the hood of the car and take her right there at the top of the cliff, but there was only so far they could push each other in a day.

“Just feel me, Summer,” he groaned beside her ear. “Feel me and watch the sea. Watch the sky. We can let go of everything but each other.”

She uttered a warbled gasp and grasped his forearms with each of her hands, riding his fingers until her breath suddenly went even deeper yet silent. Her body shuddered against him, her pussy flushed hard over his fingers. She gasped as if she were trying to swallow the sky.

***

She couldn't stop staring at him. In less than twenty four hours her entire life had been transformed and all she could think about was his fingers inside her earlier that afternoon. He touched her like he knew her body better than she knew it herself and yet she didn't move closer to him. She stood near the window as the tropical storm rained down, the evening sky as dark and blustery as her thoughts. 

"It'll stop soon enough," Abel said, his warm voice bringing her back to the present. She realised he was talking about the rain. "It happens all the time. Nothing to worry about."

"I'm not worried about the rain," Summer sighed. She said it quietly enough to give him the opportunity to pretend he hadn't heard.

"So what are you worried about?" 

"Everything," she said. It was easier to generalise than go into the specifics of how even one lingering glance from him made her insides seize up.

"Why don't you come over here?" he said. He was on the sofa, still in the t-shirt and shorts he'd worn to the market. "I'll make it all go away."

She wanted to laugh but she also wanted to cry.

"I can't," she said, but she went to him regardless. Maybe she just wanted to be held. "I don't know. We've already gone too far."

He let out a sigh. "I don't think so." He said and he pulled her down onto his lap

She looked at him up close. 

"We can't fuck," she said. "We just can't. I have a boyfriend."

"But you want to?" Abel asked, his hands on her waist. He touched her like he'd spent years learning how to. His hands fit seamlessly to the angles and curves of her body. He wasn't even touching her in a way that would ordinarily turn her on but her whole body felt alight.

"I think we should," he said, though she'd failed to answer his question. "I think you should let me take off all your clothes - sorry, my clothes which you've misappropriated - and lie in my bed and get between your perfect fucking legs and just push my throbbing cock all the way into your tight, wet pussy."

"Abel," Summer's voice came out hazy.

"Yeah? Would you like that? Fuck, I'd go insane," he groaned, "you were so tight around my fingers, imagine how much bigger my cock would feel, inching inside you." 

His hand was on her thigh, massaging gently. She thought about pushing it away but couldn't seem to attempt it.

"Talking like that is dangerous," she said haltingly.

Abel sighed. "Baby,"

"Don't call me that,"

"Princess," he said. "Darling, beautiful angel,"

She couldn't help but laugh.

"Just end it with him," Abel urged, "if it makes it easier. I don't know why you're still stuck on someone who only makes you miserable. You never smile about him. So what are you waiting for?"

"I don't know," Summer said. His fingers were dangerously close to her underwear but she still couldn't stop him. "It's just complicated."

"Is it?" he asked. "Why don't you tell me about it?"

"Because," she said. "Because it makes me feel weak and stupid and awful and I don't want you to think I'm any of those things."

"You couldn't be if you tried," Abel said. "You're incredible. And anyone who makes you feel like anything less doesn't deserve any part of you."

Summer leaned her head tentatively against his shoulder.

"I'd rather tell him in person," she said eventually. "We've been together so many years, I think I owe him that much."

She felt Abel sigh.

"Whatever you think is right," he said. "I can't really say I'm impartial on the issue."

She bit her lip. "And why's that?

"Mostly because I want to fuck you until you're moaning my name like it's the only word you've ever known." He shifted. "And because even sitting here with you like this makes my cock start getting hard."

Summer blinked. "Maybe I should move."

"No," Abel said. "I think that's a terrible idea." He was still touching her thigh, fingers exploring her smooth skin. "So I guess we can't fuck. But we can make each other cum?"

Summer flushed. "Oh. Well that was spur of the moment kind of stuff y'know."

"Mmhm." Abel nodded seriously. "But I mean stuff we've already done, we can do that again, right? I mean, so long as it's not premeditated?"

"No," Summer protested reluctantly. "I don't think so. Because you see, even by talking about it now, it already is premeditated."

Abel touched her face then, running the back of his fingers down her cheek to her delicate jaw.

"But what if I want to kiss you?" he said. He was talking to her mouth. "A kiss doesn't matter does it? Not after all the terrible things we've already done? You wouldn't stop me kissing you, would you baby?"

"I don't know," she said. It occurred to her that they hadn't kissed for real despite reaching into the barest depths of one another. Her breath was shallow. She risked a look at his eyes. He was still gazing at her mouth.

"You don't know?" His face tipped closer to hers. She could smell the faded coffee on his breath. Everything about him was intoxicating. He made her wish he was the first man she'd ever touched.

"I don't know," she said again, or maybe she just mouthed the words. 

"You have such a beautiful mouth," he groaned. "You have absolutely no idea how many times I've imagined fucking it."

Summer gasped and he kissed her like he couldn't wait any longer, his mouth closing hard over hers and claiming it. He kissed her hard and deep, as if they had been building to it since the first day she set foot in his house. His tongue swept into her mouth and hers danced with it while her heart felt like it was taking two beats at a time.

Abel’s hand grasped at the inside of her thigh, dangerously high. She felt the stirring of his cock against her ass. It dawned on her then how “polite” Brady’s kissing had always been. Genteel and lifeless. It was like not being kissed at all.

Summer realized she never wanted to be kissed that way again. She wanted to be kissed the way the storm was kissing the outer walls of the house. The way Abel was kissing her now.