Chapter 16 — Wrong Direction

"Let's go in," Emre pulled on my hand.

"We can go in?" I was surprised.

"Who's here to stop us?" he teased, making me smile again, "C'mon."

I laughed, and holding hands, we ran towards the sparkling water.

The water was wonderful. It was so clear you could see to the rocky bed beneath.

The water was pretty shallow and so I was unafraid, but I knew that even if the water had been deep, I wouldn't have been scared. Not with Emre near.

I looked back at Emre in the water and said, "Race you to the waterfall!"

I was laughing as I glanced back at his dumbstruck face.

He hadn't known I would become the carefree Sarah again, but that was how I felt.

On top of the world, like I had anything and everything in the palm of my hand.

Love was like that. It made kings out of paupers and paupers out of kings.

I was trying to get to the waterfall as quickly as possible because I knew how good of a swimmer Emre was, but when I got close to the waterfall and turned back to look for Emre, something along the way caught my foot and I was pulled down.

I was suddenly dunked underwater. I panicked and tried to get back up.

When I came up for air again, wiping my eyes and gasping for breath, I saw Emre under the waterfall laughing his ass off.

The Jerk.

I swam over to him, still pissed off, "Cheater."

"I am not. You fell down."

"Oh yes you are. I'm not talking to you anymore."

"I'll tickle you."

"Emre Evans, don't you dare!" I shouted at him and flicked water at him in an attempt to stop him.

He made a splash, retaliating and sending water my way.

"You cheated. You should apologize," I flicked more water towards him.

Suddenly he came towards me, caught me around the waist from the back, and slid his nose up the side of my neck.

"Sorry," he whispered in my ear.

"Touch me," I whispered to Emre.

"I'm sorry, baby. You don't know how sorry I am—for everything," he replied Oh no, Emre was in full guilt mode. I didn't want to talk about the past. It was painful enough already. We didn't need to hash it out; we could just have these moments and leave everything else alone.

I couldn't let him destroy this, whatever it was. 

We would live these moments, here and now, without the shadow of the past, and then we'd go our separate ways. 

It was a good plan; all I needed to do was make sure we stuck to it.

"Let's keep it uncomplicated, Emre, easy," I cupped his face, "Kiss me."

"No, we have to talk about it," his expression was stubborn.

"We don't have to. We can just feel," I ran my hand down his chest, but he caught it before it could go any lower.

"You're making this harder, Sarah," he muttered, but I knew he was aroused.

"Well, it better be hard," I replied Emre let out a laugh, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"I'm not doing a very good job if you have to ask," I pouted. "Don't you want me?" 

"That's the whole problem; I can't seem to stop wanting you enough to talk about everything!" 

"You could do better things with your mouth," I wondered where I was coming up with this.

"You have to stop this, Sarah, be still for a minute," Emre tried to catch my roaming hands in his.

"Fine!" I shouted and turned to swim back. I was furious, and I wasn't going to let him placate me. 

Emre caught up to me as I reached the bank and, catching my hand, jerked me back to him in the process.

He enfolded me in his arms and put his lips on my forehead, "I keep offending you, when all I want to do is…"

"Is what? What do you want to do to me?"

His face looked tortured for a moment and then he captured my mouth in his, the kiss deep and hard and oh so wonderful. I was completely lost.

The kiss deepened, hot and wet and making me unbearably aroused. 

He took his mouth from mine, then breathing heavily, dragged open-mouthed kisses down my neck.

I arched back in his arms, completely under his control. He moved his hands down over me, stroking me, molding and pressing me into him, making me gasp at the exquisite pleasure of it all.

I had no idea how it happened, but suddenly he had pulled down my swimsuit and his hands were on my bare body. His mouth traveled down, down to a tight waiting nipple. He sucked it so hard, the ground shook under me.

"You're killing me," I moaned.

Emre just went on to lavish attention on the other nipple. His hands traveled down and cupped my butt. Scooping my hips in his hand, he thrust against me. I could feel his hardness rubbing against me. I was so aroused; I could've come just from his rubbing.

"Fuck, baby, I need more of you," his voice was rough 

"More," I repeated.

I moved my hands down his body, intent on getting more, when suddenly I was standing on my own and he was away from me. My balance was precarious already, and I fell down on my butt.

I didn't know what to do? Laugh? Cry? Kill Emre?

"Ow, what the fuck Emre?" I groaned.

"I'm so sorry, baby, I..." He pushed his hands through his hair, his expression tortured.

I should've been the one doing that since I was here unsatisfied and on my butt. 

He bent down and picked me up in his arms, planting kisses along my neck and face.

It turned my head away. 

"What do you really want, Emre? Suddenly you're all over me, and just as suddenly, you toss me down. Make up your mind!" My angry speech was a little breathless though because I was up in his arms and he was striding through the forest to God knew where.

"I know what I want. All I have to do is convince you." His expression was determined, but what did he mean? I tried to make sense of his words.

"I want you back," he said, "It's either all or nothing. I'm not having a one-night stand with you."

I suddenly caught on to him, "Isn't that supposed to be my line though? Since I'm the girl here?"

I was trying to take it lightheartedly, but my heart was beating too fast to ignore.

"Take it any way you like it. We're going to be together, stay together, and everyone is going to know it!"

His face seemed hard and almost angry, "I hate this secret fling we're having where I can't even take you in my arms or even give you a proper kiss."

"Emre, it's been a day! A single day!" I thumped his chest in my hand.

"I've known you longer than that," he replied, "Even a day is enough for me to make up my mind. I want you back in my life."

"Well, it's a pity you didn't think of that before. You didn't even come after me! The only reason you're even doing all of this is because you saw me with Eric and your competitive streak was activated. It's all a game to you. I'm all a game to you." I pushed away from him and got back on solid ground. It was bad enough that he had me seeing visions of happily ever after again. I didn't want to be in his arms on top of that. I didn't want to fall on my butt again.

"It's not a game. I'm serious, I want you back in my life."

He'd conveniently forgotten everything that had gone on in the past.

"Well, I'm not serious, and I don't want to get back together with you. Once was enough to last me a lifetime." I stuck up my chin and started off into the forest on my own.

"I don't believe you," he said from behind me. There was a smile in his voice. "And you're going in the wrong direction."