The beach was always deserted this time of year, the tourists and wealthy summer-home owners gone for weeks already. This was when she loved it most. Despite the cold she slipped off her shoes as she walked to the water's edge, dropping them carelessly into the sand behind her. She wriggled her toes as the freezing water threatened to lap against them.

The sun seemed to hasten its retreat out of the sky—in just moments turning the ocean in front of her from gold to pink to inky midnight blue. There was nothing to obscure her view as it sank below the horizon. She hugged herself tightly as a breeze picked up off the water and pulled at her hair. Other than that it was so calm, not even the ever-present seagulls daring to pierce the silence.

He leaned against his truck and watched her there, eyes following the curves of her body intimately. Clutching a worn blanket to his chest he watched her as she flung her head back and stretched out her arms, spinning in place just once before stepping away from the water. His heart tumbled down into his stomach as it always did when he realized how much he loved her.

She waited for him, at once thankful for having the moment to herself and wishing he were already holding her. The blue seeped out of the water as it became black.

The blanket fell next to her shoes as he crept up behind her, pressing his chest to her back and wrapping his arms around her own. Her head fell back again, this time to rest in the curve of his neck. They both smiled.

"What's going on in there?" he asked her, letting his lips linger at her temple and rubbing his warm hands against her cold ones. She sighed and pushed back against him.

"I grew up on the water, but when it gets like this, so fathomless, I think I become a little bit afraid of it. Of what's underneath."

He chuckled low in his chest and she swore she felt it vibrating through her. "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish," he quoted the familiar words against her ear. She laughed and pushed at his hands, squealing when they fell to her sides and curled against her ribs, tickling. He stepped forward and she stepped back, their feet tangling together and toppling them to the chilly sand in a heap of arms and legs. Squirming in his embrace she tried to fight him off, tears leaking out of her eyes as she laughed.

"Mercy!" she yelled. "Please, Pacey, mercy!"

"I dunno, Jo. You looked like you were getting too serious there." He stilled his fingers but rolled them over, pinning her to the ground.

She inhaled sharply at the pressure of his body on hers, sucking in giggles that tickled her throat and caused her to cough. He pressed his face into her neck until she was silent and tapped him on the shoulder, kissing him on the nose when he looked up. Her eyes were still wet and sparkling.

"Damn but you're gorgeous," he told her, tracing the line of her face with his thumbs. She sighed and closed her eyes as her lips parted. The gentle touch of his lips followed the caress of his hands, like gossamer on her cheeks and eyelids and chin.

"Now who's being serious?" she murmured as he passed over her mouth on the way to her neck. He bit into the curve of her shoulder, growling. Again she laughed but this time it was soft and low. "I'm getting sand in my hair, Pacey. And I know we have a blanket around here somewhere."

"I don't want to move," he whispered. She whimpered and dug her heels into the sand. His teeth tugged at the skin right below her ear and his hips pushed tightly against hers. "Come on, Joey, it's—salty down here."

"And wet," she added, finally noticing the moisture that had begun to seep into her jeans from the sand beneath her.

"Yes," he leered. "It is."

She snickered. "I can't believe you said that."

He raised one eyebrow and slipped a hand beneath her, feeling the damp denim clinging to her thigh. Gently tugging at the bend of her knee he coaxed her legs farther apart and shifted so he was between them, pressing her even harder into the sand. Joey wrapped her heels around his calves until they were tightly twisted together.

"I'm sinking farther into the sand every minute," she said, pouting her lips and looking up at him from under her eyelashes. "And it's more cold, and more wet, the farther I go."

Pacey bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes, shaking his head to loosen the thoughts that were curling into his mind. He dropped his forehead to her own and was still. When he finally spoke it was a breathy whisper against her cheek.

"Sinking into you is so warm, Jo. It makes my whole body hot and I don't ever want to be anyplace else."

Her cheeks flushed. "But we haven't...we..."

He put a finger on her lips, shushing her, and smiled. "I know."

end

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