The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 17

CAULDER

\tl swam towards Harper as fast as I could, and she screamed when I almost caught up to her. She splashed my face and tried to swim away, but she was too slow. I grabbed her ankle and pulled her back to me before grabbing her waist. She was smooth to the touch, and I had to remind myself to take things slow. I had to show her that she meant more to me more than the other girls, which meant taking things much slower than I was used to.

\tHarper stopped fighting against me and grabbed my shoulders. She stared up into my eyes, and her chest moved up and down as she caught her breath. We were floating in the water with nothing but our breaths and nature filling the air, but then suddenly, she bit her lip and looked away.

\t"You don't have to hide your face," I said. She looked cute when she was flustered, but I wanted her to look at me. I didn't want her to hide from me.

\tShe gripped my shoulders even tighter, but she didn't look at me. "If I look at you, I'm not sure I can hold myself back."

\t"Hold back from what? Kissing?" I asked. Her heart raced when I asked the question, and I wasn't sure if it was because she felt nervous or excited at the thought-or maybe both. "Do you want to kiss me?" \t"Yes," she muttered under her breath.

\tl broke out into a giant smile, unable to contain it. "Then kiss me."

\tShe looked at me with wide eyes, and I leaned forward, quickly closing the gap between us. Her body tensed, and I prepared to pull back, but then she relaxed, melting into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling her body flush against my skin. This kiss was drastically different from our first kiss. Unlike the first one that was rushed, this was slow and passionate, and we took our time.

\tOur lips moved together, and she tasted like perfection. My tongue swiped over her lips, testing for permission. She parted her lips, allowing me entrance to her mouth. Our tongues swirled around each other, and it made me never want to let her go. I never wanted to taste anyone other than her, and I couldn't believe I had never even thought of Harper as an option before my birthday.

\tlf it wasn't for the cool water, I was sure my body would have overheated from the passion between the two of us. My hands started wandering over her body, and that was when I pulled away. I knew if I didn't stop now, it would be harder to control myself later, and I wanted to treat Harper better than that. I wanted to show her just how important she was to me, and I didn't want her to have any doubt in her mind that she was the only one I wanted.

\t"Come on, I have a surprise for you," I said, pulling away from her and swimming towards the shore.

\tShe followed me out of the water, and I went over to the truck, grabbing a few things. I gave her the only towel I had brought. I had intended it to be for the ground, which was why I didn't bring more than one. I decided I could just drip dry and would be fine. I was the dummy who had brought only one towel to the lake after all.

\tWhile she dried off, I pulled on my jeans, leaving my torso bare so the sun could dry it naturally. When she was done with it, Harper handed the towel back to me. I looked away while she was getting dressed, trying to be as respectful as possible. To distract myself, I found a soft part of the grass and laid the towel down. I grabbed the basket of food I had packed and placed it on the ground next to the towel.

\tHarper walked over to join me, now fully clothed, and she gave me a strange look at the set-up. "What is all of this?"

\t"l packed us a lunch." I motioned for her to sit down, and then I sat on the other side of the basket. I started pulling out all of the pieces I had brought, which included a single flower in a small vase and the food.

\tShe started giggling at the sight of everything, making me frown.

\t"Is there something wrong with this?" I asked, suddenly worried that I had somehow messed this all up.

\tShe covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head. "You packed crackers, salami, and cheese for us."

\tl could feel my cheeks flush at her comment. "Well, we always loved lunchables when we were younger. I thought I could pack us an adult lunchable." It was a ridiculous thought. I thought it would have been cute or sweet, but now it just felt completely childish. \tHer laughing stopped, but she still had an impossible grin on her face. "And you even brought a flower."

\tl scratched the back of my neck and looked away. "Did I mess up that badly?"

\tShe reached over and grabbed my hand. "No, you didn't mess it up at all. Caulder, it's really sweet."

\tl looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Then why were you laughing?"

\tShe chuckled a little more. "Because you are Caulder, the popular boy who can get any girl he wants by barely trying. You don't date girls. Girls throw themselves at you, and you move on when you get bored. You don't pack lunchables and bring flowers for girls. You don't plan big romantic dates at seclusive lakes, because you don't have to." She shrugged her shoulders. "I just never expected any of this from you. I didn't mean to laugh. I was just surprised."

\tl definitely had a lot of work to put into this relationship if I was going to prove to Harper that I was done with my old ways. I had no desire to be the playboy I once was. Harper was the only girl I had in my sights, but I had created a reputation with my behavior. It was going to take a while to dig myself out of this hole.

\t"I told you you're different. With you, I don't want to move on quickly. I want to go on silly romantic dates, pack lunchables, and do all of the stupid boyfriend-girlfriend things," I said. It felt cheesy coming out of my mouth, but I didn't care. It was how I genuinely felt.

\tHarper leaned forward and kissed me. "I really appreciate all of this. Really, it's amazing. Honestly, when you confessed to me, I wasn't sure if this was serious or not. I was afraid it would ruin our friendship, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to accept. In the past, I had thought about it, but I decided it wasn't worth the risk."

\t"Wait, how long have you liked me?" The way Harper spoke made it sound like she had considered dating me in the past, but she had never really flirted with me, at least not that I noticed. She had shown no indication that she liked me more than a friend our entire friendship. \tHarper's face turned bright red. "It doesn't matter."

\tMy heart raced as I saw the embarrassment flood through her. "Why didn't you tell me you liked me before?"

\tHarper looked at me and raised her eyebrows. "Because you're you, Caulder, and I didn't want to be another girl on your list, and I didn't want to lose you as a friend because of it. It was better that I didn't say anything."

\tl hated hearing the words come out of her mouth, but I hated them because they were all true. I cared deeply about Harper and never wanted to ruin our friendship, but I was also a stupid boy. If she had confessed her feelings to me earlier, I couldn't confidently say I wouldn't have given into my desires and ruined everything. I hated myself knowing that would have been a real possibility.

\tl planned to be different now. Harper was my mate, and I only wanted to treat her the best way possible. I never wanted her to feel like just another number to me.

\tl pulled her hand to my lips and kissed it. Then I kissed her wrist, moving slowly up her arm. She watched me carefully as I came closer to her bit by bit. When I finally got to her lips, I hesitated.

\t"I'm sorry you felt like you couldn't admit your feelings to me before, and I'm sorry for not being a better person, but I promise you that you will never be a temporary girl to me." Words weren't enough, and I knew that, but I planned on keeping that promise to

her.

\t"You've been a bit of a slut for the past few years, but you were never a bad friend. In fact, you're my best friend. That's what makes this so scary. If we mess this up, I don't want to lose you." Her eyes glistened with fear and excitement, and I hoped one day that fear would completely disappear from her eyes when it came to me.

\t"You won't lose me." I closed the gap between our lips and fell victim to another kiss. I knew I could kiss her for hours and be perfectly content spending my time that way.

\tShe pulled away, and I brushed a piece of her away from her face. I felt happier than I had in a while. All of the problems from the past few days didn't matter while I was with Harper out here. I felt like I could breathe as long as I was with her, and all of the other things didn't matter. I didn't have to worry about prophecies and my sister, even if it was for just a few hours.

\t "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, laughing from nerves.

\t"Will you be my girlfriend?" The words just slipped out of my mouth. I hadn't planned on asking her to make things official yet, since I didn't want to scare her, but I couldn't help it. Everything just felt perfect.

\t"Yes," she said, laughing again.

\t"Why are you laughing?"

\tShe shook her head before saying, "Because all of the girls at school are going to be insanely jealous that I'm your first girlfriend."