Me Without You Read Online Free PDF

I’m not getting out of this water until you’re in it. If you really want to bring this exhaustive night of flirtation to an end, you’re going to have to take off the bloody shoes and come on in.’
    I groaned and bent down to roll my trousers up to my knees then remove my black leather work shoes. Next I folded my grey socks up and stuffed them inside. My feet made their first contact with the shock of the cold, coarse sand and I gasped.
    ‘This kiss had better be worth it,’ I muttered.
    She cheered playfully as I neared the water’s edge. The coarse sand became finer, and I yelped as my foot hit water for the first time.
    ‘That’s freezing .’
    ‘Oh, please. If you think this is cold then you’ve obviously never been to Russia.’
    As soon as she had my hand, she dragged me a few steps further into the water so that it now passed my ankles.
    ‘Well, you lured me in here with the promise of a kiss…’
    ‘I was actually going to peck you on the cheek and run away,’ she grinned, but the smile faded as we automatically stepped closer together.
    ‘ Was going to?’ My voice was dropping. Lilah rested her hand on my chest and our gazed locked, the playful moment coming to an abrupt end.
    The waves were splashing around my calves, and somehow all of her nonsense about standing within something as large as the earth itself seemed sensible and amazing. I reached to touch her cheek with the back of my forefinger, then turned my hand to cup her face as I bent all the way down to kiss her. It was a gentle kiss, a reverent kiss, although I daresay it wouldn’t have stayed that way for long had an unexpectedly large wave not drenched me to my thighs in icy cold water.
    Lilah burst out laughing and dragged me back towards the shoreline. Being so much shorter than me, she was now wet well and truly to her backside. I was laughing like I hadn’t done in as long as I could remember, chuckling with that kind of breathless joy and shock that steals away your words. She collapsed onto the sand and I sat heavily beside her. But for the fact that my toes felt like ice and the bottom half of my trousers were dripping, I might have suspected I was having a particularly trippy dream.
    ‘Whoops,’ Lilah said.
    ‘You were right,’ I laughed. ‘That was magical.’
    She pulled her handbag down off the rock beside us and sat it behind her, then lay all the way back to use it as a pillow.
    ‘Your suit… the sand…’ I started to protest, but she pulled a face that suggested I was missing the point again. I sighed and copied her, propping my laptop case behind my head.
    ‘Look at the stars,’ she said. ‘Don’t you hate how the light pollution of the city washes them out like that? You can’t even see the Milky Way from here. My place at Gosford is only ninety-odd kilometres away, but it’s like a whole other sky. I’ve been sitting on my deck late at night and I’ve seen shooting stars that pop like camera flashes.’
    I felt for her hand against the cold sand and entwined our fingers again. It struck me that she saw the cloudless night sky as a pale imitation of its potential, but right beside her I was staring at exactly the same view, stunned by the spectacle of it. I tried to remember if I’d ever stared up at the stars as a kid. I could remember Dad dragging me camping with him and the twins a few times—surely I’d looked up at least once. Or maybe I hadn’t, because it seemed as if I was seeing the enormity of the night sky with brand new eyes.
    Lilah sighed heavily beside me then moved closer, but at the same time I tried to snake my arm around her and we giggled together like teenagers as we awkwardly collided. Eventually she settled so that her head was resting on my chest. Finally, I managed to slide my arm all the way around her. She was slight, and the weight of her in my arms was like nothing at all, especially compared to the weight of the moment.
    ‘We’re going to catch hypothermia and