Me Without You Read Online Free PDF Page B

die,’ I said softly.
    ‘And your final words will be, I so wish I’d gone to Paris, ’ Lilah murmured.
    I chuckled and felt the answering rumble of her chest against mine. For a few minutes, we lay like that in the cold sand, staring at the stars and enjoying the closest thing to silence a person can find in the city. Eventually Lilah turned to rest her chin on my chest and stare up at me. I brought my other hand up to touch the thick softness of the wild mess of hair around her shoulders then brushed my fingers over her lips. And then she stretched up so that her face was over mine and she kissed me.
    This was a different kiss to the one we’d shared in the water. Slow and almost wondrous, it was the physical equivalent of our soft conversation as we’d walked from Manly to the beach. We were learning one another, and the freezing sand against my back and my wet trousers and feet faded into oblivion as the warm glow of the kiss took over.
    When Lilah relaxed away from me a few moments later, I felt dizzy, like things had spun out of control. Something was happening between us, something I didn’t have words for yet, but something very real. Lilah settled back into her previous position, now using her forearm on my chest as a pillow, and stared at me. Her gaze was quizzical and questioning.
    ‘Have you ever had sex on the beach?’ she asked, but her tone was more curious than suggestive. I raised my eyebrow at her and propped myself up a little more so that I could maintain eye contact without doing a mini sit-up.
    ‘Nope.’
    ‘I have,’ she said, and wrinkled her nose. ‘What were you saying about reality versus expectation? Sand, friction and certain body parts are not a great combination.’
    ‘I’ll bet you were stranded on a dessert island with a handsome sailor or some such adventurous combination.’
    ‘Actually, I was in Fiji,’ she laughed softly. ‘I was only a little bit stranded though. Mum was singing on a cruise liner and I flew over to spend a few days with her between her cruises. It was only after I’d landed that she realised her ship was docking in Port Villa, which is actually in Vanuatu, so I was in the right region, but the wrong country. My then boyfriend and I had three days sitting around Denarau with not much planned.’
    ‘So you made your own fun.’
    ‘Something like that,’ she agreed, then sighed. ‘I have terrible taste in men. That guy was an idiot.’
    ‘Maybe you’ve matured with age. You’ve made all of the right choices tonight.’
    She laughed softly.
    ‘Do you want to head back?’
    I wanted to scoop her up in my arms and sprint back to my apartment, and at the same time, I didn’t want the moonlight encounter to end.
    ‘Didn’t you bring me here to show me a tree?’
    ‘Ah! So I did.’
    I rose and helped Lilah to her feet, and we both dusted the sand off ourselves—as much as was possible given it had pretty much coated us where we were wet. Lilah led the way back up the beach and when she was on the path again, pointed up into the hill behind us. I could see the bright lights of houses along the rise. With the wide mouth of the bay behind us, I well understood someone wanting to maximise their view. I wouldn’t tell Lilah that though.
    ‘There,’ she said, pointing to the silhouette of a Norfolk Island pine jutting out into the greyed night sky. I recognised it only because there is an iconic line of the same pine all along Manly beach, but the truth is, it’s probably the only species of tree I know by name. It was taller than the other foliage in the area, and formed a skeletal silhouette against the glow of a very large house behind it. ‘That’s the tree. Now do you understand?’
    Truthfully, I did not understand, not even a little bit. And I knew that even if I visited during the day, I’d still fail to see her point. I’d probably still side with the property owner, who clearly had money to burn even to own a patch of dirt with such a