Page 142 of When We Had Forever
“Why not?” A smile plays around his mouth. “It’s not like I wouldn’t have another one lined up. Siobhan’ll welcome me with open arms.”
I stare, my heartbeat unfolding inside me like a song. “You mean the two of us? Hopscotching around the world together?”
His expression turns almost shy. “That’s the idea. What do you think?”
“I think... Dear god. Yes.” I pull him down and kiss him, frantically, right there in the atrium. Neither of us seems to care about our audience, because his tongue goes diving into my mouth as if we’re alone.
When I finally come up for air, I find Grayson’s arm outstretched, his middle finger aimed at a teenage boy with elaborate camera gear who’s enthusiastically taking our picture.
I force his hand down. “Oh my god, what are you doing? Is this what life is going to be like with you?”
His grin turns wolfish. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”
I pretend to consider.
“You know what?” He plants another kiss on me. “Never mind. It’swaytoo late to change your mind. I have no idea why I just said that.”
I snake one arm around his waist. “Well, in that case, then I think you owe that poor boy an apology. He’s probably just a... What was it you said? A broke, hungry kid who likes to take pictures? Give him something he can use, at least.”
His eyes narrow. “Like what?”
I spiderwalk my fingers up his chest. “You could let him take a picture of your tattoo.Mytattoo. Let him be the very first one.”
He looks distinctly unamused. “You want me to pull my shirt up right here? Just flash all these people?”
I smirk. “Why not?”
He heaves a sigh, but in the end, he actually does it, holding my eyes with a mock look of suffering. Somewhere behind us, a girl shrieks in delight, and the teenager frantically snaps away, and it’s absolutely the most ridiculous situation I’ve ever participated in, but at the same time, it’s also one of the most intoxicating.
At the check-in desk, Grayson plops down his credit card and books a thirty-six-hundred-dollar last-minute ticket to Athens.
I wince as he scribbles his name on the receipt and tosses the pen aside. The twenty-something desk girl stares at him with naked awe.
“Are you sure about this?” I say.
He shrugs. “I still owe you a ticket to Greece, don’t I? At least you’re actually letting me buy one this time. Even if it’s my own.”
I hearken back to that day on the sidewalk, outside my great-aunt’s house. “Howwereyou going to pay for my ticket, anyway? Weren’t you broke back then?”
“Completely. But I had Michael’s credit card. You have no idea how disappointed I was when I didn’t get to see the look on his face after charging it.” He chuckles, soft and sad.
I mirror his melancholy smile.
“Anyway,” he says, “I can afford it now. Not that I’m rich, or anything. You do know that, right? I spent my TV money on the Viper, but... I just live in a normal house like a normal guy.”
“Really?” I raise my eyebrows. “I thought all famous people were rich.”
“You’d think. But at the end of the day, I’m just a photographer.”
My fingers sneak into the gap between his T-shirt and jeans, brushing against warm, solid muscle. God, I can’t seem to stop touching him. “It’s okay. I don’t mind being your sugar mama. Though you might have to find ways to continually earn it.”
He grins. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I think I can live with that,” he says.
THE BEGINNING
