Page 141 of Fifty First Times (Sharing You 0.40)
Noel groans, his fingers digging into my hips as he pulls me down to meet his hard thrusts. Our names combine in the air between us as we finish, tangled together as surely as our bodies. He tugs me, sated, into his arms. An incredulous smile curves my lips.
Noel and Tressa. Tressa and Noel.
I had let him down, all those years ago. I’d waited too long. He hadn’t waited long enough. Yet we’d ended up here, and the only explanation seemed to be fate.
I snuggle into his side, unwilling to let go of him. I came here with nothing but the thinnest shred of hope. I’m leaving with the kind of faith that can’t be bought—sometimes, people do wait. Sometimes, life is like the movies.
Sometimes, love really is enough.
About the Author
LYLA PAYNE was hooked on writing both romance and New Adult after diving into her first such title, Broken at Love, and hasn’t looked back. In her spare time she watches a ton of tennis (no surprise, there), plays a ton of tennis, and dedicates a good amount of brain power to dreaming up the next fictitious bad boy we’d all love to meet in real life.
She also writes Young Adult science fiction stories under the name Trisha Leigh.
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For the Sake of Science
MARK PERINI
The Science Research Trip
Date: August 10
Materials: Merriam-Webster’s Spanish-English Dictionary
Experiment: An examination of the chemical and biological response beta Homo sapiens expresses when met with an alpha female.
Our eyes meet. With the full weight of her gaze my stomach starts to flutter. Butterflies. Warmth creeps up from the center of my body, something I haven’t felt, considering I’ve spent the past six hours on a whale research vessel in Gulfo Nuevo. I don’t know how much time passes before Bobby elbows me and says, “Did you forget your line, man? Tell her we have a reservation.”
Shit. How long have I been staring? I’m such a doof. I look at my feet, gathering up the courage to smile, and mumble my practiced line.
“Tengo una reservación para veinte personas.”
“¿Todos estan aquí?”she says in a tone that I read as impatience.
My guidebook is failing me. “¿Si?”
“Bueno, sígueme a su mesa.” She’s just standing there with the stack of menus in the midst of an eye roll.
Huh? “Sorry, I don’t really speak Spanish that well. I just memorized that expression out of my guidebook . . .”
“¿Que?” she says, clearly confused.
Off to an awesome start.
I shrug my shoulders and put my palms to the ceiling, signaling my surrender. She smiles and gives a little giggle. Great. Now she’s making fun of me.
As all fourteen students and two teachers find our seats at the long table and do their best to order, my best friend, Bobby, puts his arm over my shoulder.
“Hey man, there’s always tomorrow. Maybe you can study up tonight and learn something super Spanish suave to say for the next time. You know, some real Ricky Iglesias shit.”
He turns to his right and smiles at his girlfriend, Sarah. She blows him a kiss, which he catches and puts in his pocket, all while she’s giggling with her girlfriends. I make an exaggerated gagging sound. Bobby has never been the open PDA type of guy. Maybe it’s the new locale?
While Mr. Tio is going over the rules like he’s done every night since we arrived, ending his speech by threatening to “send us home on the next flight” if we violate the ten o’clock camp curfew, Bobby is telling me the fresh intel he just gleaned.
“Sarah told me that Jewels is into you; everyone knows you have a major crush on her. You should go for it. What’s hotter than getting laid in a foreign country?”
