Page 80 of The Plus-One List

Rachel: Is everything okay???

Eloise: Yup.

Rachel sends a gif of Kim Kardashian poking her head out from behind a tree. Eloise laughs softly and I feel it reverberate in my sternum.

Eloise: See you at breakfast tomorrow.

Rachel: !!!

Rachel: OKAY!!!

Rachel: HAVE A GOOD NIGHT!

Rachel: YOU TOO AGUSTÍN!!

Eloise quickly flips her phone over and buries her face in my chest. Oh, the joy of being able to wrap my arms around her, hold her close to me. I can feel the angles of her scapula through her thin sweater.

“She’s gonna be so annoying about this,” Eloise moans, her voice muffled by my shirt. I laugh into her hair, memorizing the feel of her. I don’t know what to say. I’m just so utterly, inescapably happy.

Eloise sits up, her face determined, and she opens her mouth—likely to come up with some adorably transparent lie to give Rachel tomorrow. Instead, she lets out a huge yawn.

“Let’s get the check,” I say. “It’s been a long day.”

“Mm,” she says, then happily snuggles back against me. If I could live in this corner of Las Brujas forever, I would.

Eloise stays tucked under my arm the whole car ride back to the Four Seasons. We walk hand in hand to the elevators, grinning at each other like idiots while another couple going to the tenth floor chatters away in Spanish. When we get to our room, I open the door and switch on the light.

I don’t think.

As soon as the door clicks shut behind us, I sweep Eloise into my arms and claim her mouth with mine. This kiss isn’t like the others. It’s urgent, passionate, almost desperate. Like something has been clawing its way out of both of us and has finally been set loose. I press her against the wall as her hands scrabble beneath my sweater, her fingernails raking over my back and sending shudders ripping through me. I sink one hand into her curls, tilting her head to kiss a line down her neck, then back to her eager mouth.

My cock is so hard, it presses almost painfully against my jeans. When Eloise arches her back, I feel it throb for her, pushing into her thigh. She gasps and jumps. We break apart and suddenly, she’s laughing. Hysterically. Which is not necessarily the reaction one wants to their giant hard-on, but I think I know Eloise well enough by now to know this is not about me.

“I’m sorry,” she gasps through fits of laughter. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry …” She clutches her side and gasps for air. Then she wraps her arms around my neck. “I’m just really tired,” she says. “And punchy.”

I tilt my head. “Punchy?”

“Like out of it. Loopy.”

“Ah.” I brush a curl from her eyes. “I see.” She reaches up on her tiptoes and caresses my lips with hers. When I pull her close against the length of my body, my cock still straining against my jeans, she doesn’t pull away. Or laugh, which is a good sign. But she breaks our kiss and for the first time, I see a familiar flutter of panic in her expression.

“I know you said you weren’t looking for anything romantic when we first met,” I say quietly. “I have been trying to respect that.” She shivers as I press my palm against her lower back. “But I need to know. Have your feelings changed?”

A smile splits across her face, so wide it consumes her. “Yes,” she says emphatically. “They have definitely, definitely changed.”

Even though I had been guessing and hoping, hearing her confirm it out loud sends relief crashing through me. My heart thumps a painfully happy beat against my ribs.

“But,” she adds, her voice growing timid, “is it okay if we just … go to sleep right now?”

“Of course,” I say. “That is all I was planning to do.”

She raises an eyebrow.

“What? I am not in a rush. I didn’t think this was going to happen at all.”

She swallows hard. “And your feelings for me. Um. Well. Did you … did you want this to happen?”

I tilt her chin up. “I have wanted it for a very,” I plant a featherlight kiss on her neck, “very,” I lay another one beneath her ear, “very long time.”