Page 30 of Starting Back
“I think that was my subconscious giving me an out. I had a good feeling she’d be pissed enough at the suggestion to end things. We were at a place where it was either move forward or stop.”
“What if she called your bluff?”
“Well, then my answer to you would be divorced instead of almost married.”
I burst out laughing at his shrug.
“Quite the chance you took.”
He chuckled when I nudged his arm.
“As I said, distant and detached was how I rolled. I dated but nothing that serious.”
“For when you would leave again?”
He shut the engine off after he pulled into a spot, gazing out the front window for a long minute.
“Something like that, I guess.”
His eyes bored into mine with a sadness that I didn’t want to notice or find so damn familiar. Maybe in another life, we could have given this a real try, but in the ones we had, all this could be was fun.
It seemed too soon to be disappointed about that, but the sting from the thought felt very real.
“Are you sure you want to come back here tonight since you work here?”
Something about coming back to Turtle Bay felt final, and I wasn’t ready for the day to end. We’d gone on a long drive after lunch, talking about everything and nothing. I expected a moment of awkward silence to come along eventually, but it didn’t. In fact, the easier it was to be with Leo, the sadder it was that when this awesome vacation ended, so would we.
Not that we were anything real now. He was a single man in Florida—for now—and I had two kids waiting for me in New York. I couldn’t and wouldn’t do a long-distance relationship, as this one trip away from my kids was taxing enough on all of us.
Plus, he never said he’d even want that. We were living in the glorious chemistry of the moment. He’d promised me a good story to take home to my friends and family and nothing more.
There was no after, just a stop—if only my mind would stop jumping ahead and cut it out with the what-ifs.
“It’s a different experience when you aren’t on the clock and with a beautiful woman for the night.”
He flashed a sweet, almost shy smile.
“I had a great time with you today. Now that we’re back at the resort, you could probably stop sharing your location now.”
“How did you know I was doing that? And I only did it to shut Nicole up so I didn’t have to deal with a thousand texts about where I was.”
“I would tell a friend of mine going off with a strange guy for a day to do the same.” He stretched his arm around the back of my headrest. “But I told you, I’m harmless.” He brushed my lips with a light kiss, lingering longer with each peck until I grabbed the back of his head and attacked his lips. Leo leaned over the console, his hand gliding up my bare thigh and skimming the edge of my already soaked panties as he plundered my mouth.
“Harmless, right,” I joked, panting when we broke apart. “I know where we could go if it’s okay with you.”
His brow furrowed as he cradled the back of my head.
“I’ll go anywhere you want.”
I swallowed as my throat worked, revving up the courage I wasn’t sure I had to make the most of this unexpected but temporary gift I’d been given.
“My suite is much too big for one person. I never liked wasting a huge king-sized bed on just me.” I smoothed the collar of his T-shirt, pinching the cotton between my fingers instead of meeting his widened eyes in my periphery.
“I’m divorced, as you know, and I haven’t been with anyone in longer than I’d like to admit.” I sputtered out a nervous laugh. “I haven’t been tested or anything, but it’s been long enough, I’m pretty sure that I’m clean.”
“So am I. Not divorced but unattached and confirmed clean.” He weaved his hand into my hair and grabbed a fistful. “And I want inside you more than I want to breathe right now. So, if you’re asking me what I think you are—”
“Come home with me. I mean, the suite isn’t home.”
