His arms were still around her, running his fingers through her hair. “I can be here,” he whispered into her neck.
“But your show,” she started—didn’t he have his own plans?
“I can write anywhere. I can try to find an American producer. I can—I don’t know, Julia. But we can make it work.”
She felt him hold her tighter, grazing his lips along her neck, up to her ear, taking his time. Like he knew he had the time. Like he knew he could have forever to kiss her because neither of them were going anywhere.
“I also thought—” he said, but then he stopped and Julia thought that if it was something bad then she didn’t want him to say it because it might make him stop holding her, and want to pull his lips from her skin, and she didn’t think she could handle that. Not now, not again, not after she’d finally decided to let her heart open to him.
“What?” Her body trembled against his.
His hands found the nape of her neck, fingers buried into her hair.
“I thought since you have some time off…if you’re not doing anything this summer…” he began.
Oh.
The trembling stopped.
She brought her lips to his ear.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“I do. And you know the answer. It’s still yes.” She relaxed all the way into him. “With you, I always want to say yes.”
He held her tighter. “I haven’t gotten my return ticket yet.”
She bit her lip, and then without fear, without uncertainty, she went for it. “Then get two.”
“Do you really think you can come with me for the summer?”
“If you want me to.”
His kiss could have been answer enough, but still he whispered, “I want you to.”
But Julia was still Julia, ever practical, and she pressed a finger to his lips to stop him. “I can’t make any promises, though. I can’t just…up and move like that.”
“No,” he said emphatically, kissing along her jawbone, her chin, her cheek—anywhere but her lips where she wanted him. “I’d never ask that of you. I just want to spend time with you. Here, there—it doesn’t matter. I want you to come with me for a little bit, while you have the time, and then we can figure things out from there. We can be together and still take it day by day.”
Her lips searched his, demanding the kiss he was keeping from her. “We can go anywhere.”
He made a face. “Not anywhere cold.”
She laughed. “That’s okay, I don’t think they need many math teachers in Antarctica.”
“I don’t have any script ideas set there, either.”
“Something tells me you can come up with anything.” Then she added, taking his hand, “I have a few last-minute things to do in the classroom, but stay with me until I can wrap things up around here.”
“I have a hotel room,” he said. “I can stay there as long as I need. I don’t want to move too fast. I don’t want to be in the way.”
Julia hooked her fingers through his belt loops. “Please don’t go away tonight.”
Blake cradled her head in his hands. When he kissed her, Julia knew that no matter where in the world he was, as long as he was with her they’d be home.
“Do you have dinner plans?” he murmured, still kissing her face, the flutter of her eyelids soft against his lips.
“I used to.”
He laughed quietly. “I hope I’m not ruining things.”
She touched her finger to his nose. “You once told me you intended to ruin me.”
“Mmm.” He licked his lips. “Then I’d better get started.”
“How about Indian?” she said. “There’s a great delivery place down the block, they’ll be slow on a Friday night, but…” She let her fingers trace over his mouth, along his clavicle, down the front of his chest where she longed to follow with her lips. “Maybe we could find some way to pass the time.”
And then it was as though a switch in him suddenly flipped. Gone was the reserved Blake standing politely at arm’s distance, explaining himself to her. Inching forward until he was close enough to stroke her hand. At her words, he reached for her as he pushed back his chair and stood. She leaped up so her legs were straddling his waist. He held her in his strong arms and she kissed him, tugging on his lower lip with her teeth. She wanted this so much it hurt.
Her hips rocked against him as they clung tightly to one another, kissing furiously. He pressed against her through his jeans and she remembered the first time she’d felt him like this, in the pool. Only now it was in her kitchen, nothing magical or faraway about that, and it still turned her on like it had the first time. Maybe even more.
“Blake,” she moaned, the thrill of his name pulsing through her body. “I love you, Blake.” She kissed him again. “I love you.” The words escaped of their own volition before she could think or second-guess herself. But as soon as she said it she knew there was no second-guessing, because it was true. That their time together had been short didn’t make it any less real. She wanted Blake, wanted all of him, and she was going to make sure he knew.
Blake wrapped one hand tighter around her upper thigh while the other hand slid up the back of her shirt, the hint of skin on skin making her back arch so that her hips drove harder against him. His kiss was possessive, and she let herself be claimed.
“I love you, Julia Evans,” he told her. “There’s no way I’m letting you go.”
“Don’t,” she said, “ever.” She tugged on his lip with her teeth. He groaned and kissed her harder.
“I need you,” she said, and felt his lips turn in a smile.
“I thought you needed food.”
She laughed, heart galloping out of her chest. “Menu. In the kitchen. By the fridge.” She couldn’t form full sentences while her lips were on his, her tongue searching, tasting, drawing him in.
He staggered backward, spinning her until her back was up against the refrigerator, her legs still wrapped around him. He used the door as a brace to hold her up while he pinned her with his pelvis, leaving a hand free to reach for her breasts as he kissed the side of her neck, making her moan.
“In the drawer,” Julia panted as his teeth found her ear lobe and tugged.
He thrust against her to keep her in place against the fridge, and she loved the feel of it, the way he held her there so that she couldn’t move. The pressure of him, the pressure against her back, her thighs open and aching for him.
She craned her neck to see into the drawer. “The red one,” she said. He pulled it out and then brought his hand back under her ass to hold her up as he lifted her away from the fridge.
“Bedroom?” he asked. She steered him into the room, kissing him, laughing as he bumped her into the table, the edge of the couch, staggering backward as he refused to pull his lips from hers.
He dropped her on the bed and flopped down next to her. “Favorite choices?” he asked, passing her the menu.
But no matter how much her stomach was growling, she couldn’t focus on that. She pushed the menu away and swung her leg over him, pulling herself up so she was straddling his thighs as he lay back on the bed and gazed up at her.
“Blake,” she murmured as she ran her hands up his chest, first over his shirt and then under, feeling the ripples in his stomach, catching on the button to his jeans before she unhooked it and slid the zipper down. “My favorite choice is Blake.”
She dropped down until she was kneeling on the floor before him as he lay there, pants unbuttoned, the bulge of his cock so tempting she wanted to savor it before she slid it all the way out and put her mouth on him. He groaned, his eyes closed, waiting. The sweetness of anticipation. She thought about how nervous she’d felt when they’d first been together in the pool. He’d seemed so sure of himself—and so sure that the next day, he was going to leave.
How much things had changed for both of them.