Home at the observatory, they spent their last few days packing up and finishing their work. When it came time for them to make their final presentations, Adam and Jo combined their two reports into one. It only made sense, given how related their topics were, and yet still. Staring at her in the light of the projector’s beam, he couldn’t help remembering the bristly girl who’d nearly refused to let him sit in on her telescope time at all. Now here she was, sharing the spotlight with him as they announced their results.
His smile ached, he was so damn proud.
That final night, after everything was settled, their offices shut down and their suitcases zipped, Adam sought her out. While the rest of the group tried valiantly to use up their remaining stores of alcohol, the two of them locked gazes, and he held out his hand. And she came.
He hadn’t told her his plan for the evening, but when he started down the road toward the observatory grounds, she followed without a word. Once they were through the gate, instead of heading to the main building, he took a left at the fork.
Jo tilted her head to the side. “Are you taking me where I think you are?”
“Are there really all that many options at this point?”
The only place this particular path went was the lookout point at the top of the hill. Past the visitor’s center, past all the displays meant for tourists. By itself, the place wasn’t all that remarkable, but…
“Wow.” Jo paused, catching her breath. From the edge of the lookout, near the railing, the whole of the campus was spread out before them. The offices and the cafeteria, the control room and the deck beyond it where he’d held her the night she’d first let him glimpse her past.
And farther in the distance, the telescope.
The dome suspended above the reflector dish was always lit up at night, viewable from just about anywhere, but from up here it seemed closer, the deep darkness of the valley below it starker.
Jo crossed forward to place her hands on the banister. “I knew it was beautiful at night, but…”
“I’ve never actually been up here after dark before. Always meant to come check it out. Figured this was our last chance.” It hurt to say, but there wasn’t any point denying it anymore.
Bracing himself, he came to stand behind her, cupping her bare arms with his palms. Ducking his head, he placed a kiss at the top of her spine, right below the clasp of the necklace he had bought her. The one he had yet to see her take off.
“Good choice,” she said, and she shivered.
“Jo—” His voice caught. He’d just said it himself. This was their last chance. His last chance, and he wasn’t going to waste it. If only he knew what to say, what to do…
“Shh.” She turned in his arms, one hand coming up between them, gentle fingers settling over his lips. Her eyes met his, and all the fight went out of him at once.
There was nothing left to say. Nothing left to do.
Except savor this.
Closing the distance was giving up and giving in. Her mouth tasted of warmth and rum and sex and love, and he could drown in it. He kissed her and kissed her, with the telescope in view, the night sky and the stars hanging over him like a future that had finally come for them.
When she slipped a hand under the hem of his shirt, the desperate ache within him surged.
He broke away from her long enough to retrieve the blanket he’d smuggled along for the hike. He spread it out across the ground right beside the railing. Right above the edge of the precipice. She didn’t ask him if he’d planned this or make any sort of implication. Just dropped to sit in the center of it, arms open.
He peeled off her clothes a piece at a time, pressing his lips to every inch of skin he exposed. He couldn’t think about it as the last time—not if he wanted to stay sane. The last time he touched her piercing, felt her warmth, kissed the point of her ankle or the crest of her hip. But the temptation was there. The last, the last, the last… The corners of his eyes went damp as he took her in.
Before he could get lost in it, she urged him over onto his back.
She stripped him with as much care as he’d taken baring her, and his heart echoed around inside his chest. She wasn’t indifferent to him. She wasn’t cruel.
So if she felt half of what he felt for her, how could she do this?
How could she still not trust him? How could she still not trust herself?
Choking down the rush of feeling that threatened to spring forth, he put his hands and lips to every piece of her he could. Loving. Memorizing.
When he was naked, flat on his back beneath the stars, she straddled his lap. Rolled protection onto him, and then in a single stroke, consumed him. He grasped for her, searching blindly for her skin in the inferno of her body, the heat of her touch. He pulled her close, and they gazed into each other’s eyes, kisses that weren’t kisses. Shared breaths.
She moved on him, and he held her tight. He bit his lip to contain the storm inside of him, the crash of climax and the words she’d asked him not to speak. Keeping him deep, she ground down hard, hips to hips.
“Adam—”
He kissed her for real this time, took her bottom lip between his. Orgasm rolled through her like a wave, warm pulsations that pulled him under with her, and he wanted to stop time, to freeze it. Wanted this to never, ever end.
He closed his eyes, lost to the power of his release.
After, she slumped over him. With everything he had, he held on.
The van pulled into the driveway at quarter to eight the next morning. Adam sat beside Jo at the curb, her suitcases stacked at their feet. Her flight was one of the first to leave. Adam had tried to worm his way onto that early shuttle ride out to San Juan just so he could spend the extra hour by her side, but between people and baggage, there wasn’t room.
Roberto got out of the van, giving Jo a wry look as he approached. The first time Adam had ever seen her, it had been right here, wrestling with her luggage after giving poor Roberto hell. She grinned at him sheepishly and allowed him to take one of her suitcases. Adam grabbed the other one and carted it to the van’s rear doors.
As they loaded up her things, the others started wandering out. There hadn’t been any concrete plans to meet and say goodbye, but apparently everybody’d had the same idea. They stood around in a silent circle as more suitcases got crammed in. Once everything had made it on board, Roberto climbed into the driver’s seat, leaving the nine of them staring at each other.
“So,” Adam said, looking around. “I guess this is it.” His heart pounded inside his chest.
“Guess so,” echoed Carol.
For a long moment, everyone was frozen.
Finally, Jared rolled his eyes. “Come on. We gonna hug this out or what?”
Adam huffed out a sigh of laughter. It was the exact sort of bullshit comment they needed. Intentionally facing away from Jo, he moved around the circle. A manly bro-hug for Jared and an awkward handshake for Tom. Polite hugs with most of the rest of the girls.
And then there was no more stalling. Nothing left to do but the one thing he desperately wanted not to.
The rest of their party receded into the background as Jo stepped into his space. “So.”
“So.”
She twisted her knuckles in front of her, teeth teasing at the ring of metal through her lip. She looked miserable, as bad as he felt. God, he wished things were different.
But they weren’t. And it was time.
He lifted a hand to curl his fingers around her neck and forced a lopsided smile. “No regrets?”
“Only one,” she said, and he believed—he had to believe—she meant the same thing he did.
He regretted they hadn’t gotten more.
He pulled her in closer and swallowed, blinking off the misting in his eyes. “I’m going to miss you so hard.”