“Come here.” He pulled me under the water with him, right into his arms, slippery and soapy, and suddenly everything made sense again as his mouth found mine. Nothing stayed awkward for long when we kissed. This kiss was different too, transformed by the memory of what we’d done and the future promise of good things to come.
“You really are brilliant,” he said as he pulled back.
“I…am?” I’d seldom felt fewer working brain cells, but if he said it, I wanted to believe him.
“Yup. When in doubt, just do it again. Rinse and repeat.” He didn’t give me much time to bask in his words before he was kissing me again, carrying through with that promise, and as our mouths met, over and over, all I could do was hope that I could give him his wish—that this didn’t have to ever end.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Conrad
Never had I wanted to drive less than I did that final day of the trip. We had about seven hours of driving time plus the stop in St. George ahead of us, and we needed to be in Vegas for the evening registration for the tournament so that we’d be ready to play first thing in the morning.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow everything could change. Tomorrow we’d be rivals again. Or something. Not this… Whatever this was, it wasn’t what we’d been, what we’d have to be again, and I did not want to think about it until tomorrow.
And today, today I wanted to spend hours in bed in this cozy cabin. When the alarm went off at the crack of dawn, I pulled Alden close to me and buried my face in his neck, pretending I hadn’t heard it, pretending for a moment that this wasn’t a motel but rather a little house with a little bed and a warm guy who was mine and that this was every bit as real as it felt.
Because it did feel real. All the kissing our way through Colorado and the sex here in Utah felt more real than anything else had in years. I wasn’t imagining the tidal wave of emotions that kept threatening to swamp me, wasn’t imagining the way Alden looked at me with a combination of awe and longing, wasn’t imagining the way my body responded to his. It was real. The bigger question was for how long, but I refused to consider that with a warm Alden pressed against me, smelling like hotel soap and sex.
Then he stretched, rolling in toward me, all sorts of interesting parts bumping together. “Can we…”
Even in the dim morning light, his blush was visible as was his meaning.
“Totally. We can.” I claimed his mouth in a kiss before he could have second thoughts about hitting snooze for this.
No way was I passing up an opportunity for more. I was perfectly happy to go at any pace Alden needed, wasn’t in a rush to try other things, and was perfectly happy letting him lead the way that morning. I wasn’t ever going to get tired of the combination of his lips against mine and our bodies moving together.
And thus, we were late getting out of bed. Fantastically, splendidly late. Later still after another shower. And I wasn’t going to complain in the slightest.
“We can skip breakfast,” I offered as we loaded up the car. “Save time.”
“No.” He gave me a stern look. “I’ve seen you skip meals. It’s a long way to St. George to have you grouchy.”
“I’m not that bad.”
“Yes, you are.” His expression managed to be both affectionate and exasperated, and I liked it, liked him fussing over me more than I should have. “And if we don’t eat around here, there’s not a whole lot until we hit the Salina area an hour or two from now.”
“Okay, you’ve sold me. Feed me.” I let him use his phone to find a cheap diner with a fifties vibe, red vinyl everything inside a squat adobe building. I continued my quest to find decent biscuits and gravy, partly to save cash, and partly to watch Alden make a face before he ordered buckwheat pancakes. It didn’t escape my notice that Alden didn’t turn down the bacon that came with his breakfast, only to add it to my plate.
“I don’t need—”
“Consider it my contribution to the no-cranky Conrad fund.”
“Fine.” God, I wanted to win at the tournament in the worst way, put these money worries behind me. The last few days hadn’t changed anything in that regard. If anything, I wanted it more than ever, wanted to be someone worthy of a guy like Alden, and maybe a part of me wanted to impress him as well. Just as he’d wanted to be able to beat Danny and Bart on his own, no help, I wanted to be able to beat life on my own and not need his help, however well meaning it was.