Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
I cup his jaw, rubbing the shadow of bristles coating the strong line. “I’ve had you, Naz, and I’ve never felt more, never wanted anyone the way I want you.”
“And next week?” He grasps my wrist, trapping my hand against his face. “When we get back to LA, do you honestly expect me to let you go?”
I swallow, glancing down at the aged wood of the bench between us. “No. I just…I have to figure out what we say to Cliff. The best time to tell him.”
“I got an email tonight.”
I frown and shoot him a huh? look.
“Okay,” I say. “And?”
“It was from Myron.”
“Myron from St. Cat’s?” I ask, stiffening. “What’d he want?”
“Coach Lipton is retiring, and they’re asking all of us from his one championship team to come for the ceremony.”
I close my eyes and turn to press my back against the bench, letting both feet hit the ground with a thud. “Cliff is just getting over that damn documentary, and now they want to memorialize the night that ruined his life.”
“No, now they want to honor a man who devoted his entire life to teaching young men a sport he loves. They want some of the men whose lives he impacted to come celebrate a stellar career as one of Texas’s winningest high school coaches in history.”
“I know. It’s an amazing achievement.”
“If Coach Lipton hadn’t recruited me to St. Cat’s senior year, my life wouldn’t be what it is now.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because it seems like you think other people’s lives should revolve around Cliff’s, including your own.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I want to be with you.”
I suck in a shuddering breath, stand, and put a few feet between me and him on the bench, but I’m unable to look away from the intent in his dark eyes. “Also not fair.”
“Why? Because you’ll have to do something about this? When this trip is over, we’re not over, and I’m not pretending we are for Cliff.”
“Naz.”
“No, listen to me.” He stands and reaches me in one long step, tugging me to him by my wrist. “This, what’s happened to us, it’s fast. I know that. As cautious as I am, do you think I don’t know that? But is it two weeks? Or is it twelve years in the making?”
I swallow and don’t try to pull away but press into his chest, breathing in his clean, masculine scent.
His hands, big and gentle, drift around to cradle my back. “I’ve watched you for years.”
At his quiet words, I look up. His eyes are set on me, his sensual lips parted on a laugh at himself.
“I saw you announce on social media when you were leaving Houston, moving to the A.”
“You did?”
“And then leaving Atlanta, moving to New York.” He grins down at me, tracing the shell of my ear and sending shivers down my spine. “When you posted you were leaving New York and coming to LA for Dessi Blue, somewhere in my heart, even subconsciously, I said to myself…now I have her. This close, I’ll have her, but I didn’t know how. All my life, opportunities have found me. Have fallen into my lap.”
He hugs me tight and, arms folded under my butt, lifts me off my feet so our faces are level.
“Naz!” I squeal, legs dangling.
“And what happened?” He sets his eyes on mine, humor sifting out of his expression, leaving an intensity that winnows steam through my blood. “You literally fell into my arms at that fashion show. I didn’t know how it would happen for us…but I think I knew it would.”
I wrap my legs around his waist and link my arms behind his neck, leaning in to capture his lips between mine. He opens instantly, and that’s how it’s always been with us. Him, a man notoriously private and reserved and content with himself, opened up for me, craving me. He breaks the kiss, and I draw in his breath and the scent of lemons as he presses our foreheads together.
“I’m going to that retirement ceremony,” he says, waiting for me to catch his eyes in the moonlight. “I assume Cliff will be there, too. And this thing with him will be resolved.”
Chapter Eighteen
Naz
“What are you wearing to the party?” I ask Takira when she steps out of our en suite bathroom in the villa.
It’s the night of Kenan’s birthday. They’ve rented out a beach club, and his friends from all over the world have been invited. The group will still be relatively modest in size, but definitely more than the small party that’s been sailing with us. It will be a star-studded event.
Takira and I spent a leisurely last day here at the villa—swimming, eating light salads and rich desserts, drinking the limoncello made from the lemons in the grove, and making love with the laughter of our friends floating in on a Mediterranean breeze through our open terrace door.