Alex collapsed next to her. “Give me a second.” He rolled out of bed and went to dispose of the condom in the bathroom. Then he came back and laid down next to her, pulling her into his arms. “Whew.”
“Whew,” she repeated. She couldn’t stop grinning. “That about sums it up.”
“I don’t care what you say, Kendall Barnes. You’re a straight up wild child.” He stroked his hand over her hair and down her back.
She smiled harder and pressed a kiss to his chest. “When I’m with you, I actually feel like one. Thank you.”
“You have nothing to thank me for, sweetheart. It’s all you.”
In that moment, she actually believed him.
* * *
For the third time, Alex woke up with Kendall wrapped around him. He smiled even before he opened his eyes. Truth be told, he thought he’d smiled more in the last couple days than in the last few months. It was just so fucking easy with her.
He should be afraid of that. He knew it deep down where part of him never quite let go of the pain of his parents leaving. Caring too deeply about other people meant handing them your heart and hoping they didn’t take it with them when they invariably called it quits.
Kendall had more of his heart than he dared admit.
He opened his eyes and looked down at her. She was so fucking cute. Cute and sexy and funny and wicked smart. Too good for him, no doubt about it, but she didn’t seem to care. She didn’t want this to end any more than he did. He didn’t know what a future with her might look like, but he wasn’t ready to be done. Not by a long shot.
She shifted without opening her eyes and scrunched up her nose. “You’re watching me sleep.”
“Guilty.”
“That’s very creepy of you.”
He laughed and smoothed a hand down her back. “Correction—it’s only very creepy of me if I snuck into your room without an invitation and then watched you sleep. You’re in my room, sweetheart. It’s fair game.”
“I don’t remember reading that in the rules.” She stretched, creating some distance between them. “I need to brush my teeth.”
“By all means.” He waited for her to use the bathroom and then took his turn. Soon enough, they were back in his bed, and he couldn’t shake how nice this was. This closeness and ease between them. It wasn’t just sex, no matter what they both might fear. “Do you want to do an excursion today?”
She made a face. “I suppose we should, right?”
He didn’t want to. He just wanted to stay here, wrapped up in her until they were forced out of the room by the end of the trip. Even now, even knowing they both wanted more, he couldn’t help seeing a clock ticking down the minutes until the time when the cruise ended and they had to say goodbye. It might not be forever, but life got in the way more often than it helped out.
Alex sat up. “What are you doing for Memorial Day?”
“For… Memorial Day?”
“Yeah.”
Kendall blinked. “I don’t have plans. Probably work?”
“Take the three-day weekend and come down to Dawson’s Creek. I’ll show you around, and we can make the most of it.” He hesitated when she just kept watching him. “You don’t have to. I know we said what we said, but if this is just a vacation hookup for you, then no pressure.”
She reached out and pressed her fingers to his lips, stilling his words. “It’s not just a vacation fling for me, Alex. I’m just surprised. It makes it so much more real to make plans for later, you know?”
“I know,” he spoke against her fingertips. “Like I said—”
“I’ll book tickets the second I get back to New York.”
Something unclenched in his chest and he smiled. “Okay. Cool. Yeah, okay.”
She answered his smile with one of her own. “Then you’ll have to come up to New York for Fourth of July. Or maybe we can meet somewhere in the middle.”
“Deal.” This was happening. It was really happening. He could barely believe it. Alex flopped back onto his pillow, taking Kendall with him. “I think you’re right. We should do an excursion today. They had a shit ton of options.”
“I’m thinking the private beach.” She gave a wicked smile. “There’s a lighthouse.”
Alex fought to keep his expression even despite wanting to grin right back. “Sweetheart, are you about to tell me that you want to fuck in a lighthouse?”
“I mean… I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea.”
Alex couldn’t hold it together any longer. He laughed and pressed a kiss to her temple. “We’ll see what we can come up with.”
“Mmm.” She ran her hand down his chest. “Speaking of coming up…”
He rolled her onto her back and settled between her thighs. “You’re insatiable.”