“Why?” she asked over her shoulder.
Unexpectedly, his voice cracked when he said, “Because I love you.”
That was all it took to spin her around in his arms. Her heart came back to life, and the intense ache that had filled her chest a second ago dissipated. “Say that again. You what?”
His lips split wide, and his dark eyes lit up with affection. “I love you, Emily.”
She fisted the front of his shirt and pulled until his mouth landed on hers.
With his fingers still laced through her hair, the back of her head in his hands, he pressed his forehead to hers and huffed. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make this all go away.”
“I know, and that’s okay. As long as we love each other, we can make it though anything.”
“You love me?”
Warmth filled her, and without understanding why, she felt confident that things would be all right. “Yes, Andrew Crowe…I love you.”
Those three words should’ve filled him with complete happiness, and in a way, they did. However, they also threw him right into the center of reality, and no matter how he felt about her, he couldn’t ignore the tragic truth that stared them in the face.
“You know they’ll never let us be together, right?”
“Who’s they?” she asked, pulling away to see his face.
His dark eyes were impossibly darker, fear slightly furrowing his brow. His lips, barely parted, almost appeared downturned, an illusion created by the uncertainty in the air surrounding them. They weren’t strangers, though there were still so many things to learn about one another. Emily yearned to understand what his expression meant, hoping to avoid ever seeing it again.
“Your parents. Bobby.” He shrugged, filled with sudden hopelessness. “The universe.”
She held his face between her hands, forcing him to look her in the eyes. “Then let’s not give them that kind of power.”
“How?” He refused to allow the glimmer of hope in, not until he knew it was safe.
“Well, for starters, we don’t know if what Bobby told you is even true, so there’s no point in making decisions until we get to that bridge. In the meantime, we keep doing things as we are—meeting up behind their backs, keeping our relationship as far from my parents as possible. It’s doable, Andy. It might not be ideal, and it’ll mean more sneaking around, but that’s all temporary.”
He wasn’t sure how to take that, so he asked, “What do you mean it’s temporary?” He feared she’d suggest that they end things and go their separate ways when they evacuated the town.
“Well, we all have to be gone in a little over four months, right? Why don’t we leave together instead of with our families? Depending on where things go between now and then, obviously.”
He took a moment to contemplate her suggestion. His parents relied on him and his brothers a lot, so leaving them without his help wouldn’t sit well with the family. On the other hand, he knew where the McKinneys were relocating to, and it wasn’t anywhere near the plantation that his family had planned to purchase. He wanted the picture she painted, though he was afraid to buy into it, worried that it would end badly.
“Forget about everyone else, Andy. This is about us.” Emily pulled his mouth to hers just as she whispered against his lips, “Run away with me.”
His anxiety seemed to let up some; though like an oil smudge on a mechanic’s cheek, there was still a hint of despair that couldn’t be wiped away. No matter how hopeful he was, a dark cloud hung around, just over his shoulder, forecasting darkness despite the sunshine.
Chapter Sixteen
Drew
Birds chirped outside my bedroom windows, slowly pulling me from the best night’s sleep I’d ever had. I wasn’t ready to open my eyes, though—unwilling to fully leave my dream of Kenny behind. It was erotic and loving. Warm and comforting. But before I could open my eyes, I became very aware of another body in my bed.
My dream hadn’t been a dream after all.
I put my arm around her and felt her scootch closer, burrowing her ass into my crotch and arching her back against my chest as if settling into a place made specifically for her—her spot. As if that was exactly where she belonged. Then again, I couldn’t argue with that. Even though we’d just met, I’d become very aware of the space in my life she’d so quickly occupied. And the more I thought about it, the more I believed that she had always owned that space…it’d been sitting empty this entire time, waiting for her to come and claim it.
I wanted nothing more than for her to claim it.
To claim me.
It was a ridiculous thought, one I had to laugh at. This girl had shown up less than a week ago, out of the blue; there was no way I could have feelings for her. Sure, we’d spent quite a bit of time together, but it was in no way enough to feel the way I thought I did. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time left to find out what it was exactly.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Kenny stirred awake.
“I wasn’t snoring, was I?” she asked as she rolled over to face me.
I pressed my smiling lips to her forehead, thinking about the soft purrs she considered snores. “Nah, not too bad.”
She pushed against my chest, pushing back enough to look at me. “Not too bad?”
“No. On a scale of kitten to chainsaw, I’d say you were more of a rolling thunder in the far-off distance. Like really far off.”
Kenny tucked her chin to her chest and laughed to herself. “Leave it to you to choose thunder. I can’t complain, though; at least you didn’t say an earthquake or the apocalypse or something equally as loud.”
“I don’t think you ever have to worry about that. You’ve got the cutest snores.” That wasn’t a lie, either. I stayed up a bit last night after she had fallen asleep just to listen to her. Although, that might’ve been a mistake. The thought had crossed my mind that sleep would never be this restful again without the sounds of her breathing next to me.
I couldn’t think about that. I needed to stay in the moment, not get too far ahead of myself.
“So, Kenny…it’s your last day. Do you have anything special planned or in mind?”
The nearly constant sparkle in her eyes dimmed at the mention of her last day at the resort. It made me hopeful that maybe she felt the same way I did. I decided not to bring it up just yet, in the event I’d misread her reaction. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her off this close to her departure.
Without saying anything, she pushed up onto her elbow and reached over me, stretching the top half of her body across my chest. I swear, I would never get enough of her. The scent emanating from her hair as it fell into my face, as well as the softness of her inner thigh as it brushed against mine was enough to drive me crazy. So I did what any red-blooded male would do—I grabbed her by the hips and pulled her onto me, making her straddle my waist.
All she had on was one of my T-shirts, so there was nothing preventing us from connecting again. And as much as I wanted nothing more than to push into her heat, I thought better of it. We had quite enjoyed our time together yesterday after leaving The Birdhouse, all the way up until we fell asleep last night. While I could definitely go again, I wasn’t sure how sore or tender she was. I had to remind myself that she wasn’t used to this much activity.