Page 95 of Rhodes

The driver turns onto our street. The house sits dark at the end of it. The porch light I left on a week ago is still burning.

The bags hit the floor of the front hall, and the sound is loud in a house gone so quiet. A week in a villa full of people talking over each other, and now it's just the tick of the hall clock and the two of us standing here.

"I'm beat," she says. "I'm going to turn in."

"You're not hungry? I can whip something up for us."

"I had your roll, remember? Seriously, though, I don't even think I could eat. I'm going to bed."

"Okay, get some rest. I had a fun week with you."

She smiles at me and grabs her two bags off the floor, walking toward her room. I start to help, but she's got it handled and didn't leave any room for me to do that, anyway, without being weird.

I stand there longer than I need to after her door closes.

I take my bag to my room, and then come back to the kitchen to figure out what I can eat.

Then, her door opens, and she comes back out, plugging her phone into the charger by the couch. I set both passports in the bowl next to the charger. Small things, landing things, the routine of two people who live here and nothing else.

"Turns out I'm exhausted but can't sleep."

She's looking at me in the dark den, still in my shirt, and the space we've kept between us since we landed is gone.

I walk up to her and kiss her slowly. Her hands come up to hold my face, and she walks me backward toward my room.

I take my time with her. I know how she likes the flat of my palm up her back, and exactly where to put my mouth on her neck to make her go quiet. We end up in my bed, tangled close, breathing into each other's mouths while the house stays completely still around us.

"One more," she breathes.

I already know better.

"One more," I say anyway.

She kisses me again before the words are all the way out.

Her hands slide under my shirt and over my stomach, and I pull it off without breaking the kiss. She pushes me onto my back and straddles me, settling one knee on either side of my hips.

She drags her mouth down my neck, across my chest, and my head falls back against the pillow.

"Tallulah."

She smiles against my skin.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Liar," she whispers as she keeps going.

She gets my pants open and slides her hand inside. My breath catches, which makes her smile.

"There it is."

"Don't start."

"You started it."

Her hand moves over me slowly.