Page 140 of Our Chaotic Love Affair

I flipped us over, laying her back on the blanket without breaking our connection. Her legs wrapped around my waist, pulling me deeper. I braced myself on my forearms, watching her face as I moved inside her.

“You’re beautiful,” I told her, the words escaping without thought. “So goddamn beautiful.”

Her eyes fluttered open, dark and heavy-lidded. “Cash,” she gasped. “Don’t stop.”

I had no intention of stopping. Not when she was looking at me like that, not when she was making those sounds, not when her body was tightening around mine in a way that told me she was close.

I shifted my angle, drove deeper, and watched her face as pleasure overtook her. She bit her lip, trying to stay quiet, but I wanted to hear her.

“Let go,” I urged. “It’s just us. Just you and me.”

And she did. She came apart beneath me, crying out my name, her body clenching around me in waves that threatened to undo me completely. I followed moments later, my release hitting me with an intensity that left me shaking.

I collapsed beside her, both of us breathing hard. The waves crashed nearby. Nocturnal critters in the tall grass chirping like they were celebrating us.

She curled against my side, her head on my chest. I wrapped my arm around her, holding her close, unwilling to let even an inch of space between us.

We lay there under the stars, tangled together on the blanket, neither of us speaking. Words seemed unnecessary. Everything I needed to know was in the way she traced patterns on my chest, in how perfectly she fit against me.

After a while, I took her hand in mine, running my thumb over her ring finger. The place where my fake engagement ring had been. The place where, someday, I would put a real one.

“Someday soon,” I said quietly, “I’m going to put a real ring on this finger.”

She looked up at me, her eyes soft. “I’ll wait. A day, a decade—whenever you’re ready, I’m ready.”

I shook my head, smiling. “I don’t need a decade. Hell, I don’t even need a year.”

“No?” There was hope in her voice, mixed with amusement.

“I’m mad for you, Cleo Quinn. Completely, ridiculously in love with you.” I brought her hand to my lips, kissed her knuckles. “And I’m not wasting any more time pretending I’m not.”

She kissed me then, soft and sweet and full of promise.

Eventually, reluctantly, we dressed. I helped her zip up her dress, my fingers lingering on her skin. She helped me button my shirt, stealing kisses between each one.

I folded the blanket, tucked it under my arm, and took her hand. We walked back toward the house, the sand cool beneath our feet, the night sky bright above us.

“What happens now?” she asked as we neared the path.

I squeezed her hand. “Now we figure it out. Together.”

“I like the sound of that.”

I pulled her close for one more kiss before we returned to reality. “Me too.”

Hand in hand, we walked back to the house. Catering staff were cleaning up. The DJ packed up his equipment. They glanced our way but said nothing. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what we’d been up to.

I almost laughed. I didn’t care. Let the whole world know.

CHAPTER 44

CLEO

Iwoke up alone.

The bed was empty beside me, sheets cool to the touch. For a second, panic flared. Had last night been a dream? Had I imagined all of it? Was he having second thoughts? He didn’t seem to be drunk last night, but maybe he had been. Maybe all of it had been a fever dream because I was drunk.

I sat up and that was when I saw it.