Page 268 of One Wild Wish

August straightened his T-shirt and motioned to the box. “We should probably focus on this.” Still, he eyed me hungrily and adjusted himself in his jeans.

That move ruined me. We should open the box, but I only had one night left with him. Whatever was in there would change everything. I kept picturing Raiders of the Lost Ark and ghosts ripping through the air, sucking the life out of all who dared lay eyes on the ark of the covenant. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t turn into a liquefied skeleton, but the contents we unearthed could devastate me, ruin my last moments with August. As desperately as I wanted answers, the box would be here tomorrow. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t.

I needed one night with him, an afternoon even, before I unleashed my mother’s secrets. “Will you meet me?” I asked, suddenly tentative. “At my place.”

“You’d rather open it there?”

“I’d rather shower with you there. I’ll deal with the box later.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed down his tanned throat. “I’ll drive your way,” he said. “I think it’s faster.”

20

2:30 p.m., 9 ½ hours…

Gwen

We didn’t kiss the second we entered my apartment. Our clothes didn’t fly off. We didn’t hit the floor and dry-fuck like horny teens.

Soft brushes had replaced our frantic fumbling: his hand on my hip as I opened my door, my fingers gliding along his forearm when he hung back to close it, his lips on my hair as I placed the box on my kitchen counter. We moved in slow motion, stretching our seconds to make them last. A shower was still in order.

He followed me into my bathroom and started poking through my stuff.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked.

“Investigating.”

“Why?”

He shrugged a shoulder and kept nosing through my drawers. Creeper. His PI skills led him to my stash of condoms, lube, and the waterproof vibrator I’d purchased the night drunk Rachel had dragged Ainsley and me into a sex shop. The videoed Dildo Incident was saved on my phone.

Smirking, he held up my pink pleasure toy. “This could be fun.”

“You have no idea.”

He hummed appreciatively and placed it on the counter. My birth control was in the same drawer. He picked it up and spun it in his hand. “I was serious before, about wanting a family with you one day. But there’s no going back from that. We both have to be all in, no matter what happens.” His attention drifted to his right, as though scrutinizing my glassed-in shower.

His true focus was on my kitchen, connected to the other side of that white tile wall. Where my mother’s secret box lay. He wanted assurances its contents wouldn’t turn us into liquefied skeletons.

All I could offer was my honesty. “Having a child with you would be…everything. Thinking about it, even theoretically, makes my heart feel like it might explode. So sign me up for that future, August. I’m all in. For now, I want you before I detonate that bomb in there. I want to touch you and make love to you, no other drama between us.” I flattened my palm on his firm chest, connecting us. “I have this feeling everything will change after I open that box, which means I’ll need you more than ever.”

And you can’t hurt me , I refrained from adding.

“I may be leaving the country, but I’m not leaving you. Never again.”

“So we’re really doing this? You and me, long distance?”

Still holding my pills, his arm came around my back, the heavy pressure of his palm burning through my tank top. “It’s just us now, Gwen. We come before everything. That’s how we’ll make it work.”

“I can do that.”

“Don’t freak out on me.”

“Don’t flirt with groupies.”

“Don’t sleep with my brother.”

I gasped, and his lips quirked to the side. “Too soon?”