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“No, but I’ve done it on a boat.”
“Really?! Blimey, the Staten Island Ferry?”
“No!” She giggled. “At Josh’s family cottage, upstate. We did it in the water, too.”
“Ahh, mermaid sex? Yeah, that’s hot.” He leaned in and growled in her ear. “God, what I wouldn’t do right now to slip you out of your wet bikini bottoms and take you in the sand.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re really not helping.”
“The beach…California, yeah? One day.” Leaving a kiss in her hair, he sat back, picking up the napkin-wrapped brownie from his thigh. He crossed his legs, hiding the growing ridge in his jeans. Aw, mate, don’t start what you can’t finish.
“One day, yeah.” She smiled coquettishly, her gaze sweeping his crotch before returning to her spoon. “That’s it for me, though. No other exotic locales to speak of, just a bedroom at a house party, in a closet—once. Oh, a pool table, but that was in my first boyfriend’s basement. How ’bout you? Ever gone beyond the restroom?” She laughed.
“Oh, a few places.”
“Like?” She licked chocolate off her thumb.
Ahh, Riles, what you’re doing to me! “You don’t want to know.”
“Yeah, I do.” She leaned in. “You started it!”
“Er, ooo-kay. Well…on the train from Windsor to London, in a TopMan changing room, an alley behind a pub—or two.” He caught her arched eyebrows. “All right, more than two.” Okay, time to shut this down. He nibbled his brownie and watched sweaty New Yorkers wilting in the shop’s long line. “You know, just horny teenage stuff.”
Riley bit her lip. “I lost my virginity in a backyard shed. There was a weird garden gnome staring at us the whole time.”
“Ugh. I lost mine on a playground slide.”
“Seriously? With your clumsy balance?” She laughed. “Where else have you done it?”
I like how she’s not judgy or embarrassed. He set down his brownie. “A stairwell at uni, in a tent at a music festival, backstage at a theater—in my Tempest costume—”
“Ooh, did you finish with a standing O?”
He chuckled. “Nearly went all the way on the top deck of a London bus. Oh, yeah, at the Imperial War Museum—”
“A war museum? Not sexy!”
“When the urge arises…” Ben sighed and shifted again on the bench. “Ahh, Hope, too bad there’s no restroom here.”
Riley dug her spoon into her cup of peanut butter joy and left it there. Her shoulders deflated, disappointment in her eyes. “I wish you didn’t have to work tonight. It’s been six nights in a row.”
“I know, it sucks.” Ben put his arm around her and left a kiss on her temple. I know she wants me to call her my girlfriend, and I want to, but I can’t…not yet. Being emotionally attached, relied upon for more than shits and giggles—it’s so new. I need to get used to it. I want to get used to it. He kissed her again. “At least we have thirty minutes together before I have to head in, eh? And I’ll call you on my break.”
“I still feel bad about Thursday.”
“I feel bad about you getting told off.” Ben picked up his brownie again. “I shouldn’t have dropped in on you. You can’t blame your boss.”
“No, but I can blame the new girl in skincare and her loitering boyfriend. Now, none of us can have visitors.”
“Well, if you stopped in the diner mid-shift, I’d have to ignore you, too. It’s tourist bloody central. Fuck, it’s nuts, and I reckon it’ll get more bonkers as summer rolls on.” He gnawed the brownie’s edge. “But they’ll have to make do without me on July 27th…”
Riley’s eyes brightened. “You…?!”
“Yep, got it off.”
“YES!” Riley dove in for a kiss, sending her spoon falling to the sidewalk.
Ben held her close before pulling back slightly, his lips brushing hers. “Happy early birthday,” he whispered and kissed her again.
