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“You graduated from Tennessee and probably had money before you made any. Sorry you couldn’t do better.” I threw my shoulders back and glared at him as his laughter bellowed around the restaurant.
He shook his head as he looked down at his cuff links. “Little girl, you are something else. Tell me, how did you know I went to Tenn—”
“Probably a Vols fan, too. That’s unfortunate,” I added smartly as Lucy and her father began to make their way back to the table.
“You want Harvard?” he asked in challenge, pulling out his wallet. I sat stunned, praying Lucy would walk faster. I was relieved when Ray slid a card in front of me, a small smile on his lips.
“Call me when you’re serious about it.”
“I won’t need to,” I said, pushing the card back his way.
“Taylor…this card will get you out of Dyer.” I could feel the tension leave me slightly with his words as if the truth of them didn’t exist until he uttered them. I looked at him for long moments when Lucy and her father returned, trying to piece together why a man like him would possibly help me. I put the card in the purse Lucy let me borrow to match my dress and taped it to the top of my dresser drawer when I got home, where it remained for a year.
That card had turned out to be exactly what Ray had promised, but with a cost to the both of us.
“You look lost.”
I jumped in my seat as Daniello’s shadow covered my sun-exposed skin. Shielding my eyes from the bright sun, I lifted my hand and studied what I could of him. He was dressed casually and was looking down at me with an expression I couldn’t read.
“I’m…What are you doing here?” I realized I was dressed in nothing but a ratty T-shirt and illegally cut jean shorts. I crossed my legs in my chair and poured another long drink over my lingering ice.
He turned his head as if he smelled something bad as he answered. I tried not to laugh. “I am here for you, of course.”
He sat next to me in the vacant chair. Elation in my chest, I looked over and smiled at him, completely taken with the fact that he’d returned. It had been weeks without a word. I’d been sure it was over.
“You thought I would not return.” His tone was far from the one I’d experienced the last time we were together. It reeked of sincerity and amusement.
“Yes.”
His smile matched mine as his eyes trailed to my bare feet then scanned across the marsh. He picked my glass up from the table and threw it back in one long gulp.
“Rough day?”
“Rough,” he murmured as his hand shot out and he gripped my foot, bringing it to his lap. He was dressed so casually in a V-neck T-shirt and dark jeans. His black hair hung loosely around his ears, accenting a face that could grace the cover of GQ. His biceps bulged slightly as his strong, warm hands massaged me. I felt lucky in that moment to have captured the attention of such a beautiful man. His touch was gentle as he worked the bottom of my foot. My lips parted as he dug in deep, the tension in my shoulders rolling away.
“What do you do in your pastime…for fun?” I almost hadn’t heard him as his touch became intoxicating. “Taylor?”
I smiled as he picked up my other foot, giving it the same undivided attention. His eyes moved from my bare legs in a hot trail up to my lips before they met mine. I felt the tension grow thick as he continued his massage.
“I work.”
“Surely, there is something you do that is just for you?”
I paused and bit my lip. “If I show you, then your hands will stop.”
He lifted a brow as his hands continued. We sat in silence for a few minutes as we looked at each other. Oddly, I wasn’t shying away from the intimacy, and it seemed he didn’t intend to let me.
Already wet from the mere sight of him, I was thoroughly seduced, slightly buzzed from the whiskey he’d gifted me, and acutely aware that I’d missed him.
I remembered Cedric’s words to me that I was lonely.
“Do you get lonely living this way?” It was an intensely personal question, another that according to our arrangement I had no right to ask, but really wanted an answer to.
“I get exactly what I ask for in this life.”
“Wow.”
“What?” he asked, tilting his head and stopping his hands.
