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“Safe travels, man,” Trent said to Mitch.

Leaving the hospital room, Mitch took her hand in his. It felt so natural. So right. As though they’d been holding hands forever. She almost couldn’t remember what her life was like three weeks ago.

Three weeks.

Was that really enough time to fall in love with somebody, or was this just lust?

No one had ever made her feel the way he did, and the thought of him boarding a plane in a few hours without knowing she’d be boarding her own in a few weeks to meet him overseas made her chest hurt.

They walked in silence to his rental car and he opened the door for her to climb in. She watched as he passed in front of the car to the driver’s side, the tension causing her shoulders to ache. She had to tell him now.

“Mitch…” she started as he climbed in behind the wheel.

He turned to face her, pulling her closer. “Shhh…it’s okay. You need to be here. Your friends need you.”

She searched his expression. But didheneed her? She couldn’t go with him, but she still wanted him to want her to.

Needed that.

“Believe me, I want to be selfish. I want to drag you all over the world with me, but I want you to fall in love with me, so I can’t be that guy,” he said with a sad laugh.

She cupped his face in her hands. This intense desire to be near him, hold him, kiss him, plan a future with him had to be love. “I am falling for you, Mitch. Hard,” she said, kissing him softly. She could never get enough of those lips. How would she survive without them?

“I’m so glad you said that. I was afraid maybe I was moving too fast, thinking this was something it wasn’t,” he said.

She rested her forehead against his. “It’s real.”

Adrenaline ran through her body from her fingertips to her toes. She wanted to get as much physical closeness as possible in the time they had left, even though she knew it would ultimately be harder to let him go.

He cleared his throat. “I’d like to spend my last twelve hours here with you. Will you come back to the inn with me?”

She hesitated, biting her lip. Saying goodbye to him would be torture whether she did it now or at three o’clock in the morning, and she wasn’t ready to yet, so she nodded. “Yes.”

He drove slightly above the speed limit the entire way and then, taking her hand, they entered the inn and made their way up the guest staircase to his room.

He unlocked the door and inside, he reached for her, pulling her closer to remove her sweater. He carefully draped it over the back of the armchair in the room, then continued to slowly, quietly remove all of her clothing. Then his own.

Emotions strangled her as they lay side by side on the bed, and he wrapped his arms tight around her body. This was the only place she wanted to be that Christmas Eve. “Is this okay? Not too much?” he whispered into her hair.

“It’s not enough,” she said, smiling sadly. She wouldn’t worry about the future. Right now, this moment with him was all that she had and she’d take it.

He slid his hands into her hair and stared deep into her eyes, his own desperate uncertainty mirroring her own. He brought his lips to hers and kissed her long and soft, holding her face close as though afraid she’d stop kissing him. Holding on tight like he was afraid to let go, like he wanted to disappear into the kiss so that he wouldn’t have to say goodbye.

Within hours, the sun would chase away the moon and they’d be facing a new day. One without each other.

She lay back and pulled him on top of her, wanting and needing him more than ever before. Trusting in the feel of their bodies together, she let go of preserving any remaining pieces of her heart and gave it all to him, quietly, passionately, deeply…until there was nothing left.

He pulled back slightly and brushed her hair away from her face. He stared into her eyes, searching, longing for something she wasn’t sure how to give him. “I’ll miss you, Jess, and I haven’t had someone to miss in a very long time. It’s going to make this mission a lot harder.”

“I’ll be here when you get back,” she said. Home, where she belonged, even if her heart was across the world with him.


Sometime hours later, in the darkness of the room, she felt the bedsprings shift and Mitch’s soft breath against her bare shoulder. His lips were soft, gently pressed against her skin as they lingered for a long beat. She heard him struggle with a decision he’d already made as his hesitation was thick in the air around them.

She couldn’t, wouldn’t ask him to stay. Tears burned the back of her tightly closed eyes, and she steadied her breathing to control her spiraling emotions.

“Merry Christmas, Jess,” he whispered as he moved away, and then she heard the distinct sound of him walking to the door.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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