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“Made me think of you.” My eyes popped up, and before I could ask why, he spoke again. “Can I?” he asked. I nodded and brushed my freshly straightened hair up into my hands. He put the necklace on me, clasping it in place. His fingers brushed the back of my neck, and my skin turned into gooseflesh.
“Thank you,” I hoarsely said, dropping my hair as his rough, calloused hands rubbed my shoulders. “You have a magic touch.” I moaned, leaning into his caress.
“You’re so damn soft.” When his lips brushed my cheek, butterflies started to flap their wings in my lower belly.
“Aiden.” I swallowed, and he turned me in his arms. There was something about the way he was staring down at me that made my heart rate pick up speed.
“I can’t believe our trip is almost over,” I nervously blathered on, and he grunted. His hand moved to my hip and pulled me closer to his body.
“I don’t know if I’m ready to head back yet,” I rambled, pressing my lips together. “I feel like we didn’t think things over.”
“In what way?” His gaze locked on my wet lips.
“We return in time for the holidays.” I squished my nose. “We should have gone back after the new year.”
“We could change our flight,” he offered.
Part of me had expected that. His offer was sweet and generous. I think it was why I hadn’t brought it up before. The temptation to do just that would have been hard to turn down.
“We couldn’t do that.” I smiled. His free hand rose and cupped my cheek, his thumb stroking my skin. “I wish we could. This trip… it was…”
“Everything,” he finished for me. My nose stung with how well he knew me. The sight of him blurred with unshed tears. “None of that. We can do this again,” he promised, and while I tried to smile through it, I had a feeling this trip was once in a lifetime.
“Sure,” I whispered, knowing the likelihood of that happening was probably as likely as it was to win the lottery.
I had a feeling I knew what would happen the moment we landed back in LA.
Our lives would return to our regularly scheduled program. Our families would pull us this way and that through the holidays, and after the new year, Aiden would go back to school, and I would have to start college in the spring.
Our lives would return to being under everyone else’s plans and dreams. Both of us would be pulled in different directions, and our lives would change.
He’d done a year at the University of the Desert, and we’d talked every day, but that had been hard to manage. Once we got back…
“Hey, what’s up?” he asked, snapping me out of my sad thoughts.
“Nothing,” I lied, smiling weakly, but I knew he didn’t believe me.
“Talk to me, Gem,” he demanded in that sexy way he did, and I sighed. It wasn’t in me to keep anything from Aiden.
“I think I’m just… not ready for our vacation to end. For us to head home… you know?”
“We still have two more days,” he reminded me.
Two more days.
Forty-eight hours alone before we had to board a plane and go back.
Not that I didn’t miss my sisters and mom. I did. But I wasn’t ready for our time, Aiden and mine, to end.I need to tell him,a voice whispered in the back of my head. I swallowed hard. I needed to tell him how I felt. Before we boarded the plane from LAX, I had promised myself it was time. I needed to come clean about how I felt about him. I needed to tell him I loved him.
Every day for the last six months, I’d been promising myself I’d do it the next day.
But I hadn’t said a peep about the love I felt for him. Halfway across the world, being just the two of us, it had been easy for me to pretend he felt what I felt for him. That every time he suggested I change was because he didn’t like other men to look at me. That every time I caught his gaze, intense and almost smoldering, it was because he felt the same way.
I had actually convinced myself that we were both holding back from saying anything because we were scared of messing up our friendship if the other person didn’t feel the same way.
“True.” I shrugged and shook my head. I had to make the most of the next two days.Tell him you love him.“Okay, we ready to go?” I squeaked. He looked at me for a moment. His dark gaze raked up and down my body, and I fought the need to shiver again. Instead, my thighs pressed together, and I ignored the dampness I felt.
“You sure you don’t want to change?” he asked again in that sexy, raspy tone that sent zaps of electricity down my spine.
