Page 96 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Har-har,” I said.

“Seriously, maybe Georgie left because you smell like garlic and stale alcohol.”

I sniffed my shirt and my arms. “I don’t stink.”

“Made you sniff.”

I threw a pillow at her. She chuckled and kept going.

I pulled myself up and went to my room. The tangled bedsheets brought me right back to the prior night. Georgie’s and my skin molded together in ways that had my whole body going right back to where we’d left off. There was one truth that had come out of our hours together that I knew for sure... I didn’t want it to be one night.

I brought up the search engine on my phone to look up Descartes. I needed ammunition.

? ? ?

The TV was on with A Few Good Men playing. It was a movie I could never turn the channel on once it appeared in the guide, but I wasn’t really paying attention. It was late enough for the sky to have dipped into shadows, but not late enough for me to start calling to check on her, when the door finally clicked open. I knew she was expecting that I’d gone to bed, or at least my bedroom, but I hadn’t because we needed to talk. At least, I needed to talk, and I was hoping she did too.

I turned to watch her. She was in another damn sundress that made me immediately think of taking it off just like I’d taken off the green dress the night before. She placed her bag and a stack of books on the table by the door before glancing my way.

She stopped at the edge of the couch, looking down at me but not coming closer. No welcome home kiss. My eyes went to her lips and back up, her gaze locking on mine.

“You left.”

“I had work to do,” she said.

“You didn’t leave because you had work to do.”

She shrugged, running her fingers along the arm of the couch. Any minute now, her hand was going to go to her hair, which was down like it hardly ever was, cascading around her shoulders in perfectly tousled waves. Waves I’d gripped and held, bringing her closer to me as we’d made love.

My body reacted to those thoughts, and I was sure she could see the reaction through my sweats, but I didn’t care. At the moment, all I really cared about was tasting her again. Golden cherries and sunshine. Light and sweetness combined.

I patted the couch cushion next to me. “Come join me.”

She shook her head, and there went the hand, running through the strands.

“I’m not going to bite.” Her eyes flicked to my mouth, and I smiled, liking that she was thinking about kissing me. I added, “Not unless you want me to.”

“Mac?”

“No.”

“You do that a lot. Cut me off.”

“Because you were going to say that we agreed to one night.”

She pushed at her hair again, looking away.

I continued, “But I don’t want just one night, Georgie. I told you that before we even went to Delaware. And I don’t know how you could think, after what we shared last night, my opinion would have changed.”

She looked back at me, and I could swear she was holding her breath, and that gave me hope.

“You know, in my humble opinion, I think Descartes would be proud of us.”

Surprise registered across her face. “What?”

“Well, you say he wants us to test our perceptions. To validate that our senses aren’t deceiving us.” I sat up, arms leaning on my knees. Not quite moving, yet not wanting to give her any cause to disappear again. “And I would say we’ve tested ourselves several times. That what we feel…the chemistry we have when we’re together…it’s repeatable. Not a one-time thing.”

She didn’t deny it but watched me warily. I got up slowly, still trying to prevent her from skittering away. I eased my body next to hers.

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