Page 73 of Forget Me Not

“You sure it’s a good idea? It’s way past my curfew,” I taunt when he leads me in front of him up the stairs to the cabin that holds the wheel.

He swats my ass and I jerk forward, my cheeks burning. “Rules were made to be broken.”

“Shhh . . .” I giggle—yes, giggle—as Reid tugs my hand up the back sidewalk leading to the inn. The sun is just high enough in the sky now that it casts everything in a pretty pink and orange hue over the water.

“You afraid of getting caught?” Reid stops, tugging me to his chest. I feel like a teenager again, experiencing life for the first time.

“Maybe,” I muse, but he silences me when he grips my chin in his fingers and tugging my bottom lip from between my teeth with his own.

It’s one of the hottest things that’s ever happened to me. His tongue slips along the line of my bottom lip and he smirks.

“You and whatever the fuck this icing is.” We stopped for sweet crabs on the way back and I must have missed some of my peach icing. Normally, I would be embarrassed. But with Reid . . .

My core heats at the darkness in his eyes. Like a promise for later.

His arms band around my back, holding me to him and it’s all I can do to not deepen the kiss when they slip down to cup my ass.

“When is your shift over?”

“Three. Do you want to have dinner?”

“Fuck me,” he grimaces, and I can’t help but laugh when he brings his lips back to mine.

“What are you going to do all day?” I ask against his lips.

“Clean the boat. Can’t have it dirty when you let me take you out on it.”

I don’t have the heart to tell him that will never happen. Not this Nova.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“No,” he agrees, eyes glowing like warm chocolate in the light from the early morning sun. “But I want to.”

“Dinner,” he murmurs darkly, his fingers biting into my hips so hard, I know I’ll have fingertip bruises in the morning. “I’ll be there.” He releases me, his hand connecting with my ass and I yelp. “Now, go. Before someone sees you.”

A shiver ghosts through me at the loss of him in the chilly morning air. It’ll be hot, later, but at the start of August, the nights always dip on the island.

“Until, tonight, Mr. Morrison.”

I watch him disappear around the front of the building to go up to his room before I let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

What have I gotten myself into?

I shake my head, my mind spinning with everything that’s happened in the last forty-eight hours as I climb the back stairs towards the inn.

Reid and I are from two completely different worlds. If anyone knew we were sleeping together, I’m sure I’d never hear the end of it.

That’s the problem with illicit affairs. Everyone has an opinion. Even when they only involve two people.

I climb the stairs, my good mood slowly starting to dissipate.

How is this supposed to work? How do you sleep with someone and separate the feelings from the physical act? Maybe I’m a prude, or maybe I’m too naive, but It’s hard to picture him leaving at the end of the summer and going about my life like nothing’s happened.

Like nothing has changed.

I should go take a shower, but I need to check on Gran and Pap since I didn’t make it down, last night, so I force my tired legs to carry me toward the back door, making my way into the old garden—

—And then stop dead in my tracks.

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