Page 71 of Tempest

“What did you tell him?”

“That it was over.”

“And what did he say?”

“He asked me to go to Paris with him next week.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“He bought me a ticket already.”

“Presumptuous of him,” he says, circling my waist, his calloused fingertips grazing the skin between my trouser waistband and the slightly cropped shirt I’m wearing. It sends a shiver up my spine, and he grins at my reaction.

“That’s what I thought,” I say. “How was practice?”

“Good, we’re ready for tomorrow,” he says into my neck, nuzzling it. “Caroline and Brock fly in next Monday. I don’t expect to see them. It’s just a heads-up.”

“You know I wouldn’t expect you to never see her, right?”

She’s Tori’s mother and has been Gavin’s friend his whole life. Only, with how new this situation is, I’m not sure how I’ll react to seeing her and Gavin engage with each other.

“I know, it’s more that you don’t want to be blindsided or left out of the loop,” he says, his thumbs rubbing circles on my skin. “I understand.”

“Okay, then,” I say and pull my shirt over my head.

“Holy fuck, woman,” he growls, taking in my barely there strappy black bra. “We doing this, Ode? You and me, we trying for real? I need to hear you say it.”

“If you can be patient with me. I don’t know how to do this and when I give it too much thought, anxiety still blooms in my chest.”

The apprehension that’s been settled deep down inside for so long is only slightly diminished. Something Vaughn said the other night struck me, though. He knows what he’s been missing. I’ve been missing out, too, on him. The only man I’ve ever wanted. He’s been offering me what I used to dream about, and I’ve been too fearful to take it. I don’t live any other part of my life under fear, I’m not going to let it take over this part, either.

“This chest?” he asks, placing a hand over my heart.

“That’s the one,” I answer. He looks at his own hand, almost sadly, but not fully. A little hopeful, too. “It’s worried this is too good to be real, and that at any moment the other shoe will drop.”

“I’ll protect it with my life, Ode.” He presses a kiss to it. “I don’t want you to go to Paris with him.”

“No? I really love Paris. It has the best vintage shops,” I say, leaning into his palm that’s now massaging my breast.

“I’ll take you for your birthday,” he mumbles between the kisses he trails over my skin. “Buy you all the beautiful old stuff you want.”

“My birthday, huh?”

“Mmhmm, I’ll be retired so we can spend as much time there as you want.”

“You remember my birthday?”

“Of course, I remember. You made me take you skinny dipping because you said it was a childhood rite of passage that you never accomplished.”

It was the most fun we’d ever had, and we almost got caught by the elderly couple that lived on the small lake we dove into.

“We had a lot of fun that summer.”

“We can have it again,” he says. “I vote we start now. Once I can figure out how to get you out of this contraption, anyway.”

“You want to have fun with me, Gavin?”

“I want a life with you, but that includes fun. The dirtiest fucking kind you can imagine, Ode.”

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