Page 89 of Loud Unspoken Memories

“You watch me, okay?” Charlie asks. “Pwease, pwease, pwease?”

I sit down next to Dallas. “Charlie, I don’t think—”

Dallas puts a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay. I can watch you swim for a few minutes, okay? Then I have to go back home.”

“Mommy says you have a cabin and there’s bears. Does Bex like bears?”

Dallas chuckles again. So do I. “No,” he says. “Bex definitely doesn’t like bears. But speaking of Bex, I do need to take him outside. Why don’t you get ready for the pool while I do that?”

Asher comes in from the connecting room. The door was open, and it makes me wonder how long he was over there listening. “I’ll get Charlie ready,” he says. “Why don’t the two of you walk Bex and we’ll meet you at the pool.”

Dallas clips a leash on Bex. “Sounds good.” He nods to my coat—or ratherhiscoat that he loaned me. “Better put that on, it’s cold out.”

The two of us walk in silence to the elevator. Once inside, he does something that makes my heart soar. He holds my hand.It’s silly to think that such a small gesture means anything after all the sex we’ve had, but it has my pulse racing.

It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything.

Except that it meanseverything.

He runs slow circles across my finger with his thumb. It’s the first time we’ve touched in hours, and I feel like an addict who just got her fix. He’s become the drug I need to survive. I just hope I don’t have to go cold turkey.

It’s an idiotic fantasy, thinking something can become of this. Deep down I know how unlikely it is. But that doesn’t keep my mind from wanting it. My heart from craving it. My body from demanding it.

“Marti?”

I look up at him.

“Your death grip is about to break a few of my fingers.”

“Oh, sorry.”

I try to pull my hand away, but he doesn’t let me.

We walk through the lobby and out the front door. Snow flurries dance around us when we clear the awning. I crane my neck and let them fall onto my face. Memories flood my mind: the snowball fight, the snowman, our trek to the tower.

“You think you’ll miss the snow?” he asks.

“A thousand percent, yes.”

Bex leads us over to an area with bushes and trees and starts sniffing.

Dallas gives my hand a squeeze. “Will you miss anything else?”

I turn to him and throw his words back at him. “Will you?”

He glances over his shoulder, then pulls me behind the nearest tree, dragging Bex along with us. He presses me against the large trunk, gazes down into my eyes, and lowers his lips to within an inch of mine. Just before they touch, he whispers, “What do you think?”

“I think—”

I’m not able to continue as his lips claim mine. They claim mine in a way that tells me this could very well be the last kiss we ever share. That thought has me returning the kiss with just as much desperation and fervor as I’m feeling from him. Because if this is the last kiss we ever have, it needs to be memorable. Intense. Utterly mind-blowing. I want it to be a moment I can look back on without any regrets. A goodbye that overshadows all others. A parting neither of us forgets.

My head swims as our mouths devour each other. Our breath mingles and our hands grasp for purchase, moans erupting from both of us, sounding different than before. These are filled with anguish, torture, and despair. Neither of us wants this kiss to end, but we know it will. It has to. Our days of being snowed in are over.Thisis over. We’re just trying to hang on to one last moment.

When we’re both breathless, he pulls me against him and buries his head down on my shoulder. I’d give anything to know what he’s thinking at this very second.

I take a lock of his hair and run it between my fingers. “This is my favorite part of you.”

He chuckles and thrusts his hips into mine. “Some of my other parts are offended.” He pulls away and winks.

---