Page 27 of Leave

I touched his face and kissed him lightly. “I like it too. But only if you’re into it.”

Something about that sent a ripple of surprise across his expression. Before I could ask about it one way or another, we were kissing again.

And oh, yeah. Nolan was into it.

Dinner was at the hotel café again. Then we returned to my room, and despite my exhaustion from this fucked-up day, it turned out I did have one more orgasm left in me. So did Nolan.

A couple of blowjobs later, we lay on my bed, kissing lazily. That part was going to be a novelty for a while. I loved it.

After a long, comfortable silence, we separated. Nolan held my gaze, absently sliding his hand up and down my waist. “So, since our, uh, plans have changed—what do we do the next few days? Because the next flight out to Lewis-McChord isn’t until Tuesday.” Though we hadn’t trusted military flights enough for our transoceanic trip, we’d planned to fly to Washington from North Island.

“Oh. Damn. You’re right.” I exhaled. Fuck. I hadn’t even thought that far ahead. “I mean, I guess we can go… I don’t know… do tourist shit for a few days?”

Nolan quirked his lips. “We could.”

“You don’t want to?”

“It’s not that. But…” He shifted a little. “The thing is, the flight out of here means we have to be there at 0300 for role call. We just got over the jetlag from coming across the ocean.”

I scowled and exhaled. “Ugh. That’s gonna suck.”

“We, um… We don’thaveto do that.”

I cocked my head. “We don’t? I mean, I guess not, but even San Diego to Seattle tickets are expensive as hell at the last minute.”

“We could drive.”

That had my eyebrows climbing. “Drive? Really?”

He shrugged. “It’s like a day and a half if we seriously push. Three if we take our sweet time. I looked at the weather earlier, and everything is clear between here and Seattle for like the next ten days. No storms. No unusual snow in the mountains or on the pass. No dealing with airport bullshit, no getting up at thecrack of dawn for a military flight, and we can take as much or as little time as we want.”

“That sounds really good,” I admitted. “Just sitting through role call for a Space A flight sounds…” I wrinkled my nose.

He nodded, grimacing. We’d both done enough space available flights to have firsthand experience with the fuckery and bullshit that was role call. Be there at 0300, role call started at 0600, you knew for sure if you were getting on the flight by 0930, and the flight left at 1130.Ifeverything went smoothly, which it rarely did. The whole processsucked, but a free flight was a free flight.

Now that he was suggesting it, driving didn’t sound half bad.

“Let’s do it.” I said. “I’m sure we can change the rental agreement for the car. Or just rent another one.”

“Yeah. We can call them tomorrow, I guess.” Nolan checked his phone and sighed. “It’s getting late, though. We should get some sleep.”

“Yeah, we should.” Despite my long nap earlier, I was still exhausted. I told myself it was from the orgasms, not from cutting ties with my family.

We both sat up, and I cupped his neck and kissed him softly. “You, um… You don’t have to stay in the other room tonight.”

Please stay here with me,I was too embarrassed to say out loud.I want to sleep next to you.

Nolan avoided my gaze for a moment, gnawing his bottom lip.

“I know we have both rooms,” I pressed gently. “But… we don’t have to use them, you know?”

“We paid for them.”

“We did. But… I mean, the offer is open if you want to.”

For the life of me, I couldn’t begin to parse the thoughts obviously banging around in his mind. He seemed like he reallywas debating staying or going, but I had no idea what pros and cons—especially cons—were keeping him from answering.

What is going on in that brain of yours, Nolan?

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