Page 36 of Tempt

For Hazel, full of grace and perfect in every way.

Love, Sam

I’d gone back and forth on whether to slide that on the end, but it’s a card. It’s allowed.

She carefully peels off the wrapping and opens the box.

“Oh, it’s…wow.” She drags in a breath, then looks up at me. “Nice. So nice, Sam, you didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to. I wanted you to have something to remember this trip by, and you seemed to like the loons.”

She stands up again, coming around to my side of the table. “Help me put it on?”

I stand, too, not caring that people are glancing our way. I take the chain from her and set it around her neck, fastening the clasp first, then dropping a soft kiss to the bare skin just above it.

The restof the evening slowly unfurls like a holiday movie montage. Mulled cider, live music by the fireplace in the lobby, a long, sweet kiss under mistletoe we find by the elevator.

And then the montage fades to black as we tumble into bed, those hotter moments just for us.

On Christmas Day, we wake up slowly. I want to fuck her, hold her, make love to her, but there will be time for that soon enough. When we get to her place, or maybe mine.

I don’t care where we go next as long as we’re still together a while longer.

So when we’re both fully awake, and she crawls on top of me, I kiss her. Long and slow, full of promise.

Then we shower, pack, and head to the dining room for breakfast before we check out. And we’re spoiled by the wait staff. Fancy coffee, sparkling mimosas, and heaping plates loaded down with a proper French Canadian breakfast. Crepes, sausages, maple baked beans, thick slices of roast ham and the best hollandaise sauce poured over the most perfect poached eggs I’ve ever had.

Hazel’s quietly laughing at me as I devour my food.

“What?”

“You’re like a kid in a candy shop this morning.”

“It’s a good breakfast.”

“It’s the same breakfast we had yesterday.” She smiles softly.

I know. But it’s our last one, and this has been…something. Something amazing, something special, something I don’t want to forget. “It’s different this morning.”

She nods, her gaze lingering on my face. “Yeah.”

Everything is different now.

And it’s too soon to talk about that. So much has happened, so much water under the bridge, butweare still new.

11

Hazel

Sam drivesme all the way home to Stratford and stays in my bed for two more days before finally leaving to get back to the real world and his job.

We don’t talk about this burgeoning relationship, and what comes next.

We talk about books and food and movies. We spend a good amount of time not talking at all, just cuddling and fucking and reading.

“Will you come to the city for New Year’s Eve?” he asks me when we’re naked, putting me at a terrible disadvantage.

I beam and tell him of course. “But I have to do some work first.”

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