Page 39 of Royal Shark
“Okay, and then maybe have a beer or something after a shift with some coworkers.”
She frowns. “You have to be twenty-one to drink.”
How did I raise such a rule follower? I swear I wasn’t that hard on her. “Have a soda, then, I don’t care. Just don’t be all study all the time.”
She looks puzzled for a moment, like I’m changing the programming she’s used to.
I press on. “You’re in college now, young and on your own in the city. Have some fun.”
“You should go to Villroy with Adrian.”
Before I can explain all the reasons why that’s a terrible idea—my poker game here, the wrenching memories of our parents, my need to keep a safe distance from Adrian—she gives me a quick squeeze and races back to her dorm.
I get back in the car, bereft.
“What’s wrong?” Adrian asks.
I gesture out the window toward her dorm. “What was all this for, if she’s just going to waste her college years studying?”
He gives me a strange look. “Don’t you want her to study?”
“Yes! But I want her to enjoy herself too.”
“Like you.”
It hits me then that she doesn’t know how to enjoy herself because I never showed her. I worked hard, so she worked hard too. I should’ve balanced it out better to teach her by example. The regret tastes bitter in my mouth. Just add that to my list of regrets. I regret not keeping in touch with Silvia, too, my dear friend. I regret losing Adrian, the sweet boy who was once my hero. Now he’s a bossy man who sticks his nose in my business far too much. I don’t need someone telling me what to do. That’s my job.
I go on the defensive because I’m near my breaking point, and I donotwant to cry in front of him. “Hey, this isn’t about me. I do what I want when I want.”
“Maybe she does too,” he says mildly.
“I’ve failed her,” I whisper over the lump in my throat. “And now it’s too late. She’s all grown up and moved on.” A voice in my head taunts me:everyone you love leaves you. My eyes are hot; my gut knots. I hate this.
“C’mere,” he says and puts his arm around me, hauling me against his shoulder.
It feels so good I don’t protest. No one ever holds me.
“You haven’t failed her,” he says. “She’s doing fantastic. She’s smart, capable, and doing what she loves. She’s so enthusiastic about all of her classes and becoming a doctor. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“She’s missing out on the college experience.”
“This is her college experience, done her way.”
He strokes my hair back from my face, and the warmth and tenderness of the gesture undoes me.
I look up at him, and the pull to close the distance overwhelms me. I need to be close. I press my lips to his. A shock ripples through me.Yes. This is exactly what I need, to lose myself in sensation and not think about my regrets.
I kiss him again, harder this time, and he nips my lower lip in retaliation. The kiss turns wild, hot, carnal. There’s no mistaking where this is going. His hands are all over me. I’m burning up, dying to climb into his lap, but I need more than I can get away with in a car.
I tear my mouth away. “Spend the night with me.”
His eyes burn into mine. “We’ll go to my hotel.” He brushes his thumb over my lower lip and pushes past my teeth into my mouth. I suck his finger, and he groans.
He barks out the new destination to the driver. We’re really doing this. My heart thunders in my chest.
He turns back to me and frames my face with both hands and kisses me once more gently. “Sara.”
That’s all. One word said with so much affection, warmth, and desire. I melt despite my usually tough shell.
