Page 98 of Dare Me

Sitting up, he silenced her with a kiss. “Or,” he began softly when he lifted his head, “we can go to California and I can introduce you to my aunts and we can take our time playing tourist.” He knew it wasn’t the most exciting suggestion, but…he felt strongly about bringing her back to where he grew up and having her meet what little family he had. “We’re not a big family like the Donovans, but…”

This time, she was the one to silence him with a kiss. “Will Jameson, I would love to go to California with you and meet your family.” Pausing, she gave him another kiss. “Actually, I would be honored.”

Relief washed over him. “It will be kind of short notice because I think once the land gets cleared, Liam and I will really need to be on hand. I haven’t talked to him about it, but…”

“I will talk to my boss first thing in the morning,” she told him. “Are you thinking maybe next week?”

Now his eyes were the ones wide with surprise. “Do you really think you’d be able to get the time off?”

“Believe it or not, I haven’t taken any time off since I started. I get two weeks of paid vacation time, but there wasn’t anything I wanted to do. And Dr. Markham is a big, family-oriented guy. If I tell him why we want to go away, I know he’ll work with me on it.”

“I don’t want to put you in an awkward position with your coworkers. I probably should have thought about this sooner.”

“With everything we’ve had to deal with in the last several weeks, I can’t imagine us going away being high on your list of priorities,” she said with a small laugh, before kissing his chest. “Should we go online and look at hotels and all that good stuff?”

It wasn’t exactly sexy pillow talk, but it was still good, he thought.

He’d been keeping a tablet up on his bedside table because it was a little easier for them to look at together rather than the laptop—less clunky too. Grabbing it, Will typed in San Francisco hotels and then settled against the pillows with her to search.

“Do we only want to do San Francisco or are there other places you’d like to see?” he asked.

“Hmm…I don’t want to take away time with your family, so that’s completely up to you.”

He loved how that was her immediate response.

“I guess it will depend on how much time we’re going to be there for. I’m imagining five days. One day will be with my family and maybe one other night we can take my Aunt Maryann to dinner,” he suggested. “We’ve already done all the highlights in San Francisco…”

“I wouldn’t say no to going on the Bay cruise again or going back to Ghirardelli Square. You know I’ll practically be out of chocolate by then.”

Laughing, he shook his head. “You have a problem.”

“I know. I’m running low on chocolate.”

“We could go to Napa for a day and drink wine,” he said as he continued to scroll. “Or maybe spend a day in Sausalito?”

“Ooh…both of those sound good. Any chance we can do both?”

“It’s totally doable. Now we’ll just need to confirm that you can get the time off.”

Arianna stretched over him and looked at the time on the tablet and cursed. “It’s too late to call my office manager now, dammit.”

“First thing in the morning is fine. Once you know, text me and I’ll make all the arrangements. I can book our flights. The only thing you need to do is help me pick a hotel for us to stay at. Any requests?”

Together, they scrolled through all the many options of places to stay and weighed the pros and cons of each of them. Will was more about practicality, but he was finding that Arianna tended to lean toward something that offered a little more luxury. These were some of the things he loved discovering about her and even enjoyed the back and forth while debating why one place was better than another.

Ultimately, he knew they’d end up staying wherever she wanted because, really, this trip was about her. He wanted the opportunity to take her away and not have the clock ticking on their time together.

Although…that had made for one hell of a memorable day.

Really, it made for the best day of his life and he still couldn’t believe this beautiful and vivacious woman chose him. Out of all the men in the world—and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind thatshe could have any one of them—it humbled him that she had accepted the dare to come and spend her day with him.

“Surprise me,” she finally said, interrupting his thoughts. “I don’t want to know until we pull up in front of it!” Taking the tablet from his hands, she shut it off and put it on her bedside table.

Chuckling, Will reached over and shut off his lamp, and then he and Arianna met in the middle of the bed in a tangle of limbs.

Perfect.

“Arianna?”

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