Page 127 of The Bachelor

She chuckled. “And then?”

“We have massages booked at the spa.”

Her brows rose. “And then?”

“Oaklyn …” I exhaled against her face. “We talked about this. We decided lesson five wasn’t going to happen until after we spoke to Hannah.”

“I know.” She took a deep breath and tilted her body back just a little but continued to look at me. “But I don’t want to wait. I want this.” She gazed around the room, the most honest smile pulling at her lips. “I want this to be the memory I think of when I recall my first time. How you came here to rescue my loneliness. How you booked us this big, beautiful suite. How we spent four nights in the most luxurious hotel, taking in the scenery and getting every part of our bodies rubbed and scrubbed and all the other nonsense that’ll go down at the spa.”

I knew she wasn’t done speaking—I could tell—but as the silence resonated between us, I took the opportunity to really study her face. The brightness of her blue eyes, the small slope of her nose, the plumpness of her lips. The sprinkle of freckles under her eyes that I could only see when I was this close.

She had almost no makeup on, and her naturalness was unlike any other woman.

Because Oaklyn wasn’t like any other woman.

She was fucking perfect.

I’d been with many women before her, and not a single one had had her kindness, charm, her caring nature.

They never made me feel the way she did.

They never ever made me want more.

She traced the sides of my mouth, her chest rising, emotion beginning to fill her eyes. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when we tell Hannah the truth. I don’t know what our friendship will look like. I don’t know if her opinion will affect you and me.” Her voice lowered to a whisper when she said, “Oh God, I hope it doesn’t.” That same emotion rimmed her eyelids. “I just can’t predict what will happen, nor can I control it. What I can control is this trip. What goes down while we’re here.” She released my face, setting her forearms on my shoulders. “And this is what I want, Camden.”

I was holding the woman I loved in my arms. I’d listened to every word she said. The picture she’d painted, the request she’d all but demanded.

Since things had turned physical between Oaklyn and me, I’d experienced restraint I hadn’t known I had. I forced myself not to exceed what I’d planned for each lesson. And every time she’d spent the night in my arms, we did no more than just kiss because I knew once it went further, I wouldn’t be able to stop it.

It hadn’t been easy.

Hell, it had been almost fucking impossible.

I’d had a mental countdown of this trip, ticking away after each day passed, knowing once she returned, I could finally be with her the way I wanted.

But, now, after hearing this, there was no way I could deny her.

Fuck, I didn’t want to.

She was right; we didn’t know how hard things were going to be after we told Hannah the truth.

We didn’t know how much weight that would have on our relationship.

I didn’t know if Oaklyn could continue to be with me if my sister didn’t approve.

The only thing I knew at this moment was that over the next four nights, she was all mine.

“Tonight,” I said. “After hiking, after the spa, after dinner, we’ll come back up to the room, and I’ll make both of our wishes come true.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Oaklyn

As I licked the last bite of chocolate off my spoon and stared at Camden across the table, the flames from the candle flickering across his face, heat began to pour into my cheeks.

Dinner had finally come to an end.

It wasn’t that we had rushed through the meal or that I wished for it to be over.

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