Page 44 of Bad Reputation

Forsythe State Park pops into my head. It’s an uninterrupted stretch of wild coastline that’s only a couple of hours from here. I haven’t been since I was a kid. I can imagine Emma walking along the cliffs on the shore, see her walking among the tall pine trees. In my mind she wears plaid and little booty shorts.

Yeah, I need to take her away for sure.

“Do you want to go away for a couple of days?” I ask her. “Today, I mean. I’m thinking we could go to Forsythe.”

She looks up at me and gives me a sly smile. “Go on a mini-vacation with you? I guess I could do that.”

I get out my ancient laptop and start looking for a cabin to stay in. Something with a nice fireplace, so I can end a long day of staring at Emma’s amazing ass by stripping her down in front of the fire.

“Start packing,” I tell her, getting up to get my credit card out of my wallet. “I’m booking this place right now.”

She gets up and pulls on a pair of underwear and a t-shirt, then starts packing. I book a place on Air Bnb, then I kiss Emma and tell her I’ll be right back.

It’s only the work of a half an hour to run to my house and grab everything I will need. Within the hour, Emma is in the Jeep with me and we are speeding down the highway towards Forsythe State Park.

We’ve done nothing but talk and fuck for the last day, so it’s nice to let the wind stream in as I drive. It’s not silence exactly, but we are each able to be quiet. To live in our own thoughts.

She cracks open a book and reads most of the way. I’m busy taking in the sights when we get outside the city. The road starts rising little by little, and we drive alongside the rocky bluffs.

I glance over at Emma while we drive. She’s lost in her book, chewing on a nail distractedly as she slowly turns the pages. The wind blows her hair every direction at once, but she still manages to take my damn breath away.

If I’m honest with myself, she always could. Always has.

There is just something about her that goes beyond her obvious beauty… there is something wise in her eyes. Something comforting in her smile. I don’t want to rush things in any way, and we’ve only just gotten back together.

But she makes me feel something, deep inside. She not only stirs my lust, but she damn well plucks the strings of my heart, too.

Damn, how did Emma manage to get herself so far underneath my skin?

Any way you slice it, I have vague plans for us in the future. I’m not exactly sure what they are, because a lot of it depends on Emma herself. But if I have my way, one day in the not-too-distant future she will be wearing my ring and calling herself Mrs. Hart.

There’s a certain satisfaction in knowing that she would be mine forever. Knowing that I would never have to search for anything else, because I had Emma.

Of course, then I think about the whole idea of marrying into Emma’s family — and Asher’s family, too. I swallow, my mouth going dry. I’ve met their parents a handful of times, and none of those times they were particularly impressed with me.

Plus, there is the bit about her being in law school. She will barely have time to sleep and eat over the next two years, much less worry about the stress of being a bride.

So yeah, my fantasy of asking Emma to marry me might be a couple of years off. But the idea is still there, clutched tight to my chest.

I marvel at myself, at how much I want her, when a month ago I couldn’t get far away enough. It definitely feels super strange to have all of these plans for the two of us, that’s for sure.

I pull off the highway, exiting into a dense patch of trees. I follow the GPS on my phone which leads me to a little rutted trail. I can hear the beach from here, the rolling waves ceaseless as always. But I can’t see anything yet except the tall pines, coming closer and closer together.

All at once, we break through the tree line. I’m a little shocked at how suddenly the path ends, the dark blue ocean splayed out right there, going on for miles and miles. The cabin is to the right, quaint and rustic with its dark wooden beams.

I pull up to the cabin just as Emma looks up from her book.

“Ohh,” is all she says, looking out over the bluffs to the ocean. “Holy crap.”

We get out of the Jeep, spending a few minutes getting our suitcases inside. The cabin is exactly what I wanted, the front room basically a ton of windows on one side and a bunch of places to lounge on the other. It even has the fireplace; I will definitely be stripping Emma bare in front of it later tonight.

“Let’s go!” Emma says, pulling at my hand. “I want to explore.”

She tows me toward the front door, and I let myself be led. I follow her out across the rocky bluff, to the very edge. She grips my hand as we both peer over.

“There’s a little shore down there,” she says, pointing to the tiny strip of shoreline between the bluffs and the swirling ocean.

I look down, frowning. Right now the swell of the sea was lapping gently twenty yards away, but I bet that wasn’t always the case. “I bet that you wouldn’t want to get caught there when the tide was about to shift. I imagine that you would be pressed right up onto the rocks.”

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