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Oh boy. Here we go. Slade’s resorting to humor. “Why?”

“They’ve all come to a halt. Obviously. There’s no way it’s only been two weeks. They say time flies. I’m looking up at the sky. I don’t see any time flying by. Do you?”

I look up at the sky, humoring him. “Nope.”

“When more time passes, you know what I’m going to say?”

Why am I encouraging him again? “What?”

“It’s about time.”

I hold in my response to his silly jokes. “Slade?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not joke time.”

He scoffs. “What time is it? You don’t know, do you? All the clocks have stopped.”

“I don’t need a clock. It’s kissing time.”

“Ah, my favorite time of day. I’ll put it in my planner if you’ll put it in yours.”

In spite of his comedic nature, he’s already kissing me with his eyes. Let’s make it real. “Shut up and kiss me.”

It’s his turn to move across the hot tub to me. Which is one whopping half-stroke. He sits next to me and pulls me onto his lap. I’m cradled in his arms like a baby. He fuses our lips together in a crushing kiss as our arms wrap around each other. My eager response surprises me. We haven’t been kissing enough lately and I’ve missed it. His lips are more demanding than I remember. I match his demands.

And he doesn’t even taste like squid. He’s minty. Even though we were racing, he took the time to freshen his breath.

This kiss is different from our usual tender kiss. A little more intense, a little fiercer. He’s right. Our feelings are moving faster than time itself. The power of our kiss communicates our wild feelings, feelings that have taken us over and consumed us. I no longer care about being in control. As a matter of fact, I like feeling totally out of control when it comes to Slade. I’m grateful for being able to let go of my controlling nature. In this moment, I’m grateful for so many things, I can’t even name them all. Suffice it to say, my heart is full of gratitude.

His lips leave mine and trail down to my neck and my chest. I let my head fall back as I enjoy being loved by Slade. He moves upward again and takes my lips, making them his own. His kiss deepens, which I didn’t think was possible. One hand travels down the side of my body, sliding down my torso, to my thigh, then back up again. My hands explore his firm chest, massage his shoulders and his back. All the while our mouths are locked together, desperately trying to get closer, as close as we can possibly be.

All at once, Slade breaks our kiss. He touches his forehead to mine as we both breathe heavily.

“Marin, I can’t do this,” he says, his voice ragged.

“I know. I can’t either.” Keeping our promise to not rush things is harder than we imagined. Keeping my promise to myself has never been this difficult.

In true Slade fashion, he says, “Guess what time it is?”

“What time is it?” I breathe.

“It’s time for me to move to my side of the hot tub.”

We don’t separate right away. Our lips join again like two magnets that can’t stay away from each other. Another frenzied kiss ensues. Then Slade pulls away again, his eyes closed. He plants delicate kisses all over my face and several on my lips. Then, with reluctance and several quick kisses as though we’re saying goodbye forever, he moves away from me.

We’re both quiet, our eyes locked.

“I’m not going to hurt you the way the blue man did. I won’t do it, Marin. You deserve more. I won’t take advantage of you.”

A few tears fall, but the water droplets from the hot tub hide them.

Slade goes on. “It would be so easy to fall prey to this setting. Heck, I don’t even need the setting to fall prey to your charms. But we’re in Venice freakin’ Italy. It’s wreaking havoc on my emotions. I apologize if that was…too much.”

“It takes two. I was a willing participant. No apology needed.” I sent him every wrong signal there is to send.

“We should come here for our honeymoon. We’ll make things right. Vindicate ourselves.”

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