Page 22 of The Thanksgiving Hookup

“Were you supposed to go home for Thanksgiving?” I asked, redirecting the conversation a little. Not because I was uncomfortable, but because there wasn’t anything else to say really. Those few sentences had told Sky more about my personality and upbringing than an hour’s worth of conversation could have.

She nodded. “Yeah. My mom’s going to read me the riot act when she gets my message in the morning.”

“It’s not like you control the weather,” I said, pulling back the curtain once more as she moved to the side of me and looked outside.

“No, but I took this job, knowing that I’d be gone all the time. I’m not sure she’s forgiven me for that.”

“But you love it, right? The job?” I wondered if she enjoyed her side of the business as much as I did.

The way her face lit up told me everything I needed to know.

“I do. There are so many perks and so few drawbacks. The irritations are minor in comparison to everything else.”

I wrapped my arm around her middle and pulled her body against me. She was stiff as a board before quickly melting into my side like we’d done this a thousand times before. It didn’t escape me how well we fit together, like two halves of the same mold. Glancing down, I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and she looked up at me, her lips begging for my attention.

“I’m going to kiss you,” I warned before leaning down and doing exactly that.

I DID SOMETHING BAD

SKY

How had we gotten to this point? River’s tongue was in my mouth, and I was currently drowning in ecstasy, like I’d been wanting this my whole life. His hands moved all over my body, refusing to stay in one place for too long. Everywhere he touched lit a fire inside of me and a trail of warmth on my skin.

I’d spent so much time hating this guy, thinking that he was nothing more than a typical player who didn’t care about who he hurt in the process, and I’d been wrong. About so many things.

Wrong about him and Stacy… about him not having a soul… or a heart… or feelings. River had all of those things. And they were beautiful. After the way that he’d defended me earlier tonight, I felt like a goner for the guy. If Chad had pushed him just a little further, River would have snapped on my behalf.

Maybe I shouldn’t find that kind of thing sexy, but I did.

When we finally broke the kiss, we were breathless and flustered. I could tell that we both wanted to take things further physically, but mentally, we were each warring inside. The night had done a complete one-eighty, and I needed a little time to get my bearings.

Even though I believed what River had said about Stacy and the night that never was, I still felt obligated to talk to her before he and I went any further.

Whatever was happening between River and me didn’t feel like a superficial fling.

It felt like the start of something more. And it was happening at warp speed.

“I don’t do one-night stands,” I blurted out before I could stop my mouth from saying the words.

River rolled his eyes at me, making sure I saw the gesture. “That’s not what I want.”

“What do you want then?”

“More than one night—that’s for sure.”

“I don’t do casual sex. It’s either all or nothing for me, Pilot Santos.”

If my words scared him, he didn’t show it. But he needed to know the truth. I wasn’t the kind of woman who gave her vagina away on a whim. My heart was attached to it. They were a package deal. You couldn’t have one without the other.

“I know that,” he said, and there was no possible way for him to know anything that personal about me. I was tempted to argue, to ask him a hundred questions in rebuttal, but I didn’t have to. “I stalk your social media sometimes. I figured you out a long time ago.”

“You think you know everything,” I countered, and he grinned.

“You just hate that I do.”

“Go to your own room.” I pointed at the door, and his lips brushed against my neck before reaching my ear.

“I will, but only for tonight. Enjoy sleeping alone, Sky. It’s your last night doing it.”

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