Page 71 of Forgotten Romance

The weight building over my shoulders suddenly releases with the reminder that I have time. I don’t have to figure it all out now. Soon, I won’t be packing my suitcase and leaving every couple of weeks. Goodbye frequent-flier miles, goodbye hotel rooms, goodbye that deep ache in my chest every time I have to leave my family again.

It’s fucking cold because it snowed last night, and I’m getting hopeful it might stick. Some of the best memories of my childhood were going to sleep on Christmas Eve, belly full of Gran’s casserole and pudding, then waking to presents and snow covering everything. Somehow, it made Christmas more magical. I want that for Kiera and Van. I sort of want that for me too.

But Gran’s gone, and Kilborough hasn’t had a white Christmas for at least five years, so I’m not hopeful this year will be the one. With a fifty-fifty shot, it’s got to be coming soon though, and hell—I tilt my head back to look at the bleary gray sky—maybe it could be my sign. A way of showing me that this is where I’m supposed to be. I’m making the right choice.

By the time I’m back inside, my hands are frozen solid, so I make a coffee, grab my laptop, and then sit down to job hunt. It’s been so long since I’ve had to do this that I’m rusty as fuck. I also don’t have an updated resume since my job has never been in danger of going somewhere, and I’ve never wanted to let that kind of job security go.

The problem is, this close to Christmas, businesses are wrapping up for the year. There are no jobs in my field advertised and barely any outside of last-minute retail at all.

Okay.

This isn’t going to be a quick thing.

I knew that.

My first steps are to make up a resume, maybe look up some of the people I’ve met at conferences over the years to see if they’re, A, close, and B, willing to make some introductions between me and their HR departments. Then, I should tackle our budget. If I’m going to take a pay cut, I need to know how much of a reduction we can manage without making major changes to our lives.

It’s looking more and more that returning to work on the second will be unavoidable, but at least this time I can go, knowing we’ll have a better future ahead.

22

Mack

My eyes get wider and wider the further I read. I haven’t been able to put Beau’s book down. Not only has the plot got its hooks into me, but … damn. I didn’t know he was so filthy.

My cheeks are burning up, and it’s not because of the fire.

I take it back. There’s nothing Tolkien about this book.

“You okay?” Davey asks.

I glance up, forgetting to close my mouth, and stare at him. “Uh …”

Suspicion crosses his face. “What are you reading over there?”

“Ah, nothing! It’s totally, umm, like … dragons. There’s a dragon. And these, umm, magical monkeys …”

He gets up, smile slowly creeping across his face, and drops down into the spot beside me. His dark freckles are extra obvious up close, and I remember running my lips over them the other night. I want to do it again. “Let me see.”

“See …”

“Your book. I want to read it.”

“Ah. No. You don’t read.”

“Not usually, but I’m curious now.”

“I told you it was nothing.” I clutch the book to my chest, mortified over the idea that he’ll catch me reading something so … so … smutty. Trying to tell him that everything up until this point has been amazing worldbuilding will be useless when he sees a page full of cock.

“Right.”

I go to stand, but Davey yanks me back down again and wrestles the book out of my grip. He finds the page I had open and—one hand holding me back, and the other stretched out away from me—he starts to read. “… splitting him wide with his cock and pushing until he was seated in divine comfort. The pair cradled each other close as Jaciel’s whimpering exhale breezed over his lips …”

Davey turns slowly, eyes wide, face reflecting all the exact same shock that played over mine minutes before. “Porn. You’re reading porn.”

“Fuck off.” I snatch the book back. “This is the first sex scene, and it caught me by surprise too.”

Davey’s shock wears off. “That’s kinda hot.”

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