Page 65 of Lost Love on 6th Street

“I know you do, that much is clear,” Luke says. “Too bad life doesn’t go to Eleanor’s plan all the time.”

I fall into him, resting my head on his chest and looking up at the streaky sky. “It would be a lot easier if it did.”

“I know, baby, I know.”

The word “baby” singes my insides. Leaves a mark I’m not going to forget.

Luke trails his fingers through my hair and, for a long time, we’re quiet, watching the changing sky. The boat sways, gently rocking us into a comfortable state of bliss.

I want to stay in Austin. I want a life here. But I want a life with him too. And if I can’t divorce Austin from Luke, I’m going to make a bad decision. I can’t live my life for a man. I did that before. Stuck to what I was used to so that everything made sense, to keep my relationship in line.

Luke starts to hum.

I recognize the tune almost immediately. “Hyacinth.” It settles my insides.

I don’t want to have regrets. Especially not in love.

For now, I’m here in Austin. And I don’t’ have to be anywhere else.

I lift my head off Luke’s chest and kiss his neck softly. Then a bit harder, my teeth nipping at his skin.

“Nor . . .” Luke breathes.

Placing my hand against his cheek, I direct his mouth toward mine until we’re kissing. We’ve already got the first kisses out of the way and while it’s the first date, I have abandoned propriety and sense at the door for want, impulse, and the nowness of it all.

With our lips locked in kiss after kiss after kiss, I take hold of each of Luke’s hands and place them against my belly. Slowly, I guide them up, up, up until they’re pressed against my ribs, right beneath my breasts.

Luke breaks away from me, panting. “You don’t have to–”

“I want to,” I say before he can finish. “I want you to touch me.”

A soft groan tumbles out of the back of Luke’s throat.

I move his hands up to cup my breasts. He tightens his grip on me, and I sigh in ecstasy. Just to be held. To be wanted. By him, like this, out under a big and beautiful sky.

Luke jerks his hands away from my chest, drops them to my waist, and yanks me into his lap, peppering kisses down my neck. I squeal in laughter.

“You’re trying to rush me, Eleanor,” he growls in my ear like I’ve been bad, his twang coming out.

My body sings.

“And we might not know how much time we have, but goddammit, I am taking my time with you.”

22

LUKE

A month. A month of Eleanor. The way I’ve wanted her from the beginning.

I have been on my best behavior. I’ve been a gentleman. And every time she’s tried to push me over the edge to go faster than I’d like, I’ve held firm.

It’s not that I don’t want to sleep with her. Of course, I do. But my father always told me when you know, you don’t rush things.

And I just know that what’s between Eleanor and me is more than her three months in Austin. Which is why, now that she only has a month left of her job, I’ve been on the hunt to find her an apartment so she can focus on the job search. She doesn’t know this, hasn’t asked me to do it, but I want to.

Because I need her here.

The museum hasn’t yet extended her contract, though they’ve happily taken her work to include in their exhibition. Jackasses. If they knew how she put her heart and soul into figuring out the truth behind that picture, surely, they’d reconsider.

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