Page 42 of Gone for You

“I’m so happy.”

“I’m glad. I was worried I’d freak you out by just showing up here. I didn’t even know if you’d be here but I couldn’t stay away any longer. I had to see you.”

“How long do you get to stay?”

“Rex and Penny are watching The Goat until Thursday.”

“Two days? That’s it?”

He chuckles, crooks two fingers under my chin and lifts so we’re looking at each other. “It’s not long, I know, but I promise we’ll make the best of it.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“This.”

I giggle. “That’s it? You don’t want to see Chicago or do anything?”

“Maybe a little. I really just want to spend time with you so if there are places you want to show me, I’m all for it. What about your work? I didn’t even think about that,” he adds on, a bit sheepish.

I sit up, place my hands on his chest and shrug. “I’ll call in sick.”

“Liv, no. I don’t want you to do that. I can keep myself entertained while you’re at work.”

I take a chance at some honesty. “You think I’m going to let you out of my sight while I have you? You clearly underestimate how much I missed you.”

He smiles and tugs me over him.

“Time to go slow.” We roll, his weight heavy and delicious on top of me. And this time, we do what we didn’t have the ability to earlier. We take our time. His tongue traces every spot of my body that he talked about and I follow his actions. Around three in the morning we pass out, exhausted and satisfied.

Chapter 19

Ethan

“Get up.We need to get some food and go out in public.”

“No.”

I laugh loudly. “Come on. Show me your city.”

“It isn’t my city,” she mumbles. Her head is covered by her pillow. I whip it off her, toss it aside, smack her ass. “Up. It smells like sex in here and I need sustenance if you want to keep me locked up using me for your own sexual pleasure.”

She groans, flops over. “So. Sore. Don’t make me walk.”

“Fine. We’ll use my car. Go get some dinner and then I have to make sure I get a few Chicago things for Austin’s kids.”

“Ugh. Why did you have to say that? Now Ican’tdeny you.”

“Like you could deny me anyway,” I tease.

It takes us over an hour to get ready. Once I saw her wet and clean from her shower, I had to dirty her up again. It isn’t my fault she’s so damn sexy. It’s her cross to bear. When we finally do make it outside, she directs me to her favorite pizza place. We share a pizza and some wings, sitting close and touching each other any moment we can. When we’re eating, we continue our line of questioning we’ve done over the past month on the phone, sharing childhood memories from what sports we played growing up (baseball and track for me, volleyball and track for her) to talking through who our favorite teachers were. We tell each other the story of when we each lost our virginity (hers was the cliché prom night her junior year while I lost mine after a party also my junior year). We discover that we both love snow skiing and hate water chestnuts.

She doubled over in laughter when I showed her a picture that my dad sent me of an old picture of me when I was fourteen and thought I’d see what I looked like with a perm. In return, she shows me a picture of her with short hair in the shape of a mushroom. I laughed at her, too.

“Guess what,” I asked her.

“What?”

“I tried pork rinds.”

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