Page 86 of When Annika Met Thom

“You don’t even know where I’m going.”

“Maybe it doesn’t matter that much.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “Lead on.”

Annika did. They left the club and walked through the market in the park across the street. She chose earrings for her sisters and her mom from the woman who sold handmade jewelry there. She hadn’t been able to decide all week but now was the moment. She already had a silk tie for her dad and her oldest brother, Jakob, from the Metropolitan Museum gift shop, along with a metal puzzle for Neil. Tristan was getting an I love NY T-shirt with a subway map on the back of it. Thom waited patiently for her and carried her purchases as they walked to the subway together.

“What’s on the menu for your last night?” Thom asked when they were waiting for the train. He still hadn’t let go of her hand and Annika loved it.

“Korean take-out.”

He nodded, his gaze on the approaching train. “Deal.”

“You’re easy tonight.”

He cast her a wicked look. “At your mercy.”

Annika laughed then watched him, wanting every moment to last through forever. “So, what are we now?” she asked and he glanced down at her, his expression inscrutable.

“We don’t need to talk about this,” he rumbled.

“We do,” she insisted. “I need to quantify the variables.” She continued when he didn’t answer. “Not friends, because of the sex. Not lovers, at least not anymore, although we probably weren’t, by your definition. Acquaintances? Pen pals?” She was trying to make a joke but just asking the question made her tear up.

They got on the train and Thom pulled her into his embrace. He was warm and solid and she closed her eyes, knowing he’d feel her tears when they soaked through his T-shirt. “Still lovers,” he murmured, his voice deeper than usual. “Always lovers.”

But not in love.

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and held onto him, halfway wishing the train would get stuck or time would stop, even though she knew that made no sense.

“How long until the risk of rebound is over?” she asked finally.

“Everyone differs.” She felt him shrug. “Maybe they even differ with each relationship.”

“Best case.”

“Sixty days,” he said immediately and with such conviction that she pulled back to look at him. There was a twinkle in his eyes.

“You just made that up.”

“You like deadlines and parameters.”

“That’s true. I do.”

“Must be your scientific side,” he said and pulled her close again. She leaned her cheek against his chest and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart, counting the beats until they were parted and wishing they never would be.

That night, they touched each other in silence, slowly and sweetly, making every caress last. It wasn’t sex. It was making love and Annika knew she wasn’t alone in that awareness. Afterward, they stayed wrapped around each other, watching the hue of the sky darken.

“I don’t want to go,” she whispered, blinking back her tears.

“But you have to,” Thom said with a conviction she wished she could share. He drew the hair away from her shoulder with a gentle fingertip then kissed her shoulder. “But don’t go anywhere yet.”

All too soon, his heat was gone as he took Cerberus for her walk.

Annika let her tears flow and then she began to work out her plan. Being on the opposite side of the country from Thom was a problem she definitely had to solve. She was still in bed when Thom came back and made love to her one last time.

How could it keep getting sweeter and more potent?

* * *

The project had all cometo an end too quickly. Thom could hardly believe that it had been almost two weeks since Annika had knocked at the apartment door. He never would have imagined that he could want a woman so much and so often, that his heart could so readily be stolen away. It had happened too quickly for him to trust in whatever he was feeling.

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