Page 93 of The Suitcase Swap

Mike sighed. ‘I’ll have to go back to London in two weeks, but I can come back soon. One of my children helpfully pointed out that I have a lot of annual leave saved up, and it’s about time I took it.’

Sophie shook her head. ‘Don’t you want to save some of that for an actual holiday?’

He pulled her close and gave her another kiss. ‘Sophie Swann, youaremy holiday. One I’m hoping I can keep around for the rest of my life.’

‘I think,’ she said, ‘that I’d like that very much.’

‘Me too,’ he said. ‘Because I love you, I need you, and I’m not letting you go.’ Then he leaned over and gave her another kiss, just because he could, and because he wanted to, and because he thought that no matter how much time they had, he’d never be able to kiss her enough.

But he was certainly going totry.

Epilogue

Sophie Swann stared up at the seatbelt sign with dismay. ‘I hate this so much.’

‘I know,’ Mike said. ‘Flying is unnatural. I’ve read your book. But you’re going to do it anyway because you’re a good mum and you love your family.’

‘I know.’ Even though her palms were sweating, Mike was still holding her hand. She loved him for that alone.

‘We could do the boat again,’ Mike offered with an evil grin. ‘There’s still time to leave the plane. They haven’t shut the cockpit door.’

‘No,god, no.’ Sophie had taken a ship when she’d first moved back home to London. It turned out that, while she wasn’t afraid of ships, she hated cruises.

Mike cupped her face in his hands. ‘Don’t think about the plane. Just keep doing your grounding exercises and know that I’m going to be sitting right here the entire time.’

‘Okay,’ she said with a nod.

‘If it helps, focus on what happens after we land.’

‘We go to Tom and Marisa’s?’

‘Well, I was thinking of the hotel where we’re going to take nice, hot showers, and then I was going to see if we could get hotel security called on us in this hotel, too.’

Sophie blushed. ‘Never again. I couldn’t look that security guard in the face.’

Mike stared at her innocently. ‘They just wanted to see if you were okay. There’d been all thismoaningand for so long, too.’

She slapped his chest with her palm. ‘I’m serious. We can never go back there.’

‘I don’t know,’ Mike said. ‘I thought they were nice. The guard even brought me that ice bucket with the Gatorade in it as an apology for the interruption.’

Sophie groaned, thumping her head against his chest.

‘And I did need the electrolytes.’

‘I really hate you right now.’

‘Maybe,’ Mike said. ‘But you weren’t thinking about the plane, were you?’

She blinked in surprise. ‘No, I guess I wasn’t.’

He grinned at her. ‘Don’t worry. I plan on distracting you the entire flight.’

‘What else could you possibly distract me with?’

He leaned back against his seat, taking her hand and absently playing with her fingers. ‘I was going to remind you of the fun things you have to look forward to – lunch with Kenzie. It will be nice to see your editor again, right? And talk about the new project?’

‘Right,’ Sophie said, closing her eyes. Her book,Swan Dive, hadn’t been a runaway bestseller, but ithadsold, and enough that her publisher wanted another book. Sophie was happy with that, and it wouldbe nice to see Kenzie in person. ‘What else?’

---