Page 16 of Spring Break with a Billionaire

I don’t say more. I don’t need to. Everything I feel is in the way I hold her close, in the way she fits against me like she was made to.

Eight

Chapter Eight

Cricket

I wake to the sound of waves outside the window and the soft, steady rhythm of Cameron’s breathing beside me.

For a moment, I don’t move. I just lie there, cocooned in the quiet warmth of morning light, his arm wrapped around my waist, our legs tangled under the sheet. My body is sore in the best possible way—used and cherished. Every inch of me feels different somehow, like something shifted overnight. LikeIshifted.

His chest rises and falls against my back, his skin warm against mine. I close my eyes again and let myself sink into the feeling of being held, truly held. Not out of obligation or instinct, but something deeper. Something real.

My hand finds his over my stomach, fingers threading through his, and I smile softly to myself. I wasn’t sure what I would feel this morning. Fear, maybe. Regret. But none of that comes. Only contentment and a quiet, aching sort of joy.

Last night wasn’t just sex. It was everything I hadn’t let myself want. Connection. Comfort. Craving. And it was him.Cameron.

I turn slowly, careful not to wake him, and prop myself on one elbow so I can look at him. His face is relaxed in sleep, mouth slightly parted, lashes resting on sun-kissed skin. He looks younger like this. Softer. But still impossibly handsome, his dark hair mussed from sleep and my hands.

I trace the curve of his shoulder with my gaze, remembering the way he moved above me last night. The way he whispered my name like it was something holy. The way he kissed me like he never wanted to stop.

God, the way he made mefeel.

I bite my lip, heat blooming across my cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from the memory of how completely I let go with him. How right it felt. Like every doubt I had faded with every touch, every breathless kiss, every whispered word in the dark.

He stirs beside me, eyes fluttering open, and the second they find mine, something tightens low in my belly.

“Morning,” he murmurs, voice low and rough with sleep.

“Morning,” I whisper, smiling.

He reaches up, brushing a piece of hair from my cheek. “You’re even more beautiful in the daylight, you know that?”

I roll my eyes, but my heart stumbles anyway. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I’m serious.” His hand finds my waist beneath the sheet, tugging me gently closer. “I haven’t slept like that in I don’t know how long.”

I rest my palm on his chest, right over the steady beat of his heart. “Me neither.”

For a while, we just lie there, wrapped around each other as the morning drifts in through the window. I don’t want to think about what comes next. I don’t want to think about reality or distance or time limits. I just wantthis.

“I know we said this week was supposed to be simple,” I whisper eventually, my voice quiet, as if I say it too loudly, the moment might break. “But it doesn’t feel simple anymore.”

He nods, eyes searching mine. “No. It doesn’t.”

“I’m scared,” I admit. “Of what happens when we leave this place. Of how easily this could fall apart.”

“I know,” he says. “But I’m not going anywhere. Not unless you ask me to. I meant what I said, Cricket—I want more than just this week.”

I press my forehead against his chest, heart pounding, body aching with the weight of everything I feel for this man. It’s overwhelming. Terrifying. It’s also the first time in a long time I’ve feltbrave.

I lift my head, meet his eyes, and kiss him again—slow and sure and full of everything I don’t have words for yet.

“Okay,” I whisper against his lips. “Then let’s not waste a single second.”

We get out of bed, dress covering up all the important bits in case Abby is awake, and head to the kitchen for coffee.

As I sit down with my coffee in Cameron’s lap, there’s a knock on the door, and I hear Natalie’s voice as the door opens.

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