Page 74 of Tourist Trap

“I’ve always been zeroed in on you, I guess. I spotted you, saw you with June, and tipped my chin to ask Grant who his sister was talking to. He told me it was the infamous Claire, the girl she got into trouble with at school.” I smile wider, loving that my reputation preceded me, even then. “You were so fucking pretty and so happy and so…young. I told myself if you were still around once you were done with school and had some time to figure out what you wanted out of life, I’d shoot my shot. But then…” He doesn’t have to finish his thought, but he does it anyway. “Paul went after you.”

Dread fills my stomach at the thought that I could have been with Miles all this time, that I could have had him, but…

“I’m glad he did.”

“Excuse me?” I ask with a laugh.

“This way…” He uses a hand to push my hair back. “This is the way it was supposed to be. I needed time; you needed time. We needed…the past two months.”

“Of you hating me?”

“Of me coming to terms with how crazy I am for you,” he says, confidently.

“Are you crazy for me, Mr. Miller?”

His thumb moves along my jaw before leaning in.

“Wildly,” he whispers against my lips.

“Who knew you were such a romantic?”

“You know what? I think you did, Claire. I think you knew all along, and you were just waiting for me to catch up. If you didn’t, I don’t think you would have been so patient with me.” I smile up at him, realizing he might just be right. “So what now?”

“What now?” I ask, my heart thumping as I bite my lip because I just had the best sex of my life and I would love to do it again and again, but…

“Well...you called me your boyfriend.”

A blush creeps up on my cheeks at the reminder.

“I was talking figuratively,” I lie. “Because you were doing boyfriend things. But you never asked me tobeyour girlfriend.”

He looks down at me with a smile. “I’m thirty-one, Claire. I don’t think you do that when you’re thirty-one.”

I raise my eyebrow at him accusingly. “So, what? I’m supposed to just go around assuming I know where we stand just because you’re old? That doesn’t sound very fair.”

He moves his fingers on my side, tickling me and making me giggle. I shift away from him, but he holds me tight.

“Are you saying I have to ask you out?”

“I mean…” Before I can continue, he rolls me over on the bed, hovering over me, hands on either side of my head and a wide grin on his lips.

Fuck, he’s handsome.

Too fucking handsome, especially since heknowsI find him to be so.

“Claire Sophia Donovan,” he whispers, and I wonder when he learned my middle name. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

I move a hand up his chest, the coarse hair there tickling at my fingers before I slide them over his shoulders and twine my fingers around his neck.

“Because you’re crazy about me?”

“Because I’m crazy about you, and the idea of everyone not knowing exactly what we are, including you, makes me a bit feral. Because I want you to introduce me to people as your boyfriend, because I want to walk into the Seabreeze by your side and have everyone in this town know you’re mine and to keep their fucking hands off of you.”

“I think I like when you get all possessive,” I admit in a whisper.

He smiles, somehow wider. “Good, because it’s how I always feel about you.” His lips move, kissing my neck, his mustache scraping along the delicate skin. “You haven’t answered me, Claire.”

“What was the question?”

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