Page 101 of Italy Can Bite Me

“Several Wish Cards wanted to visit the hot springs,” I say, keeping my tone light.

How can I stretch these moments into forever?

She hums thoughtfully, fingers lightly dancing across my sternum. A heart, then a circle. Cristo, her touch sends electricity zipping through my body.

“What happens after?” she asks quietly. “When the tour ends? Do you just… jump into the next group?”

“Usually I take a week off first.” I run my fingers through her sex-messed hair. “Got to handle the thrilling paperwork. Your favorite.”

Her laugh is soft but hollow. “Oh.”

I watch her carefully—the way her mouth tightens at the corners, how her fingers pause before resuming their patterns. She’s holding something back…

“Actually,” I say, trying to sound casual. “I’ve got two weeks free after this tour. Business stuff to handle.”

She goes still, then lifts those green eyes to mine. “Hypothetically,” she whispers, “would you have time if I… stayed?”

My heart stops. Literally stops.

Every muscle in my body locks up.Is she saying what I think she’s saying?I choose my next words with more care than I’ve ever given anything in my life. “Hypothetically, I could make time.”

“And hypothetically, would there be somewhere I could stay? For those two weeks?”

I forget how to breathe. This has to be a dream. Some cruel dream where Katie Crawford is talking about staying. Even if it’s only fourteen days, it’s more than I deserve.

But I’ve waited too long to answer, and she starts backpedaling, words tumbling out in a panic.

“That’s insane, right? I mean, now you’re probably thinking I’m some clingy tourist, but I’m not. I promise. I just… I don’t know, I thought maybe—”

“Katie,” I cut her off, tilting her face up to meet my gaze. Cristo, those eyes. They hold everything I’ve been too scared to admit I want. “I will rearrange my entire life for you. Stay. Please. I’ve been going crazy wondering how I can ask without scaring you off.”

“Really?”

“I don’t know what this is,” I confess, “but I want to find out. With you.”

“I feel the same way. And then… after that? After those two weeks?”

“That’s a problem for future us,” I murmur, leaning in until our noses brush. “Right now if I don’t make love to you, I will combust from happiness.”

Her laughter bubbles up, bright and free, right before I capture her lips in a heated kiss. My hand slides to the small of her back, pulling her in, as my other hand carefully gathers her binder and papers.

“Oh my God,” she breathes against my lips. “That’s so fucking hot.”

“My girl likes things neat and tidy.”

“Your girl?” she repeats, teasing.

“Yeah,” I growl, yanking her to me. “Mine.”

Those green eyes go dark with want, and before I can blink, she grabs the binder and hurls it off the bed, sending papers flying everywhere. She tugs me on top of her, fingers pulling at my hair as her body arches into mine.

Honest to God, I’ve never been so devastatingly happy in my entire life.

***

“Smellslikesomebodyfeda dog a half pound of Limburger cheese,” Chester says as he pinches his nose.

I swallow my laugh, having heard every variation of fart jokes possible at these springs. From “Fart-nado Falls” to “Bubble Butt Bidet” to “Satan’s Bunghole,” my tourists never disappoint.

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