Page 105 of Away We Go

“How did you sleep?” He asks as Rachel delivers me my heaven in a cup. I smile at her and take my first sip.

It’s almost as delicious as the man sitting next to me.

“Good.” My eyes dart around the place, avoiding the gaze I feel fixed on me.

“Cherry.” He turns my head to face his with a gentle finger under my chin. “Talk to me.”

I drown in his brown eyes, filled with sincerity and concern.Does he think I may regret that we crossed that line last night?

“I’m awkward and weird,” I blurt out, proving that I am in fact awkward and weird.

His laughter crinkles his eyes and I curl my hands into a fist to stop from grabbing at him.

“I know.”

“And,” I continue, ignoring his quiet chuckles, “I want us to be normaltoday.”

His face drops. “You want to go back to normal?”

Come on, Cherry. You need to be better at this.

“No!” I grab his face and plant a soft kiss on his lips. His response is immediate, crushing me to him and turning my gesture into something more.

“I want all of that,” I wave to his lips, feeling woozy and breathless from that kiss. “And for us to still be us.”

His body relaxes next to mine. “Well, that’s easy. I wasn’t planning on being anyone else with you.”

Fidgeting with the hem of my frayed shorts, I hesitate, not wanting to bring this up but knowing I have to. “I do think we need to talk about a few things…” I whisper.

He frowns and leans towards me. “Like?”

I wring my fingers and he stops me by taking my hands in his. “It’s just that, you’re still my boss and now we’re kissing…”

He nods, his expression now serious. “You’re worried about the power imbalance?”

Nate’s words come rushing back to me.With Nicky, you have all the power.

I shake my head. “No, not really.”

“Because really, Serena is more your boss than I am.”

This is true. He has no input in what I do and don’t do.

“I guess…”

“Do you want to stop?”

Gosh, no!

“No! It’s just something for us to consider.”

He drops my hands, placing his on either side of my face. “Cherry, whatever you decide, I’ll follow your lead.”

I stare into his eyes, knowing him being my boss is going to be an issue only to outsiders looking in. That there’s no world inwhich he would use his position to exert any sort of control over me.

“It will be fine,” I say, reaching over and pressing my lips on his. It’s been five long minutes since we’ve kissed and it feels too long. He kisses me back like he agrees and we settle into it like we’ve been doing this forever.

Leaning back with a sigh, I point to the moving horizon. “Where are we going today?”

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