My head rested on his shoulder, my arm draped around his waist. “I don’t want to go home tomorrow.” There was no hiding the sadness in my voice, but I was determined not to ruin our last night together by being miserable. “I want to stay in this bed with you forever.”

Luke’s arms squeezed me tight as he threw a heavy leg over my hip, cocooning me in his embrace. I was plastered to his body and if I got any closer, we’d be fused together.

One.

Maybe that was the point. Either way, I liked it and cherished being in his arms during those last moments before we were separated.

His chest rose as he took in a deep breath. “I know. I wish time could stand still even for a little while so that I could have more time with you.”

I knew that being away from each other wouldn’t only be hard on me. Luke would miss me, and with the way he was clutching me and the sadness in his tone, he was feeling it too. I rubbed up and down his back as I nestled my head between his pecs. “I wish you could come home with me. I’m not ready to give you up yet.”

We were both quiet for a few moments. I stared at the ceiling, watching the shadows from the pool dance while I continued to rub Luke’s back, when he broke the silence.

“I could go back with you.”

“What?” I asked jerking my head back to look up at him almost clipping him in the chin.

“Filming doesn’t start until the third week of the month. We can look at the house together and I can be there if Decker tries to cause a problem. While you’re working, I could be learning my lines or visiting the gym.” He stopped, a thoughtful look took on his gorgeous face. “I could work from there. It would give us another week together. It wouldn’t be long enough, but it’s more time.”

Sitting up on the bed, I bounced with excitement maybe pulling out of his arms to get a better look at him. “Are you serious? Don’t joke with me. Not about this.”

“Hey.” His voice was as serious as a heart attack as he took in my face. “I would never joke about spending time with you.”

“And no one will care that you’re not here?” I asked with excitement, but trying not to get my hopes up.

“I’m sure there will be people who won’t be happy about it. That’s why I can only go for a week so that I can do what I need to do here before filming starts.”

“If you need to stay here I understand. I would never ask…”

“You didn’t ask. I offered. I know that if you could stay here you would. I have no doubt in my mind, but you need to get home to Mason and back to work. We can be together for a little while longer, but in all honesty while it might make things easier right now.” He stopped, and his gaze traced over my face before he took my hand in his. “It might be easier now, but I think it will make things harder in the long run.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, beautiful, I do,” he answered solemnly, nodding his head. “I hope I’m wrong though. After our fight the other day,” Luke chewed the inside of his cheek and looked down at our joined hands. His shoulders rose and fell with each deep breath he took. “I thought there was a good chance that I’d lost you. I wasn’t sure if we were going to get passed me being stupid.”

“Luke, stop beating yourself up about it. I was never going to break up with you. I only wanted a little time to cool off and think about everything. It’s as much my fault…”

“Don’t. Let’s not travel down this path. It's over and I’d like to think we’re in a better place now that we came out the other side.” He squeezed my hand with a soft smile. “I don’t want to let you go, but if I want to go with you tomorrow, then I should probably book my flight.”

“What if there are no more tickets left?” I panicked, jumping out of bed.

“Alex,” Luke laughed grabbing me by the hips, stopping me before I tugged on the t-shirt he was wearing earlier. “I don't think it's a high demand flight.”

“I know it’s not, but now that we can spend another week together I’ve got my hopes up. If you couldn’t make the flight…”

“Shh,” Luke whispered, one finger against my lips. “If I can’t get on that flight there are other flights. Now instead of us going over this again and again, how about I go get my laptop and check the flight. I may be low maintenance, but I’ll still need to pack.”

“Is there anything I can help with?”

“No, I’ve got it. Why don’t you relax, and I’ll be back in a few minutes?” Getting up from the bed, Luke leaned down and gave me a short, wet kiss.

I fished my Kindle out of my purse so that I could read while I waited. Luke would know pretty quickly whether or not the flight was available, but as the minutes ticked by with me in his bed and his enticing smell enveloping me, my eyelids grew heavier with each word I read.

My eyes fluttered open as the bed dipped down and Luke pulled me flush against him. Wrapping me in his arms, his breath fanned against the back of my neck.

With a large yawn, I asked. “Did you manage to get a ticket?”

Giving me a squeeze, he answered with a velvety caress that caused my eyes to droop just from his words. “Yeah, baby, I did. I came up here earlier to tell you, but you were already asleep.”