Page 29 of Love Off the Rocks
“Oh.”
“Exactly.”
The sun is down, but the moon hasn’t risen all the way. It’s still not as dark as I imagined it would be. I realize I’m not scared, not with Dev. It’s feeling more like an adventure than an emergency. Like we are here by choice as opposed to stranded or lost.
Which makes me want to be brave. As in tell Dev what I’m thinking, even what I’m feeling.
“I’m sorry for leaving after graduation,” I blurt out before I can stop myself. “I should have talked to you. Waited for you to explain the job. I just . . . I was hurt. I felt betrayed. I wanted to hurt you back. But I should have talked to you. Gone after you. Called. Wrote. Texted. Something.”
Dev sighs. “I’m sorry too.” His chest filling behind me, his cheek brushing against mine as he lets the air out. “What if I said I thought we should try again?”
“What do you mean try again? You mean, like, us?”
“Yeah. What would you say?”
I summon as much bravery as I can, pulling from every individual source I can imagine, just so I can give him this. “I’d say no.”
16
Dev
“No?” I echo. “Did you say no?”
“Yes, I said no.”
“Why?”
Mags takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Weighing her words before speaking.
I guess I should have done the same. I feel like I’m just flailing in the wind right now, waiting for her to either anchor me or set me free.
I see no reason why we can’t just pick right up where we left off. At the same time, I don’t want to make assumptions again. I did that when I took the job in NYC and look where it got me. Plus, long-distance relationships never work—I live in New York and Mags lives in Seattle. Not to mention that I’m technically her boss.
Unless I fire her.
If I did, would she ever forgive me?
Ideas begin rapid-firing through my mind as I race to come up with a counter for every excuse she’s bound to throw at me.
“First,” she starts, “is the obvious: you’re my new boss.”
I figured she’d start with that. “Unless I fire you.” I test the waters to see what she’ll say.
“In which case I would hate you forever and never, ever forgive you.”
Good to know.
“Of course, I would never do that,” I reassure her.
“Second, we live on opposite sides of the nation.”
“That can easily be changed,” I interject.
She ignores me. “Third, we don’t even know if we are still compatible. Fourth—” I grab her chin to tilt her head back toward mine. Capturing her lips before she has a chance to say anything else.
She protests at first, if you could even call it that, but within seconds, her body melts back into mine. Her torso twists to get to me as her arms lock around my neck. My dick throbs as her beautiful breasts smash between us. Tongues dueling for position, teeth gnashing, all hope of romance gone from this moment as years of anger, longing, and passion fight their way out through lips and touch. My fingers itch to get at every part of her at once and I can’t get enough.
We kiss until we can hardly breathe and still, I don’t want to stop. I toss off the blanket and spin her on my lap so she’s straddling me. My hands fight her clothes to get at her skin. Fingers desperate to feel the silky flesh I know lies beneath. I get one under her tank top, still damp from earlier. She gasps at the contact, but I’m not sure if it’s from the cold or from my touch.
