Page 59 of Pick Me
So to say that I was stunned to wake up in the morning with the sun streaming in the window and Gage’s gorgeous eyes blinking at me would be an understatement. I was so disoriented, I sat up in a panic, looking around for my phone or a clock.
“I knew it,” Gage groaned, pushing himself up on one elbow. “You’re freaking out, aren’t you?”
Still half asleep, I muttered, “Fuck yeah. A little.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “What time is it? Is it even still morning?”
Gage flopped back down onto the pillow and addressed the ceiling scornfully just like I sometimes did. “What kind of Cinderella bullshit is this? I have the best night of sex I’ve had in months, and as soon as the clock strikes midnight, my lumberjack lover turns into one giant anthropomorphicregret?What time is it, he asks? Seriously?”
“What are you talking about?” Gage’s skin was perpetually tan except for the pale area where his bathing suit would have been—an area which just happened to be visible above the hem of the sheet.
The idea that, after all these weeks of guilty fascination, I could finally know the precise location of his tan lines, that I could lick them with my tongue, was highly distracting, so I wasn’t quite paying attention.
“Oh, come on.” Gage rolled his wrist in the air like he was beckoning the truth out of me. “Take your best shot. I’m ready. In fact, let me start you off. ‘We shouldn’t have had sex, Goodman. It’s not you, it’sme, by which I mean it’s actuallyyou,for some fucked-up reason I won’t even pretend is logical. You’re simultaneously too smart, with a bright future ahead of you that I cannot sully with my middle-aged man-pain, and also too young and stupid to know what you want. Your hair confuses me, and your footwear is against the Lumberjack Code. You eat great quantities of supper in my family’s kitchen, which makes thingscomplicated,for I cannot fuck men once we’ve broken bread together. Also, I only fuck men after they’ve completed an FBI background check and taken part in an elaborate blood oath ritual to avoid one-night stands with unfulfilled expectations. Also, you’re a Scorpio, and the ancient prophesies say that when a Sunday dates a water sign, the world ends. Also, I’m a vampire, and you’re an exceptionally tasty young human who can never know I sparkle. And furthermore, you’re too good at sex, and my dick can’t handle you.’ I’d be willing to accept any or all of that, Knox, but don’t try to put it off like—”
I lifted the sheet and rolled on top of him, and when our warm, bare skin collided, Goodman’s words cut off with a gratifying littlemmmph.
I felt my lips twitch. “Are you done?”
“Possibly?” He looked adorably disgruntled.
“It’s later than I thought. That’s really all I was saying.” I ran a hand through his hair, thinkingconfusingmight be a damn good adjective for it.
For a lot of things.
Gage blinked up at me suspiciously. “You were actually freaking about thetime? What the hell for?”
“Because I don’t sleep well. I haven’t in months. Years. Until last night.”
“Oh. So, um…” He frowned and licked his lips uncertainly. “You’re saying that my freak-out about your freak-out might have been… premature? You… youdidn’twake up and regret the whole thing?”
I stared down at him, noticing the little freckles that clustered on the peaks of his cheekbones and the center of his forehead. He was so beautiful that my gut cramped with longing even as I held him in my arms.
“Hottest, most satisfying sex ever, just like you said it would be,” I confirmed roughly. “All I wanted to know was how soon we could do it again… and how often we could do it before you leave the orchard.” Or beforeIdid.
“Oh,” he repeated. His arms drifted up my sides, and his legs parted to give me more room. “So you…didn’twant a onetime hookup?”
I shook my head, a little surprised by how much I didn’t want that. “Not if you don’t.”
“Well, then.” He licked his lips. “It so happens that I’m open to doing this an unlimited number of times. And italsojust so happens that I’m free… now.”
“Oooh, sorry.” I shook my head sadly. “That was before you told me you’re a Scorpio.” I wrinkled my nose. “Kind of a deal breaker. Fate of the world and all that.”
Gage smiled his sunshine smile and brushed back a lock of hair at my temple, a move that was surprisingly tender. “Meh. Saving the world’s not your job. If it’s gonna end anyway, let’s enjoy it while it lasts.”
I laughed out loud, then slid slowly down his body and proceeded to show himpreciselyhow much we could enjoy it, until his eyes clouded with lust and he screamed my name.
* * *
By unspoken agreement, Goodman and I didn’t say a damn thing to anyone in the Hollow about the change in our relationship status. I wasn’t the kind of guy who’d ever make my life Facebook official—the very idea made me shudder—and my family was up in my business way too much as it was.
The only confirmation I gave of pulling my head out of my ass about hooking up with Gage was when Myles texted me aTop Gunmeme with the caption “Take me to bed or lose me forever!” and I replied with an eye roll emoji and the word “DONE.”
Smug? Why, yes, I fucking was.
But I figured I kinda had a right to be smug. Goodman was the most attractive man I’d ever met. Gorgeous enough that lying on the sofa in the apartment over the barn watching his ass flex in his jeans as he hummed some pop tune and sorted laundry after our trip was an all-consuming activity.
But he wasn’t just good-looking. He was also smart and tenacious and joyful. A genuinelygood man. And just like when I’d stopped being a resentful asshole to him a few weeks ago, now that I’d given in to the charm of him, I wasn’t sure how I’d managed to hold back my attraction for so long.
Sure, he was leaving soon. And yep, that was gonna suck.
