Page 149 of Road Trip to Forever
Lola looks up at me. She bites her bottom lip and her mouth stretches into a slow grin. “They have no idea you got me off under the blanket at movie night last week.”
I pull her into my lap and settle my hands around her waist. “I’m a man of many talents.”
“Yes,” she agrees. She drops her head to my shoulder and lets out a content sigh. “You are. Humble too.”
“Keep reading for me, love.”
She takes her time, running her finger under the passages. I can tell when she’s spotted the next word because she sits up straight. She wiggles against my thighs. “The second word is you.”
“Great job.” I press a kiss to her exposed shoulder, the cuffed sleeve of her dress dipping dangerously low on her arm to show off a patch of freckles.
They’re new, sprouting up from weekends at the lake where her golden hair is a tangled mess and her happiness is free and unbridled.
She lets out a breathy sound and it takes every ounce of self-control to focus on the pen in my hand and not the other sounds I want to hear her make.
The groan in the back of her throat when I rub my thumb over her underwear. How she lets out a gasp when I drag my teeth down her neck and leave a pink mark. The way she whispers my name when her hands are in my hair, hips rocking into mine as a bead of sweat rolls down her chest.
“I love when you say that.”
“What?” I ask. “Great job?”
“Yeah. I like when I make you proud.”
“You make me proud every day, Lola. You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”
“I love you so much,” she says, spinning in my lap so her thighs bracket mine.
“I love you too. More than anything in this world. But I need you to be good and finish the books. Can you do that for me?”
“I like it when you beg though,” she murmurs against my lips.
My cheeks flush and I dip my mouth to the hollow of her throat. I remember the rest of this morning when she was on the kitchen counter. I fell to my knees before her parted legs, asking herplease. I burnt the second piece of toast and set off the smoke alarm, but neither of us cared.
“Please?” I whisper now. I kiss the spot below her ear she loves so much. The place that makes her shiver and arch her spine.
“Fine,” she whispers. She opens the book and hides her smile. “But only because you asked so nicely.”
The third word takes her longer to find.
To be fair, it took me longer to hide. I went through fifteen books until I found one that worked. I decorated this particular word with care. Hearts and squiggles and lots and lots of pink so it looks like it’s jumping off the page.
It’s impossible to miss.
“Well?” I ask.
“Hang on. I only see—”
Lola looks up at me. Her mouth parts and her pupils are blown wide. “Patrick.”
“I don’t think that’s what it says. Do you want to try again?”
She lets out a slow breath. “It says marry.”
I hum and jot it down, adding it to the page. “Marry… Interesting. Got it. Only two more to go.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You don’t? Why not?”
